The FreedomFilmFestival (FFF) is Malaysia’s most established annual human rights film festival. Launched in 2003 with the tagline, “Dare To Document”, the festival encourages filmmakers to document and share their stories without fear or hesitation by using documentaries as their platform. The focus on documentaries with human rights theme is a response to the lack of support and promotion of documentaries/non fiction and social filmmaking in Malaysia compared to the more popular and commercially viable feature and fiction film making.

In this year’s FFF as every other year, FFF has opened submissions for film grants (3 for Malaysians and 1 for Singaporeans) aimed to encourage seasoned and new filmmakers throughout Malaysia and Singapore to pitch for their films. Successful grant recipients received monetary funding, mentoring and support to bring their stories to life.

We are very proud to announce PACOS Trust’s very own Nizam Andan and Andrew Ambrose were one of the recipients for the grant for their pitch on ‘Sindiket‘.

‘Sindiket’ aims to shed light on the issue of the Sabah Royal Commission of Inquiry (Sabah RCI), which was established to investigate allegations that citizenship had been given to undocumented migrants from Indonesia and the Philippines in exchange for votes for the incumbent government. ‘Sindiket’ is Sabah’s second time winning the grant since FFF’s was first launched. The first grant recipient from Sabah was Nadira Ilana on her film ‘The Silent Riot‘ in 2012.

Sindiket premiered in the FreedomFilmFest in Petaling Jaya on September 19th alongside other winning grant films – Viral, Sial!, Memory as Resistance: Grandma Kong Defending Her Village and Di Sebalik Runcit – and will be screened in Kota Kinabalu on October 25th, 2015 for the Sabah leg of the festival in Wisma Bandaraya.

For more information on the Sabah screening, please click here.