The Film makers
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Producer
NIA DINATA
producer |
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Nia Dinata is not only passionate in making
films as the helmer. She understands that in
order for the Indonesian cinema to flourish, regeneration
of directors is important. That's why
she's been known to |
produce the films of new
talent in Indonesian cinema. Chants of Lotus is
her first anthology/omnibus film project. Making
this film together with three other women
directors give her the support system among
women filmmakers.
I attended Pusan International Film Festival 2006 with Vivian Idris, Melissa Karim and Lasja F. Susatyo. We were sitting by the beach at night, watching an anthology film Paris Je T’aime. We all dropped our tears and sat still although the ending title of the film has finished. The love of the filmmakers to Paris was deeply felt, so beautiful and universal.
I made a joke about making an anthology inspired by our own city Jakarta but would be titled ‘I Hate Jakarta.’ The heavy traffic, flood and snob of Jakarta could be recorded into celluloid and could make the audience understand why we hate the city. But I realize that making a movie based on hatred will not be fun.
Then I think that it will be better to make a film based on our love about something. But then, about what? Unconditional love is our love to mothers, to mother earth, and also to children. Mother, woman is the source of life, the beginning of the future. Yet, women still have to fight for our rights, even the simplest one, the rights to be heard.
I am lucky because the idea is supported by my two discussion partners: Vivian Idris and Melissa Karim. We started a long research by the road from Jakarta to Jogja. We passed by the north roads of Java. We see, listen, and feel the problems that seem to follow women’s life everywhere: women’s rights about sexuality, reproduction, access to health facility, access to education… basically the rights to be a living, thinking human being who also contributes to the life itself.
With the support by Ford Foundation, the research then evolve into an inspiration that later on became a script then a movie. We learn from zero, learn to understand, because we are just a very small part of Indonesian women who are lucky. We then threw the idea about the movie to whomever, from Upi who had doubt in the beginning because she never directed a film which script is written by someone else except herself; Lasja who just found out that she was pregnant; to Fatimah who lives far away in US, including myself whose situation was similar to Upi, never direct a movie which script is written by someone else.
But actually, Vivian and Melissa are not “someone else.” We are all women who care for others and want to make a difference. Upi, Lasja, and Fatimah also went through a long process, looking at the research and the reality about the sad conditions of women. All the process from research, preparation to the end result is exhausting but it still is an interesting one that gives us new spirit and perspective in life. With a limited budget and other technical problems along the way, we finally made the movie. We hope that the movie can give the new spirit to everybody who watches it. |
VIVIAN IDRIS
producer
(Chant from an Island & Chant from a Tourist Town)
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Her experience in working at The Jakarta International
Film Festival had nurtured her love
of cinema. She feels the need for Indonesia to
produce more original and educating films. As
writer and producer, she has the opportunity
to make sure that her idealism is transferred in
professional hands of Indonesian filmmakers
to the screen.
I will begin this note with a short intro about my love affair with scriptwriting. It was 2005, when I asked Nia Dinata to write a back cover comment on an antology of poetry, a book I was to publish together with 3 girlfriends. Nia, a fanatic supporter of women issues, we decided was one of the people to be asked for endorsement. As I remember it, that was the moment she found out about my passion for writing, and not long after – while we were working on the OST Love for Share (Berbagi Suami)- she offered me to write my first script, it was a 10 minutes fiction for a beauty product advetorial. I called it The Big Day, to this and my continuous affair: I credit Nia Dinata.
At the end of 2006, came the offer for me and Melissa Karim –my fellow writer- to write for Chants of Lotus (Perempuan Punya Cerita). I couldn’t be more enthusiastic, for not only this will add to my experience in scriptwriting, but even more, is to be granted the opportunity to write story with specific theme related to women sexual reproductive health. This issue is a personal concern and has always been a central topic of conversation amongst colleagues in Kalyana Shira Foundation. We’ve been longing to have the opportunity to ‘do something’ about the issue, and with the support of The Ford Foundation we were able to make it happen.
Literature and field research to support the story was done at the end of 2006 and carried on ‘till the beginning of 2007. Together with the producer, the writers collected facts regarding problems arise in women sexual reproductive health, then each writers were given the freedom to choose two topics to later be developed into a 25 minutes fiction.
During literature research I came into many interesting as well as scary facts. One particular information that later on to be my departing point for Chant from Tourist Town was discovery of the average age of Netherland teenagers lose their virginity. The age was a shocking 13. I cringed at the thought of 7th graders, minor citizens who a year before were still inhabiting elementary school with their miniature seats, are now starting to have sex. As a mother of a 7 year old girl, I can’t help my instant calculation on how soon will this scary phenomenon infected our offsprings, the youth of this nation. It was definitely within my interest to find out how far or how close the fact is to our own reality.
Idea to write Chants from an Island struck me while interviewing students from The Thousand Islands who were about to graduate from midwife academy in Jakarta. To hear their explanations on the islanders’ –who de facto are residence of Jakarta – poor access to health and education facilities was another shocking fact. We who occupy the mainland should really be ashamed to know there is only one doctor to attend to four thousand people and their health problems, and yet they call themselves lucky. Many other inhabited islands has none. This fact alone was already a powerful driving force for me to write Chant from an Island. The story about a midwife, a central figure for many women and mothers in the island, and her solo struggle to provide health services and loses her needs among others’ needs.
To sum it all up, the experience to write for Chants of Lotus was like a journey that opened way for working with notable Indonesian women, to voice a personal and collective concerns about things that matter, to stand up to one’s idealism, and to pursue dreams of a better life. |
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