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.