Perspective: Humanity

Paper Can Not Wrap Up Embers

Rithy Panh, 2006, France/ Cambodia, 90 min.

Film ini menyimak dengan sangat dekat pengalaman-pengalaman sekelompok wanita pekerja seks komersil di Kamboja dengan kehidupan mereka yang penuh dengan keputus-asaan. Saat siang hari, mereka tinggal di sebuah gedung tua, dan ketika malam tiba, mereka menjajakan diri di jalanan, mengumpulkan uang sedikit demi sedikit. Nasib mereka sangat tergantung pada mood, pelanggan, dan polisi. Kesewenang-wenangan, kekerasan fisik, narkoba, dan AIDS juga begitu akrab dengan keseharian mereka.

They are doomed to the inevitable process of their social and physical decay, and to the slow death of their spirits: by day, the young Cambodian girls live in a derelict building, by night they walk the streets, earning a pitifully low amount of money as prostitutes. Their fate depends on the mood and the random acts of their clients, their pimps, and the police. Humiliation, physical violence, drugs and AIDS are the constants around which their lives revolve. "The film is situated as close as one can get to the life - and thus to the spiritual death - of a prostitute. The ultimate social decay ends with the irreparable injustice of a process that cannot be reversed: the destruction of a body.“

Cinéma du Réel 2007, Doclisboa, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Anûû rû âboro International Film Festival, festival d’Alba,

Senin, Dec 10 | 20.30 | Vredeburg 1 (opening film)

Kamis, Dec 13 | 13.00 | LIP

Neo Lounge

Joanna Vasquez Arong CHINA, 86 minutes, 2007

Beijing 2003. Menderu menjadi sebuah kota kosmopolitan kelas dunia, banyak orang asing datang ke Beijing. Di kota yang penuh dengan pertentangan dan kejutan, banyak orang yang mencari kehangatan dan perlindungan di bar-bar, salah satunya Bar Neo-Lounge yang dijalankan oleh pasangan Shanghai yang trendy. Film ini menyajikan kisah hidup seorang penyanyi Jazz Bulgaria, yang mulai berpentas ketika China terkena wabah SARS, dan seorang pengusaha Italia yang gila pesta. Keduanya, bersama dengan teman-temannya, mengejar mimpi di tengah kota Beijing yang sama sekali tak bisa diduga. Nyatanya, lari dari masa lalu tak selamanya mudah.

Beijing 2003. As the capital strives to transform itself into a world-class cosmopolitan city, many foreigners are drawn to Beijing. In a city full of surprises and contradictions, many are finding refuge in the trendy bar, Neo-Lounge, run by a hip Shanghainese couple. The film follows a year in the lives of a Bulgarian jazz singer after she lands her first gig during the SARS epidemic period and a larger-than-life Italian businessman whose parties never seem to cease at his lavish home. As they both strive to chase their dreams and find their own space in unpredictable Beijing, they, together with their colorful friends, soon find out that escaping their past isn’t always easy.

Kamis, Dec 13 | 14.15 | Vredeburg 1

Sabtu, Dec 15 | 14.15 | Vredeburg 2

La fille du Juge

William Karel, 90’/Roche Production/2005

Kenangan yang pahit, menyakitkan. Perjalanan seorang anak perempuan dari seorang ayah pelaku terorisme dan pengeboman kota Paris pada pertengahan tahun 80. Tidak ada lagi yang ingat ayahnya, namun tentu saja mimpi buruk itu tidak akan pernah pergi dari kepalanya. Dia hidup dengan membawa memori itu, ke mana pun ia pergi.

A memory was hurts. Its a journey from a terrorism perpetrator daughter. Her father has bombed Paris town in the middle of 80s. No one remember her father, but of course the nightmare will never go from her head. She life by bringing the memory wherever she go.

Nominee for Best Documentary, Meilleur film documentaire

Selasa, Dec 11 | 15.00 | LIP

Jum’at, Dec 14 | 13.00 | Vredeburg 2

The River Where We Live

Sylvain L’Espérance Canada, 92 min, 2006, Vidéo, couleur.

