Saturday 6th May 2006: 9 Shorts by Azharr Rudin

Kelab Seni Filem Malaysia presents

9 Shorts by Azharr Rudin

Theatrette, HELP University College,
Pusat Bandar Damansara, Kuala Lumpur
8.00pm, Saturday 6 May 2006

Free admission

Details:

Perhaps better known as Amir Muhammad’s editor for his last two films, Azharr Rudin (24) was unearthed for local consumption when Amir picked up his Dancing Kites for the August edition of Malaysian Shorts in 2004 and subsequently hired him to cut The Year of Living Vicariously, which was shot on the same soil as Dancing Kites, Indonesia.

The 9 short films in this program were shot between 2003 and 2005. The earliest, an unofficial music video (Colorfool) for a reluctant crooner, Terry Callier’s What Color is Love, was part of a final year college requirement for which Azharr received the Limkokwing’s Industry Award for Excellence for the Best in Video Production 2003.

Taman di dalam Sinkiku was partly prompted by a question from a member of the audience during a Q & A session at a local festival where Dancing Kites was ill programmed in early 2004.

Inspirations gathered from the small exposure in the scene and also places where Azharr’s heart has been to, resulted the completion of a suite of short stories known as The Amber Sexalogy which had a sneak preview in December 2005 in Macau and world premiered at the 19th Singapore International Film Festival.

This screening will be the Malaysian premiere for most of the works by Azharr who was named by The Star as one of the two local filmmakers to watch for in 2006 in a Faces to Watch sidebar in its Special Year Ahead pullout. They have also travelled to Jakarta, Bangkok, Cork, Toronto, Tehran, Yogjakarta, Prague, Rotterdam, Los Angeles and perhaps will continue journeying to more places and hearts in the future.

The 9 shorts:

Dancing Kites (experimental/documentary / 11m / Malaysia-Indonesia / 2004)
22 year-old Azharr Rudin for the first time tags along with his mother to visit her hometown, Dumai, Indonesia upon hearing the sighting of a grandmother he never met. He opts to engage in the personal subject matter by letting his camera document places where his grandmother was believed to have been to, the physical state of the small town (and its inhabitants) Рwhich has not changed much for the last 30 years according to his mother Рand indirectly records the cycle of emotions throughout the journey. cast Inhabitants of Dumai, Indonesia                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 music Damn Dirty Apes, Mokhtarizal / illustration Hafdzi Sofi / camera, editor,  producer & director Azharr Rudin

Taman di dalam Sinkiku (garden in my sink / narrative / 14m / Malaysia / 2004)
A supposedly accidental recording of life.

cast Fatin Nadia, Hafdzi Sofi, Ian Cheah, Joy Lee / music Plague of Happiness, Shocksytem / writer, camera, editor,  producer & director Azharr Rudin

Colorfool (music video / 4m / Malaysia / 2003)
An ambiguous visual rendition of Terry Callier’s What Color is Love? – as suggested by the song.
cast Buffy, Killi / camera Chan Ka Woh / producer Harith Abu Hassan / editor, director Azharr Rudin

The Amber Sexalogy (narrative / 61m / Malaysia / 2006)
individual titles: Meeting, *Loving, Raining, Forgetting Amber + Majidee + Desir
A suite of small but perfectly formed stories that serves as an eulogy to love as well as an exploration of public spaces and private moments.

The stories pointedly alternate between Malay and English, but other forms of language ‚Äì the physical, the natural, the hermeneutical ‚Äì are at play too. The seemingly offhand imagery, the rhythmic editing and the sound design discreetly conspire to achieve a rare immediacy. The last short has no Amber but is a prologue of Harris’s early encounter with urban mores, and by this time you know that his sentimental education will not end here – Amir Muhammad

cast Melissa Maureen Rizal, Mark Teh, Gavin Yap, Alvin Wong, Azman Hassan, Tora Andika with Tan Chui Mui, Amir Muhammad & Jerome Kugan / camera James Lee, Woo Ming Jin, Imri Nasution / sound Hardesh Singh, Taj Addin / audio post Soundworks Productions / music Spacebar, Wahab Gambus, Jerome Kugan / assistant producer Fatin Nadia / associate producers Rita Machdar, Amir Muhammad  / executive producer Yasmin Ahmad  / writer, editor, producer, director Azharr Rudin

*PG (Parental guidance) rating – everyone, advisable with an accompanying adult

watch clips from Dancing Kites + The Amber Sexalogy @ myspace.com/azharr
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