JP/18/TINTIN

JP/18/TINTIN

Tintin: Music teacher goes international with film shorts

Ni Luh Dian Purniawati, Contributor/Denpasar

Once a month, film buffs pack the hall of the Irama Indah House music school and store in Denpasar to watch film shorts.

The event has taken place regularly since Aug. 31, 2002, thanks to Maria Clementine Wulia, founder of the Minikino film community, who is a daughter of the owner of Irama Indah, where she also teaches.

Over the past few years, Maria, affectionately called Tintin, branched out to film, although she never dreamed that she could. Not only does she do this well, but her experimental shorts have also won international recognition.

Art is indeed in Tintin's blood. Her grandparents, Anna Maria Kanginadi and Liauw Liong Ke, used to organize traveling drama shows and makekawin, or recitations in ancient Javanese of stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics. The couple has nine children, all talented artists, among them Semarang-based pianist Jaya Suprana, Netherlands-based painter Sako and Yoseph, owner of the famed Joger souvenir shops.

Her father, Tulus Wulianta, is a pharmacist with a passion for music who married music teacher Cecilia Indrajaya. Together, they opened the Irama Indah Music House in Denpasar.

Born to the couple in Denpasar on Nov. 23, 1972, Tintin learned to play several instruments at a very young age, and when she was eight, she was already composing simple pieces. Tintin also entered several competitions in Yogyakarta and Jakarta held by Yamaha Music and often demonstrated her talent on Dilentasia, a local music program broadcast by state television station TVRI.

Her interest in music grew to touch upon the importance of music in films through Steven Spielberg's E.T.: The Extra- Terrestrial, which moved her with its score by John Williams.

She studied at Parahyangan University in Bandung, West Java, but in her fourth year, she took a sabbatical and attended Boston's Berkeley Music School, where she took a five-week course and learned about film scoring. Later, she worked part-time at the school's Digital Media Department, where she gained know-how in filmmaking technology.

Returning from Boston, she joined an online film project that took her on a one-month stint to Japan, where, as she walked along the Ginza red-light district of Tokyo, she espied a monk walking slowly and steadily. Tintin filmed him with her faithful Handycam -- a seed that grew into the three-minute Are You Close Enough, which won the Editor's Pick Award in a contest held by eveo.com.

In Japan, she also shot Violence Against Fruits on the Japanese persimmon, or Diospyros kaki, and how it is peeled and carefully quartered. The short went on to win the Kuldesak Award for Best Conceptual Film at the Indonesian Independent Video Film Festival (FFVII) 2001, which is a noncompetitive event organized by Konfiden, an independent film association.

Her participation in the events was a means to finish films she had begun earlier: "I want to do so many things that they are rarely completed. Before one is finished, I already want to start a new one. So, I needed to set a deadline for myself."

Following her success, Tintin received an email from Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), a private Australian television station that broadcasts art films from all over the world on its multicultural and multilingual film program. The SBS, which had read about her in the International Competition catalog from Oberhausen, Germany, asked for the right to broadcast her two films for three years. She agreed.

A one-week course on "The Art of Documentary Filmmaking" at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) in Sydney gave birth to the seven-minute Slambangricketychuck shot in Melbourne. It was named Best Documentary Film in June 2002 by the Music and Film Independent Artists (MAFIA), a nonprofit Sydney organization that aims to develop and promote independent films and music. The MAFIA Documentary Awards is the only competition in Australia for documentary films.

Tintin believes anyone can make a film, just as anyone can write stories, and frowns upon the notion that the industry is exclusive and that filmmakers are celebrities.

"I want to eliminate this impression, because actually, everyone can make films."

Tintin also wants to see the emergence of film communities to narrow the distance between filmmakers and viewers so they can interact, and so viewers can give their feedback directly to filmmakers. To her, a close filmmaker-viewer relationship is an indication that the media reflects the lives of the people.

She established Minikino to realize this aim, with the support of volunteers and other filmmakers like Judith Goeritno, Kiki Moechtar, Marinta Singarimbun, Ridwan Rudianto, Zeno Wulia, Koko Harsoe and Edo Wulia.

Through Minikino, she is able to provide alternative visual pieces to film lovers and set a distribution line for short films, which often face distribution problems because of the flood of pirated VCDs, not to mention the film distribution monopoly held by Cineplex21 and the limited variety of quality television films.

Minikino focuses on innovative short films, but generally features any alternative moving visual film, usually showing four to five films on a single occasion, and also has information on international film festivals.

Tintin persisted with her idea: The first thing she did was set up a website, www.minikino.org, and contact independent filmmakers around the world and invite them to show their work via Minikino. She was happy with the encouraging response she received.

Why, she wondered, didn't Indonesian independent filmmakers respond in kind?

"I don't know why," said Tintin. "Maybe they are enthusiastic, but only very few sent their films. Foreign filmmakers sent me more films and on time, as they promised," she said.

Noted figures in the industry are clearly enthusiastic about Tintin.

Lulu Ratna from Konfiden said Tintin was consistent in making short films in her own style: "We can see Tintin in her work."

Meanwhile, producer Mira Lesmana praised Tintin's films for their expressiveness and good rhythm, sound and artistic quality.

"She can be a great filmmaker-cum-musician. Don't forget the latter," she commented.

Internationally acclaimed film director Garin Nugroho said Tintin should keep developing her talents.

In regards her film Ketok -- which won two awards at the FFVII 2002, Best Film from the Aesthetic Science and Technology (SET) Foundation and Film with Best Ethnic Achievement by the Kuldesak Foundation -- he noted: "Ketok has elements of simplicity, efficiency and those which are close to us. Yet it has great imagination. The story-telling is innovative and there is a variety of methods."

In music, film and through teaching, it appears Tintin is imbuing the independent film industry with a new perspective and cultivating appreciation for this locally underappreciated media among young and veteran film lovers alike.