Email your stories to...

herstory@kryss.org

Yesterday's screening and soft launch went well and we shall update some photos and info to this blog soon!! stay tune!!

Women In Love, The Playlist.

Filmmakers Anonymous and Central Market present
A Herstory Films Project

“Women In Love” FA 11
6pm at Arts for Grabs, Annexe Gallery
Saturday
26 September
FREE ENTRANCE!

Premiering Mien.ly’s film ‘2 Boys, 2 Girls and A Beat Up Car’
Also featuring films from Margaret Bong, Juliane Block, Nadira Ilana and more!

Desires. Sex. Love. What does it mean to women? These women filmmakers explore and showcase their stories for this special FA.

Herstory Films Project wishes to launch this space to share your love story, be it fairytale or forbidden, proudly or anonymously…as long as you identify as a women, we want to hear your story and possibly film it. Herstory wants to appreciate women’s sexuality the way they tell it.
http://herstoryfilmsproject.blogspot.com/

Due to the lack of women filmmakers in Malaysia in general and making films on desire more specifically, we whop up some previous FA films that fit this category. Still make for an interesting watch, so see you there!!

TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 60 MINUTES (discussion with filmmakers and Herstory organizers after)
All films have English subtitles. The screening is free. Central Market Annexe is located behind Central Market, near Pasar Seni Lrt station. For more info please contact Anonymous at 012-6969455.
ps. if you are an addict yourself, please feel free to bring dvd copy of your film to the screening and pass to Anonymous.

1. ‘It’s Not About Anything, It’s About Everything’ by Crystal Woo and Sidney Tan (2006/ 14 mins)
Synopsis:
A short film about Yee May who finds herself caught between two men and turns to unconventional means to solve her dilemma.

Directors’ Profiles:
Crystal Woo and Sidney Tan have collaborated on various projects that include short experimental video works, comics, and films. Sidney Tan draws & designs for a living, and Crystal Woo art directs and writes for a living. Together, they are fascinated by pictures in the head…ideas in space…and stories floating everywhere.

2. ‘I'll Trust this January’ by Virginia Kennedy (20min)
Synopsis:
In one night you can find out so much. About yourself. About your partner. You can find out they have cheated and you can find out what it is like to cheat. Sometimes cheating does mean nothing. And sometimes it doesn't. Hanna finds out the bitter truth about love, cheating and revenge in this intimate road movie about love.

Director’s Profile:
Virginia Kennedy, started writing scripts four years ago as an escape from advertising. After directing many award winning music video's and commercial's for over ten years, she decided to make films longer than 30 seconds. Originally a special effects animator and designer from Australia, she moved to Malaysia to get some tropical warmth. I'll Trust this January is her third narrative film.
Contact details: datadoll2004@yahoo.com


3. 'Sub Rosa' by Nadiah Hamzah (8.45mins/2009/color)
Synopsis:
Can true love prevail above all others? Ayesha, a Muslim African American struggles to balance her faith and liberal freedom. Kurt - yearning for a sense of belonging gets caught up in the bludgeoning Brooklyn hipster neo-subculture. A unexpected encounter brings the two together. Despite their worlds of differences, they not only find love, but also discover their selves.

Director's profile:
Nadiah Hamzah is based in New York, and is constantly inspired by the many sights and sounds of the city. She enjoys everything and anything by Catherine Breillat, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Takashi Miike, Michel Gondry and Yasmin Ahmad. Nadiah is also an avid cinematographer (DP reel can be seen at www.youtube.com/nadiahhamzah) but wishes she had more chances and money (or any money at all) to shoot on 35mm film. She is currently writing her first feature screenplay.

4. ‘She’ By Idora Alhabshi 13mins/color/2006
Synopsis:
An art house short film featuring the talents of Bernice Chauly. A story placing moments before bitter separation. It explores her intuitions, past experience and emotional turmoil before making her first step of courage.

