AMIR Muhammad is a Malaysian publisher, filmmaker and occasional writer. His books as a writer are Rojak: Bite-Sized Stories, Yasmin Ahmad’s Films and 120 Malay Movies. As a publisher, his company Buku Fixi has published over 250 books since 2011, with a focus on urban pulp fiction.
These days, he is co-producer and crowdfunder for the (hopefully) upcoming independent film, Pendatang.
Pendatang would be Amir’s first feature film. As the founder of Kuman Pictures, he is no stranger to the art scene in Malaysia. Some of his works have also been featured in a number of international film festivals including the Sundance Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival.
Two of his films, Apa Khabar Orang Kampung and The Last Communist have been banned in Malaysia. A full retrospective of his work was screened at the 2008 Pesaro Film Festival, Italy. Today, he is a partner at Da Huang Pictures.
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 crowdfunding campaign began in earnest on August 15 on Indiegogo, and if the campaign proves successful, the project will move into pre-production as soon as October 2022 to meet its release date of August 31, 2023.
Amir talks about the premise of Pendatang and why this alternate-reality dystopia will never see the light of day if traditional funding is applied and censors have their input – and why it has to be funded by the people for the people. – The Vibes, August 24, 2022
Produced by Shazmin Shamsuddin and Sound Engineered by Ethan Phoon
