Local animated film wins international award
SERIAN: Two Year Five pupils of SK Temong here made history when their animated short film ‘Batuh Bijanji’ (The Promised Stones) won the Best Jury Film Award (Primary School Category) at ‘Festival de Cinema Escolar de Alvorada’ (Fecea) in Brazil.
The five minutes and 35 seconds film was produced by Macgres Sawet and Nabiatul Dania Zulfiqa Mohd Zulfadhli, assisted by two teachers Zulfadli Ad-Dinnie Wan Azmi and Mohd Reduan Patah.
Mohd Reduan when contacted by New Sarawak Tribune’s sister paper Suara Sarawak yesterday said the film was previously listed a nominee in the Official Selection and the Best Animation (Primary School Category) at the same festival.
He said it was also listed in the Official Selection in First Time Film Maker Session 2019 in the United Kingdom and the 11 best #SubmitYourFilm Movies 2019 by Asian Movie Pulse.
He said he was very proud of the achievement of the students at the international level given the financial and time constraints in the production of the film.
“The project came about during and after they attended a Digital Storytelling Animation (Dista) workshop jointly organised by the Sarawak Technological Education and Resource Sector, Ministry of Education, Science and Research Technology and Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) in 2019.
“The making of the film took only 10 days. Two days at the workshop itself and continued on for eight more days at the school including the new recording,” he recalled.
It was essentially a school project under its Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Club where selected students took part in making the film right from the early stage to its production which included processing of ideas, synopsis, scripts, storyline, recordings and animations.
The headmaster, Cleveland Raden, assisted by his senior assistant for co-curriculum Stanley Ngawah also helped to monitor the production of the film.
The short film tells the story of a friendship between Sarah and Bibi which can be compared to the ‘seremban stone’ that they played when they were little.
The title ‘Batu Bijanji’ is taken from the Bidayuh Serian dialect which means promised stone.
They faithfully promise that friendship is like a ‘seremban stone’ that is played and will not be released and greeted warmly by a handshake because the value of friendship complements each other.
For more information and the animated short film can be viewed by the public at the D-Mulsion Production Youtube site at https://youtu.be/DrQv6NoRpWg and https://youtube.com/user/DmulsionProduction.
