Third JIFFest promises to be best yet<\/p>\n
Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Following the well attended event last year, the third Jakarta
\nInternational Film Festival (JIFFest) starts on Friday night and
\ncontinues for the next 16 days with the screening of over 100
\nquality films from around 30 countries.<\/p>\n
The films will be screened at Pusat Perfilman Usmar Ismail
\n(PPHUI) and Erasmus Huis on Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said, South Jakarta;
\nDjakarta Theater on Jl. M.H. Thamrin, TIM 21 movie theater and
\nthe Jakarta Arts Institute at the Ismail Marzuki arts center on
\nJl. Cikini Raya and New Goethe Institute on Jl. Matraman -- all
\nin Central Jakarta.<\/p>\n
Portuguese film Me You Them (Eu To Eles) by director Andrucha
\nWaddington, a film which was selected at last year's Cannes Film
\nFestival, will kick off the festival at PPHUI for invited guests
\non Friday night, Oct. 26.<\/p>\n
Last year's event was held for 10 days with some 100 films
\nfrom nine countries.<\/p>\n
The annual festival has always been a huge success with film
\nbuffs flocking to the venues, some of them willing to sit on
\nplastic chairs or even on the floor when the tickets were sold
\nout.<\/p>\n
There has always been a main theme for each festival. This
\nyear's theme is Indonesia's Identity Seen Through Film.<\/p>\n
Shanty Harmayn, the festival's cofounder said the theme was
\nchosen due to the great response from the audience to the
\nIndonesian films screened last year.<\/p>\n
\"We had a section for Indonesian film last year, and the
\nresponse was great. So, we decided to further explore the
\nsection,\" she told a media conference here recently.<\/p>\n
There will be 28 Indonesian films screened at the festival,
\nportraying the country from the 1930s to the present.<\/p>\n
\"As usual, JIFFest has always been a platform for new
\nIndonesian cinema. So, this year, we will also present new
\nIndonesian films,\" Shanty said.<\/p>\n
The new Indonesian films include Jelangkung (Indonesian
\nteenage horror flick) which is currently being shown in theaters
\nin the capital; Pasir Berbisik (Whispering Sand), Jakarta Project
\nand Tragedy, which have all been shown recently; and Beth, Hallo
\nKang Mamat and Viva Indonesia. The latter is directed by five
\ndirectors, and tells stories about five Indonesian children from
\na number of troubled regions in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Old Indonesian films like Max Havelaar and Serangan Fajar
\n(Dawn Attack) will also be screened, as well as documentary and
\nshort films like High Noon In Jakarta, a documentary piece about
\nformer president Abdurrahman Wahid.<\/p>\n
Other sections in the film festival include World Cinema,
\nYouth Films, Animation, Human Rights, At the Crossroads of Two
\nCultures, Changes In Society, Indonesian Masters of Documentary
\nFilm, New Asian Cinema, Double Identities, Focus on Jafar Panahi,
\nNew Korean Cinema, Espace Francophone, Digital Film, New Swedish
\nCinema, New Chinese Cinema, U.S. Independents, Shorts, and
\nRetrospectives on directors: Kenci Mizoguchi, Ingmar Bergman and
\nHou Hsiao Hsien.<\/p>\n
As usual, many of the films being screened have already
\ngarnered awards in several festivals, like Dancer In The Dark
\n(Cannes 2000), Traffic (Academy Award 2001) and many more.<\/p>\n
This year's event also marks the first competitive year with
\nthe Asian Short Film Competition -- with 12 finalists coming from
\nTaiwan, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Turkey, and the
\nNew Indonesian Digital Cinema Competition with all of the new
\nfilms mentioned above except Pasir Berbisik.<\/p>\n
Foreign directors, producers, distributors and actors whose
\nfilms are being screened during JIFFest will attend the event.<\/p>\n
They are Iranian Jafar Panahi with The Circle which won the
\nGolden Lion Prize at last year's Venice Film Festival, London-
\nborn Kim Longinotto (Divorce Iranian Style), Carmela Baronowska
\n(Scenes from an Occupation) and Sophie Barry (Viva Timor Loro
\nSae) from Australia, French Laurent Becue-Renard (Living
\nAfterwards: Words of Women), Brazilian Fernando Meirelles
\n(Domesticas), Italian Fabrizio Mosca (I Cento Passi), actress
\nFatemeh Pakkho from Sweden's Before The Storm, French director
\nPhilippe Martin, French distributor Michel Saint Jean, and
\nKrishna Sen from Australia.<\/p>\n
Those filmmakers will be present at the screening of their
\nfilms as well as on the panel discussions during JIFFest.<\/p>\n
This year's JIFFest will also present some fringe activities:
\nwith seminars on Deconstructing Propaganda Films, Women's Rights
\nand Islam, Indonesian Through Foreign Lenses, Film Law and New
\nGerman Cinema; a Digital Workshop and Distribution Workshop
\norganized by French Embassy and IKJ; a Visual Literacy Screenings
\nprogram with PopCorner; a program for teenagers called Seeing
\nMovies Is Reading About Them; and a documentary film screening
\nHouse of Docs.<\/p>\n
If you attended the festival last year, you would remember how
\nchaotic the ticketing system was.<\/p>\n
Shanty apologized for the ticketing problem, saying that this
\nyear they would simplify it. \"We wanted everything to be
\ncomputerized but it turned out the computer broke down. So, this
\nyear, the whole thing will be manual,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Shanty also said the festival would have an additional
\nscreening for almost every film. \"We won't provide extra chairs
\nor allow people to sit on the floor. We want everyone to have
\ntheir own seat.\"<\/p>\n
Tickets are being sold at Rp 10,000 per movie, and can be
\nobtained at Jl. Sutan Syahrir 1 C Blok 3-4, Central Jakarta. A
\nlimited number of tickets, 20 percent of them, are also available
\nat the film venues every day.<\/p>\n
For more information, you can visit www.jiffest.com or call
\n(021) 325-113 or 325-115 for film schedules.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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