Indonesia Distanced Stories

PROCESSING IDEAS CREATIVELY

Stories is an intensive creative filmmaking workshop initiated by Scottish Documentary Institute, and collaborated with host organisations in each country. Through Stories, filmmakers are empowered with knowledge and creative and practical tools to build a work team and process ideas creatively.

STORIES AT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALS

Since 2010 Stories has been running for 10 times in the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, and has produced more than 40 films. Stories films are selected at international film festivals such as the Sheffield DocFest; BFI London Film Festival; IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam); Locarno Film Festival; SXSW; OpenCityDocs, London; Africa in Motion, London; Zagrebdox, Croatia; Yogyakarta Documentary Film Festival, Indonesia; Encounters Short Film Festival, UK; Beirut International Film Festival; Hot Documents, Canada.

WHAT DOES STORIES LOOK LIKE?

The program is organized in collaboration with local organizations in each country. In Jakarta, Stories collaborated with the British Council and In-Docs, under the name of the Jakarta Stories.

The program includes an intensive 8–14 day workshop coupled with mentoring support. Stories are intended for 12 to 16 participants who will work in teams to create a three-minute film that offers insight into local identity through character/personal based stories. The selected participants will be divided into several teams consisting of disabled and non-disabled members. Currently, the registration is closed.

The Jakarta Stories was planned to take place during March 2020. During its journey, the Covid-19 pandemic has made the organizers change the name of Jakarta Stories to Indonesia Distanced Stories and was held from September to November 2020.

Seminars/classes and mentoring were running virtually, while documentary film production was not centered in one city, but in the cities where each participant was from. Some seminars can be accessed by the public, please visit the Indonesia Distanced Stories Webinar for more information/register yourself.

Indonesia Distanced Stories was hosted by Noé Mendelle and Anne Milne, collaborated with Dwi Sujanti Nugraheni and Ernest Hariyanto.

THE FILMS 

A total of 6 films have been produced from Indonesia Distanced Stories 2020:

  1. Baby Girl (Cunenk) | Rofie Nur Fauzie, Mohamad Sulaeman
    Cunenk grew up as a girl trapped in a boy’s body. She could not wait to leave her village and become a performer. She is very happy and respected within her new community but, once in a while, she steps back in her male clothes in order to fundraise for the local maternity hospital in memory of her mother.
  2. Falhan’s Love (Cinta Falhan) | Mohammad Ismail, Fr. Sales Magastowo
    Untung and Nesti love their 6 year old unconditionally despite his severe autism. Their daily family life is a challenge when both parents are disabled yet the love and encouragement flowing from them is a life affirming story.
  3. Green Fingers Club (Kelompok Wanita Tani) | Anita Reza Zein
    A collaboration between Woman Farmer Group and an Artist who see inequality of food distribution, so they create photography mapping that hopefully can connect city-village, especially on food sources and distribution.
  4. Karsih | Helga Theresia, Fajrian
    Karsih finds herself at the end of her life having to work as a street cleaner in order to support her extended family. To add insult to injury, her cleaning job is across the street from where she and her neighbours were dispossessed of their homes and land. But humour and love never leave her.
  5. Scene from the Unseen (Merupa) | Ary Aristo
    Ferdiandra Putra is a talented art student whose internal world is busy with creative possibilities. He may struggle sleeping, but his daydreaming leads him into creating mythical characters and objects. Over the years, with the love of his parents, he learnt to find coping mechanisms to deal with his Asperger’s. Now, he is busy preparing his first solo art exhibition.
  6. Teacher (Ibu Guru) | Lies Nanci Supangkat, Mochamad Arbani
    All mothers around the globe experience the pandemic with the same anxiety: juggling working from home with home schooling and family demands. Silvia Novani in Bandung is no different. She teaches all day online, only to return home to look after her children, husband and parents and, despite all those sacrifices, it is her male colleagues who get the promotions.

THE TEAMS BEHIND INDONESIA DISTANCED STORIES 

Scottish Documentary Institute

The Scottish Documentary Institute (SDI) has been working with emerging and experienced talents since 2003, producing creative documentaries through its annual Bridging the Gap, This is Scotland, and Right Here, which focus on short as well as feature-length documentaries. It also runs Edinburgh Pitch to stimulate and inspire the documentary industry in Scotland and beyond. SDI is committed to supporting authored films driven by content and emotional experience. It has been producing more than 150 films.

Please visit scottishdocinstitute.com for further information.

British Council

The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. It builds connection, and understanding between people in the UK and other countries. British Council make a positive contribution to the UK and the countries they work in – changing people’s lives by creating opportunities, building networks and fostering trust. It works in arts and culture, education, English language, and society, in more than 100 countries around the world.

Please visit www.britishcouncil.id for further information.

In-Docs

In-Docs is a non-profit institution that is committed to cultivate a culture of openness through documentary films. We believe that documentary films have the power to spark conversations, to touch people’s hearts, to open minds, and to enable change. We strive to build an ecosystem where great documentaries can be made and shared to the widest audience possible. We also create talent development and incubation programs for Southeast Asian documentaries, as well as connect them with the international industry and multi-sector stakeholders in the region and beyond.

Please visit in-docs.org for further information.