Saturday, September 29, 2012

Dance FIlm Series II Dance Film Series is BACK! Kick off with a Pina Documentary!



Dance FIlm Series II focuses on 'dance-y' documentaries with FREE SCREENINGS of 4 documentaries over two Sundays.

Two reasons to catch Rize :

1) It's directed by acclaimed photographer, David LaChappelle famed for his layered hyper-realistic aesthetics that have graced the pages and cover of numerous magazines and books.

2) It's a riveting documentary about the physically astounding Los Angeles worlds of clowning and krumping--both heightened and spectacular styles of hip-hop dance.

Rize takes a look at inner city youth who have created art - and often family - where there was none before. Surrounded by drug addiction, gang, and impoverishment, they have developed a completely unique style of dance. Fierce!

Rize will be screened following Dancing Dreams, a documentary about Pina Bausch
http://www.facebook.com/events/387870297950175/

Dance FIlm Series is joint presentation by MyDance Alliance and Five Arts Centre in an effort to present, expose and get people talking about contemporary dance.

Sunday, 30th September 2012, 16:00 until 17:30
27 & 27A, Lorong Datuk Sulaiman 7, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail , 60000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia


Friday, August 17, 2012

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri - Fakulti Filem & Video ASWARA





Kepada semua warga Fakulti Filem & TV,
Akademi Seni Budaya dan Warisan Kebangsaan, 


Saya hulurkan salam menyambut Hari Raya Aidilfitri. 
Mohon ampun dan maaf andai ada terkasar bahasa dan terlebih kelakuan jangan disimpan di dalam hati.
Halalkan segala apa yang telah diberikan.  
Berhati-hati dan jaga diri ketika pulang kekampung halaman. 
Saya bersyukur dan gembira untuk peluang dan pengalaman ini.

Salam.  

Deepak Menon 


Friday, August 3, 2012

NADIRAH by Alfian Sa'at

Dear friends, 

    I recently received this invitation from Jo Kukathas, the Artistic Director of the Instant Cafe Theatre Company. 

    My personal views: Another thought provoking Malaysian piece contesting cultural boundaries. I'm a great fan of Jo's works. Grab your tickets now! 




Will Love or Faith Prevail?


PLAY SYNOPSIS:
*************
Nadirah is the popular and articulate Vice-President of her university’s Muslim Society. She convenes inter-faith meetings where students talk about how they should respect one another’s spaces.


Nadirah is also the product of a mixed marriage. Her father is a Malaysian Malay and her mother a Singaporean Chinese who had converted to Islam. One day, Nadirah’s mother tells her that she’s going to re-marry. To a man who’s not Muslim.

Nadirah’s best friend Maznah, believes that everyone has a right to happiness. Her senior, Farouk, however, is outraged and urges her to do ‘the right thing’.

How does Nadirah make peace between various religions in school when she’s having the same problems at home? Can mother and daughter worship different gods? Will love or faith prevail?

Funny, insightful and moving, Alfian Sa’at’s award-winning Nadirah wrestles with the complex issue of religion by grounding it in a story about a quirky family and the ties that bind.

Featuring Patrick Teoh, Neo Swee Lin, Redza Minhat, Farah Rani & Ani Juliana Ibrahim.

Nadirah is a bilingual play, performed in Bahasa Melayu & English. Alternate surtitles will be provided during the play.

PERFORMANCE INFO:
******************
DATE: Nov 1-Nov11
TiME: 8.30pm (Tue-Sun) / 3pm (Sun)
VENUE: Pentas 2, Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre

TICKETING & PROMO:
******************
Opening Week Promo: Nov 1-4 (Thu-Sun) RM48/RM38 (limited, students only)

Normal ticket price: Nov 6-11 (Tue-Sun) RM58/RM38 (limited, students only)

For ticketing, please call KLPAC Boxoffice @ 03-4047 9000 or visit www.klpac.org for more info.
The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (klpac)
Jalan Strachan, Sentul Park, off Jalan Ipoh51100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia


Friday, April 13, 2012

HAA102 Jan-April 2012



Dear fiends from HAA102, 

If an egg is broken due to outside force LIFE ENDS. 
If it breaks from inside LIFE BEGINS. 
Great things always begin from inside....So always believe in yourself. 

Blessed wishes for your examination preparations. 

I hope the experience has been inspiring. 


Sincerely, 
Deepak Menon 

Friday, March 30, 2012

Design Students' Exhibition April 9th - April 13th 2012




What?
Design Students' Exhibition Week

Where?
DSA, 5th Floor, Wisma HELP

When?
April 9th 2012 (Monday) – April 13th 2012 (Friday)

Student Participation from subject: 
Introduction to Design (HAA102)

Curator / Lecturer: 
Deepak Menon


Event Details:
The Communication Department will showcase daily exhibitions at the Lower Foyer, Main Block, HELP University. The exhibition will feature student artworks that highlight one or more of the artistic disciplines offered in the Communication Department Curriculum or the work of a specific group of students from the class Introduction to Design (HAA102).  The exhibition is curated and moderated by Communication Department lecturer Deepak Menon. The exhibition is to commence from April 9th 2012 (Monday) to April 13th 2012 (Friday). 