Director’s Profile:
I’m based in kl but im in melbourne studying fine arts: media arts and photography in RMIT. eeedowrah@yahoo.com

5. ‘Bare Hands’ by Nadira Ilana (2mins30secs)
Synopsis:
Bare Hands is an original poem over stock images put together at the last minute for a classroom assignment (yes it happens to filmmakers too). It is the honest voice of a girl stricken by insecurity and the fear of loss, striking the question "does he love me for me or what I am?" Bare Hands is essentially about one's discovery of the meaning of love; how young love always struggles to measure up to its ideals and forces us to reckon with who we are and what we have to offer anyone or ourselves. How hard do we need to try to keep love alive? Should we come bearing gifts? Or with bare hands? That is... if you have hands.

Director’s profile:
Nadira Ilana is a passionate Sabahan and filmmaker. Born and bred in beautiful Kota Kinabalu, this former film student, now humble filmmaker/video artist's further education was spent in Brisbane, New Jersey and New York City. Keeping track of her can sometimes be a game of 'Where's Wally?' but she is currently temporarily residing in Brisbane where she is editing her next project. Favourite past times are also: photography, diary writing, karaoke, making collages and cursing at the Sabah electricity board for making her start impossible jigsaw puzzles (like ones of Klimt or with lots of sky and padang) she cannot finish but starts anyway because there's no internet or Astro during our perpetual power cuts. Visit http://feistgeist.wordpress.com to follow more of her readings and thinkings.

6. ‘Kow Loon Story’ by Juliane Block (5 mins/2009)
Synopsis:
A lonely woman leaves a trail of colorful origami in her struggle against the gray anonymity of a metropolis.

Bio:
Juliane started her filmmaking career in Germany, before she migrated in 2005 to Asia. Her directing credits include now several award winning shorts and a feature which have been screened at various festivals around the world. Juliane is a graduate of the University of Art Braunschweig, Germany and works as graphic artist when not busy making movies.

7. ‘2 Boys, 2 Girls and A Beat Up Car’ by Mien.ly (11 mins/color/2009)
Synopsis:
Heng and David swop stories about how they meet their girlfriends- Katherine and Beth. Katherine and Beth explored a beat up car instead. Oh, the many ways of falling in love! Featuring the amazing casts- Davina Goh, Anrie Too, Alfred Loh and Michael Chen. Info and photos at 2boys2girlsandabeatupcar.blogspot.com

Director’s Profile:
Through films, Mien.ly searches for love, for justice, for equality, for diversity, for humanity, for herself. As a profession, she is between a trainer and a filmmaker. She sees in a spectrum of lights and thinks that the world is more beautiful for the rainbow. She attempts to wield a blog at mienly.wordpress.com.

'Women In Love' Screening

Filmmakers Anonymous and Central Market present
A Herstory Films Project

“Women In Love” FA 11
6pm at Arts for Grabs, Annexe Gallery
Saturday
26 September
FREE ENTRANCE!

Premiering Mien.ly’s film ‘2 Boys, 2 Girls and A Beat Up Car’ (http://2boys2girlsandabeatupcar.blogspot.com)
Also featuring films from Margaret Bong, Juliane Block, Nadira Ilana and more!

Desires. Sex. Love. What does it mean to women? These women filmmakers explore and showcase their stories for this special FA.

Herstory Films Project wishes to launch this space to share your love story, be it fairytale or forbidden, proudly or anonymously…as long as you identify as a women, we want to hear your story and possibly film it. Herstory wants to appreciate women’s sexuality the way they tell it.
http://herstoryfilmsproject.blogspot.com/

(please copy the poster and words and spam it like you are in luv!)

What is HerStory Films Project?

HerStory understands the need for women to have safe spaces to express their sexualities and desires, spaces other than those propelled by capitalism, patriarchy and religious fundamentalism. Some of these safe spaces can be found in the creative world of arts and film is a very accessible form of art. It is easily portable, nowadays much more affordable and has proven to be one of the more feasible ways to sustain a longer-term awareness campaign. HerStory will unveil stories of women’s desires on film, by women filmmakers. Women filmmakers in Malaysia are very few, and even fewer portray stories of women’s desires. We would openly invite women to submit stories, including women filmmakers themselves. If authors are unable to create their own films based on their stories, a pool of women filmmakers will be identified to work with the authors of the final selection of stories to come up with an anthology of films. These films will screened during a film festival and roadshow around Malaysia, known as ‘Women In Love’, and for every screening, we will have talks or workshops on sexuality and also invite more stories.