Film ini berkisah tentang sebuah delta sungai di Mali, Afrika. Di sana kanal, sungai, danau, tanah lapang, daerah banjir bertemu dengan mozaik-mozaik kebudayaan masyarakat etnis lokal. Film ini secara sistematis merefleksi keterpurukan para penduduk di tanah yang sepi itu. Salah seorang penjual ikan berkisah tentang kekhawatirannya, kesibukan di tepi sungai sudah menghilang, bersamaan dengan mulai hilangnya ikan-ikan yang biasa berenang di sana.

In Mali, the River Niger’s inner delta is a tangle of canals, rivers, lakes, islands, ponds, meadows, flood zones and a mosaic of ethnic peoples. The film methodically sets about undermining appearances and clichés attached to this sea of tranquility. A fish-seller is worried: the riverside rushes are disappearing, as are the fish that shelter among them. The Peul herder talks of the big cats that are becoming rarer, of his cattle’s sickness now the ponds are drying up. The Niger is a living being, not just a surface of water, a complexorganism that is slowly dying under our eyes, without our realising it.

Brooklyn International Film Festival, Cinéma d’Attac Festival, Champs et Contrechamp festival, Festival de l’Oh!, Visions du Réel Film Festival, Hot Docs Film Festival, Dok.Fest

Selasa, Dec 11 | 16.30 | LIP

Sabtu, Dec 15 | 13.00 | Vredeburg 2

MORRISTOWN: In the Air and Sun

Anne Lewis, 60 min, USA, 2007

Anne Lewis, sutradara dari film ini menceritakan sejarah selama hampir satu dekade perubahan di Morristown, Tennessee. Melalui wawancara denngan para pekerja dari Selatan yang berupah rendah, imigran dari Meksiko, dan para pekerja beserta keluarganya yang terkena efek globalisasi. Video ini menunjukkan bagaimana kaum buruh di Meksiko dan AS itu ditangkap di tengah perubahan ekonomi besar-besaran, menantang asumsi mereka mengenai pekerjaan, keluarga, masyarakat, dan bangsa.

In this hour-long documentary, director Anne Lewis chronicles nearly a decade of change in Morristown, Tennessee, through interviews with displaced or low-wage Southern workers, Mexican immigrants, and workers and families impacted by globalization. The video shows how working-class people in Mexico and the US are caught in the throes of massive economic change, challenging their assumptions about work, family, community, and nation

Rabu, 12 Des, 16.30, Vredeburg 1

Invisible City

Tan Pin Pin, Singapore, 59 min, 2007

Dokumenter ini menyampaikan seberapa personalkah pencarian mereka dan bagaimana begitu rentannya sejarah, hanya bergantung pada artefak dan memori mereka. dirangkai dengan wawancara yang tidak pernah diperlihatkan sebelumnya, footage dan foto-foto yang diambil dari arsip-srsip pribadi para narasumbernya. Dalam film ini, anda adalah saksi dari kegagalan memori.

The documentary conveys how deeply personal their search is and how fragile histories are, hanging on only through their memories and artefacts. Interwoven with the interviews is never seen before footage and photos of the City culled from their private archives. In Invisible City, you witness the atrophy of memory, you see a City that could have been.

Rabu, Dec 12 | 13.00 | Vredeburg 1

Kamis, Dec 13 | 16.00 | LIP

Up The Ridge

Nick Szuberla and Amelia Kirby, USA, 60 min, 2006

Film ini membawa kita memasuki industri penjara Amerika Serikat dan efek sosial yang diakibatkan oleh pemindahan ratusan ribu narapidana dari penjara di kota ke sebuah penjara di lokasi yang terpencil. Film ini memaparkan benturan kepentingan antara agenda politik kebijakan pemerintah dan pelanggaran hak asasi manusia, membuka tabir adanya kepentingan politik sepihak yang menjerumuskan komunitas masyarakat ke dalam konflik rasial dan budaya yang pada akhirnya membawa konsekuensi yang tragis. Secara ideologis dan praktis, kejadian ini mengingatkan pada pelanggaran hak asasi manusia di Abu Ghraib dan juga catatan penyiksaan fisik dan seksual yang terjadi di penjara-penjara Amerika.

