Second Jakarta Film Festival opens Nov. 3

Second Jakarta Film Festival opens Nov. 3

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta International Film Festival
(JiFFest) will be held here for 10 days for the second time
starting Nov. 3.

The festival will show some 100 quality films from Turkey,
Iran, Egypt, India, Australia, Germany, Japan, Russian and
Indonesia at Usmar Ismail Film Center, Erasmus Huis, Djakarta
Theater, Ismail Marzuki Arts Center (TIM) and Plaza Senayan.

This follows the much attended event last year which screened
some 65 films, mostly award-winning pictures from various
countries. Last year's festival was a huge success according to
the organizers as audiences enthusiastically flooded the festival
venues for nine straight days. Some of them were even willing to
sit on the floor.

The main theme of JiFFest 2000 are contemporary Islamic
culture and human rights films.

Shanty Harmayn, chairwoman of the Indonesian Independent Film
Society Foundation and the festival's cofounder, said the
contemporary Islamic culture theme had been chosen because of
audiences' enthusiasm to see Iranian films during last year's
festival.

"These films are expected to give Indonesians a perspective on
events and cultures of other countries which may have many
similarities to events or cultures here," Shanty told a press
conference last week.

Shanty, who initiated the festival last year after being
inspired by the large crowds that attended the annual British
Film Festival and the French Film Festival here, said it would be
interesting to see how filmmakers in repressed Islamic countries
could make creative and quality films amid tight censorship.

JiFFest's director and cofounder Natacha Devillers said a
number of films that would be shown during the festival,
especially those under the two main categories, reflects many
current events in the country.

Among the 14 films which will be shown under the contemporary
Islamic culture category are two Iranian films directed by the
country's most prominent director Abbas Kiarotami titled Wind
Will Carry Us and Taste of Cherry.

There will be seven films on human rights screened at the
festival, including the winner for Best Picture at the Cairo
International Film Award in 1996, The Story of Flores
Contemplacion.

The Philippines-made film tells the true and tragic story of
the Filipino maid hung for murder in Singapore in 1995 which
called to attention the plight of overseas workers including in
Indonesians.

Other categories of films during the festival are New Asian
Cinema, U.S. Independents, Music on Film, Focus on India, Fun
Fearless Female, Animation and Youth in Frame.

The festival will also show films directed by the world's most
prominent film directors who are more known to art house crowds,
such as Takeshi Kitano, Errol Morris and Tran An Hung. It will
also present collaborations from director-actor Werner Herzog and
Klaus Kinski.

Four films made by foreign filmmakers but focusing on
Indonesia will also be shown. They include the well-known The
Year of Living Dangerously which tells the story of the
turbulence in Indonesia in 1965. It stars Mel Gibson, Sigourney
Weaver and Linda Hunt.

The festival will also show several Indonesian films under the
New Indonesian Cinema, Focus on Garin Nugroho and Djajakusuma
Retrospective categories.

Award-winning Chinese film Shower which was directed by Zhang
Yang has been selected to open the festival while a Bhutanese
film, The Cup will close the event.

The Cup is particularly interesting since the film which
premiered in the Cannes Film Festival last year was written and
directed by a Tibetan lama, Khyentse Norbu. The film tells the
story of some Tibetan monks who were crazy about the World Cup
which eventually disturbed their concentration.

The festival will also hold film discussions in which several
notable speakers are scheduled to participate.

Two discussions titled Issues in Contemporary Islamic Culture
and Islam; and Freedom of Expression and Film will be held on
Nov. 12 at the Usmar Ismail Film Center with speakers Nurcholish
Madjid, Goenawan Muhammad, Asrul Sani and Ahmad Sahal.

According to the festival organizing committee, the issues
were raised because Islam was often represented as a homogeneous
entity by the mass media as well as by the Islamic community
itself. Part of the media still labels Islam with the stigma of
fundamentalists and a threat to democracy and openness. The great
variety in Islam that also includes the tolerant and moderate
faces of the faith is forgotten.

Tickets are being sold at Rp 7,500 a movie or Rp 5,000 per
ticket if you purchase 10 or more tickets for different films and
they can be booked in advance.

From Oct. 21 to Nov. 3, tickets can be obtained at Jl. Sutan
Syahrir 1 C Blok 3-4, Central Jakarta, while from Nov. 3 to Nov.
12, tickets can be obtained at Usmar Ismail Film Center at Jl.
H.R. Rasuna Said Kav. 22, South Jakarta.

Tickets are also available in limited quantities at the films
venues everyday two hours prior to the screening.

People can visit www.jiffest.com or call (021) 923-8364 for
film schedules. (jaw).