Fostering Unity among Malaysians: A Case Study on the Local Film Industry
Siti ZabedahMohd Shariff, Ismail Sualman, Eka Diana AdiIrawan

Abstract
This case study attempts to identify the elements of unity that can be found in Malaysian local films. Films in a way, are said to play a vital role in uniting people by showing exemplary of solidarity and equality that can be imitate by the viewers to create unity among them. This is because people tend to imitate what they see and hear from a film especially the youngsters. Malaysian films such as Sepet, Gubra, Talentime and Estet are some of the local films that can be categorized a 1Malaysia model films as they bring all races in Malaysia under one roof. As such, unity can be found by finding common ground among people of different beliefs and background. A focus of unifying elements creates harmony and brings people together instead of dividing them whether it is by race, culture, political beliefs or other differences. This study also attempts to analyse the factors that might be a contributing factor towards initiating unity among societies in Malaysia. Findings indicate that there is a lack of films that stress on unity even though the film industry in Malaysia has reached a better position in terms of the number of audience. One significant finding is that there is too much of horror films that bring no benefits to viewers. In the case of producers, they are only looking for profits only. Therefore unity elements for the sake of social responsibility are put aside. The findings also show that the most important element in a film is the level of entertainment itself and not the level of unity or good values. To producers, most important is for the audience to watch the films and have fun. To producers also, it is not wrong to make a film that have a unity theme but the problem is when the film is not entertaining enough and does not make money.

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