An award-winning documentary feature film by Mogan Selvakannu
As featured in:
Malaysian Indians are an ethnic minority group who make up 6.6% of Malaysia's total population (2022). Most of them are descendants of millions of migrants who were brought to the country by the British in late 19th century. After British colonisation ended in 1957, some Indian migrants returned to India while the majority opted to stay in Malaya as it had become their home. Decades of oppressive colonial systems, adverse affirmative actions and systemic racism has a direct impact on this community's economic, social, and political disadvantage. These factors play a vital role in determining the sense of belonging for Malaysian Indians in Malaysia.
'Don't Rock the Boat' is an award-winning documentary feature film that explores and questions the sense of belonging and feeling at home among the Malaysian Indian community in 21st century Malaysia. It depicts the reality and lived experience of this minority group through history, memory and identity. This documentary film serves as a medium that intends to document and represent the voices of contemporary Malaysian Indians in order to illustrate a social portrait of this under-represented and marginalised community.
The Journey
‘Don’t Rock the Boat’ aims to start conversations about Malaysian Indians and their sense of belonging in 21st century Malaysia. This is significantly important not only to understand the community's current place in Malaysian society but also as a reference point for the community to view a social portrait of themselves as Malaysians. The documentary film aims to create an understanding of the community's place in this country. In order for this project to succeed, fundings were required in making sure the production and dissemination of this documentary film achieves its goals.
A crowdfunding campaign was launched and successfully achieved its campaign's goals. The funds were be used mainly for traveling around Malaysia to interview a diverse group of Malaysian Indians from all walks of life. To ensure the documentary film is of high quality, the funds were used to finance professional post production processes. This included editing, post production, colour grading, audio processing, mastering, translations and subtitling.
Every donor in this campaign have helped play a part in the aim to start conversations about the Malaysian Indian community.
The documentary was completed in April 2023. Since then it has won two international awards from ImpactDOCS Awards and IndieFEST Film Awards. 'Don't Rock the Boat' was also screened in Berlin, Germany for the Global Malaysia Film Festival. It was also featured in various news platforms such as France24, MalaysiaKini, FMT News, Malaysian Insight and Varnam MY.
Unfortunately, 'Don't Rock the Boat' cannot be screened in its own country of production as it does not fulfil the National Film Censorship Board of Malaysia's requirements. As an indie film financed by the people, it does not comply to the rules and regulations of screening in Malaysia. Efforts have been made to attain the appropriate certification and ratings from the censorship board. However, these efforts are met with obstacles that are beyond control.
At the moment, the film is not available for viewing in person or online.
