#SHOWBIZ: Amplifying plight of the stateless through docuseries

New Straits Times

5 hours ago

LAST year, United States-based Malaysian filmmaker Jean Ho directed and executive produced 'Invisible Voices', an eye-opening animated documentary series that highlighted the plight of stateless and refugee communities.
Zooming in on such communities in her home country, it explored several individuals and their stories, uncovering diverse experiences behind often simplified perspectives.
It was well-received by an international audience, and Jean plans to come up with more such documentaries that "speak" for the stateless.
POSITIVE
In a recent interview, Ho said: "We screened Episodes 1 to 3 of the documentary film at Facets Theatre in Chicago on May 26 last year, to positive reception. And, 90 per cent of ticket sale proceeds went towards helping two of our participants."
The first was a Chin refugee from Myanmar, Peter, who runs a non-profit school called Chin Community Learning Centre, dedicated to the education of child refugees who are denied from attending public schools.
"The other was Development of Human Resources for Rural Areas (DHRRA) Malaysia, a non-profit organisation that aims to enhance self-awareness and equip living skills among vulnerable communities to become self-reliant and empowered, so that they can take charge of their lives," said Ho.
LOCKDOWN
She added that many viewers enjoyed the docuseries, and since pre-production and production took place during the Covid-19 lockdown from 2020 to 2022, most of the participant interviews were done virtually.
"The Oscar-nominated documentary short film on Netflix, 'A Love Song For Latasha', was the founding inspiration for me to take the docuseries in this direction.
"While the film was mostly live action, it featured a short sequence where participants' narrations were overlaid with experimental animated visuals."
Ho said that the animators were given a lot of creative freedom, save for two ground rules — the episodes needed to have a hand-drawn/hand-painted look, and no cuts between shots to make the story flow as fluidly as possible.
"We took the crowdfunding route to cover these costs."
SUNWAY
From June 25 to 26, a screening of 'Invisible People' will be held at Sunway University in Subang Jaya, her alma mater, accompanied by an exhibition on non-governmental organisations which work closely with stateless people and refugees.
"The exhibition with Sunway is definitely a first for us!
"I did part of my bachelor's degree at the Sunway School of American Education prior to transferring to DePaul University.
"'Invisible People' is a Malaysian story after all, and we are very honoured to premiere the docuseries in its entirety at an institution committed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs)."
Ho added that the exhibition expanded the scope of topics covered in the docuseries by taking the experience beyond the screen.
"The event will be a harmonious blend of multimedia showcases, interactive experiences and live performances.
"Renowned non-profit organisations like DHRRA Malaysia, Amnesty Malaysia and Dignity will be present."
Jean also said that the exhibition will focus on the empowerment of stateless and refugee communities.
"We are also working with independent stateless/refugee-run organisations such as Myanmar Ethnics Organisation (MEO) and Mon Refugee Centre to make this happen."
DOLLA
Since the last public screening, Ho and her team have been hard at work to complete the rest of the six episodes.
"I've been working on various commercials such as being a script supervisor on the Hair Care Bear X Dolla campaign.
"My short film 'Kairos', which was in the film festival circuit from 2023 to 2024, is now publicly available on YouTube as well!
"It follows a single dad who struggles with parenting and working at a dystopian job."
Ho is happy with the recent passing of a constitutional amendment that allows Malaysian mothers to automatically confer citizenship to their overseas-born children. "However, this ruling only applies to children born after the amendment is gazetted. Those born before are still required to obtain citizenship via application.
"My hope right now is that pathways to citizenship for the aforementioned group and other communities like stateless, locally-born individuals can be diversified."
SCHOOL
Ho said that a lot of the day-to-day work to help the stateless and refugees was done by grassroots and independent groups that did not always have the same amount of resources as the larger non-governmental organisations.
"Supporting globally renowned non-profit organisations is a great thing to do, but people must support these grassroots groups as well."
As for the collaborators who appeared in her film, Ho said that Peter used the funds from ticket sales to buy school supplies for his learning centre, along with paying off a portion of the rent for the space the school uses.
"DHRRA Malaysia has been raising funds to support advocacy and data collection efforts to further address statelessness in the country," she said.
Ho paid tribute to films that highlighted stateless people dramatically.
"'Abang Adik' has been really successful. More films of this nature should be made in Malaysia to raise the plight of the stateless.
"Topics surrounding statelessness are still widely discussed today, which will hopefully drive more filmmakers to craft stories that are engaging yet impactful in their advocacy for these causes."
When asked about her next project, Ho said that she co-directed and co-wrote a short film called 'Mr. Worldwide?' which is currently in post-production.