narrated by Tan Chui Mui
A few months back, I found this small book on Yin Shao Loong‘s bookshelf called “Surabaya Johny”.
I only it knew as songtitle. And I didn’t know Dain Said wrote a book in the same title.
And things became even more interesting when i found out it is actually about this film he did, both a mockumentary and film noir. I wanted to show it in our film club.
I asked Dain. He was surprised how I knew about this film. And then he promised to look for the copy.
“I am trying to locate and see wether there is more than just a film copy ( 16mm) or if I have a ( I know this is ridiculous) a tape copy, either Beta Tape or 1 inch tape….much of my film and negs have either been mouldy or melted in this tropical heat….. but should I do have it the I will let you know…I know that I have a vhs copy somewhere. “
Yin Shao Loong said he has a VHS copy of it in his parent’s place, where he took from KOMAS. but he could not find it anymore. He suspected his mom had threw it because it was full of fungus.
This is a tropical problem. The humidity is really not good for film archive.
When Jacky Yeap decided to make his “My Student Films” program for #SeaShorts2018, this short film seems so fitting.
And Dain, in the midst of moving house, finally located his copy.
“Can we meet up n talk, cos I need to correct a mistake in the spoken narrative, ….which then affects the voice cos my voice is a lot older, I have found the beta copy last week as we r moving n I am packing n found the beta tape version with a little mold on the sides.”
This is the beta tape we got. And we took this photo, to show the condition of the tape for the kind people in Asian Film Archive, to see if it is still possible to transfer or digitize it. They were very doubtful, but asked us to courier the tape anyway.
We took this photo to email to Asian Film Archive to see if it is even worthwhile to courier them the digital beta tape. Look at the mold!!!!
And after a few weeks, we received their email saying the copy is done. I still had not seen the film myself, because I want to keep the experience of watching it on big screen during SeaShorts.
And I like this photo of the moldy tape so much, because it said something about us the tropical filmmakers: the humidity, the heat, and living for the moment, and really not care too much about immortality, hehe.
Luckily we have Singaporean who will think ahead and actually archive films for us.
Other filmmakers in the “My Student Films” program are: Garin Nugroho, Liew Seng Tat, Edwin Blindpig, Aditya Assarat
BTW, we are also crowdfunding to help run the festival, Please support us, or at the least help us pay for the courier or shipping of screening materials: https://igg.me/at/seashortsmalaysia/x