‘The Special Ones’, is the short documentary which was showcased at International Short Film and Arts Festival (FISFA), held in association with the 15th World Rural Health Conference 2018 in New Delhi, recently.
New Strait Times, reports, the team of Nur Alya Atiqah Mazlan, Mohammad Afiq Mohd Puzi, Muhammad Faaiz Mat Yusoff, Muhamad Noor Zuhairi Noor Hasani, Nur Diyana Mohd Roznan, Mohamad Muhyiddin Jelani, Hafiz Mohd Razak and Suraya Mohd Zairi fourth-year Malaysian medical students of USM-KLE IMP spent six days filming and editing a short documentary, who are members of a newly-formed non-governmental organisation Medical Awareness Project.
It was challenging because they had to squeeze in filming the documentary between classes in their schedules, not to mention the screening and editing processes during the night. But, it was all worth it as their documentary won the Best Student Film award.
Nur Alya said it was quite a journey and an exceptional experience as this was the first time they submitted a short documentary for a competition.
We had to reproduce the video as the initial video wasn’t fit in terms of quality and context for the competition. The initial video, featuring Nadine (from India) and Afiatul (from Malaysia), was produced for World Down Syndrome Day while The Special Ones was made especially for FISFA.
There were 76 submissions at the festival. And, out of that, 41 were selected for screening, and only 10 were shortlisted for the awards. The team was the only Malaysian team competing against others from countries such as India, Brazil, Japan and Australia.
A premiere of The Special Ones, was arranged as a token of appreciation to the families for agreeing to be a part of their documentary, the team invited Nadine and Prasanna to come forward and say a few words.