Film festival shows women in face of change
By Yenni Kwok
JAKARTA (JP): In an age where women are taking more active and creative roles in the film industry, certain questions arise.
What is a woman's film? Is it simply a film about women? Or, is it a film made by women?
The 1997 Jakarta International Women's Film Festival's organizing committee took a broader, nondiscriminating attitude toward this issue.
Their selection of 27 films from 20 countries is based on the premise that women's films are those made by women, but not necessarily. The importance is that the films give sympathetic views on women.
"It wouldn't be fair if only women directors take part in the festival," said John McGlynn of the Lontar Foundation, the festival's organizing committee. "Men, too, can be sympathetic toward women."
Twenty-one feature films, five documentaries and one short film will be screened from Sept. 19 to Sept. 24 at Erasmus Huis and Australian Embassy Theatrette, both in South Jakarta.
The festival is being organized in cooperation with Unesco and Jakarta-Jakarta magazine.
Participating countries are Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Britain, Finland, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey and the United States.
If there is one trait the selection committee sees in the films, it is: "The films reflect women in the face of change," said film director Nan T. Achnas, who sits on the festival's selection committee.
McGlynn agrees. "The world changes and women will change too."
And it can also be the other way around, as some women make changes on the world.
Highly acclaimed women directors will join hands with their male counterparts in this noncompetitive festival. Some of the featured films are as follows.
Australian directors Clara Law and Emma-Kate Croghan show the country's great film talents.
Law's Floating Life (1996) is the chronicle of a Chinese family that is spread over three continents -- Asia (Hong Kong), Australia and Europe (Munich). This film has won her the Silver Leopard of Locarno from a Swiss festival for young filmmakers.
Croghan was only 24 when she made her highly acclaimed comedy, Love and Other Catastrophes (1996). It follows the life of five university students who in their search of ideal love, encounter various twists of fate.
Suolaista Ja Makeaa (Bittersweet, 1995) is a romantic comedy directed by Finnish director Kaisa Rastimo. In the film, Anna thinks she has found her Prince Charming when Lauri walks into her life. But, when her lover uses the wrong words, does the wrong thing, the whole world is against her. Anna yearns for 150 percent love and almost destroys the 80 percent of happiness that she has found.
Sandrine Veysset of France pays a homage to motherhood in Y'aura-t-il de la neige a Noel (Will It Snow for Christmas, 1996). A farmer's wife has to raise her flock of children almost single-handedly, with her husband only showing his face now and then. In the ensuing chaos, the mother is the center of everything. With her love and sense of solidarity, she ensures that life is less cruel.
Germany is represented by a male and a female director, Hans- Christian Schmid and Dagmar Hirtz respectively.
Schmid's Nach funf im Urwald (It's A Jungle Out There, 1995) is the tale of a runaway teenager. Anna leaves her home for Munich after a row with her father. Her worried parents also go off to Munich, seeking their prodigal daughter. However, the trip to the big city is like a jungle adventure for both the parents and the teenager.
Hirtz mostly sets her Moondance, a romantic, humorous and fast-moving drama, in rural Ireland. The film is essentially a story of falling in love for the first time. Love blossoms when Anya, an 18-year-old German girl, visits Ireland for the summer. Dominic, 14, and his brother Patrick, 21, find their brotherly bond shaken when they fall in love with the same girl.
Crossing and switching genders is the essential theme of Sally Porter's Orlando (1993). Based on Virginia Woold's novel, this British production is a journey through time, of a person who lives for 400 years, first as a man, then as a woman.
The Mourner (Rudali) is the story of a lower-class Indian woman who seems to have no future as she is entrapped in a male- dominated and feudal system. Sanichari's husband is a no-gooder alcoholic, and her son is incapable of living up to his mother's hopes. Her only ray of hope is a forbidden affection, shown by the feudal lord's son. The other is Bhikni, a professional mourner who persuades Sanichari to adopt her trade.
As the host country, Indonesia contributes the most films, with production dates spanning 1963 to 1997. Garin Nugroho's Surat untuk Bidadari (Letter for an Angel, 1993) is a portrayal of two women, Berlian Merah and a young teacher, who live in a rough traditional Sumba village, controlled by Kuda Liar, the untouchable gangster. Despite the rough life they endure, they become the role models for nine-year-old Lewa and the other village children.
Directed by Alam Surawidjaja, Nyi Ronggeng (The Dancer, 1963) is a story of two sons of village leaders fighting over the heart of a female dancer. Fights almost break out between the two men before Sari, the dancer, steps in and blames the leaders for being irresponsible and power hungry.
Teguh Karya also takes a traditional approach with his Perkawinan Siti Zubaedah (Siti Zubaedah's Wedding). Coming from a traditional Betawi (Jakarta native) background, Zubaedah is taught to be patient and devoted to her husband. However, Kodjat, her husband, becomes hard to deal with. She has to work hard during her first pregnancy, causing her to almost lose the baby. Not until she delivers a baby boy, does Kodjat seem to realize the hardships he has inflicted on her.
Tasi Oh Tasi, by the late Arifin C. Noer, focuses on Tasi's life and the traditional practice of marrying off children at an early age.
Directed by Paula van der Oest, De nieuwe Moeder (Another Mother) tells the story of a father and a son's trip across Holland to find a new mother.
Vladimir Menchov's Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (1980) won an Oscar in 1981 for best foreign film. With humor and kind- heartedness, the film features the lives of three young country women, who come to the Russian capital in search of a better life.
On Wednesday, the festival's day, there will be screenings of five documentaries and one short film at the Australian Embassy Theatrette.
American Ellen Bruno's documentaries, Samsara and Tibet, convey the hardships experienced in two Buddhist societies. In Samsara, Cambodian survivors try to understand their dark past by using Buddhist teachings, folklore, dreams and ancient prophecy.
Satya: A Prayer for the Enemy portrays resistance movements led by Tibetan Buddhist nuns against Chinese repressions.
A film discussion on women's films will close this second Jakarta International Women Film Festival. The speakers will include film critic J. B. Kristianto, local female directors Mira Lesmana and Nan T. Achnas, and foreign women directors Hirtz and Chieko Kotouda, whose film Kaze no Katami (After the Wind Has Gone) is also being screened.