Interview with Malaysian Filmmaker Yasmin Ahmad (Patricia Gillespie)

CSEAS hosted Malaysian auteur director Yasmin Ahmad at a retrospective of her films at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, including the US premiere of "Mukhsin". This podcast features Ahmad in conversation with filmmaker and ecuator Patricia Gillespie at the Kamehameha Schools in Honolulu, Hawaii.. The Center’s retrospective screened all four of her feature films, including MUKSHIN, her latest film, which won two prizes at the 2007 Berlin Film Festival. The retrospective also screened Ahmad's "Orked" trilogy, which explores love, religion and race in a multi-cultural Malaysia. Roger Garcia, former director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival said of Ahmad that, "It's rare to find a woman filmmaker in Muslim society, and even rarer when she is an outspoken talent unafraid of controversy." Paul Rausch, Associate Director of the Center, said, “Ahmad's films are deeply inspired by the Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu and display scenes of everyday life with a depth of emotion. The Yasmin Ahmad retrospective was a unique opportunity for the people of Hawaii to hear stories from a part of the world that often goes underreported here in the west.” This event wass sponsored by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, a National Resource Center for Southeast Asia at the University of Hawai`i. YASMIN AHMAD BIOGRAPHY Malaysian-born Yasmin Ahmad graduated with a BA in Psychology from a university in the United Kingdom and landed a job in banking. Subsequently, she joined IBM as a Marketing Representative and moonlighted, by night, as an infamously rude blues pianist at a club called Scandals. This lasted a year. Next came copywriting at Ogilvy & Mather. She describes her venture into advertising as "a clueless girl with a dislocated personality stumbling into a haven for failed novelists and talentless playwrights". Eight years later, Ahmad joined Leo Burnett Kuala Lumpur as Creative Director at the less-than-tender age of 34. Ahmad is now an Executive Creative Director, mostly known for the social statements she weaves into corporate ads for Petronas, the Malaysia owned oil and gas company. As a filmmaker, her work has screened at the Berlin, San Francisco and Singapore International Film Festivals. Yasmin Ahmad served on the jury for the 2007 Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran, Iran. Her latest film, MUKSHIN, received the Glass Bear (Special Mention) and the Grand Prix of the Kinderfilmfest International Jury at 2007 Berlin Film Festival.CSEAS hosted Malaysian auteur director Yasmin Ahmad at a retrospective of her films at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, including the US premiere of "Mukhsin". This podcast features Ahmad in conversation with Hawaii filmmaker and educator Patricia Gillespie of the Kamehemeha Schools