Menu
Chair of Communication and Multimedia Content Forum
In today’s digital age where all kinds of content are just a swipe away, it’s no longer enough for us to think of protecting children from age -inappropriate material in the traditional way. Rather, we need to equip children and adults with knowledge, skills, wellbeing and resilience so they can not only navigate digital content safely, but be empowered to get the best from the digital world.
MODERATOR
Co-founder, CEO
Arus Academy
Alina is a social entrepreneur & educator. With a decade’s experience in teaching, innovative content, and coaching, she focuses on marginalized communities and high-need schools. She also led and designed a media literacy course benefiting more than 4,000 educators under the Media Education for All initiative by Arus. Arus’ impact spans more than 120k students, 70k teachers, and 1m online learners.
Head of Consumer & Industry Affairs Division
MCMC
Currently, Senior Director/ Head of the Consumer and Industry Affairs Division, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) responsible for overall strategy in relation to policy review and development, implementation of regulatory instruments and monitoring of compliance to ensure consumer protection, effective social regulation and compliance of licensees to license conditions and other regulations under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and Postal Service Act 2012.
Youth Advocate
Li Pei is a student passionate about driving meaningful changes in marginalized communities. Through running a film campaign raising awareness on and addressing issues with Malaysian film censorship, she’s driven by the belief that empowering youths with media literacy sparks transformation. She believes change lies in equipping young voices for advocacy.
Chief of Communication
UNICEF Malaysia
Niko Wieland is Chief of Communication for UNICEF Malaysia. Prior to his appointment he served as Chief of Communication for UNICEF in Angola (2015-2020) and the Philippines (2020-2023). In these roles, he oversaw communication, advocacy and digital strategy, supported partnership development and lead humanitarian advocacy during emergencies.
Born in Berlin, he began his professional career at the Goethe Institute and has accumulated over 15 years of experience in global communication and development contexts. In 2010, he joined the award-winning social enterprise, Common Goal (formerly known as streetfootballworld), where he developed and managed Sport for Development campaigns with leading sports organizations and brands in South Africa, Poland, Ukraine, and Brazil.
Founder
WISE KIDS (UK)
Dr. Sangeet Bhullar is the founder of WISE KIDS (UK) which has delivered training programmes for thousands of young people, professionals and families in the UK and abroad. These programmes focus on developing critical thinking, digital citizenship and wellbeing – all vital for countries and citizens to cooperate globally and thrive.
From alternative funding strategies to organising movements for change, we will hear of the creative and inspiring responses of the film community in SEA to widen the space for freedom and creativity to tell their stories.
MODERATOR
Project Director (Fellowship)
ArtsEquator
Yuni Hadi has spent a large part of the last 25 years promoting Southeast Asian cinema and contributing to the culture and arts scene as an arts manager, curator and producer. Yuni currently heads the ArtsEquator Fellowship, and serves as Chairperson of The Substation and on the board of Objectifs Centre for Photography and Filmmaking. She was also formerly Co-Director of Objectifs Centre for Photography & Filmmaking and Executive Director of the Singapore International Film Festival. Other film projects include co-producer of the film Ilo Ilo (2013); publisher of the book Behind the Camera (Objectifs Films) (2013); and contributor to the book World Film Locations: Singapore (The University of Chicago Press) (2014). Yuni is an Eisenhower Fellow and received the United Technologies Corporation Fellowship in 2016. She has received The Substation’s Honourary Award at the Singapore Short Film Awards in 2014, and the Professional Achievement Award from Thailand’s Ramkhamhaeng University’s ASEAN Film Festival for outstanding contribution to ASEAN cinema in 2022.
Filmmaker
Ghost Grrrl Pictures
Amanda is a graduate from the London Film School. Her short film “It’s Easier to Raise Cattle” premiered in competition at the Venice International Film Festival and received a Special Mention at the International Short Film Festival Clermont-Ferrand. Amanda is an alumni of the Berlinale Talent Campus and Locarno Filmmakers Academy. In her work, she explores the female body and identity within the cultural context of Southeast Asia. “Tiger Stripes” is her debut feature film. It was the Grand Prix winner of Semaine de la Critique in the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
Director
Thai Film Archive
Chalida Uabumrungjit, with degrees in film from Thammasat University and film archiving from the University of East Anglia, UK, co-founded the Thai Short Film and Video Festival in 1997, serving as Festival Director. From 2006-2018, she was part of AND’s selection committee and a member of FIAF Executive Committee from 2013-2022. Presently, she is the Director of the Film Archive, Thailand.
Campaign & Strategy Lead
Freedom Film Network
Deborah Germaine Augustin is a writer from Petaling Jaya. She has held several roles in the media and non-profit sector. She is currently the Campaign & Strategy Lead at Freedom Film Network. She dreams of a world where we all have freedom of movement.
Producer
KUMAN Pictures
Elise Shick is a film producer at Kuman Pictures, a Malaysian film production company that produces independent films of horror and thriller genres.
Head of Research & Development
Perfilman Indonesia (Indonesian Film Board)
Tito is an anthropologist and filmmaker, with PhD thesis from Goldsmiths, University of London about collaborative filmmaking with a Javanese traditional performance group living in a remote area, exploring new ways of visual storytelling. His master thesis from NYU is about the political economy of the Indonesian film industry. Since 2017 he serves at the Indonesian Film Board (BPI), as the Head of Research and Development.
Underground arts spaces, film clubs, independent, fringe and community-based film festivals have always existed parallel to the mainstream cinema and public TV broadcast. They are a vital space where creative talents and discerning audiences alike are nurtured. They play an important role in a healthy film culture ecosystem. Our panellists will share their experiences of organising in these spaces, how they complement the more mainstream movements, and what support they need in order to play their role more effectively in the digital age.
