About 26 months ago, a couple of friend and I conceived a “crazy idea” of making a documentary film about the realities, values and aspirations of Sabahans in embracing, celebrating and preserving cultural diversity in Sabah. Unexpectedly, this humble social project ended up taking us nearly two years to complete, including 10 months of shooting in 16 locations in Sabah and Kuala Lumpur and four months of post-production work involving hundreds of locals from diverse cultural backgrounds.
The result is a 1 hour 45 minutes Finas-funded documentary film called KITA – Sabah Celebrating Diversity, which consists of three separate but interrelated sections that follows the real life stories of 10 ordinary Sabahans through whose lenses the audiences will experience the strength, beauty and “deliciousness” of a diverse society.I was born in Papar, a small town about 40km south-west of Kota Kinabalu, known for its simplicity.
The Birth of ‘North Borneo Celebrating Diversity’ On Feb 10, 2021, I drafted a project proposal called North Borneo Celebrating Diversity. It was initially conceived as a six-episode documentary TV series. I then shared it with renowned documentary director Nova Goh and the owner of Videographics Productions Sdn Bhd, Lee Yen Phin.
Due to a limited budget, the entire creative team worked almost on a semi-voluntary basis during the 10 months of filming and nearly four months of post-production. The time and effort invested by the team were disproportionate to the compensation they received. In addition, in order to reflect Sabah’s rich social landscape relatively fairly and truthfully, we also tried to achieve a certain balance in the narration of race, religion, language, and even region within the limited characters, stories, and length.
In addition to the extended shooting period, our filming locations also covered a vast geographical area, including Kota Kinabalu, Donggongon, Papar, Tamparuli, Kiulu, Keningau, Tambunan, Kota Belud, Kota Marudu, Kundasang, Ranau, Pitas, Sandakan, Semporna, Salakan Island and Kuala Lumpur. Renaming to KITA – Sabah Celebrating DiversityWhen we were approaching the end of the production, it became clear that we needed a simpler and more catchy name for the film. North Borneo Celebrating Diversity was a mouthful.
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