The last time I heard word of “Sepuluh Tahun Sebelum Merdeka”, Fahmi Reza’s new documentary, was in July; this came from the film’s producer Mark Teh, who looked tired. “You know the film’s about Hartal,” he said, “So Fahmi wants all these shots of empty streets and closed shops.” The crew had to leave Kuala Lumpur to get to locations in Penang and Slim River at five or six in the morning -- after the sun rose, but before people were ambulatory.

“Actually, I wanted to have more places,” Fahmi -- tall, gangly, sporting a cool nature that belies his perfectionism -- said when I spoke to him about it. “But shortage of manpower lah. Like there’s a line in the film that goes: ‘nelayan-nelayan tak turun ke laut,’ but the shot is of the Klang River. Orang gelak tau.”

The montage in question recreates a little-known chapter in Malaysian history: a peninsula-wide, one day strike, on October 20th, 1947, better known as the Hartal. The film itself is a timeline of the leftist, anti-colonial movement of the 1940s, which precipitated the strikes; it sports garrulous old men (including Malayan Democratic Union founding member Lim Kean Chye; and Hashim Said and Majid Salleh, division leaders of Angkatan Pemuda Insaf and Partai Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya respectively); a roll-call of acronym-ed political parties, trade unions and social-awareness groups (like AWAS, GERAM, and PMFTU); and a machine-gun-like sift through the headlines of publications like The Malaya Tribune, The Comrade, and The Straits Echo -- a decade’s worth of archival material.

Two months later, and post-production is done; the 32-minute short, which was made with assistance via an RM5000 grant from this year’s Freedom Film Fest’s “Dare to Document” competition, premiered publicly at the festival’s opening night. “Sepuluh Tahun Sebelum Merdeka” screened with Tan Meng Yoe’s “Idiot Nation”, a juvenile and barely funny satire featuring a fictional nation called Faltasia; television network Al Jazeera’s “River Kwai”, a sit-down, talk-show examination of the Asian slave labour involved in the building of the Burma Railway, whose plight has been often overlooked; and the five-director-strong Asia Witness Production’s “I Love Malaya”, a human look at aging communist freedom fighters, longing to return to their homeland.

While these other films have merits of their own, it is “Sepuluh Tahun Sebulum Merdeka” that best embodied the spirit of the festival, with its relentless research, fidelity to the truth, and powerful willingness to question conventional perspectives.

The Hartal was a result of British authorities ignoring the Pusat Tenaga Raayat-All Malayan Council of Joint Action (PUTERA-AMCJA)’s People Constitution, a colour-blind, equal-suffrage -- and, we are reminded, immensely popular -- response to the Federation Constitution, which was a mere re-branding of colonial power (it was also supported by the United Malays National Organisation).

Back then, future Alliance Party members like the Malaysian Indian Congress were part of the PUTERA-AMCJA; during the film, Lim Kean Chye recounts an anecdote regarding soon-to-be-Malaysian Chinese Association leader Tan Cheng Lock. “We thought that people like him would have a problem with the ‘Melayu’ nationality status,” Kean Chye said, referring to the People’s Constitution’s proposal to recognise every Malaysian citizen as equal, regardless of race. “But he agreed to it, without objection.”

After such a whirlwind ride through history, some viewers emerged a little overwhelmed. Personally, I felt violated -- not because “Sepuluh Tahun Sebelum Merdeka” offended me, but because it put what we’ve lost into such stark relief.

When it came to the issue of ethnicity, Kean Chye had anticipated problems with Cheng Lock -- not, as one would expect, from the more Malay-oriented component members. PUTERA-AMCJA had drafted a document -- one that promised “equal political rights for all who regarded Malaya as their real home and as the object of their loyalty” -- that would have put our current Constitution (a gift, courtesy of the Reid Commission, to the allies of colonial power structures) to shame. We, a fledgling nation and united people, had organised a grassroots movement that halted all economic activity in the Empire’s most solvent holding, and cost it four million pounds sterling.

That such a time even existed! I have never felt so patriotic -- or so disappointed. How things have changed.

“Sepuluh Tahun Sebelum Merdeka” ends with the formation of an extraordinary Registrar designed to curb press freedom and outlaw dissident organisations. Now, the Hartal is cast in an evil light, as a misguided form of protest, if it is mentioned at all. The PUTERA-AMCJA movement was broken because the British-controlled media branded them of the same ilk as communist terrorists -- a perception that persists in history textbooks today. “I didn’t even know that coalition existed,” a fellow viewer told me.

Still, if anything, the film offers a glimmer of hope: if we had been such a vibrant and progressive society in the 1940s, surely we have it in us to be that way again -- regardless of the alarmist and racially-coloured rhetoric that so permeates the Malaysian political landscape. Fahmi, during discussions after the screening, told the audience that he had asked his interviewees how they had felt on Merdeka Day. “Diorang kata: ‘Macam tak rasa apa-apa,’ ” Fahmi said. There was little cause for celebration. “The fight is not over.”

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Zedeck Siew writes for Kakiseni.

The Freedom Film Fest 2007’s Kuala Lumpur screenings were held between September 14th and 16th, 2007. It proceeds to Penang and Johor Bahru in the coming weeks; more information here.

“Sepuluh Tahun Sebelum Merdeka”, a documentary about the formation of a popular independence movement in Malaya a decade before Merdeka, was screened at the Freedom Film Fest 2007’s opening night; there will be a repeat showing on September 25th, 2007 at The Annexe @ Central Market. Additionally, Fahmi Reza solicits requests for screenings at schools, colleges and communities; contact him via 10tahun.blogspot.com.