Objectives of the project –
1. A diverse portrayal of women’s desires which would help expand the discourse and understanding around women's sexuality. We hope that by doing so, women’s sexuality would be understood more holistically instead of objectified or marked as the vanguard of morality.
2. Through the sharing of stories of women’s sexuality and by engaging in dialogue, we hope to create spaces where women would feel safer and more secure with their sexuality and start seeing it as something positive and beautiful other than the negative connotations society and the State tells them.
3. To increase opportunities and support that would encourage more women to engage in creative arts, whether writing or film by providing a safe and nurturing space.

Why is this project important?
In an increasingly conservative socio-political environment of Islamic fundamentalism in Malaysia, women’s bodies become the battlefield for the most fundamental of women’s rights, the right to control and make decisions over our own bodies as women. Who women have sex with, what women do in private spaces, what women wear, what women drink, what women eat, how women talk and walk, have become unduly legislated in the name of “moral policing” with many forms of injustices to women and a total disregard for women’s rights protected by the International Bill of Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women. In such an environment, it becomes more critical to expand opportunities and spaces for critical thinking, even if it is merely to encourage people, both young and old to question “Why?”. Women’s rights around the world are an important indicator of understanding global well-being (see http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=30116&Cr=women&Cr1=day), and to this end, even the World Bank finally recognized, that when women in a country are discriminated and persecuted, the whole nation suffers and poverty increases (see report launched on 8th March 2001, http://www.unwire.org/unwire/20010308/13382_story.asp).

Time frame of the project
26 Sept 2009 – Launch of Herstory Project, open calls for stories
Jan 2010 - Filmmakers and storytellers meet to workshop stories
Feb 2010 - Production of short films commence
May 2010 - 1st Anthology of Films completed. Premiere screening to launch the “Women in Love” film festival.
June to August 2010 – Film festival and workshops to be held in various places in Malaysia.

HerStory is brought to you by: (The list is non-definitive and might likely to expand)
Mien.ly, is a filmmaker and trainer by profession. Her latest documentary ‘Running’ on refugees in Malaysia, which was commissioned by Suaram, has been screened in Cairo, Australia and Jakarta this year. She has run trainings in human rights, gender and sexuality rights, non-racism and video making. She is also co-founder of Filmmaker Anonymous, an irregular screenings of indie short films in KL; partake in issue-based street actions with KataGender; volunteer with Freedom Film Fest, Women Candidacy Initiative and Kryss.

Angela M. Kuga Thas, is a Malaysian and an advocate for women’s empowerment and non-discrimination. Angela draws her knowledge and experience from her wider networking and previous work with women’s rights advocates on the CEDAW Convention, women’s sexual and reproductive health, and in the provision of microcredit to poor women. Angela’s current interests lie in the areas of gender and sexuality, gender and information and communication technology, social entrepreneurship, and young people’s, particularly young women’s, empowerment. With a group of like-minded women and men, Angela founded Knowledge and Rights with Young people through Safer Spaces (KRYSS) in December 2002.

KRYSS is an organization that works with young people on the issue of discrimination and rights through creative platforms. Since its establishment, KRYSS has focused on issues of discrimination based on sexuality, gender, ethnicity and religion. As an organization that believes in optimizing people’s skills and available but limited resources, KRYSS’ approach to all of its projects is to partner and work with groups or individuals who seek social change and justice and in making a difference. Past partnerships have included Amnesty International (Philippines), Reka Art Gallery (Malaysia) and local government units in the Philippines. KRYSS has also organised a queer film festival with the kind unofficial support of the President of Kelab Seni Filem Malaysia, in collaboration with non-formally established groups like Purple Lab, Soul Sisterz and Women-who-Love-Women. Special screenings of films by Desiree Lim, a Malaysian who now resides in Canada, with dialogues with audiences, were also conducted with Kelab Seni Filem Malaysia and Monash University. KRYSS takes pride in jointly taking risks and supporting the initiatives of both young women and men of diverse sexualities in bringing about change for non-discrimination and social justice.