... I wouldn't have dared to step out of my house last weekend, let alone hopped on a plane and flew to other town.

What happened was, I woke up around 6 a.m., immediately checked my mobile but at the same time went to bathroom. The night before, we were busy monitoring my in-laws whose neighborhood was flooded. There were a couple of text messages, so I checked them out and replying to them while sitting on the toilet. Yes, I am that impatient.

I then put my mobile on the top of the toilet, and reached out for water and toilet paper. Alas, the phone rang and vibrated and whoosh.. it slipped down the toilet bowl. There it was, my brand new Nokia, dipped in my own crap (a gazillion 'eeeeeww'). My stupidity is beyond me.

Afterward, aside from feeling shitty for flushing Rp 4 million down the toilet, I thought about superstition. Indonesians are superstitious, regardless their religion and ethnicity. My mom, a pious Muslim, is no exception. She taught me that crap/shit/fesces is related to embarrassment (wonder why:) ). So, if you dream about it, you'll face embarrassment later on. I love my mom, but I don't buy that (and many other stuff), even as a kid hehe.

The queen of superstition, however, was my late grandma from my mom's side. Oh, I miss her. She wasn't a pleasant woman :) but she sure had character. She had this 'primbon' book, or a guidance from anchestor, which tells you everything from the good day to have sex to the best hour to get high (OK, I made it up). I remember one morning years ago when I told her that I dreamt about cutting my hair, she dragged me outside, and told me to grab a thin wooden stick and drew a line on the ground. Again, to repel bad luck.

I wonder what drives people to be superstitious. Maybe the sense of powerlessness, which also makes many people turn to religion/spirituality. One of my best friends, a very sensible and logical woman, freaked out when she was told a myth saying that if you give perfume to your boyfriend/girlfriend perfume, you will break up. To repel it, the bf/gf should in turn give money (a coin would be enough). I understand her fear, though, cause when you really love someone, you became irrational and you'd do anything not to lose him.

The powerlessness was also in the face of another friend's mom, when years and years ago, I borrowed my friend's handkerchief (jaman dulu belum musim tissue, bo, hehe), and she borrowed it from her mom. Instead, her mom folded a stack of tissue paper for me, and told us that giving handkerchief to someone will ruin your relationship. "The same thing will happen if you are photographed with two other people," she said. Both happened to her, she said, before she got divorced. I'm sorry, Tante, but could it be that your ex was a jerk? :)

Wait a minute, I gave my mom-in-law handkerchief once. In that case, I'd be happy to give her a hundred more :D (kidding, baby. I'm letting go.. letting go...)

Posted by hera at 5:08 PM | Permalinks | Comments   

Last weekend I became a moderator for a seminar discussing the state of Indonesian films. Hangover and sleep deprivation aside, I got a bit bored after a while watching filmmakers bickering on, get this, how many awards they got in festivals abroad.
Some discussions were interesting, but the rest just reminded me of Mikail Johani's writing (http://thetruthaboutjakarta.multiply.com/journal/item/23).

Anyway, below is something I wrote last month. It was supposedly being published in a publication, but I changed my mind. So, here it is:

And…cut! Finding fault in Indonesian cinema
By Hera Diani

Déjà vu New Order. That was the first thing that came to mind at my initial jury meeting for the 2004 Indonesian Film Festival (FFI), revived after a dormancy of 12 years amid the local film industry’s sagging fortunes .

There was the formality of the meeting, the old-fashioned terms and language used, and people I had assumed were long gone from the scene. Chairing the committee was a film director best known for making tabloid headlines a few years back after marrying an actress deemed as the magma of film industry.

Go with your first impression, I have learned. The experience turned out to be confounding. The fringe events, for instance, had nothing to do with films; there was a bazaar, offering clothes, hair accessories and the like, and wayang puppet performances.

When the results were announced at a tacky awards ceremony, there was the impression the honors were divided up evenly. The best picture winner, Arisan! (Gathering), for instance, did not win in other major categories, such as screenplay or directing.

I gave FFI another shot in 2005, but nothing had changed. Something had to give, and it did in 2006, when FFI picked Ekskul (short for extracurricular activities) for the best picture. Accusations of plagiarism aside (the high-school tragedy storyline seems to have been lifted from the events that inspired the documentary Bowling for Columbine and the music score resembles everything from Korea’s Tae Guk Gi to Gladiator’s), it is a bad movie. Outrageous and excessive on every level, it also causes eye strain from the MTV-style-gone-awry editing.

Filmmakers, mostly young members of the community, returned their awards in protest, using the momentum to push for the addressing of other issues like censorship.
However, putting aside all the FFI controversy, it’s the local film scene itself that is the big problem.

Despite indications of a revival in the late 1990s, local films – with very few exceptions -- are still plagued by bad storytelling (or a bad story, period), pretentious, artsy-fartsy aspirations and the sacrificing of basic filmmaking techniques and esthetic value in pursuit of box-office profits (shoddy teen flicks and horror movies).

The young generation of filmmakers has every right to criticize the tired old hacks on the FFI committee. Still, some of they should also face up to the fact that many of their works are derivative, imitating melodramatic features of the 1980s or today’s popular TV soaps.

These same young filmmakers slam critics of their films, complain of ignorant audiences when there are empty seats at the theater and whine the government is not supportive of the scene. The latter is nothing new – just ask the members of the Science Olympics team or anyone else who succeeded internationally if the government was there to help. They should look to other countries, like Iran, where there is little funding for film and censorship is always a worry. Yet Iran can still produce accomplished movies.

Also to blame in contributing to the stagnation is the media. Perhaps criticism is not part of Indonesian culture, but many so-called critics lack the knowledge and capacity to offer worthwhile input. Instead of film reviews, what appears in the media is simply a synopsis, or comments from the filmmakers. Lightweight teen flicks or campy horror movies receive deep philosophical analysis, while a tongue-in-cheek comedy is slammed as illogical. Now, perhaps, we can understand why Ekskul won.

Due to that lack of critical knowledge, the media also builds up filmmakers based entirely on one good, or sometimes OK, effort. They are hailed as the next great of the silver screen, and then fail to live up to all that hype.

The film community is trapped in its own mediocrity. But it’s not only the FFI that is to blame, but everybody involved in settling for second best.

Posted by hera at 5:18 PM | Permalinks | Comments