Tintin aims at filmmaking<\/p>\n
Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
What do you do when you cannot sleep at night? Toss and turn?
\nCount sheep? Smoke? Watch TV?<\/p>\n
None of these work for Denpasar-based experimental filmmaker
\nMaria Clementine Wulia, nicknamed Tintin, 29.<\/p>\n
Having insomniac nights ever since she was a kid, she instead
\nkept her mind running to get more and more ideas until it was
\nquite difficult to handle.<\/p>\n
The results are dozens of music compositions for various
\nprojects, film scores (one of them was for 2001's Jakarta
\nProject) and at least two films that have won the San Francisco-
\nbased eveo.com competition and the recent Australian MAFIA (Music
\nand Film Independent Artists) Documentary Award.<\/p>\n
While any of us is already blessed simply to have just one
\ntalent, Tintin has many.<\/p>\n
She is a trained musician (who plays at least piano and flute
\nand has taught piano for years), a composer, a ballerina and an
\narchitect (graduated from Bandung's Parahyangan Catholic
\nUniversity -- Unpar).<\/p>\n
\"Architecture and music have so much in common. Both are
\ndifferent ways of telling a story,\" said Tintin in an interview
\nvia E-mail from Denpasar.<\/p>\n
While still studying at Unpar, she received a scholarship from
\nthe Film Score Department of Berklee College of Music in Boston,
\nMassachusetts and graduated in 1997, or a year before getting her
\ndegree in architecture.<\/p>\n
It was at Berklee that she stumbled into filmmaking, working
\nas a multimedia assistant.<\/p>\n
After graduated from Berklee, she traveled to Germany and
\nSwitzerland, documenting a friend's band on tour, with a Hi8
\nvideo camera.<\/p>\n
Two years later, a Japanese company which she had helped as
\nwell invited her to Tokyo.<\/p>\n
\"Those trips left me with some good footage,\" Tintin said.<\/p>\n
At the end of 1999, she looked back and felt something was
\nmissing. She was writing music for TV ads at that time, but her
\nprimary job was teaching music.<\/p>\n
\"I felt that I was not doing enough to challenge myself. That
\nwas when my motivation to actually finish a short movie sparked,\"
\nsaid Tintin, who admired producer\/director Mira Lesmana and Riri
\nRiza.<\/p>\n
She then edited the footage into two short films, Are You
\nClose Enough? and Violence Against Fruit. The first is a
\ndocumentary about a monk, a film that deals with how a journey
\nbecomes a spiritual showcase for the relativity of time and
\nspace.<\/p>\n
The latter, meanwhile, is a documentary of the disembowelment
\nof an exotic fruit Diospyros Kaki, a story that was inspired by
\nthe May 1998 riots in the capital.<\/p>\n
Are You Close Enough? was the Editor's Choice at the eveo.com
\nwhile Violence won the Kuldesak Award for Best Conceptual Film in
\nthe 2000 Indonesian Film and Video Independent Festival (FFVII).<\/p>\n
Both films were also included in the film market of the 2001
\nOberhausen International Short Film Festival in Germany.<\/p>\n
A few months later, Australian TV station SBS contacted her,
\nasking for the broadcast rights for those films in Australia.
\nApparently, the films were the only ones they have acquired from
\nthe Indonesian section of the film market, and probably the first
\nIndonesian films that were intended for broadcast in their arts
\nprogram for short experimental films from around the world,
\nEatcarpet.<\/p>\n
Tintin then went to Australia to take a course in filmmaking
\nat the end of last year, thinking there might be some connection
\nbetween her, filmmaking and Australia.<\/p>\n
Early this year, she released another experimental
\ndocumentary, Slambangricketychuck, which earned her the MAFIA
\naward.<\/p>\n
The seven-minute film is an effort to put film and music
\ntogether in a special way. With her colleagues, Tintin took the
\nstreets of suburban Melbourne, knocked on doors, rang bells,
\nbuzzed buzzers and tapped on windows.<\/p>\n
The people who opened their doors were then asked a series of
\nquestions about the doors they had just opened.<\/p>\n
\"The idea came as I realized that doors are really familiar
\nobjects that we see every day. And being very accustomed to
\ndoors, we don't even think about them anymore. I think the door
\nhas further potential, for example, as musical instruments,\" she
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
When you see Tintin's films, there is a deeper exploration of
\nthe subject. She is indeed into philosophy, triggered by an
\nexperience when she was only eight years old.<\/p>\n
\"My uncle, who is a Catholic priest, suddenly pinched me and
\nasked whether it hurt. I said it did. And he said, 'how did you
\nknow? It might be only your mind telling you that it hurt. I
\nmight not exist. I might only be someone that you imagine. Maybe
\nthere's only your mind, floating somewhere, dreaming about you,
\nimagining things about your arms being pinched by me.'<\/p>\n
\"And I thought, hey that's cool! And since then I liked to
\ndiscuss 'nonsense' with anyone who was interested in discussing
\nnonsense,\" she laughed.<\/p>\n
Right now, Tintin is working on a documentary about Rimi
\nParmentier, Greenpeace activist who recently visited the
\nPreparatory Committee (PrepCom) IV for the World Summit on
\nSustainable Development in Bali.<\/p>\n
\"The reason to make the film is about my being ashamed of my
\nown ignorance; I didn't know what PrepCom was all about, until I
\nread in the newspaper that Greenpeace, WWF and other non-
\ngovernmental organizations were here and they'd sent a letter to
\nKofi Annan, asking him to pay more attention to the PrepCom. I
\nthought, well, this must be very serious and started to do a
\nlittle research on it,\" she said.<\/p>\n
There has been music, architecture and filmmaking. What next?
\nRight now, the latter is still her focus. And like any other
\nlocal filmmaker, she wants to see local films revive.<\/p>\n
\"To revive them, simply stop thinking too much about reviving
\nthem. Stop complaining, stop worrying, stop dreaming, stop being
\nenvious and stop keeping each other's head under water.<\/p>\n
\"If you want to make films and tell your story, do it right
\nnow because you can. If you have decided that you don't have a
\nstory of your own to tell, encourage others to be brave enough to
\ntell their story.\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/tintin-aims-at-filmmaking-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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