'Pusaka Anak Nusantara' offers alternative show for children
By Hera Diani
JAKARTA (JP): Move over Crayon Sinchan, you've got a rival! For parents who are worried with the less than educative show, or those who are unaware that the Japanese animation is actually for adults, there is now an alternative show for your children.
Starting today, a TV series called Pustaka Anak Nusantara (Indonesian Children's Book) will be aired every Sunday.
The show, produced by the Visi Anak Bangsa working group (KKVAB), is meant to be a peek into the daily lives of children from different ethnic groups across the country.
"It's part of our multicultural program campaign. It's aimed at showing our children how rich culturally our country is," noted film director Garin Nugroho, who is also a member of KKVAB, told journalists at the official launch of the program at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) in East Jakarta on Monday.
KKVAB has been active in a campaign of civic education. It has produced non-commercial public service advertisements, including ones for the 1999 election.
It also produced a similar television series Anak Seribu Pulau (Children of the Thousand Islands) in 1996 which was simultaneously aired on all television channels.
"We see that developed countries are able to manage multiculture as a productive source in every field through various popular media like television," Garin said.
He added that KKVAB wanted Pustaka to be like America's Sesame Street which introduces children to different ethnic groups like African Americans and Hispanics.
"Many Indonesian children don't know what their peers are doing in different provinces. So through this program, children will hopefully understand different cultures, respect them and finally be proud of their country," he said.
It is especially relevant at this juncture when the country is threatened by disintegration, he added.
The series consists of 32 episodes, the same number as there are provinces in Indonesia. All of them were directed by young Indonesian directors.
With the total of 150 crew, the directors have traveled around the country in the past seven months to film the series, from Merauke in Irian Jaya, to Ambarawa in Central Java to Aceh.
Judging from the preview screened at TMII, the technique and camera-angles in the filming are quite good.
The preview is an episode which tells about the adventure of Bartol and Sam, both 12 years old, children of the Kanum ethnic group living around the Rawa Biru (Blue Swamp) in Merauke, Irian Jaya. One day, while fishing at the swamp, they accidentally cross an area known as Sasi.
Sasi is also a Kanum tribal mourning tradition signified by plunging a marker in the swamp around which people are forbidden to fish for two or three years.
The boys get frightened as local lore has it that those who break Sasi law will be punished, or worse, be haunted by the monster Meriyam. The dispute is resolved after Sam's family apologize to the mourning family.
The director is quite successful in getting the boys to act as naturally as possible and narrate the film.
We see scenes where children play around the swamp, swimming, rowing their boat, fishing, grilling fish, or running away as a gigantic crocodile approaches them.
"That is the purpose of the series. We want to present the universal essence of childhood: playing," Garin said.