In this project, the students have created a series of images utilising both Illustrator and Photoshop, exploring a wide range of techniques in digital imaging as well as collecting source materials such as scanning objects or images and using a digital camera to create their digital art works.

The themes for the visual designs on display at the exhibition:
  • Family, Hope & Dream Series
  • Environmentalism Series
  • Technology & Society Series  
  • Society & Culture Series


The digital design work was created with good understanding of the language of design as well as the various design elements; Line, Shape, Value, Colour, Texture, Alignment, Proportion, Eye Movement and design principles including: Hierarchy, Balance, Proximity, Rhythm, Repetition, Scale, Unity, and Variety.

Each student has developed 18 artworks throughout the course. Only one work is finally selected for final print and exhibition. Various methods were utilized in creation of the design works including capturing images using a digital camera or scanner, hand drawings and paintings using Photoshop, or any combination of techniques.

The exhibition is an opportunity for the design students of HELP University to experience showcasing their modest but notable creative works, expressing their creative talents via visual design communication as well as for the viewing pleasure of their fellow students and esteemed staffs of HELP University.

For more information on the student works, kindly visit:

Note, all the art works are for sale. 
The designers/artist would be present to negotiate the rates. 
Admission is FREE! 


s p r e a d     t h e    n e w s  ! 


Friday, March 16, 2012



FreedomFilmFest2012

2012 is a big year for Democracy.
We've witnessed the Occupy movements, BERSIH 2.0, Himpunan Hijau
and not forgetting the upcoming general elections.
Hence the theme for the FreedomFilmFest 2012 proposal competition is
DEMOCRACY: WHO'S THE BOSS?”.
Are principles of democracy being practised in our daily lives?
What would be a meaningful way to consult the rakyat in decision making?
Are our leaders transparent and accountable?

We are now calling for film proposal submissions based on this theme.
Send them to 

and stand a chance to win RM6000 and technical support to make that film a reality.

Entry details:

ELIGIBILITYAll Malaysians aged 18 and above (if below 18, you must submit your entry under a willing and responsible guarantor) 
VIDEO FORMATDocumentary/ Docudrama/ Animation/ Graphic
VIDEO DURATION20 minutes 
VIDEO LANGUAGEAny language – must include English and Bahasa Malaysia subtitles.
CONTENT/THEMEDemocracy in Malaysia 
DEADLINE1 April, 2012
Good luck!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

ASIAN HOT SHOTS BERLIN

Kelab Seni Filem in collaboration with Goethe-Institut Malaysia presents – 

Asian Hot Shots Berlin is an annual filmfest showcasing young independent Asian cinema. We are pleased to present a trio of films from the 2011 edition.
Introduction by Katja Schulze, ex-staff of Asian Hot Shots Berlin
HELP University Theatrette, Pusat Bandar Damansara, KL
FREE ADMISSION
Enquiries 012-2255136
Saturday 10 March 2pm
Supermen of Malegaon
Faiza Ahmad Khan, India 2008, 52 min

Superman of Malegaon
tells the story of cinema enthusiasts who escape the harsh reality of communal tension. Malegaon, a small town tucked away near the heart of India geographically, is fraught with communal tension and under severe economic depression. To escape the harsh reality of their world, its people seek refuge in the fantastical world of cinema. This passion for cinema has spurred a group of cinema enthusiasts to make their own films-quirky, low budget, socially aware and notoriously funny spoofs of Bollywood films. The film is a tribute to that spirit, the spirit that enables the Supermen of Malegaon to make Malegaon's Superman.

Saturday 10 March 4pm 
Belkibolang Indonesia 2010 | AgungSentausa, IfaIsfansyah, TumpalTampubolon, Rico Marpaung,
AnggunPriambodo, AzharLubis, Wisnu Surya Pratama, Edwin, SidiSaleh | 87 min

In Belkibolang, an acronym of ‘Belokkiribolehlangsung’ (‘Turning left through red permitted’), nine young promising Indonesian filmmakers tell urban stories from Jakarta by night and take a profound look at their rapidly changing society. This diverse, poetic and also ironic mosaic is held together by a consistent script written by Titien Wattimena.The story starts with a little girl with an umbrella and a man who together search the streets in the rain, and ends as day breaks with a taxi driver who tries in vain to inform his wife he wants to divorce.
 