The film lead us to see in-depth look at the United States prison industry and the social impact of moving hundreds of thousands of inner-city minority offenders to distant rural outposts. The film explores competing political agendas that align government policy with human rights violations, and political expediencies that bring communities into racial and cultural conflict with tragic consequences. Connections exist, in both practice and ideology, between human rights violations in Abu Ghraib and physical and sexual abuse recorded in American prisons.

Rabu, Dec 12 | 15.30 | Vredeburg 1

Turbulent Waters

Malcolm Guy and Michelle Smith, 53 min, Prod: National Film Board of Canada

Film ini mengajak kita ke bawah geladak untuk menemui para pekerja yang berada di jantung perekonomian dunia, mengingat 90% perdagangan internasional bergerak melalui laut. Namun, pekerja yang menjadi tulang punggung perdagangan dunia ini ternyata hidup menderita dan 2.500 di antaranya tewas dalam pekerjaannya setiap tahun. Dokumenter yang sangat menggigit ini mengekspos kenyataan pelayaran internasional dan memberikan suara dan martabat kepada para pekerja yang membahayakan nyawa mereka dalam mengantarkan barang-barang kebutuhan hidup kita sehari-hari.

"Mr. Myles, pick up the phone. Please. This is a very urgent matter."

This film takes us below deck to meet the men who toil at the grimy heart of the global economy as over 90% of international trade moves by sea. Yet the men whose labour is the lifeblood of world trade reap few benefits with over 2500 seafarers die on the job every year. This hard-hitting documentary exposes the reality of international shipping, while giving voice and dignity to the men who risk their lives to bring us the goods we need.

Rabu, Dec 12 | 15.00 | Vredeburg 2

And Thereafter II

Hosup Lee, 56 min, South Korea, prod. DocuEye Production,2006

Ajuma adalah seorang pengantin dari seorang prajurit Amerika di Korea Selatan. Dia lalu ikut suaminya ke Amerika, dan sekarang menjadi seorang janda. Dia berbicara bahasa inggris setegah-setengah, dan suka berjudi di kasino lokal. Saat diwawancara, dia berbicara blak-blakan kepada filmmaker. Walaupun agak terlihat menyembunyikan kesedihan di balik kalimat-kalimatnya, karakternya terlihat selalu menang … Cerita tentang wanita tangguh ini pada akhirnya bukan sekadar sebuah memori yang terpendam, tapi menjelma menjadi sebuah bagian sejarah yang terlupakan.

Ajuma was a war bride of an American GI in South Korea. She followed her husband to the USA. She is now a widow. She speaks English reluctantly, likes gambling to the local casino. When interviewed, she responds bluntly to the filmmaker. Although he shelters behind the ironic tone of his captions, his “character” always wins. In many ways, And Thereafter II is reminiscent of Shohei Imamura’s History of Post-War Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess. The fundamental likeness lies in the affection linking the filmmaker to his character, with the result that he is no longer the witness of a story he recreates for us, but a central character of his narrative. His heroine is not a deep-buried memory, but rather part of a forgotten history.

Selasa, Dec 11 | 17.00 | Vredeburg 2

Kamis, Dec 13 | 19.00 | Kinoki

Acidente

Cao Guimarães and Pablo Lobato, Brazil, 72 min, 2006

Guimarães dan Lobato mengunjungi 20 kota di Minas Gerais, Brazil, merekam dengan film secara kontinyu apa yang ditemui mereka, mulai dari prosesi religious di Virgin of The Rock hingga aktivitas malam di pom bensin di Watery Yeyes. Film ini menunjukkkan keberagaman budaya di masing-masing kota.

Guimarães and Lobato visit 20 city in Minas Gerais, Brazil and unobtrusively film slices of life, from a religious procession in Virgem da Lapa (Virgin of the Rock), to the nighttime activity at a lone gas station in Olhos d'Agua (Watery Eyes), to women sweeping the road in Entre Folhas (Between Leaves). These individual picture postcards form a larger tapestry revealing the diversity of the people, locations, and cultures of the region, while the place names gradually unite to become a literal and expressive poem on the screen

Selasa, Dec 11 | 19.00 | Vredeburg 2

Sabtu, Dec 15 | 13.00 | Vredeburg 1