Nugroho's 'A Poet' to compete for 11th silver screen award<\/p>\n
By Mehru Jaffer<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE (JP): The participation of Indonesia's Garin Nugroho
\nin the 14th Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF), where
\nmore than 300 films from all corners of the world will twinkle on
\nscreens around the city state for more than a fortnight, is
\nsignificant for several reasons.<\/p>\n
A Poet, Nugroho's black-and-white film with a modest budget
\nbut made in a style that is lyrical to say the least will compete
\nfor the 11th silver screen awards together with 14 other films,
\nincluding China's Beijing Bicycle and Taiwan's Betelnut Beauty.
\nBeijing Bicycle won the Silver Bear, the second-highest award at
\nthe last Berlin International Film Festival and Betelnut Beauty's
\nLin Cheng-Sheng the best-director award at the same festival.<\/p>\n
Although there is plenty of fare from around the world with
\nAustralia in focus, images from Canadian, German focus, French
\npanorama, British cinema, independently made films from the
\nU.S., along with those from Austria, Greece and Iceland, the
\nhighlight of the festival remains the menu chosen from Asia.<\/p>\n
It is SIFF's philosophy to give due prominence to cinema from
\nAsia that makes it only to the fringe of international film
\nfestivals held in Western countries.<\/p>\n
The trend is, of course, changing but slowly.<\/p>\n
Taiwanese Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a case
\nin point that was nominated for 10 Oscars but when it came to
\ngiving away the best-picture award, Hollywood chose to reward
\nGladiator, a Roman epic, instead.<\/p>\n
Together with mainstream cinema from Asia as well as abroad,
\nSIFF will pay equal attention to low-cost and short films, as
\nwell as documentaries. The fringe program lists as many as 12
\nshort films from Indonesia, some eight minutes in length and
\nothers barely five minutes.<\/p>\n
Along with Riri Riza, director of Sherina's Adventures,
\nNugroho will also participate in a seminar titled, The Truth is
\nOut There. Nugroho will share his views with German director
\nHarun Farocki, Australian Dennis O'Rourkee and Thailand's Sophie
\nBarry on: What do documentary filmmakers get from documentaries
\nwhich they can't get from the mass media?<\/p>\n
Sponsored by the Asia Europe Foundation, Riza will be on the
\nsame podium as Britain's Jano Williams and Malaysia's Alan D'Cruz
\nto talk about the different cultural barriers that Asian and
\nEuropean documentarists have to deal with, with respect to
\nfunding, finding an audience and subject?<\/p>\n
\"This film festival is a bold one. While other festivals
\naround the world are programming accessible and mass-oriented
\nfare to attract audiences, SIFF will focus on documentaries this
\nyear,\" says Kelvin Tong, film critic of Singapore's daily
\nnewspaper The Straits Times.<\/p>\n
Kelvin told The Jakarta Post that this is enough proof that
\nSIFF is serious about providing a platform to nonmass cinema as
\nwell. As someone who is familiar with most film festivals around
\nthe world, like Berlin, Venice and Cannes, Kelvin feels that SIFF
\ndefinitely has an edge when it comes to Asian films.<\/p>\n
Both the seminar and the screening of small budget films is,
\ntherefore, important to record the multiple problems faced by
\nfilmmakers in Asia, from funding to censorship. For viewers would
\ncertainly like filmmakers of Nugoroho's caliber to document many
\nmore aspects of life on the screen for them than he is able to do
\nat present, probably due to a lack of funds.<\/p>\n
Nugroho's, A Poet, is a 83-minute long, black-and-white film
\nabout Ibrahim Kadir, a didong poet, in the tradition of oral
\npoets of Gayo in the troubled province of Aceh. Kadir is
\nimprisoned without trial in 1965 and witnesses the massacre of
\nhundreds of people by the military, for being communists. After
\nhis release from prison Kadir weaves his dreadful experience into
\npoetry which becomes the only chronicle of the brutalities hushed
\nup under censorship that lasted for more than three decades here.<\/p>\n
The beauty of the simple film lies in its poetic treatment of
\nthe ugly face of politics.<\/p>\n
This year's SIFF has an exciting list of cinema not just from
\nIndonesia but from Iran and India, the largest producer of films
\non this continent. From Sri Lanka there is Asoka Handagam's This
\nis my Moon, a poignant story of his war-ravaged island. Iran
\nbrings The Circle by Jafar Panahi, the director of The White
\nBalloon, to SIFF. Winner of the Golden Lion at the last Venice
\nFilm Festival, not everyone is pleased with The Circle, that
\nconcentrates on the oppressive lives led by women in Iran.<\/p>\n
\"The movie is made by a man, evidently seeking Hollywood
\nsuccess,\" says Homa Hoodfar, professor of anthropology at
\nMontreal's Concordia University and founding member of women
\nliving under Muslim law, an organization which campaigns on
\nMuslim women's rights issues.<\/p>\n
\"Women in Iran still have a long way to go but they have the
\nstrength and courage to do it, something conspicuously absent
\nfrom a movie like The Circle\".<\/p>\n
Maybe it is the very controversy that engulfs films made by
\nIranians that arouses much curiosity about them. In The Day I
\nBecame a Woman, Marziyeh Meshkinin continues to film the sad
\nstate of affairs of the women of her country.<\/p>\n
Although Indian films do not compete for an award, there are
\nthree films screened in the Asian Panorama section. Pathos is
\nabout the plight of the elderly, Sandstorm about a defiant woman
\nfrom the desert area and The Wrestlers is an allegory that urges
\ngreater religious tolerance.<\/p>\n
Yi-Yi (A one and a two), from Taiwan will open the film
\nfestival on April 11. Directed by Edward Yang the film takes its
\ntitle from the start of a jazz improvisation and like the free-
\nflowing structure of jazz, its foreplay meanders rhythmically
\nbefore reaching a thunderous climax. A winner of Los Angeles Film
\nCritics Association and New York Film Critics Circle awards for
\nbest foreign film plus the best film of the year from the
\nNational Society of Film Critics, Yi-Yi's screening on opening
\nnight is understandably sold out.<\/p>\n
Aoyama Shinji's, Eureka, from Japan, will close the festival
\non April 28. The driver and a young brother and sister are the
\nonly survivors after their bus is hijacked on a hot summer day.
\nTo find out what happens next in the sepia-toned, black-and-white
\nmovie, is a fairly good reason to be at this year's SIFF.<\/p>",
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