Sunday 11 March  2pm
Madame X

Indonesia 2010| Lucky Kuswandi | 100 min

This movie has cult potential. Sit down to enjoy the zero-to-hero transformation o
f Adam aka Madame X. Move along the rhythms of the Lenggok dance, which turns cross-dressing hairstylist Adam into a skilled martial arts heroine. Jump up to stand side by side with Madame X and her blow dryer, glitter, high heels and tight leather suits to support the fight for justice, freedom of expression and diversity. MADAME X lets us have it all at once: the action-loaded superhero movie, the never-ending-laughter trashiness of queer comedy and the social consciousness of political film.
S P R E A D   T H E   W O R D

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

German Film Program #25: Germany’s Great Directors

Kelab Seni Filem presents in collaboration with Goethe-Institut Malaysia –
German Film Program #25: Germany’s Great Directors
Sat-Sun 11-12 February 2012
 
@HELP University, Pusat Bandar Damansara, KL        
Enquiries: 012-2255136
Admission by membership: RM60 for 1 year (students RM30); RM40 for 6 mths; RM30 for 4 mths; or RM10 per day.
Free admission for:
* Alliance Francaise members   
*HELP University & HELPCAT students
* Students of German at:
- Goethe-Institut Malaysia
- German-Malaysian Institute
- UPM
- Kolej Bandar Utama
- INTEC-UiTM)
 
Each film will be introduced by Dr Torsten Schaar, series programmer and lecturer in German at INTEC-UiTM.
Sat 11 Feb 1.15 pm
Rotation
Director: Wolfgang Staudte; 1949, 80 min
Wolfgang Staudte was called "Germany's conscience". Until the mid-1960s all his movies threw light on Nazism, sometimes on less obvious aspects. The title refers both to a part of a newspaper printing machine, and to the rotation of generations. Mr. Behnke mostly stays away from politics. But when he is offered promotion on condition that he becomes a Nazi party member, he accepts. However, he also provides printing tools for illegal writings. His young son reports him, and he is imprisoned. Some years after the war, father and son reconcile. The movie starts and ends with parallel scenes. First, the father and his girlfriend are sitting in the grass. Last, the son and his girlfriend are sitting at exactly the same place, and the girl says that everything is just repeated. But with a strong feeling of responsibility the son says that “it must not be repeated.”

Sat 11 Feb 3.30 pm
 Young Törless (Der junge Törless)
Director: Volker Schlöndorff; 1966, 87 min
At an Austrian boys’ boarding school in the early 1900s, shy, intelligent Törless observes the sadistic behavior of his fellow students, but does nothing to help a victimized classmate – until the torture goes too far. Törless struggles with the dilemma of evil, as he finds himself going against the moral values that he has been brought up to respect. Instead he begins a cerebral journey while he studies the degrading behaviour of his two peers. Ideas of how evil and good can coexist within a person begin to baffle Törless, as he struggles with his desire to further his understanding of the evil nature within him. He continues to flirt with evil while trying to stay on the good side, yet eventually he comes to a clearer understanding of what is right and wrong. Based on Robert Musil's novel The Confusions of Young Törless, published in 1906.

Sat Feb 11 Feb 6.00 pm
Metropolis
Director: Fritz Lang; 1927, 150 min
Metropolis, directed by the legendary Fritz Lang, is among the most famous of all German films and the mother of sci-fi cinema. The film depicts a dystopian future in which society is thoroughly divided in two: while anonymous workers conduct their endless drudgery below ground their rulers enjoy a decadent life of leisure and luxury. When Freder ventures into the depths in search of the beautiful Maria, plans of rebellion are revealed and a Maria-replica robot is programmed by mad inventor Rotwang and master of Metropolis Joh Fredersen to incite the workers into a self-destructive riot. Metropolis is presented here in a newly reconstructed and restored version, as lavish and spectacular as ever thanks to the discovery of 25 minutes of footage previously thought lost to the world. Lang's enduring epic can finally be seen for the first time in 83 years as the director originally intended.

Sun 12 Feb 1.45 pm
Nosferatu
Director: F.W. Murnau; 1922, 93 min
Nosferatu was the first screen adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. It remains among the most potent and disturbing horror films ever made. The sight of Max Schreck's hollow-eyed, cadaverous vampire rising creakily from his coffin still has the ability to chill the blood. Nor has the film dated. Murnau's elision of sex and disease lends it a surprisingly contemporary resonance. The director and his screenwriter are true to the source material, but where most subsequent screen Draculas (whether Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, or Gary Oldman) were portrayed as cultured and aristocratic, Nosferatu  is verminous and evil. (Whenever he appears, rats follow in his wake.)  The image of the diabolic Nosferatu, bathed in shadow, sidling his way toward a new victim, imagery of hills, clouds, trees and mountains, oblique camera angles and jarring close-ups – the devices that crank up the tension were all to be found first in Murnau's chilling masterpiece.

