A slew of Asian documentaries to be screened at TUK festival

JAKARTA (JP): Teater Utan Kayu (TUK) and the Japan Foundation are bringing the world of documentary filmmaking to Jakarta this week with their Asian Documentary Film Festival.

On offer is a diverse range of documentaries from all over Asia, which will be shown from Wednesday to Saturday. Several of the films have won international recognition at documentary film festivals abroad.

TUK's film curator Rayya Makarim said that she hoped the film festival would introduce an often-neglected aspect of filmmaking to the Indonesian public.

She expected to capitalize on the recent success of the Jakarta International Film Festival (JiFFest), which was held in November 1999 and which exposed the Jakarta movie-going public to alternative genres of filmmaking.

Films to be screened on Thursday show such diverse subjects as senile dementia (How to Care for the Senile by Haneda Sumiko, Japan), suffering at the hands of the Indonesian Military in Aceh (Kambing Kampung Kena Pukul/A Beating for the Village Goats by Aryo Danusiri, Indonesia) and a young man struggling to deal with irrational violence encountered in the military (I Love by Yang Li-zhou, Taiwan).

Friday's showings include a special inclusion by the Italian Cultural Institute on religious rites in Bali (Musica e Trance in un Villaggio Balinese Pino Confessa/A Trance Festival in a Balinese Village by Vito Di Bernardi and Giovanni Giuriati, Italy). At 4:30 p.m, there will be showings of a parody of the Thai sex industry (Exotic 101 by Michael Shaowanasai, Thailand), the story of a mother living below the poverty line in Jakarta whose two children suffer from a rare blood disease (Sarinem by Mira Lesmana, Indonesia), and a film exploring discrimination by juxtaposing Mickey Mouse with Sayomi (Princess Plum P-udding by Terashima Mari, Japan).

There will be a screening at 7 p.m. on Friday of an experimental documentary on traditional wooden boat building (Child of Mermaid by Faizal Mohd Zulkifli and Naguib Razak, Malaysia) and a documentary recording the daily meeting of a group of old men on a street corner (Old Men by Lina Yang Tian- yi, China).

Saturday's features include a picture of the rise of Hindu nationalism in India (In the Name of God by Anand Patwardhan, India/2 p.m.), and the standoff between a left-wing filmmaker and ultranationalist punk rockers devoted to the Japanese emperor (The New God by Tsuchiya Yutaka, Japan/4:30 p.m).

There will also be a discussion on Saturday at 7 p.m featuring Mohd Naguib Razak of Malaysia, Tsuchiya Yutaka of Japan and Indonesia's Shanty Harmayn.

-- Oren Murphy