Ngudi Mulyo housewives get to make their own film

Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Bantul, Yogyakarta

Ngatemi, 43, and 11 other housewives never imagined they would someday make a film about themselves.

Most of the women from the Ngudi Mulyo PKK (women's family welfare organization) in rural Karang Asem, Pundong, had little or no formal schooling and their days were normally taken up with helping their husbands earn additional income for their families.

Some did so by collecting grass for animal feed or by working as manual laborers in the rice fields. "We are just villagers. It was really like a dream when someone came to us and offered us the opportunity to make a film on our own. How could we do it? We'd never even held a camera, much less used one to produce a film," Ngatemi, a mother of two, told The Jakarta Post excitedly.

The chance came when a group of activists from the Institute of Development and Economic Analysis (IDEA) and community organization Etnoreplika approached them. The film was part of an advocacy program aimed at providing rural women with information about health, their role in the community and access to funding.

While they accepted the offer to make a film, most of the women did not have high hopes for the project, however, they kept trying and were usually in high spirits when filmmaking under the supervision of activists.

It was they who decided the story idea. It was also the women who prepared the storyboard for each of the scenes, selected the players and shot the film for seven consecutive days.

Work was divided up evenly. Karjiyah, 41, was assigned the director, Parsini, 28, as the camerawoman, and Tusilah, 26, as the lead actor-cum-caterer.

The women were also shown how to make a funding proposal to the regional government of Bantul to access funds allocated for PKK associations. They applied for a donation of Rp 1.6 million but were only granted Rp 200,000.

The film they produced was a matter of pride for the 12 housewives and the entire community of Karang Asem. The film, later given the title Panjangka Tan Kena Sirna (Hope never dies), attracted hundreds of villagers when it was given an open-air screening in the front yard of the village's local mosque.

"How were we able to make such a good movie? I can't believe it," Karjiyah said quietly while she watched the movie on the giant screen, self-consciously pressing her palms against her face.

Karjiyah admitted to being stressed at the screening, saying she had worried the film would be badly received.

All amateur actors, the dialog and the scenes of the film were based on the daily activities of the village, she said.

"Theoretically, it sounds as though it should have been very easy to do, as we were used to talking together. Yet, in front of a camera, our mouths felt very stiff. We couldn't speak at all," said Ngatemi, adding that some scene sometimes needed to be re-shot many times.

Panjangka Tan Kena Sirna tells about the struggle of members of the PKK Ngudi Mulyo Association to revive a community posyandu (integrated service post) that had been abandoned for a long time.

The first scene of the film shows the empty posyandu at scheduled times for health consultations or medical checkups. Although an announcement is repeatedly made through the local mosque's loudspeaker, none of the housewives go to the post as they are busy working and making money.

"This was not an engineered scene. It was the reality. The posyandu did not work because there was no money to run it," Karjiyah said.

"The film really shows what we have been experiencing so far in the village," Tusini said.

It also depicts domestic problems, with one scene showing a husband getting angry with his wife for joining the PKK. Tusilah said the scene was similar to an argument she once had with her husband, Jumakir, who became angry with her because she had gone to a PKK meeting.

"But my husband is no longer like that anymore. He laughed after seeing the film. He also often teases me by calling me a film star," said Tusilad, smiling.

"Panjangka Tan Kena Sirna illustrates the reality of life for women in rural areas who often encounter problems rooted in a lack of sufficient knowledge about health, the role of women and access to funding," Eko Bebek of Etnoreplika said.

Eko said she hoped the film would make the women more confident of their abilities and more aware of some of the problems in their village.