THIS month has been a particularly significant one for The Nut Graph team. It is not only Ramadan and the month of Merdeka. It also marks our two-year anniversary and the month when we transform our operations into Plan B. While there’s constantly new beginnings to look forward to, these moments give us pause to […]
amir muhammad
Remembering Benjamin McKay (1964-2010)
WALKING around Bangsar one balmy night six years ago, I bumped into filmmaker Amir Muhammad and film academic Khoo Gaik Cheng sitting with a rather foppish Mat Salleh man. It took less than an hour of my being introduced before all of us banded together to bully the hapless Australian Mat Salleh to prove that […]
Surprises and football inspirations
YOU know the old adage/cliché, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”? Here’s a prime example. In June, I joined a touring group of theatre performers from Perth, Australia to the Temple of Fine Arts in Johor Baru (JB), where we put on a show. Having been to the Temple of Fine Arts in Kuala […]
In pursuit of censorship
MALAYSIANS are no strangers to censorship. So many things get censored in this country, local or foreign: books, films, television shows, theatre performances. The items censored are sometimes perplexing. For example, current reruns of the 1990s family sitcom The Nanny on the Hallmark Channel are missing out on the slightly risqué jokes and overtly Jewish […]
The Nut Graph‘s Merdeka Awards
IT’S Ramadan, yet another by-election has passed, and we are now on the eve of the 52nd anniversary of the declaration of Independence by Tunku Abdul Rahman. For The Nut Graph, this moment is tender and special, because the Merdeka month this year also marks the first anniversary of our publication. And so, we have […]
Wong’s arrest stifles academic freedom
PETALING JAYA, 13 May 2009: Academics from the Asian Public Intellectual (API) Fellowships Program have described political scientist Wong Chin Huat‘s recent arrest for sedition as an “assault against academic freedom”. The group of public intellectuals said in a statement today that Wong’s arrest under the Sedition Act on 5 May restricted the academic community’s […]
Amir Muhammad’s latest film restricted
Malaysian Gods poster (pic courtesy of Da Huang Pictures) PETALING JAYA, 30 Jan 2009: Amir Muhammad‘s latest film, Malaysian Gods, has been barred from wide release by the censors. The National Film Censorship Board has decided that the roughly 60-minute movie cannot be shown on TV or in cinemas. The board gave no reasons for […]
R for Run
Run if you want toRun across the worldRun if you want toWithout wings, without wheels. Amir Muhammad is a writer, publisher and moviemaker who lives in Damansara, which is more of a state of mind than geography. Amir’s Alphabet will have 26 parts but will not be presented in order, as he was never a […]
W for water
The quality of water is not strain’dIt droppeth as the gentle mercy falls from heaven. Amir Muhammad is a writer, publisher and moviemaker who lives in Damansara, which is more of a state of mind than geography. Amir’s Alphabet will have 26 parts but will not be presented in order, as he was never a […]
