Ian On The Red Dot

I self-invited myself to an event organized by Ogilvy to showcase the latest short film commissioned by MCYS (i.e. Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports). Brian (who should never be hired as a door-bitch because he is just too welcoming) was gracious enough to let me attend the event.

I am glad I did.

We got to watch a selection from the body of work by director Yasmin Ahmad (who has a blog here) and I understand why she is an award-winning director.

Films aren’t just meant to saturate our senses with sights and sounds or impress us with special effects. Correction. Good and memorable films (which is different from blockbuster entertaining) don’t just saturate our senses with sights and sounds and impress us with special effects. Good and memorable films lead us on an emotional journey - they remind us what it means to be human and evoke strong emotions that help us cope, appreciate and understand our lives on earth.

I got all the good stuff from her work.

My favorite is this commercial ‘Tan Hon Ming in Love’.

I really like this kid - the innocent, authentic, unbridled expressions and responses were a joy to watch. It reminded me of what it was like to be young and untarnished by the expectations and ‘rules’ of society.

The final message was a powerful one phrased in a simple question.

The film that was commissioned is embedded below.

I really like this short film.

For one thing, it didn’t seem like the typical family campaign commercial. I haven’t seen all the commercials ever put out by my government but my impression has always been that the government likes to showcase only the idealized version of a family - 2 parents, 2.something siblings and 1 dog.

The film doesn’t have such a family. It just consists of a father and a daughter. The family seems incomplete and thus imperfect and the girl a little spoiled yet I think it captures the way we experience our family relations for most, if not all, of us.

For one thing, the way we experience our relationships with the members of our family isn’t a one-to-many thing. It is still very much a one-to-one thing. How I feel about my father is largely based on what happens between me and him and not how he has been an awesome husband to my mom or how he has also been a long-suffering dad to my sis (and me). When we talk about love in the family, it isn’t always a group-hug experience. In this film, the mother has been removed such that only one relationship is in focus and in this one relationship I am able to see a little of my relationship with my dad, a little of my relationship with my mom and ultimately the love that is in my family.

Yasmin Ahmad said that a lot of times when we like something, we find reasons to justify why we like it. That might be the case with this film however I feel that Yasmin choosing that flat to be the family’s home was an inspired choice which allowed us to easier frame our perspectives and hang our own emotions. I don’t think she chose the setting to target at any particular demographic or thug any particular heartstrings but I really like the flat chosen and I think my peers will too.

I don’t think it would be presumptuous to say that for most in my generation and our parents, that flat was very much the setting for our early family experience. We were the generation that grew into prosperity on the back of the efforts of those before us. It is my generation that are the ones who are now at the age of getting married and starting a family and I think this film has the potential to speak to a lot of us.

It did for me.

The film reminded me of the most poignant memory I have of my parents and their love for me.

The first major purchase my parents got when we moved to our first home was an encyclopedia set. I can still remember sitting on the sparse living room floor with the salesperson showing the World Book set of encyclopedias. We had nothing and out of the so many things my parents could have bought for themselves or to make the house nicer, they chose instead to buy a World Book encyclopedia set. We think nothing of buying an item that costs a few thousand dollars now but I can only imagine the sacrifice that was made to ensure they could buy that set of books in the hope that my future would be better.

At that time, our home had next to nothing. Yet in its emptiness, the hope that filled the flat was tangible. We believed life was good and could be better.

Things have changed for a lot of us in my generation. The focus has shifted. Looking at this film, I believe it can be a good starting point, if not a valuable addition, to the conversation each of us have within ourselves as we grapple with our, for some of us strained, relationships with our parents and find the direction for the rest of our lives.

The informal Q&A session was a hoot. Yasmin Ahmad is definitely the sort of person you want at any party.

Her advice to be a good film-maker - don’t try to control everything, produce a good script and have excellent casting.

She also can be counted as a member of the unofficial Vivian Balakrishnan fan club which my sis and mom are part of. Cute and cool are words that have been used to describe him.

I also managed to meet mintea, rinaz (the one with the cute avatar) and juzzywuzzy. I especially enjoyed the jokes juzzywuzzy shared with Brian and me. Which is the smelliest creature in the sea?