*Roslina Abdul Latif & Badrul Redzuan Abu Hassan
Abstract:
Our study proposes that a film can be cinematically persuasive in presenting a cultural argument and as such, the mass medium should be deployed to promote awareness towards appreciation and preservation of arts and cultural practices. It is concerned with exploring the creative and intellectual capability of a ‘regional’ film that engages with local tradition, practices and cultural identities in canvassing promotion of awareness and preservation of arts and cultural heritage with a special focus on the representation of Malay society and culture in the Kelantan-Pattani borderland as constructed in U-Wei Haji Saari’s Jogho (1997) and Dain Said’s Bunohan (2012). The study is informed by Linda Tuhiwai-Smith’s ‘decolonizing methodologies’ (1999) as a set of ideological practices in favour of the disenfranchised and mapped against both films. As such, the parameter of textual analysis for both texts is cinematic and discursive within naturally conflated contextual discussion of contemporary sociology, history and politics of arts and cultural practices of the borderland, undermined or otherwise. The findings of the mapping suggest that both narratives demonstrated their critical qualities as exemplary ‘regional films’ for purpose of promotion and education of borderland arts and cultural heritage. In conclusion, this study regards astute filmmaker as a public intellectual whose vision and direction are needed to help promote institutionalisation and advocacy via filmic education in the cinematic public sphere.
Keywords: arts and cultural heritage, borderland culture, decolonizing methodologies, filmic education, cultural heritage