Tranquil Peace - Disrupted.
Our film, Ulu Bengoh Darom Pinn (Ulu Bengoh Under Water) highlights the plight of four villages which will soon be submerged under-water because of the impoundment of the nearby Bengoh Dam. These villagers will have to leave their homes and farmland/orchards yet come the 10th State Elections had not voted their objections towards the government's resettlement plans. We take Bengoh as a case study as to why rural Sarawak in general had not voted against the ruling coalition even though issues such as NCR Land, Al-kitab were hyped up by the media.
Join us on our journey as we learn more about these soon to be submerged homes and an insight into Rural Sarawak.
Our trailer:
The long version:
Following from the 10th Sarawak Elections, a group of us election observers from the MEOnet (Malaysian Election Observer Network) decided to make a people-friendly film on Bengoh Dam and its four villagers as a case-study as to the widespread disappointment on Rural Sarawak where they seem to have not voted for change compared to the Urban areas.
Our initial filming team backed out even after being awarded a grant from Pusat Komas for the Freedom Film Fest strangely citing 'interference' from West Malaysians.
Then, on the first attempt to film, our producer, Ong BK was deported without specifying any reasons whatsover! At least, his one way plane ticket to KL was fully paid for. This attempt at the film was disrupted.
However, some of our film crew namely Thean Poh and Chak Ngoon managed to make it to one village, Kpg Bujong but had to cut short their journey due to injuries and time constraints.
On the second attempt, two first-time film makers, Joachim and Weng Yow made it in and spent 2 nights in Ulu Bengoh finding out more about these villagers and returned with this film. They hope that with this film, there would be less trolling on the internet about East Malaysians and their so-called reluctance to vote against the ruling coalition. Perhaps there is a good reason to this?
Joachim, Simou(guide), Weng Yow and Bodui(guide).
