Nazmi (right), teachers and pupils promote their film ‘Teether’ at Medan Niaga Lawas.
MIRI (Oct 8): ‘Teether’, an indie short film produced by SK Luagan, Lawas has been selected by Screamfest Horror Film Festival New Orleans to compete against other 100 line-up of features and shorts from all around the world.
The judging process of entries starts today (Oct 8), leading to the finale of the annual horror film festival in the United States on Oct 21.
‘Teether’, is an independent film project involving talented primary school pupils of SK Luagan, headed and directed by teacher Muhammad Nazmi Rosli.
Speaking to The Borneo Post, Nazmi said ‘Teether’ came about from his students’ idea of a monster.
“This monster, however, doesn’t seem to fit in our Malaysian culture,” he said, adding that their debut film ‘Tiang-Tiang’, including the one organised by Kuman, had failed to make it into two national short film competitions, thus prompting him to give ‘Teether’ a try for an international horror film competition.
The pupils’ happy faces and participation in storytelling as well as being involved in the film projects are Nazmi’s reward, although he admitted that it could be rather painstaking as he had to fork out on the expenses.
“We were hesitant at first because the film project itself is pricey. Somehow, we managed to collect some fund after selling our preloved items. We also had a booth at Medan Niaga Lawas, where sell the link of the film ‘Teether’ on Google Drive at RM5 per link to the public,” he said.
“We do our script writing together and also design the costumes according to the pupils’ imagination. It may look ridiculous, but we made it. The short film is scary and people love it,” Nazmi said proudly.
He added that his young team jumped for joy upon learning that their film entry had been accepted to compete at the international festival.
“If we are accepted to be in the top 10, we wouldn’t even have the budget to attend the festival. But we are really happy that our submission has been accepted,” he beamed.
Nazmi believes this film project has given the pupils confidence and boost their social and oral presentation skills, as well as entrepreneurial skill where they managed to earn some RM240 in their bid to raise funds for the film projects.
SK Luagan emerged champion in the anti-corruption film competition organised by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in 2021 and the school also won the Ramadan short video competition this year, competing against Islamic institutions from neighbouring countries.
Their latest short film ‘Bullies’, based on the pupils’ ideas and narrative, is currently on film making process and will involve students, teachers and parents of SK Luagan, Lawas.
“There is a plan to have Movie Premier Night in the village for the parents to watch their children acting in the film, as well as to promote ‘Bullies’ online as money is needed to fund and push this film to international level,” said Nazmi, while adding that they are eyeing for the Russian Mental Health Film Festival.