Age of Anxiety: Malaysian Film Festival in Taiwan (2019)

Principle Investigator：Project Team: SHOW Ying Xin (Postdoctoral Fellow, ICCS-NCTU), Zikri RAHMAN (MA Student, SRCS-NCTU), SEAH Jenn Yi (MA, Art History and Art Criticism- TNUA)

In contemporary Malaysian cinema, themes about “anxiety” appear time and again. Embroiled in the wavering identity between citizens and the abandoned, race and the Other, tradition and modernity, beliefs and non-beliefs, gender and nation, no one can escape from anxiety in this age. There are people anxious about losing control, their rights, identity, language or positions; there are also people anxious about losing a place to live, a will to survive, or a future to imagine. These uncertain threats, like the wandering ghosts, continue to haunt the society, thus making the horror/thriller films – Malaysians’ favorite genre — a metaphor in the age of anxiety.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad (when he was still the “former” prime minister) once complained that horror films hinder the progress and development of a modern nation. He further called on Malaysians to find more scientific ways to solve problems, but not indulging in superstitious, backward thinking. Dr. Mahathir led the nation with a commitment to science, modernization, and developmentalism, but horror films have precisely challenged this kind of linear development.

Local traditional cultures, spiritual beliefs, and deranged time-space are misplaced in the discourse of modernity and developmentalism. Different genres of films seek to unveil voices in the interstices, making an inquiry about the forms of living under such an ideological trend, and thus arousing the emotions of suspense, agitation, excitement, and anxiety.

“Age of Anxiety” is a diasporic Malaysian film festival that takes place in Taiwan. It goes beyond geographical, national and linguistic boundaries, hoping to connect Malaysian and Sinophone/Chinese cinema, uncovering the questions of cultural complexities in contemporary Malaysia. The film festival covers 8 contemporary Malaysian feature films in different genres, post-screening discussions with 4 Malaysian directors, as well as panel discussions and lectures by film critics and scholars. Together we reflect on the various challenges in contemporary Malaysia and the possibilities and ways of intervening society through the arts.

Website:https://sites.google.com/view/ageofanxiety/