Sociocultural landscapes of Kuala Lumpur in independent Malaysian films
Khoo Gaik Cheng
School of Humanities, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
KEYWORDS
independent/indie filmmaking • cosmopolitanism • The Big Durian • Bukak Api • 18? • Malaysia
Current independent filmmaking in Malaysia has the potential to be an alternative and viable space for creative and political expression, relative to mainstream national cinema (Malay cinema) and to the state. I focus on alternative imagery and sociocultural mappings of Kuala Lumpur in three 'indie' films. All three films contain documentary elements capturing social geographies of the city not represented in mainstream Malay cinema, or even if represented not subjected to a critical gaze by the filmmaker. The
Big Durian centres on the perspectives of the city's urban middle class of all ethnicities;
Bukak Api portrays the daily struggles of Malay transsexual sex workers in Chow Kit, a predominantly working-class Chinese neighbourhood and red light district; and
18? highlights the opinions of the nongovernmental organization community, bohemians, artists, anarchists and media activists mostly in the cosmopolitan suburb of Bangsar. These representations of the Malaysian urban landscape are pretexts for and politicize the national landscape through a discussion of ethnicity and race politics, sexuality, and the lack of space for freedom of creative expression and critical thinking.
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(Perhaps this text will serve as substantial after-reading upon viewing the
15Malaysia videos.)
The above text is a selection from a special issue on cinematic representations of the tropical urban/city in:
Published Online: 13 Mar 2008
Journal compilation © 2009 Department of Geography, National University of Singapore and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd
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