FILMMAKER and producer Mark Lee was filming a documentary on an environmental issue when he stumbled on a TV advertisement calling for entries to a short film competition.
“I thought it was timely, although I had just a few days left to do some post-editing to make the deadline,” says Lee who has been championing environmental issues for some time aside from filming TV commercials.
After submitting his short film, Mr Garbage, for the competition called Picture This Festival For The Planet, his entry was selected as one of two regional finalists (the other finalist being Wally Tham from Singapore).
Picture This Festival is an initiative started by Sony Pictures Television Networks in partnership with the United Nations Foundation, in line with the goal to protect the planet and promote prosperity.
The festival aims for emerging filmmakers worldwide to showcase a positive future they see for the planet via short films. Lee will be flying to Los Angeles tomorrow to meet six other finalists for the final round.
POSITIVE CHANGE THROUGH FILMS
“During my 10-day trip there, I want to find corporations to partner up with on the environment movement I’ve started,” he adds. Lee, whose last film is Rainbow’s End (2017), is also the founder of #Hugprojects, a digital storytelling platform focusing on environmental issues that hopes to create awareness for nature and communities.
A believer in making positive change on the environment through films, Lee hopes to inspire viewers with his works.
“Saving the environment may sound huge. In essence, it is. But there are many simple ways you can do your bit to help. Every little action counts,” he says.
The three-and-a-half-minute Mr Garbage revolves around two residents in Pulau Ketam, a fishing village off the coast of Port Klang, Selangor, who are doing all they can to clean the island of accumulated trash. Chua Hock Boon is a fisherman-turned-technician and Loh Keat Geok is an environmentalist.
“The issue of waste management is a continual issue. What makes this 63-sq km island different from any other island is that it is a mudflat. The island has no roads, so there are no garbage trucks. Even if trash is collected, there is no landfill, so the villagers created a dumpsite.”
“However, the dumpsite can no longer sustain and accommodate the volume of waste. This location is a good place to portray what will happen on the mainland soon if there is no transformational change in how we use and reuse materials,” he says.
As the film reveals, these two people then decide to do something about it and Lee adds that other residents also do their bit for their island.
“We hope this film will give people a sense of how one community that’s surrounded by trash is trying to help contain the problem. I hope to inspire change in our habits as consumers – to adopt more sustainable habits and products, wherever you live.”