MODERATOR
Co-Founder
Freedom Film Network
Brenda Danker aims to empower and amplify the voices of the marginalised community for social change in her various roles as educator, media producer and researcher in Malaysia. She currently manages a film network focused on social justice, and mentors social documentary filmmakers through Freedom Film Network, Malaysia.
Director
Thai Film Archive
Chalida Uabumrungjit, with degrees in film from Thammasat University and film archiving from the University of East Anglia, UK, co-founded the Thai Short Film and Video Festival in 1997, serving as Festival Director. From 2006-2018, she was part of AND’s selection committee and a member of FIAF Executive Committee from 2013-2022. Presently, she is the Director of the Film Archive, Thailand.
Developer & Curator of Cinemata
EngageMedia
King is an independent documentary filmmaker and alternative media practitioner from the Philippines. His roots in activism started as a student leader in the University of the Philippines Los Baños, where he took up Development Communication.
Festival Director
Mini Film Festival
ChongLee, Yow is a film lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. Apart from teaching, researching, and making films, he curates and is currently the director of the longest-running short film festival in Malaysia, the Mini Film Festival.
He wishes to contribute to building a vibrant and healthy film ecosystem in Malaysia Borneo by gelling all concerted efforts that bring audiences and filmmakers together through film festivals and film appreciation.
member
Wayang Budiman
Noor Zahara is a creative writer/film enthusiast who also teaches at the College of Creative Arts, UiTM. She has produced a number of creative works such as feature film script, TV drama script, stageplay, TVC, travelogue, poetry, short story, short film and short docu.
A collective end note of key recommendations for policy makers with a press conference.
Kathy Rowland presents ArtsEquator’s inaugural research project to document arts censorship in Southeast Asia.
MODERATOR
Mark Teh is a performance maker, researcher, and curator based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His diverse, collaborative projects take on documentary, speculative and generative forms, and address the entanglements of history, memory and counter-mapping. His practice is situated primarily in performance, but also operates via exhibitions, education, social interventions, curating and writing. Mark graduated with an MA in Art and Politics from Goldsmiths, University of London.
Project Founder & Director
ArtsEquator
Kathy Rowland is the co-founder of ArtsEquator Ltd in 2016, a charity dedicated to supporting arts criticism in Southeast Asia. Kathy has worked in the arts for over 25 years, running arts and culture programs and arts media platforms. She has written extensively on censorship of arts and culture in Malaysia. She was a member of the International Programme Advisory Committee of the 8th World Summit on Arts and Culture, held in Kuala Lumpur in 2019.
A presentation of reports and analysis of arts and culture censorship in Southeast Asia from 2010 – 2022 by ArtsEquator’s fellows.
MODERATOR
Sharaad Kuttan is a journalist who has worked in print and broadcast, currently on BFM Radio. He has a Masters degree in Sociology from the National University of Singapore, and co-edited a collection of essays on cultural politics in Singapore titled “Looking at Culture”. He is a member of the Singapore branch of the International Association of Art Critics. In 2006 he was awarded the Nippon Foundation’s Asian Public Intellectual fellowship. He is a regular commentator on local politics and contributed a chapter to “Elections and Democracy in Malaysia”, a scholarly study of the Malaysian electoral system.
Co-Researcher
Kai Brennert is the Founder of edge and story, an evaluation, research and policy consultancy at the intersection of culture and sustainable development, based in Cambodia. Kai is also the author of curious patterns, curating news around arts and culture, impact and evaluation, sustainable development and regenerative futures.
Researcher
Katrina Stuart Santiago is an essayist and cultural activist from Manila, co-founder of small press Everything’s Fine, and founder of People for Accountable Governance and Sustainable Action-PAGASAph. She is 2021 Feminist Journalist of AWID, 2023 Public Intellectual of the Democracy Discourse Series, and co-author of UNESCO-Germany’s Fair Culture Charter.
Researcher
Linh Le is an independent curator and researcher from Ho Chi Minh City. Her work explores the (im)possibilities of the archive and other alternatives. With the local community at the centre of her work, Linh also expands her curatorial purview to publishing, discussion, workshop and teaching.
Researcher
Zikri Rahman is a cultural worker, delving mostly at the intersections of writing, translating and curating for diverse productions. Amongst others, with Buku Jalanan; a rhizomatic network of street libraries, Pusat Sejarah Rakyat; an independent archive on Malaysia and Singapore’s people’s history; and LiteraCity; Kuala Lumpur literary mapping project.
A screening of Maryam Pagi ke Malam.
A roundtable with the main cast of Maryam Pagi ke Malam about the challenges and rewards of making difficult films.
MODERATOR
Arian Md. Zahari is known for Nasir Jani Melawan Lembaga Puaka (2020).
Producer
Fairul Nizam Ablah is an accomplished head writer, producer, and publisher with over 18 years of experience in the entertainment industry. He is known for creating the award-winning Viu Original, Keluarga Baha Don (2018) and has worked on diverse projects, including Tebus (2020) and Maryam (2023).
Actor
Sofia Jane started working in her teens as a model and background extra for local dramas and films. She landed her starring role as Zaleha in U – Wei’s Perempuan, Isteri dan Jalang.She has continued over 31 years, to perform for tv, film and stage.
Actor
Active since 1971 with the Ministry of Culture, Youth & Sports specifically for stage drama performances. Then involved in radio, TV and film performances.
FREEDOM FILM NETWORK
Unit A-2-6, 8 Avenue,
Jalan Sungai Jernih 8/1,
46050 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor, Malaysia
