Panorama: Portraits - KLEX

The overall concept of the program is “portraits”. The moving images artists create portraits of  their cities, friends, personal relationship, urban development, social and political concerns, and  spiritual contemplation. The selected works range from various styles of diary films, aesthetic  moving images and sound, frame-by-frame animated video, video performance and  experimental documentaries.  

ALOR SETAR PULSE 

Director: Andrew Stiff
Malaysia, 2015, 5', HDD, renkli / color
No Dialogue

This video is an exploration of hand painted sun blinds in Alor Setar, Kedah. We are naturally drawn to patterns and order, and even disorder that is presented through a structured or ordered space or medium. It is because of this we see the world sequentially, even though events and communication do not happen sequentially. Using the theme of pulse, the motion of the blinds swaying in the evening breeze, is fractured into a series of cut edits that balance nonlinear disorder against the linear order of colour and context.  

NIGHT WITHOUT LIGHT

Director: JSafwan Salleh
Malaysia, 2015, 4’, HDD, color
Malaysian with Turkish Subtitles 

The film shows the life of a working class student who likes to make Cara cakes in the midnight, accompanied by his friends. In their humble house, these youngsters find fun, warmth and support with the company of each other. In this family-like atmosphere, they can forget about the tough reality of life for a while, at least before the sun rises! 

PLAZA RAKYAT 

Director: Ong Sau Kai
Malaysia, 2018, 3’, HDD, color
No Dialogue

Plaza Rakyat, or the People’s Plaza is a mixed-use skyscraper complex in Kuala Lumpur. The construction was put on hold in 1998 due to financial difficulties causing part of the building remains in an unfinished state since then. This film uses 12 photos to destruct and reconstruct the time and space of the abandoned site. 

MUD GAME

Director: Kok Siew-Wai
Malaysia, 2014, 4’, HDD, renkli / color
No Dialogue

Kuala Lumpur has a high density of construction sites, especially in the city centre. You cannot drive more than 5km without seeing one of these sites. They have become part of the city landscape. Development and chaos come together as one.  

BEAUTY(FOOL) OF DESTRUCTION 

Directors: Fadly Sabran 
Malaysia, 2018, 3’, HDD, color
No Dialogue 

The video was made responding to the General Election campaign in Malaysia in 2018. Despite being a medium for transmitting information, media can also be a propagandistic rhetoric that is manipulated by political powers. It has such strong power to either construct or destruct the mindset and structure of a society. 

MEMORY AND RITUAL IN FRAME DIFFERENCE 

Director: Jason Bernagozzi
USA & Malaysia, 2012, 8’, HDD, color
No Dialogue 

Memory and Ritual in Frame Difference is a work that was produced during an artist residency in Malaysia, which was sponsored in part by KLEX and Multimedia University. This work is a meditation on the complex relationships between ritual and public space at the Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In a space shared by both devout Hindus and tourists, the frame difference processing allows the viewer to focus on action and change within the recording. 

16 X 9 CAPSULE

Director: Wuttin Chansataboot
Malaysia, 2014, 6’, HDD, color
No Dialogue

16x9 Capsule shows vignettes of incidents and situations taking place at different locations around Bangkok. The artist uses the camera to capture trivial moments in an ordinary day and crucial incident in political history of Thailand. Chansataboot intends to express a Buddhist concept, saying that everything keeps rising, standing and then cessation. 

(?)’S GAZE

Director: Chloe YAP Mun-Ee
Malaysia, 2016, 5’, HDD, color
No Dialogue

An attempt to create an intimate examination on the implications of gender roles and identity in a relationship. In order to understand the meaning of masculinity and femininity, dominance and submission, objectification, trust, and love; the couple tried letting go of all reservations and allowed themselves to truly be vulnerable with each other, hopefully in the process forget the existence of the camera. It is a test of shooting a film, and a test of exploring issues in a romantic relationship. 

FASHION

Director: Loong Wah
Malaysia, 2016, 10’, HDD, color
Malaysian with Turkish Subtitles

In the evening, a host at the Midnight Express Discotheque was about to welcome the quest to the discotheque where there will be an amazing cabaret show later on the night.

SEMALU

Director: Jimmy HENDRICKX
Belgium & Malaysia, 2013, 18’, HDD, color
No Dialogue

“Semalu” means sensitive plant in Malay. The film is a cinematic portrait of the children of Cheras, a suburb in Kuala Lumpur, where it has been in a transitional period of modernization for years. With its captivating visuals and meditative rhythm, the filmmaker attempts to seek for beauty and spirituality in this unlikely urban area covered with waste and construction sites, trying to seek for a playground and a peaceful place for these urban children.