It's funny how people that you hardly know can sometimes move you to feel and act in a way that defies words.
A few days ago, Malaysian film director Yasmin Ahmad suffered a stroke and died without regaining consciousness. She had been in a meeting when she collapsed and was rushed to a nearby hospital. Her death at 51 shocked many in KL and beyond.
When I was living in KL and was working at Channel [V], Yasmin Ahmad used to be one of the few public figures that I respected and admired. I used to chase the production team that I worked with to get interviews with her, to hear her point of view, to commit her opinion to tape. I had a feeling that her voice was an important one.
She was eloquent and her creative works, though sometimes 'controversial' in the eyes of some, had an almost subversiveness in their simplicity and honesty. And I liked that we were able to give our regional audience an insight into Yasmin's thinking and point of view.
Perhaps it is my mixed-race background that was drawn to Yasmin's message of how we are all the same at the end of the day. Or maybe it was the grace and humility that she displayed when faced with challenges to her religious views, her artistic vision and her 'Malaysian-ness' that gave her voice a relevance that very few public figures could command in Malaysia.
For these reasons and more, Yasmin Ahmad's death has been profoundly sad for me and to fans of her work. Here are some examples of what she did so well.
And here's an interview she did a few years ago that gives you a glimpse behind the person who was Yasmin Ahmad.
I have to stop watching her interviews if I'm going to get any work done at all. Rest in peace, Yasmin.
1 comment:
She left great big shoes to fill. Have a feeling those shoes won't be filled for a long long time. Sigh.
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