Southeast Asia: A Multidisciplinary Journal: Volume 20 Issue 2 , Open Access

Editorial Gema Dari Menara (1968), Brunei’s first feature film

Kathrina Mohd Daud

The film was a revelation to me because I was not aware of any visual record of such a culture in pre-independence Brunei. Until I saw the film, my impressions of Bruneian culture…

Justifying the Sacred through the Secular: Evaluating Gema Dari Menara’s Arguments for Religious Prohibitions

Daniel Wee

This paper aims to analyze and evaluate the arguments provided in Gema Dari Menara that aim to justify Islamic prohibitions. The first part of this paper will attempt to indicate…

The Negotiation between the Predominated Sacredness and Secular Popular Culture in Brunei Darussalam

Yong Liu

In retrospectives on Brunei’s first feature film Gema Dari Menara (1968), commentators have tended to focus on either its historical representation of Brunei’s booming post-curfew…

Technologizing Islam, Islamifying Technology: The Use of Modern Technologies in Brunei’s First Film, Gema Dari Menara (1968)

Rinni Haji Amran

Historians of technology have for the past decade begun to recognize the important role that technology plays in nation-building. From the development of the steam locomotive in…

Visualising Change: Linguistic and Semiotic Landscape of Tutong Town

Noor Azam Haji-Othman

This article explores the concept of ‘linguistic landscape’ (Landry & Bourhis, 1997) and applies it to the Tutong Town Centre, which was depicted briefly in the film Gema Dari…

Malayness in Gema Dari Menara (1968)

Zuliana Masri

This paper argues that the film Gema Dari Menara produced in 1968 reflects Brunei’s attempt towards constructing a Brunei Malayness as a national identity. During the early…

Gema Dari Menara (1968): Amar Ma’ruf Nahi Mungkar as Islamic Da’wahism in Bruneian Film

Najib Noorashid, Nur Raihan Mohamad, Ririn Kurnia Trisnawati

Gema Dari Menara (1968) was intended as a mode of da’wah (the propagation of Islamic teachings) in response to the situation faced by the local community in Brunei at that time…