Department of Media Studies, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, University of Malaya
Abstract
This paper is tailored to look into utilisation of films with resistance elements in
mobilising people to participate in social movements which aim to bring about
social changes, influencing public opinion and government policies. The authors
are particularly fascinated by the anti-Lynas movement which managed to mobilise
the people to demand the Australian rare-earth processing corporation, Lynas to
stop its operation in Gebeng, Kuantan. To be precise, this article will delve into the
films made via a film project entitled “Survival Guide untuk Kampung Radioaktif”
initiated by a group of independent filmmakers in order to create spaces for
discussion and therefore an informed decision. Two conceptions on resistance arts
and resistance media developed by two different scholars, namely Jacques Rancière
and Joshua D. Atkinson will be discussed in this paper in order to point out the
possibility in combining these concepts to look at films with resistance elements.
From there, the authors will employ framing analysis in their efforts to explicate
the overarching theme and arguments woven in the chosen films in order to study
their compatibility with the conception of resistance arts and media. Lastly, the
authors observe and argue that there is a gap of scholarly understanding on both
the resistance media and arts which needed to be addressed in future research