Indonesian punks star in Canadian documentary<\/p>\n
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
If local bands or performers have found it hard to make it big
\nbeyond the country's music scene, Balinese punk band Superman Is
\nDead (SID) have made their international debut in a rather
\nsimple, yet unusual way: being featured in a documentary film.<\/p>\n
The Kuta-based band is the subject of an 87-minute documentary
\nfilm, The Punks Are Alright: A Punk Rock Safari From the First
\nWorld to The Third, together with two bands of the same genre
\nfrom Hamilton, Canada and Sao Paolo, Brazil.<\/p>\n
The film delves into the unifying power of music and how it
\ngives voice to a new generation of young people who long for a
\nbetter world than the one in which they live.<\/p>\n
The documentary film, produced and directed by Canadian
\ndirector Douglas Crawford, tells the story of a cult punk band
\nfrom Canada, the Forgotten Angels, a seminal act that inspired
\nthe formation of the Blind Pigs, an aspiring punk band from Sao
\nPaolo.<\/p>\n
The film then travels to Indonesia to meet Dolly, a 23-year
\nold poor Jakartan, who fell in love with the Blind Pigs.<\/p>\n
Dolly was too poor to obtain a copy of the Blind Pigs CD and
\nasked the band to give him free copies via the Internet.<\/p>\n
In the country, the filmmaker also meets Jerinx, a drummer of
\nSID who tries to make sense of the situation in the tourist
\nisland, where prostitution is rife and terrorism is the new
\ndanger.<\/p>\n
Jerinx sees his Balinese folks are caught between surviving to
\nmake ends meet and being enslaved to the West in the tourism
\nindustry.<\/p>\n
The mohawked Jerinx is a member of SID, a band that stands as
\none of the country's most popular punk outfits that managed to
\nmake their way out of obscurity, without having to abandon their
\ndo-it-yourself ethics or artistic principles.<\/p>\n
The band released their first album for major label Sony
\nMusic, Kuta Rock City, in 2003, which sold thousands of copies.
\nEarlier, the band released four EPs on indie labels.<\/p>\n
SID is also featured in the film in concerts, in between
\ninterviews and footage of other bands in performance.<\/p>\n
Crawford said that the documentary films started as a short
\nfilm about the Forgotten Angels (whose individual band members
\nare now almost in their fifties), before he learned that there
\nwere kids in Brazil who were passionate about the Canadian band
\nand an Indonesian kid who was inspired by the band.<\/p>\n
\"There is a common thread from the Forgotten Rebels to
\nthe Blind Pigs of Brazil to Dolly in Indonesia ... There are
\npeople whose lives has been totally changed by punk,\" Crawford
\ntold The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
The Punks Are Alright will be premiered at JiFFest on Dec. 12
\nand rescreened on Dec. 17.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/indonesian-punks-star-in-canadian-documentary-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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