Minikino offers demitasse of experimental video
Minikino offers demitasse of experimental video
Paul F. Agusta, Contributor/Jakarta
The group gathered in the screening room at Galeri Oktagon, Jl. Gunung Sahari Raya, Central Jakarta, was small, but intensely focused on the subject at hand.
Surprisingly for a meeting taking place amid presidential campaign fever and ensuing traffic snarls, the only thing talked about was the art of video-making in relation to the urban landscape of Jakarta.
Minikino groups people who believe that short movies are as valid as narrative art, as are poetry and short stories. Within this point of view, even the most experimental works of cinema, no matter how far from traditional narrative they may seem to be, all have as their purpose the unfolding of a story, theme or message.
Seizing this idea, Minikino brings a distinctive selection of short films from around the world to audiences in Indonesia and abroad.
Minikino holds free screenings and discussions to provide filmmakers with an opportunity to screen their work to a wider audience, and to introduce new ideas emerging in the international short film movement to a wider public.
The gathering at Galeri Oktagon on Sunday, June 27, was no exception.
The works presented, seven narratives of urban life and urban space, focused on the Jakarta experience. Produced by the video art workshop at Ruang Rupa, Jl. Tebet Barat Dalam IX A, No. B1 between 2000 and 2003, the films took Jakarta as "the context, a conceptual background for artists working with video as a medium to explore their ideas," said Ruang Rupa program director Indra Ameng. "Through its arts projects and workshops, Ruang Rupa attempts to bring urban issues into focus."
The first film shown was 15,000,000 Parachutes by Sebastian Diaz Morales, an Argentine filmmaker who participated in a Ruang Rupa video art workshop in 2001; it is an abstract commentary on immigrants struggling to survive in the metropolis. The second was Elevator, made at a workshop in July 2003 by Albertus Wisnumurti and Stephanus Citra Pramadi of Indonesia, who brilliantly visualized the monotony and loneliness in the daily routine of a largely ignored elevator operator in a Jakarta office building.
The third film was Gajah Mada -- Kuruw Mayah, also made at the 2003 workshop by Oliver Zwink of Germany, which is a record of a round-trip journey along a main street in old Jakarta. The fourth was It's MTV by Indonesia's Ford Foundation, a member of the music video-making collective known as The Jadugar, which challenges MTV to remove its logo from the screen so that people can get the full impact of the videos being shown.
The fifth film was Everything's OK by Tintin Wulia, who is the mastermind behind Minikino, a brilliantly conceptualized stop- motion animated video about the evolution of a city. The sixth was Burn by Aria Satria Dharma, a music video for an Indonesian trash metal band, Brisik. The seventh was Pulau Seribu (Tetty Kadi) (Thousands Island (Tetty Kadi)) by the Hussain-Klofkorn Indonesia-Germany collaboration, a music video featuring a 1970s Indonesian pop song accompanied by visuals of a car spiraling around inside a multistory car park.
At the moment, Minikino is screening and holding discussions at four venues in three different cities in Indonesia: Denpasar, Jakarta and Bandung. In Jakarta the venues are Galeri Oktagon, where screenings take place on the third Sunday of each month, and QB World Books in Kemang, which shows short films on the third Wednesday of the month.
For more information on Minikino, including schedules of screenings and workshops held in Jakarta, Denpasar and Bandung, as well as other activities organized by Minikino, you can visit their website at http://minikino.org. For more information on Ruang Rupa visit http://ruangrupa.org.