Film festival shows women in face of change

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.