"You Can't Be a Filmmaker Alone" -Liew Seng Tat

He was about to exit the KL Convention Centre before we cornered him. "You want to buy me coffee?" he asked smilingly while taking a seat at our table.

It was a day before the 27th Malaysian Film Festival but filmmaker Liew Seng Tat appears to be calm and slightly lethargic, not exhibiting even the slightest hint of nervousness for his second feature film "Lelaki Harapan Dunia" and the 13 nominations it got at the event.

Despite having followed his works since I was in form 6, it was not until last year at Sunway College that I first met him. Having known each other a little through Facebook, his first instinct was to ask me the usual filmmakers' questions (shot anything lately? etc) before pointing out the fact that i have won tickets to attend the premiere of his then unreleased film.

"There will be a lot of other directors there so it'll be good if you can meet and get associated with them" he told me something along those lines. I was immediately intrigued because by the looks of it, he was trying to help me even though we barely knew each other.

This time was no different. Sipping his black coffee, he shared that the film community is really small and the only way we can continuously keep creating is by helping each other. The conversation went as far as him wanting to offer his help in order to give back, just like how others had helped him with his journey.

In a way, i understood where he was coming from.

Being from the first batch of Independent Malaysian digital filmmakers, his sense of community is rather strong. Legend has it that back in the day, himself and peers only had each other so they helped to produce, shoot and edit one others' films. This enabled them to produce work at a very productive rate. And when anybody at all made it to an international festival, they will carry with them VCDs of their friends' film to be shared with the organizers. This is so that more Malaysian films will be out at the world's circuit.

It was this habit of inter-dependence and selflessness that gave birth to what we today know as "The Little Cinema of Malaysia".

Before we left, we took a photo and wished him all the best for his nominations.

"Lelaki Harapan Dunia" then went on to win some major awards the night after such as "Best Original Story", "Best Director" and "Best Film". The film is now Malaysia's third ever official selection to the Oscars.

Bumping into him a few days later at UTAR film fest, he shared about his experience on making the film and winning awards. Somewhere in the middle, he uttered the words, "You can't be a filmmaker alone". I nodded.