REINTRODUCE THE STUDIO SYSTEM TO DEVELOP THE FILM INDUSTRY TO TAKE LEADERSHIP ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEW CINEMA ON BEHALF OF THE ASEAN AND MUSLIM WORLD…AND THE MANY OSCARS WE HAVE FAILED TO WIN...

By Mansor Puteh

No serious and through research has been done by anyone on how the film industry in other countries especially Hollywood and Bollywood were established and developed and the functions they perform for the countries they are at - which are to promote their culture and values, and at the same time becoming income-generating industries for the countries concerned.

In Malaysia filmmaking is still in its infancy and films are produce on a hunch that they can sell, if the viewers can relate to them because they are reflections of those they had seen produced by especially Hollywood that now rules the film world with the genres they created!

Malaysia can introduce and create new genres that can be accepted by the filmmakers of countries in the Asean region and the Muslim World and reeducate the viewers on how to appreciate film forms of films that are Post-Hollywood that serve their cultural and religious values and political ideals!

Hollywood, Broadway and American Television are never under any ministry in America! They exist on their own and developed by people who come in with new ideas who are not stuck in the same position by official edicts and rules.

First of all, it's sad that there are not many people in Malaysia and in the film industry who can be said to be qualified in film and those who know how to take the industry to greater heights.

What we have are those industry practitioners who are capable or churning out films after films which are mostly 'Fake Hollywood' that use templates by inserting new characters and situations, but left style and structure intact.

Can the Malaysian film industry be developed in total isolation without taking into account the other branches of the arts especially the theater and television and also writing? 

And this is the problem that should explain why and how the industry has failed to be developed by Finas, the Malaysian film agency which was formed forty-one years ago has failed to see.

Finas is so singular and too narcissistic that everything must be tailored to their activities or those of their senior officers and those in the ministry which now is the ministry of communication and digital.

There is even a square in Finas called Dataran Karyawan where many 'glamorous' and publicity seeking activities are held by them and the many film associations every now and then.

Finas itself is such a huge complex; and if one is familiar with the scene in Hollywood and the other active film industries in the world including those in India and the Philippines and Indonesia, one cannot see any agency such as Finas and the Dataran Karyawan there.

In fact, in the many trips I had made to Hollywood I had not seen any major studio or film company having such a huge complex except when they have a studio complex within their compound.

So what can be done with Finas and how can the film industry in Malaysia be developed so in time it can stand on its own and not continue to be part of a government ministry as a mere agency in it together with the many other agencies that it has?

Finas must be turned into a GLC - a government-link company who is managed by experienced and qualified people in film who can help create a new structure and a series of networks and institutions all of which can cause the New Malaysian Film Industry to be created and a New Malaysian Cinema established where those who have original ideas and new vision can find a space in it and together develop a New Malaysian Cinema.

The Old Malayan Cinema as it is now conveniently described by many especially since its demise was established by two major studios in Singapore - the Malay Film Productions Studios owned by the Shaw Brothers and Cathay-Keris owned by the Loke Brothers - Ho Ah Loke and Loke Wan Tho.

They are four enterprising Chinese businessmen, two who are born and raised in Shanghai and the other two who were born in Kuala Lumpur who took it upon themselves to create the Old Malayan Film Industry from thin air when there was virtually nothing that the country had that they could use other than the actors most of who were culled in from the 'Bangsawan' plays and directors who were brought in from India and Philippines who also brought with them the Old India Cinema style of filmmaking that have the song-and-dance routines interspersed at five to eight parts in the film.

The questions that need to be ask of those in Finas and the ministry and the industry leaders is: Can Malaysia take the lead in the development of the New Asean Cinema and the New Islamic Cinema or can the industry be allowed to remain as it is with Finas being nothing but a mere agency in a ministry? The answer is: No!

The film industry must be led by qualified people in all aspects of the art of filmmaking and taking into account the development of the New Malaysian Television and New Malaysian Theater, etc…as all are interrelated and cannot be developed independently with each taking different routes to nothingness…

Audience development, too, can and must be for the ministry of education to take an interest in as a well-educated can only be created or developed if he or she has a higher sense of appreciation of the arts that can influence their attitudes of other things…