THE Freedom Film Festival 2017 kicked off yesterday, with young Malaysians saying they learnt more about current issues by watching two short films than reading the news.

The documentaries were on Rohingya refugees and how nature in Penang is affected by development.

Nuraini Rudi and Hanisa Nazir, who attended the festival for the second time, said it was an “eye-opening experience” for Malaysians like them to learn about “untold stories” not usually highlighted in the mainstream media.

“It is an eye-opener for me because it is something that we do not see in the mainstream media, a view that is not usually highlighted,” said Nuraini.

“It is also an eye-opener for me as a normal citizen. We are always busy with our lives and we don’t know the things that are happening,” said Hanisa.

The first short film yesterday, Selfie with the Prime Minister, features Ziaur Rahman, a Rohingya who tries meeting Prime Minister Najib Razak.

The other, titled The Hills and the Sea, is about Penang, and highlights the struggles of fisherman Mohd Ishak and Joleen Yap, a wildlife researcher on Dusky Leaf monkeys, in the face of the challenges brought on by the state’s ambitious land reclamation plans.

The annual festival, held at the PJ Live Arts Centre, runs until September 9. Since 2003, it has been a platform for social filmmakers, human rights activists and other individuals to showcase their films and advocate their causes.

Nuraini, 25, said The Hills and the Sea surprised her by showing “how similar the government and opposition can be when it comes to development”.

The Penang government is led by opposition party DAP.

“(Both) just want to develop for their own benefit, and they don’t really look at how the people suffer,” said Nuraini.

Hanisa, also 25, said she was moved by the story of the fisherman, who faced the loss of his livelihood, and that of the wildlife researcher, whose research efforts had been affected.

“After we heard what they were saying, I felt like, oh my God, this is something we didn’t know about, and it is happening without us knowing about it.”

She said she hoped that the more “old-fashioned” Malaysians would attend similar film festivals.

An older attendee, Philip Wong Wan Ming, said the documentary on Penang’s land reclamation made him want to find out more about the issue.

“(In the documentary,) the previous state government said ‘we can destroy all the forest and reclaim the land, so we are not going to do anything about it’.

“I can’t accept that… maybe, there are legal ways to scrap the thing entirely,” the 54-year-old said.

Wong, who has been attending the festival over the past five years, said he was pleased at how Malaysian documentaries had developed despite the possibility of censorship.

“I think the greatest challenge is censorship and government control… the challenge is always to say what needs to be said without fear or favour.”

Chan Seong Foong, 56, said both documentaries “stood out” and was impressed by the directors’ ideas.

“In Selfie with the Prime Minister, I like it that the director (Nor Arlene Tan) used humour and was not ‘preachy’, as the refuge issue has been covered a lot of times already.”

Tan and Grace Cho are the directors of Selfie with the Prime Minister, while Andrew Ng directed The Hills and the Sea.

“I think it is hard to keep to the issue and tell a good story, to make a film that has impact and make people want to watch it. (The directors) have done well, as you can tell from the response from the audience, who were very interactive and reactive,” said Chan. – September 3, 2017.