Nasi Bungkus Cinema
Associate Prof. Yeoh Seng Guan
In July, 2006, I returned to work after a 6-months
sabbatical in the Philippines. Before I left for my
sabbatical, as Course Coordinator, I had done the
paper work for the hiring of Ben McKay as a film
studies lecturer. We had not met before but I knew of
him through a mutual acquaintance.
In our first tete-a-tete together, Ben and I talked about,
among other things, various ways to enliven a critical
appreciation of Malaysian and Southeast Asian cinema
among our students. That July morning, the idea of
Nasi Bungkus Cinema was birthed. We decided to
position Nasi Bungkus Cinema as a safe space to
screen experimental short films.
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A few months later, in September, we officially launched
Nasi Bungkus Cinema at the Journalism Lab of the old
campus, appropriately with nasi bungkus purchased
from my neighbourhood. A packed enthusiastic crowd
saw the screening of the following films curated by Ben:
Checkpoint (7 mins) by Amir Muhammad
Taman di Sinkiku (14 mins) by Azharr Rudin
The Gladiator Cock (10 mins) by Yeoh Seng Guan
Colourful (4 mins) by Azharr Rudin
Since then, in keeping with the spirit of Nasi Bungkus
Cinema, films of various genres (as evident in the
posters shown here) made by students, staff, and
indie film-makers within and outside of Malaysia have
been curated and screened during lunch time. At the
new campus, additional screenings were made in the
evenings for longer films.
A few of the films premiered at Nasi Bungkus Cinema
were selected for screenings in international film
festivals. And a number of these student film-makers
have gone on to do creative work in the film and
communication industry.
Currently, the curator for Nasi Bungkus Cinema is Dr
Jonathan Driskell.