Sun 12 Feb 4.00 pm
The Divided Sky (Der geteilte Himmel)
Director: Konrad Wolf; 1964, 110 min
Following a nervous breakdown, Rita Seidel returns to the village of her childhood. She uses this period of convalescence to mull over her past: She met Manfred Herrfurth, a chemist ten years her senior, and fell irresistibly in love with him precisely because his mind was so utterly unlike her own. He was uncommon-ly intelligent and a keen observer of both people and things. Many things were new and thrilling; town life itself as well as her work. But living with Manfred turned out very differently from what she originally dreamt of. He was embittered and after seeing a chemical process which he has developed rejected, he became totally discouraged and left for West Berlin. He was convinced that Rita would follow him. But she did not. Being separated from him, taking leave of her great love triggered a psychological crisis and breakdown. Of course, some wounds will remain, but Rita is a strong woman who will overcome this crisis.

Sun 12 Feb 7.00 pm
The Marriage of Maria Braun (Die Ehe der Maria Braun)
Director: R.W. Fassbinder; 1978, 115 min
After her husband disappears in the last days of World War II, Maria uses her beauty and ambition to prosper in 1950s Germany. This film is Fassbinder’s biggest international box-office success, a heartbreaking character study as well as a pointed metaphorical attack on a society determined to forget its past. It is the first film of his BRD (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) trilogy tracing the history of postwar Germany through the eyes of three remarkable women (the others were Lola and Veronika Voss). It garnered him the international acclaim he had always yearned for and placed his name foremost in the canon of New German Cinema.


S P R E A D   T H E    W O R D

Monday, February 6, 2012

Freedom Film Fest 2012

Dear friends, 
if you are not busy with Thaipusam preparations pls cme for the launch
this Monday, 6th Feb 2012 at 8pm.


Blessed week ahead!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Meet the Awesome Mano Maniam!


Media Studies Students (HELP University) meet the Awesome Mano Maniam!
Moderated by Deepak Menon



Date: Wednesday, 18th January 2012
Time: 10am - 1130am
Venue: Main Block, LS6



Theatre goers will recognize Mano Maniam from his various roles on stage, TV and films and as a voice over artiste for animation and documentary films. A man of many talents, Mano also teaches acting in universities and at The Actors Studio Academy Theatre for seniors. He was cast together with Ming Lee, in the original production of “At the Plank Bridge” in Ohio University and in New York City in 2001, and in the off-Broadway production in 2003. He played a one-off one-man abridged version of the play at the Ministry of Cultures Theatre Week in 2004. This KL debut production of At the Plank Bridge reunites him with Ming and Kannan Menon, and should resonate with Malaysian theatre goers who can recall the Japanese Occupation and its aftermath.

Read more:
http://www.thenutgraph.com/time-to-remove-the-grids/


His Recent Work




AT A PLANK BRIDGE tells the story of two men during World War II, who meet accidentally on a back country road in Malaya 1945, just after the surrender of the Japanese occupation army.

Fook Leong, a Chinese middle school teacher, who is riding along a road on his bicycle, discovers a large handcart next to a bench on the road. When he stops to examine the cart, he is attacked by Chandran, who thinks that Fook Leong is a bandit.
While their initial confrontation is easily resolved, they discover very quickly, that there is a far deeper conflict between the two of them, as their destinies collide…

Date & Time
: Jan 17 (Preview),  Jan 18 – 20 @ 8.30pm,  Jan 21 @ 3pm & 8.30pm
Venue: Pentas 2, klpac
Ticket Price
: RM43 (Adults) RM23 (Students, Disabled, TAS cardholders, UNHCR cardholders)

The Cast: Mano Maniam, Ming Lee
Written and Directed by
: Kannan Menon

Associate Producer:
Mano Maniam

Executive Producer:
Dato Faridah Merican

In February & June, Mano Maniam will be  facilitating a course under The Actors Studio Academy for seniors with time on their hands and passion in their hearts. Read more about Theatre for Seniors here: http://www.klpac.org/?p=5295

Historical Background
AT A PLANK BRIDGE was the first Malaysian play to ever receive a professional production by a New York theater as part of its regular season. The play is based on the intersection of events during and immediately after the WW II, when Malaya (and Singapore) which were British colonies, were occupied by the Japanese. After subduing Malaya, and reaching an accommodation with the Siamese government, the Japanese hoped to push through Burma into India. To do so, they decided to build a railway stretching from west of Bangkok into Burma. In order to complete this railway, the Japanese resorted to forced labor.

Forgotten is that fact that the Japanese conscripted, hired or forced as many as 200,000 Asian workers to also work on this railway which became known as the Death Railway.
As bad as things were for the Allied servicemen, they were infinitely worse for the Asian laborers, many illiterate, without a common language, and basically leaderless. It is estimated that as many as 150,000 of them may have died.  The play also makes reference to the anti-Japanese resistance in Malaya.