The interview

On the whole, our interview session for Freedom Film Fest 2010 lasted for about two hours yesterday.

Sheridan arrived with glitter dust on his scalp, eyebrow and forehead from the Finas gala night, of which he was awarded the Samad Idris trophy for “All Set for World Class Malaysian Culture” (published in NST last year).

“Eyy saya dah mandi la.” In vain, he desperately tried to brushed the glitter off. The way those dust stuck, I didn't think an Olympic-sized swimming pool could wash it off.

We were ushered into a waiting area by Maisarah Najib, the festival co-ordinator, who then took pictures of us with the poster in the background. Next we were made to wear clip microphones for a filmed interview.

Speak like as though you have already won the competition, Maisarah directed. I didn't like any of it and felt very much like an over-ripe tomato; red and plump.

Then the actual interview began. We presented our story board, I could immediately tell that we impressed the judges but that was just cosmetic. They wanted to know a lot more, amount of research, whether we are confident enough to carry out the project, if we could actually get the people we listed for filming, and most of all, if we understood the concept of telling a story on film.

I was concerned whether we were allowed to film without much  interference from the producers. There were more interests in the cow's head protest rather than the issue revolving around the temple. Our documentary would not dwell on the protesters' racial streak but mainly on the rights of the people in Section 19 and the temple devotees.  Will they give us a freehand in shaping our story? (Insya'allah said Sheridan much later.)

The Freedom Film Fest judges grilled us for a solid 90-minutes.We lacked no words in answering questions. Being a duo helped as we took turns filling in gaps in our replies.

Unabashedly I asked Maisarah when would we know the results. She smiled and said Monday. That's tomorrow.