I’VE been reflecting a lot lately on alternative modes or methods of creative resistance or subversion against rules or rulings that the ruling regime continually imposes on our society.

I guess this stems comes from my day job lecturing the subject of world cinema for a film degree programme in university.

Film programmes are probably the most misunderstood university major, even among the students who sign up for it.

Most assume it involves mainly the learning of skills for digital audio-visual production.

While all eyes are on the hardware, most forget the critical software at the centre of it all: the human being making the film.

I teach mostly theoretical subjects opposed to the “design” or practical subjects which most students are naturally inclined toward.

The intention behind these “theory” subjects is to not only develop research skills but most importantly, critical thinking.

I remind my film students that the supposed binary that distinguishes theory and practical subjects is a false one – one that is no doubt infused with the industrial ideology of categorisation and compartmentalisation.

Theory and practice are in fact two sides of the same coin – it’s not about choosing or favouring one over the other.

Among the topics I cover in my world cinema class is the development of film and artistic movements at the start to the middle of the 20th century. While most of these movements are Euro-centric, it is grounded in the reality of the development of cinema and filmmaking.

Among my favourite movements to teach is Italian neorealism – a film movement that emerged after death of Benito Mussolini amid the ashes of World War II.

One of the important films of the movement is Vittorio De Sica’s “Bicycle Thieves” (also billed as “The Bicycle Thief”) made in 1948.

The film follows the tale of an unemployed breadwinner Antonio Ricci who goes on a wild goose search for his bicycle, which was stolen on the first day of his job as a billsticker in war-torn Rome.

It’s a heartbreaking film starring nonfactors and shot on location in Rome (two hallmarks of the Italian neorealist movement) and is one of my all-time favourite films that never fails to pull at my heartstrings.

All artists resist hegemonies of the day and subvert whatever is deemed to be common sense or “natural” – it’s just what artists do, as opposed to “artis”

Under Mussolini, the Italian neorealist directors has to work within the boundaries of a dictatorship to earn a living. That was his limp, dead body was hung upside down and stoned at a gas station in Milan.

With whatever little resources they had, they made films that depicted post-war Italy and the social and economic hardships of the  Italians as opposed to the “White Telephone” films that depicted the comfortable lives of the bourgeoisie during Mussolini’s fascist rule.

Great art is often made in the midst of hardship.

Complacency and comfort are probably the worst enemies of a creative endeavour although one should not induce hardship upon oneself just to be artistically “authentic”.

The point is to use adversity as the spark for creative resistances and subversive artworks to stick it to the man.

This resilience is one the most important aspects – to me, at least – of art education.

It’s a form of creative philosophy that is about quality not quantity. It’s about creative energy reserves that can be leveraged when needed in bursts – most film and artistic movements aren’t about longevity but sparking a new way of doing things.

Malaysia has a long way to go. Or maybe, touch wood, we need some form of upheaval to light the spark.

With this, I say to our current regime and their shameless tricks and shadow play: bring it on. – October 7, 2022.

* Azmyl Yunor is a touring underground recording artiste, and an academic in media and cultural studies. He has published articles on pop culture, subcultures and Malaysian cultural politics. He adheres to the three-chords-and-the-truth school of songwriting, and Woody Guthrie’s maxim “All you can write is what you see”. He is @azmyl on Twitter.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.