EngageMedia promotes social justice through SEA film screening

A recent collaboration between EngageMedia and Palate Palette for the first time presenting Social Justice and Environmental Films From South East Asia, a screening of specially curated short films/documentaries focusing on social justice and environmental issues in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

The short films highlighting issues faced by societies in Malaysia and our neighbours, from street children and transgenders’ or workers’ rights in Malaysia to the predicament of the indigenous people in Indonesia and child rights in Thailand.

The event received overwhelming support from local and international audience. An international crowd packed the 2nd floor of the Palate Palette restaurant on Tuesday evening.

Videos from Citizen Journalists Malaysia and Malaysiakini were screened during the event.

Citizen Journalist Sathis Kumar’s ‘Remnants Of Life In A Container’ screened during the event is a short documentary of Tadiyapan a senior citizen who has been living in a construction container in Tanjung Bunga, Penang, for the last 4 years after being dismissed from employment.

Now he hopes that the government and the welfare department would help him find a permanent solution to his dire circumstances.

Malaysiakini’s ‘A Step Back In Time’ by Indrani Kopal, Shufiyan Shukur and Maran Perianen is a story of Batu Arang, a small town in a Malaysia which was the birthplace of many radical unions.

The Coal Workers Union had a leading role in some of the largest strikes of the period when they protested over their working conditions and poor wages.

Transgender Nun : Rights and Rites by Arvind Raj, a documentary about the transition a person partakes in physically transforming from a man to a woman is the first change in protagonist Sharan’s life.

She wants to become a nun by dedicating her life to Bauchara Matha, a deity who is known to be the protector of the transgender community.

The filmmaker follows Sharan on a journey of several rituals that are rarely performed and never recorded on film before.

EngageMedia representative Seelan Palay also shared information about the films which came from Malaysia, Indonesia, West Papua, and South Thailand.

Speaking to Citizen Journalists Malaysia (CJMY) Seelan Palay pointed that many were curious about the other work of EngageMedia hoping they will organise similar events again in Malaysia in the future.

EngageMedia:

EngageMedia is a non-profit media, technology and culture organisation using the power of video, the internet and free software technologies to create social and environmental change.

EngageMedia believes independent media and free and open technologies are fundamental to building the movements needed to challenge social injustice and environmental damage, as well as to provide and present solutions.

EngageMedia works with independent filmmakers, video activists, technologists, and campaigners to generate wider audiences, demystify new video distribution technologies, and create an online archive of independent video productions using open content licenses.