A director dad, an octopus, and passion: A UCL graduate’s path to documentary filmmaking

Each of us has unique paths to our dreams — Batrisyia Razak’s just happened to involve a man forging a relationship with a wild octopus in a South African kelp forest.

“My Octopus Teacher” is a 2020 Netflix Original feature by documentary filmmaking veteran Craig Foster that won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 2021.

Razak fell for the man-eight-limbed mollusc story — hard.

But long before Razak was captivated by an emotionally bruised diver sought solace from a sea creature, she was already into documentary filmmaking for another compelling reason: making the unheard, heard.

“I want documentaries to be accessible to everyone here. I want to be a voice to people in Malaysia,” Batrisyia Razak says. Source: Batrisyia Razak

‘I want the documentaries to be accessible to everyone here’

Razak is a model, TikTok star, and now an Ethnographic and Documentary Film master’s degree holder from University College London (UCL). 

The UCL brand carries a certain weight in many industries. But documentary filmmaking is an uncommon genre in the Malaysian cinema scene.

So even with a master’s degree from one of the best universities in the world, Razak’s foray into this sub-world of filmmaking is set to be tough.

“There are a lot of fiction filmmakers here, but documentary filmmakers? Not really,” says Razak. “And even if there is, it’s like Westerners coming to Malaysia and telling the story for outsiders, and it’s usually in English and filled with hard data and jargon.”

And while that exposes Malaysia to the wider world, it doesn’t quite cater to the Malaysian audience.

“I feel like native Malay speakers in Malaysia wouldn’t want to watch that,” she says. “So, I’m doing this because I want documentaries to be accessible to everyone here. I want to be a voice to people in Malaysia.”

It was this hefty goal that led her to pursue her Ethnographic and Documentary Film (Practical) MA in 2022.

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During this time, Razak made three films: one about a woodcarver who voluntarily takes care of the local cemetery, another about diversity in the modelling industry, and the other documenting the life of a yoga instructor in Papua New Guinea.

“Ethnography is a lot like that — it’s following people or observing them,” shares Razak. “It’s less interacting or interviewing and more of seeing what they actually do, which I like.”

Despite that, Razak understands that the audience may want something more than just a film following someone going about their day. That said, her goal is to create an engaging piece of media — something that everyone and anyone can appreciate.

Razak’s no stranger to filmmaking, having grown up with a director for a dad. Source: Batrisyia Razak

Pursuing documentary filmmaking instead of fictional filmmaking

Filmmaking has always been part of Razak’s life.

Her father, A. Razak Mohaideen, is an acclaimed director in the Malaysian film industry famous for local classics such as the “Anak Mami” series, “Cinta Kolestrol,” and the upcoming “Duyung” sequel.

Despite his success, Razak is determined to pave the way for her own future. Instead of following in his footsteps of fictional filmmaking, she is focusing on grounded, factual reports on real-world subjects.

And to take things up a notch, Razak is building her career from the ground up — starting with pitching proposals to potential funders under her own production company, which she recently registered.

“Documentary filmmaking allows me to practise both something creative and also learn continuously because as it is factual, you have to do research constantly,” she says. “It has to be ethical. You have to constantly read, talk to people, and get the facts.”

And as great as a venture this is, Razak isn’t stopping there either. Cinema aside, she has entered the world of modelling too.

Razak has graced catwalks and magazine covers and has collaborated with some of the top designers from Malaysia and beyond. Source: Batrisyia Razak/Grazia Malaysia

Model, filmmaker, and potential PhD-holder

“Modelling hasn’t really been something I thought about doing, but it’s something people always mention to me because of how tall I am,” shares Razak.

By 2020, she had signed on to a modelling agency, and her interest in the field only heightened after that.

However, filmmaking remains Razak’s priority.

Documentary filmmaking is not the only thing going for Batrisyia. Source: Batrisyia Razak

Besides focusing on growing her production company, the possibility of pursuing a PhD in filmmaking is somewhere down the line for Razak too, especially since she grew up in a family of educators.

“To be honest, I do want to do a PhD; I do really want to challenge myself,” she says. “It’s not really a plan of mine to be a professor or educator, but I still want to have a PhD because I just like studying. Any reason to get another degree!”