KUMAN Pictures, headed by producing mavericks Amir Muhammad and Elise Shick, has always been an outlier in the local film industry. The company’s inception in 2018 was announced alongside a declarative manifesto that remains the guiding principle on all the projects they undertake.
Despite a small team, challenges brought forward by the explosion of streaming platforms, and restrictions of the pandemic, Kuman Pictures has been consistently turning out new movies.
Their next endeavour, however, remains their most challenging project yet and will function as a litmus test on how future productions in Malaysia could be funded.
Announced last Sunday behind a closed-door session, ‘Pendatang’ is a feature-length movie that would be completely crowdfunded by members of the public.
The movie is based on a screenplay by Lim Boon Siang and is set to be directed by Ng Ken Kin. ‘Pendatang’ tells the story of an ethnic Chinese family moving into their new home and finding a young Malay girl in hiding.
A dystopian thriller, the story takes place under a Malaysia ruled by draconian laws in which segregation of races and ethnicities is in force. The family is forced to make a decision: should they harbour this young girl to safety or report her to the authorities?
Screenwriter Lim Boon Siang researched the racial riots of May 13, 1969, and specifically mentioned the Low Yat incident that occurred in 2015, as sources of reference during the period of writing.
Due to the potentially sensitive subject matter that would serve as commentary on racial politics in Malaysia, the producers of the movie have chosen to bypass traditional routes of funding and forego a theatrical release altogether, opting to premiere the movie on YouTube instead during Merdeka Day next year.
To secure a theatrical release, the movie would have to be reviewed by the Film Censorship Board, a process that would compromise the integrity of the material.
During the audience Q&A session, co-producer, Amir Muhammad quoted projects like Zahim Albakri’s ‘Spilt Gravy’ that was in limbo for a decade due to the censorship process, and to avoid a similar fate, the producers have decided on a free worldwide release online.
There are other reasons the producers have opted to crowdfund this project, chief among them being that the pandemic has brought the Malaysian film industry to a halt, and crews have been left without a job for the past two years.
Kuman Pictures is aiming to raise RM300,000 in order to pay fair wages to its production crew and to fully materialise the vision of the script. The movie is not meant for commercial gain and would not be monetised, being released online ad-free.
The crowdfunding campaign goes live on the online platform Indiegogo on August 8 and runs until September 30 this year. It is a ‘fixed target’ funding, so if the campaign fails to reach its target, none of the project's backers would be charged.
There are six crowdfunding tiers, and according to the amount that is backed, the funder gets exclusive privileges such as private preview screenings, set visits, the opportunity to be credited in the movie, as well as merchandise like T-shirts and signed posters.
If the campaign proves to be successful, the project moves into pre-production as soon as October 2022 to meet its release date of August 31, 2023.
The movie will be shot on location in Perak, the hometown of director Ng Ken Kin. Ng Ken Kin made his first short film in 2003, and subsequently forayed into television with directorial credits in shows such as 5 Jingga, Geng Bas Sekolah, Kapten Boleh, Ghaib and a telemovie Laksam Girl.
Pendatang would be his first feature film. Founder of Kuman Pictures, Amir Muhammad is no stranger to the art scene in Malaysia, having built a career spanning two decades in the film and publishing industry.
He made his directorial debut with ‘Lips to Lips’ in 2000 which became the first independent digital film produced in Malaysia, and sparked the ‘new wave’ movement.
His following film, ‘The Big Durian’ became the first Malaysian film to be screened at the prestigious Sundance film festival, cementing its status as a cult classic to this day.
Despite his extensive experience, he admits a project of this scale is a challenge as it has never been done before, and there is no formula or process he could fall back on. In his capacity as a book publisher, the highest amount he has crowdfunded before was RM20,000 (from 200 contributors).
However, if anyone is able to pull a miracle, it is the folks at Kuman Pictures – having built a strong base of supporters. Despite only a few years old, Kuman Pictures have set itself up as a force to be reckoned with in the local movie industry.
Part of the success of this small, two-person-led company is its business model capitalising on the Malaysian audiences’ appetite for strong horror and thriller genre movies which they produce under a low budget.
The company has produced five movies so far under their slate, with two set to be released later this year – 'Ceroboh' directed by Feisal Azizudin, and 'Die Die Top Student' by Cho We Jun.
Kuman Pictures takes its lead and inspiration from production companies like Blumhouse and Roger Corman, who paved the way for American independent cinema. He was credited with over 400 pictures in total throughout his career.
Kuman Pictures also takes a radical step forward by giving annual royalties to every member of its crew, the first production company in Malaysia to do so.
Due to the lack of strong leadership from an institutional level and the constant change-of-guard in Malaysian politics, workers in the film industry are often left feeling disempowered and short-changed, either not being paid enough or on time.
Kuman Pictures is playing a significant role in changing the way production crews are treated in Malaysia.
For Kuman Pictures' first production, Amir turned to veteran filmmaker and close friend James Lee. Lee, who was one of the filmmakers from the Malaysia New Wave movement, has extensive experience working under a budget.
His movie, ‘Two Sisters’ travelled the international festival circuits, screening in the Far East Film Festival (Italy) and opened in cinemas to moderate fanfare.
Their following production ‘Roh,’ a horror folktale directed by Emir Ezwan became Malaysia’s official submission to the Academy Awards and Kuman Pictures' highest-grossing film so far collecting over RM500,000.
It made it into the top five Malaysian box office hits of the year despite being released during the pandemic. The movie is available to stream on Netflix.
Their most recent release, 'Irul: Ghost Hotel' by Prem Nath (Rise: Ini Kalilah) is the first Malaysian Tamil ‘found-footage’ horror movie. – The Vibes, July 26, 2022
