Local documentary goes cineplex

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Four years have already passed. Four years since the student movement surfaced and culminated in the killing of four Trisakti University students, followed by widespread rioting.

It has been four years since the student movement succeeded, surprisingly, in bringing down former president Soeharto from power in 1998.

A lot has gone on during those four years. The student movement is said to have lost direction, due to a lack of leadership, common platform and solid or organized action.

Whatever may be the case, let's just take a look at this documentary film by Tino Saroengallo, which will be showing at cinemas in Jakarta, starting on Wednesday.

In line with the title, the film portrays some of the movements in the city, starting with the Trisakti tragedy on May 12, 1998. It continues with Soeharto's resignation, the wave of demonstrations against former president B.J. Habibie's policy, to the People's Consultative Assembly special session, ending with the Semanggi I incident.

The film was shot by Tino while working as an assistant for a German television journalist here.

Combining footage from several sources, Tino, along with freelance journalist association Jakarta Media Syndication, edited it into a documentary film.

The piece was first called The Army Forced Them to be Violent.

"I deliberately took sides in this film. It's not news coverage, where we have to be balanced and cover both sides (of the story)," Tino said after a recent preview.

According to him, it was clear that the 1998 student movement was a peaceful act with students using only posters, megaphones and banners. But the army fought them with clubs and guns, so the students fought back with violence.

Tino then decided to change the title, but the antimilitary spirit remains.

The film opens with a text that reads, "this film is dedicated to the Indonesian Military, which fought the students. May God forgive them. Amen".

The camera then rolls to the street, invoking the familiar scenes that many of us have probably forgotten: the march on the streets, the jargon, the street theater, the chaos.

Some students from Forkot (City Forum), a militant student group, also make some comment in this film.

It took Tino about three months to make this film at a secret location.

"I was worried that something would happen if we made this film openly, but it turned out nothing did," said Tino, adding that he had some help from top filmmakers in this country.

"Eighty percent of the film was shot by me; the rest was from my friends."

There were some obstacles, however, with data and with editing the footage, which had a total duration of 50 hours. Funding was another problem, which is why the film was completed only this year.

From the beginning, Tino insisted that the film had to be shown on the wide screen.

"I want as many people as possible to watch this film. The only way is through cinema. So, I contacted the 21 cineplex group and convinced them to play my film. They then said OK, as long as it brought in an audience. By playing it in the cinema, I don't have to travel to other cities to play this film," he said.

The Film Censorship Institute (LSF) cut a scene, however, where a soldier kicked the head of a protester who already lay helpless in the street.

"Never mind, that image has already been widely seen," he said.

Tino wittily edited this film, and has added some humorous, yet bitter scenes. The one where women police fight with female students protesters, for example, where the narrator says that "the women police showed that they were the same as their male counterparts". The scene is ironically illustrated by Ibu Kita Kartini, a national song created to honor woman heroine Kartini.

Another shows how students mocked the police and military to their face, or where soldiers sang marching tunes at the top of their voices after the shooting incident.

There are some shortcomings, however, like the flat plot, perhaps because of the timeline, and there is no specific focus in this film (or could it be because we have become hardened by violence?).

The technique and the pictures are sometimes poor, which is understandable.

But all of the shortcomings are insignificant. This film is very important, not just as pure and simple documentation of one great historical moment, but also a damn good reminder for all of us.

As Tino put it, he hoped to generate an awareness, that something wrong happened, something that many may forget.

For E-Box Student Movement in Indonesia (May 12, 1998-December 17, 1998); Documentary, 43 minutes; Directed by Tino Saroengallo; A Jakarta Media Syndication production; Narration and subtitles in English