Opening Films
*With Pre-screening of She Shapes a Nation
1) Pertaruhan (At Stake)
Ani Ema Susanti, Iwan Setiwan & M. Ichsan, Lucky Kuswandi, Ucu Agustin / 2008 / 106min / Indonesia / R21
Synopsis:
“Pertaruhan” (At Stake) is a documentary anthology of four stories by five directors on politics and discourse about women in Indonesia. Topics explored include the practice of women circumcision in Indonesia, another observes two women serving sex at night on the hard surface of Chinese graveyards while hammering rocks during the day to make ends meet. Another film sees three unmarried women who try to get treatment for their reproductive issues, and the last film focuses on two migrant workers in Hong Kong facing different dilemmas: Rutiwat must choose between staying a virgin or damaging her health, and Rianti ponders the possibility of coming out of the closet when she is back in Indonesia.
Director’s Bio:
Ucu Agustin started to write for magazines when she was a college student, majoring in Islamic study. After graduating, she continued her career as a freelance columnist writing about human rights issues in various publications. She experimented with short documentary and one of her films “Death in Jakarta” won the Jakarta International Film Festival script development programme in 2005.
Lucky Kuswandi graduated from the Art College of Design Pasadena, California. He’s been an art and film freak since. As a filmmaker, he focuses on short films and short documentaries. His works, “Still” (2005), “Black Cherry” (2005) and “Letter of Unprotected Memories” (2008) have been traveling to numerous international film festivals. He also has a passion for introducing indie films to the Indonesian public. He programmes for the Q! Film Festival in Jakarta.
Iwan Setiwan is a TV news journalist working for a major TV network in Indoensia. His real passion is in documentary films and has been making short documentaries in his spare time. “Illegal Logging” is one of his documentaries that has won the 2004 Indonesian Film Festival award. Muhammad Ichsan graduated from Trisakti University, majoring in Visual Art and has been working in film as an art director as well as assistant director since 2002.
Ani Ema Susanti had worked in Hong Kong as a migrant worker for two years to save money for her college degree in psychology. She’s familiar with women migrant worker issues and finds that documentary films is the best medium to express herself. Her first short documentary “Hong Kong Helper Goes to Campus” was chosen as a finalist in an Indonesian documentary competition in 2007.
Contact:
kalyanashira@yahoo.com
view trailer |
