Sunday 6 September 2009

18?


Directed & produced by Danny Lim, 2004






 

Editor: Azharr Rudin // Videographer: John Cheah // Still Photography: Danny Lim, Lim Ai Leen, Ooi Kooi Hin, Whoever Shot The Pictures In The CD containing "KL Street Art 2003" pictures // Song: “Taste of Blood” Written and performed by Jerome Kugan // Interviewees: Azlina Shahrim, Hishamuddin Rais, Eric Paulsen, Sonia Randhawa, Seah Lu Sean, Tan Sei Hon, Tshiung Han See, Pat Wong, Yee I-Lann // Special Thanks to Amir Muhammad, Chuah Siew Eng, Sharaad Kuttan, Street graffiti artists and everyone else who assisted in this production 

 
What is 18? This mysterious number is but one of a prominent crop of graffiti that has popped up around the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

Sprayed at strategic urban spaces and applied with a seemingly socio-political agenda, the 18? graffiti and its like (eg “Legalize ganja”, “Ada apa dengan National Service?”, “Pertahankan Hak Asasi”, etc) brazenly takes its place alongside advertising banners and billboards in our urban sightlines.


What does it mean? What is it selling? Why? Who did it? 18? - the documentary - attempts to uncover the mystery behind the graffiti. 



Benjamin McKay's review of the 2005 Singapore International Film Festival for Senses of Cinema website has this to say about 18? (in the final para): "But in concluding this report let me just mention one more short film that rose up and hit this reviewer in the face at SIFF 2005, for the film itself better answers the question I so arrogantly pondered, and the good news is that you the reader can share this little gem with me, for in the spirit of the film, it has no copyright. I am talking about Malaysian director Danny Lim’s 18? (2004), a film that in a quirky 18 minutes takes us to the streets of Kuala Lumpur to investigate the search for the space to criticise and to create and along the way addresses several interesting questions about who an artist might well be and what role art may have in a critical engagement with a given society."

Danny Lim bio (from Amir Muhammad's blog):
Malacca-born Danny Lim is primarily a writer and photojournalist. His features and photo essays have been published locally and internationally by the Far Eastern Economic Review, The Smithsonian Institute, Vogue (Italy), Off The Edge, The Sun, The Edge, The Nut Graph, The Malaysian Insider and Malaysiakini.

From the official site: Download 18?
:: Click here, and save the file onto your computer. It's a 60MB .avi file.
:: There's a bandwidth limit that restricts how often the file can be downloaded at any one time. This website resides on server space courtesy of my friend Joon, so I can't do much about the limit.
::  So if the link doesn't work, please try again ...maybe a bit later. Each and every time I receive an email saying the link doesn't work, I go and try to download it myself... and it works. Each and every time. So don't be discouraged. Try again.
::  Feel free to make copies and distribute. It's copyright-free.


Awards:

Links:
(All info from Danny Lim's site: danlim.twofishy.net/  )

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