What Stays: Making BESarawak's 20th Anniversary Film
What Stays opens with Jason Tan Chin Foo, BESarawak's current CEO, writing a letter.
For Business Events Sarawak's twentieth anniversary, we built a film around a question: what do business events leave for the people who come after us?
Our team at Motion Foundry in Kuching took that question across Sarawak. With seven days for filming in different cities, the production brought together interviews and scenes from the work that continues beyond the conference hall.
The two letters behind What Stays
We designed the opening letter and the child's reply at the end as the film's narrative frame. Both writing scenes were deliberately arranged for the production.
Putting the first letter in the hands of BESarawak's current CEO connected the question with the people carrying the organisation forward. The reply would come from a child, giving the next generation a place in the story.
Between those two letters, we brought together voices from different fields. Each contribution needed to retain its own meaning while helping the audience follow the same question.
That was the creative task for us: to find a connection between the stories without making them all sound the same. The writing scenes gave us a beginning to return to, and an ending that could look ahead.
Seven days of filming across Sarawak
The filming schedule took us across Kuching, Bintulu, Miri and Sibu. We had seven days to complete the shoots across these different cities.
In Kuching, we filmed contributions about rabies prevention and safe water. The food-security story took us to Universiti Putra Malaysia Sarawak in Bintulu. In Sibu, we filmed at the existing autism-support centre and the new premises. The production also included hospital scenes and filming at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching.
Bringing these places into one schedule was a challenge. We had to coordinate with the participating organisations, arrange access and agree filming times within the limited window available.
The work began before we arrived with the cameras. Communication with the people at each location was part of making the filming possible, and every agreed time had to fit into the wider production schedule.
The seven days were our filming window. The concept, arrangements and editing were part of a wider production process.
For us, the journey also made the film's subject more concrete. The conversations were connected to places where people were carrying out the work they described.
The work beyond the conference hall
The film brings together personal accounts of autism support, green hydrogen, safe water, rabies prevention, food security and cleft care. Its range is broad, but the interviews bring those subjects back to responsibilities people can recognise.
A father talks about growing older and worrying about his child's future. An engineer describes the testing and checks behind water that people expect to be safe. Other voices speak about partnerships, protecting communities and caring for the land for the next generation.
These accounts helped us give the film a human scale. A conference can be part of the exchange of knowledge and the building of relationships; the continuing work belongs to the people and organisations putting that knowledge into practice.
BESarawak describes this longer-term perspective through its legacy approach to business events. In What Stays, we wanted the audience to encounter that idea through the people speaking, rather than only through an explanation of the institution.
Filming the hospital story
The cleft-care story brought us into a hospital, where we filmed the conversations and scenes connected with it. This contribution considers what earlier referrals and care can mean for children and their families.
The young girl appearing in the closing writing scene had herself received treatment. That background matters to how we understand her place in the film. She represents the next generation, but she also has a real connection with receiving care.
We wanted the hospital scenes and the reply at the end to remain part of the same story. The care discussed in an interview could then be considered alongside the life of someone who had received help.
A reply from the next generation
At the end, the film returns to writing. This time, the girl answers with the idea that, having received help, she might one day help someone else.
We shaped the writing scenes to connect the CEO's question with the girl's reply. Her experience of receiving care gives that connection a personal meaning.
For us, the two letters bring the story together. The CEO's opening places a question with the people shaping today. The child's reply looks towards what that work might mean for someone growing up within its possibilities.
That is the thought we wanted to leave with the audience. An anniversary can look back over twenty years while still asking what those years will leave for the people who come next.
With thanks to the people who welcomed us
We are grateful to BESarawak, Universiti Putra Malaysia Sarawak, Sibu Autistic Association, the team at Batu Kitang Water Treatment Plant, Borneo Convention Centre Kuching, the participating hospital and rabies-prevention teams, and everyone who helped arrange the filming.
We also thank the interviewees, families and people who shared their time and welcomed our crew into their spaces. Their cooperation helped us complete the filming within the time available and bring these different contributions into one film.
Our companion anniversary film, BE Inheritance, follows the people who helped build BESarawak and those carrying it forward. What Stays looks beyond the institution, towards the work and lives connected with the events it helps bring to Sarawak.
Explore our corporate film production in Kuching and Sarawak for more from Motion Foundry.
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