The newly established Political Films Consultative Committee or PFCC hopes to play an influential role in the liberalisation of social space in Singapore.
Its chairman, Richard Magnus believes the advice provided to the authorities will be given much weight.
Saifulbahri Ismail with this report :
Mr Magnus's committee will assess party political films.
It will work with the filmmakers themselves to ensure the films are objectively assessed.
"We would encourage the applicant to be completely honest in giving the information. We would expect the applicant to have complete integrity in providing the information and that would be something we're looking for. And we hope that would happen."
Mr Magnus also outlined how the process of classifying a political film would work under the new amended Films Act.
Filmmakers, when submitting their films for classification online with the Board of Films Censors, will have an option to declare whether their film is political or not.
If it is, the film is sent to the PFCC for assessment.
It will then recommend to the BFC whether this film can be allowed.
However, the BFC will have the final say on whether it can be screened.
In assessing the film, Mr Magnus said his committee will be guided both by the law as well as what has been clarified in parliament.
But he conceded that there will be much grey area and interpreting the legislation would be a challenge.
He expects 'robust discussion' among the committee members.
Members of the committee are citizens of high standing, who are non-partisan and whose views would carry weight with the public.
One of them is Muhammad Haniff, Associate Research Fellow at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies :
"At international level there's always nexus between politics and Islam. For example, we have the experience of Fitnah video and so on. So, I thought those would require some perspective from religious community in processing the application."
Another committee member Daniel Yun, Managing Director of MediaCorp Raintree says the new process will provide greater clarity :
"Over the years, we've seen filmakers looking at subject matters that's progressively threading into areas that previously we've not threaded before and some of these areas may in the past be considered very sensitive. Right now, it may be considered very open for interpretation and I think it will go a long way to demystify certain myths about what can and cannot be done in this part of the world."
Other members of the PFCC include those from the legal fraternity, labour movement, print media, and the business community.
Political film makers view the newly formed Political Films Consultative Committee with cautious optimism.
33-year old film maker Ho Choon Hiong says the credibility of the committee will lie in the decisions it will make :
"I think it's only through time that can tell whether they are credible or not. If they keep let's say objecting to certain films, I think audience will be smart enough to tell whether they are discerning or they are being very objective in giving out their judgement, because videos can be leaked to youtube and if they pass a certain judgement that the mainstream audience couldn't agree with, then their credibility is in question."
However, another film director, Martyn See is more skeptical.
He questions the independence of the committee, whose members of the committee were unveiled today by chairman Richard Magnus.
"Looking at the make-up of the committee, I'm a little bit skeptical as to how they are able to exercise independent judgement. Many of them seem to be working or have very close ties with government agencies."
Mr See added that the committee will be bound by new restrictions in the amended Films Act.
They include conditions such as animation-free and non-dramatic.
According to Mr See, the real test for the committee will be assessing his film 'The Singapore Rebel'.
He welcomes the new approach taken by the committee to engage and conduct dialogue with applicants :
"Well, it sounds like a breath of fresh air considering that the BFC never had a dialogue with me when they ban my films. So that's a good step forward. But the ultimate litmus test would be when I re-submit Singapore Rebel again and when I do that I will be waiting for the films consultative committee to give me a call so I can sit down with them and go through whatever they feel may be offensive."
Singapore Rebel is a 26 minute documentary on opposition leader Chee Soon Juan which is currently banned by the authorities.
It has been viewed more than 200 thousand times on the internet.
--938Live
ha ha ha ha, are these people appointed related to PAP or PAP appointed them. If not, PAP may get in touch with these people to influence their judgement.
Probably another wayang by PAP