Already curious and creative as a child, filmmaker Tan Chui Mui has segmented her life into three parts, where each area of her life—her childhood, her youth, and her present—holds space for the varied individuals she has admired. In her childhood, she looked up to her father, a skilled man who, as she explains, was “strong and capable, for he could build houses and boats.” Then, in her youth, she looked up to intelligent and artistic folk; auteurs and filmmakers who greatly influenced the arts.
As a grown adult, Tan Chui Mui has now found a newfound, focused admiration towards individuals who are unapologetically themselves. A commonality that the filmmaker has maintained over the decades is her innate need to learn. She maintains this practice by simply talking to the people around her, propelling conversations to any degree to learn. The intention is simple; she has so much to learn, so ask she will.
Though gaining public awareness for her work in film, Tan has other areas of creativity that she explores. Hence, when asked to describe herself, she uses three simple adjectives: “I was a writer, filmmaker and an artist,” she shares. As of now, the director and filmmaker currently teaches AI filmmaking. Though partaking in a litany of things, she explains that she is not a professional in what she does. Her opinion on this is a contradictory one, for after releasing a series of movies and artworks over the last two years, one would not label oneself as an amateur.
Then, she pierces doubts away with a simple, powerful statement that carries a perfectly mixed air of naivety and matter-of-fact attitude: “I’m always learning about new things.” This statement in itself explains all we need to know about the auteur. In her 40s now, Tan Chui Mui is a practitioner of Jiu-Jitsu. The only advice she imparts to the world is this: Breathe well and pay attention to the world.
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