I love being proud of my friends, and as of Tuesday, 18th August
2009, I was practically combusting with pride for one
Mr Justin Ong Tat Tiong. He’d directed a documentary titled
“Fight Masters: Silat”, which had been approved by
National Geographic Channels International
(YES, like, oh I dunno, THE National Geographic?)
as worthy for their distinguished stamp.
Tuesday was the launch, and some of us got
to watch the preview of the documentary.
The director and his BM speech. Hebat sungguh ucapannya!
Fight Masters: Silat was produced by local outfit GS Productions,
and Astro will be showing it as part of its 150 programmes in
conjunction with Merdeka.
Essentially the one-hour high-definition documentary details
the journey of American Navy Serviceman Joel Champ
to Malaysia in the pursuit of his goal of becoming a top ranked Silat
Seni Gayong practitioner. We see the story through his eyes
and that of his ‘cikgu’ (mentor), as well as learn more about
Silat Gayong itself.
Gripping stuff, incredibly informative, and it even has
CGI and motion capture scenes to show you how
the silat moves can cause injury or death.
National Geographic Standards, jangan main you
I was personally all ants-in-my-pants watching the documentary.
I am a documentary fanatic, and really should get the Astro
Max cause I keep frantically asking my friends to
record certain documentaries for me … and was eager to watch
Justin’s work. I was utterly pleased and most impressed
by the pacing (it’s always about pacing, I say) and
delivery of the story … it made me go Oooh and Ahh and
Ouchhhhh, and I wanted to google more things about
Silat etc. Isn’t post-googling always a good indication that
any show is a success? Very enjoyable and
fun to watch … we need more Malaysian documentaries!
Support & Congrats from Director's Gal. They'd just embraced and she had said "I'm so proud of you." All together now... "Awwwww"
Shall not go into it any further, except to say, you must catch it.
How often can you say National Geographic documentary
ini, buatan Malaysia tau tak?
Oklah, so there was ‘Becoming a King’ and ‘Smart Tunnel’,
which were also homegrown productions …. but I guess
this one’s a little extra special to me.
Congratulations again Dohbs, I’m super proud of you.
FIGHT MASTERS: SILAT will premier as part of the
Merdeka Specials programming, exclusively on National
Geographic Channel (Astro Channel 553) on
Monday 31 August at 9pm. It repeats on Friday, 11 Sept 2009
at 9pm and on Tuesday, 15 September, 9pm.
Don’t miss it.
