A Cultural Enterprise: A Study of Contemporary Bruneian Films

Higher-Institution-Based Film Festivals as a Vehicle to Improve Student Production Quality and Form University–Industry Connections

“…Again, the consolidation of significant learning experiences via small-size, higherinstitution-based film festivals such as the PRISM UBD Short Film Festival is highly hinged on the important collaboration between UBD and the screen industry in Brunei. Because of the small population of the sultanate located in Southeast Asia, Brunei's tiny screen industry has been regarded as 'in its infancy stage' [24,25]. However, it is burgeoning and contributed considerably to Brunei's domestic economy during the COVID-19 pandemic period (2020-2021) when international travel restrictions created a temporary 'closed system' in a rare interchange of production-based activity beyond the border [26] (p. 30).…”

Editorial Gema Dari Menara (1968), Brunei’s first feature film

“…Gema Dari Menara (1968) was the only non-documentary film made during this period. 3 While these feature films have been limited in their box office success both domestically and internationally (Liu, 2021: 219), observers and scholars of the Bruneian film industry, including Espina (2013), Izni Azrein (2020) and Liu (2021), have noted the role of digital technologies in Bruneian filmmaking, citing a robust online culture on YouTube and other platforms where short films, music videos, documentaries, comedy skits and other media are circulated and shared. 4 In a conversation with Harlif Hj Mohamad and Nurain Abdullah in 2018, they anecdotally noted that one of the most popularly recognized individuals during screenings was Pengiran Umi binti Pengiran Idrus, who was a school principal, and played the mother Che Timah, in the film.…”

“…Since then, there has been renewed interest in the film amongst the general public and scholars. Espina (2013), Harlif andNurain (2018, personal communications) and Liu (2021) refer to the film as a "time capsule" of Bruneian culture and pop history, and indeed the film provides a rare and therefore revelatory glimpse at the sights and sounds of 1960s Brunei, from dress to language to ideology, and including the on-screen shots of the then-prevalent, religiously prohibited practices of cock-fighting, alcohol consumption and gambling, amongst others. Apart from the social aspect, the physical landscape also offers a valuable cinematic perspective of iconic landmarks and spaces such as the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien mosque, Kampung Ayer, the capital city, oil fields, highways and what Chin and Liu (2018) call the "traditional kampong landscape" (40).…”