Armando Siahaan

H2Oil will be one of the documentaries showing at the festival.

Lights, Camera, Environmental Action

Here are some facts sobering facts about Mother Earth.

The energy needed to produce a can of soda is the same as that needed to burn a 100-watt light bulb for 21 hours. The annual volume of garbage produced in Jakarta is equal in volume to 185 temples the size of Borobudur. In Canada, about four barrels of clean water are polluted for every one barrel of oil exported to its neighbor, the United States.

The facts are there, but not a lot of people know about them.

There are many ways to send what some feel is a crucial message about the necessity of conservation and more environmentally friendly practices. To this end, a coalition of 10 nongovernmental organizations in Indonesia has decided to send the message through film, with the 2010 South to South Film Festival, or StoS.

StoS’s publications officer, Abdul Halim, who’s also a member of the Fisheries Justice Coalition, said: “We’re hoping for the rise of new hope in society to push the government, and to show that the people have done their part. We don’t have to stage a demonstration to make a change, we can do it in a fun way.”

Taking place from Friday to Sunday at Goethe Haus and CCF Jakarta, both in Central Jakarta, StoS will screen 23 productions from around the world that examine climate change and other environmental concerns. These movies seek to understand and raise awareness of what is at the root of these issues, and how they affect the earth and the human race.

Ferdinand Rachim, the chairman of the biannual festival, described the theme as “the environment and its relevant complexities,” which includes issues such as women’s suffrage, consumerism, poverty and human rights.

The movies are mainly documentaries, but there are also works of fiction and animated films in the festival. The films range from less than 10 minutes long to feature length.

StoS programmer Dimas Jayasrana said that in selecting the films, organizers focused on content rather than artistry and presentation. At the same time, he said, the movies chosen are “interesting” and not “cliched.”

The festival opens with “Anak-Anak Lumpur” (“Children of the Mud”) and “The Age of Stupid.”

“Anak-Anak Lumpur” is a documentary focusing on the lives of children who have been affected by the Lapindo mudflow disaster in Sidoarjo, East Java, which began in 2006. The latter is a quasi-documentary about a man living in 2055 who looks back and examines the different disasters and environmental damage the human race was responsible for, all of which ultimately led to the death of mankind.

“[‘Anak-Anak Lumpur’] represents one of the most important issues in Indonesia,” Dimas said. “I personally chose this film so that viewers realize the problem has not been solved.”

Dimas described “The Age of Stupid” as a film that “depicts social, environmental, economic and political issues, and the connections between them, while bringing up a lot of questions for the audience.”

Siti Maemunah, a festival committee member, said StoS was also about addressing the so-called North-South divide, a social, economic and political division between developed and developing countries.

“StoS provides a portrait of the problems that take place in the South, where the countries are rich in natural resources but suffer from poverty,” said Siti, who is also a member of the Mining Advocacy Network.

“There’s a scarcity of information about where [consumer products] come from, and how much the exploitation of natural resources actually costs,” Siti said.

An example of this is seen in “Tambogrande: Mango, Mining and Murder,” she said. This documentary looks at the fate of a mango farm in Peru that works to improve the welfare of surrounding residents, and how it is threatened with destruction when gold is discovered in the land beneath the farm.

Siti said by highlighting such issues and disseminating information through movies, StoS hoped to help people realize that they are generally the final consumers of natural resources.

Siti said people needed to “know about these issues and to be more responsible in their lifestyles.”

Although a film may not necessarily be the ultimate instrument of change, festival programmer Dimas said that movies could play an important role.

“I don’t never believe that a film can bring change [on its own],” he said. “A film can help initiate change, but it has to work with other things, such as a movement, for example. Change is a combination of discourse and action.”

As part of the festival, StoS has come up with a number of programs to allow the public to work toward change, including documentary filmmaking competitions, and a traveling road show that will visit high schools in Greater Jakarta to engage students in discussions about the environment.

Organizers said they hoped that the festival would encourage the public to put pressure on the government to address environmental and social issues with more urgency.

Ferdinand said the government had so far failed to deal with these issues.

“The pattern must be changed, the industries, the governments and the people themselves must change their way of thinking,” he said.

South to South Film Festival 2010
Goethe Haus
Jl. Sam Ratulangi No. 9-15,
Central Jakarta;
CCF Jakarta
Jl. Salemba Raya No. 25,
Central Jakarta
Friday to Sunday
See www.stosfestival.org

Look Out for These Festival Highlights

Anak-Anak Lumpur (Children of the Mud)

Directed by Danial Rifki

Jan. 22, from 8 p.m. at Goethe Haus

“Anak-Anak Lumpur” is a 23-minute documentary that looks at the Lapindo mudflow disaster in Sidoarjo, East Java, from a child’s perspective. It follows a boy who tries to help buy medicine for his mother, who has fallen ill due to the mudflow. During his journey, the child sees the impact of the catastrophe on residents and his community, examining the uncertain fate of the victims, the government’s lack of action, the spread of disease and growing disaster tourism.


The Age of Stupid (2009)

Directed by Franny Armstrong

Jan. 22, from 8 p.m. at Goethe Haus

In “The Age of Stupid,” a documentary-meets-fiction-meets-animation, Pete Postlethwaite plays an archivist who lives in a futuristic tower on a devastated earth in 2055. He opens his archives and looks back at the human initiatives that led to the world’s destruction. Some of the topics covered in this film include how the scramble for oil impacts on the country that owns the natural resources; global warming and the melting of the glaciers; and economic development versus environmental degradation.


H2Oil

Directed by Shannon Walsh

Jan. 23, from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at CCF Jakarta

Alberta, Canada, is home to America’s largest source of oil, and “H2Oil” exposes the problem that the province is currently facing. The oil sands are rushing toward large-scale extraction, with a planned pipeline project that runs from the Arctic all the way to the southern United States. But this project has high social, ecological and human costs. The feature-length documentary tells the story of the people who are suffering from a scarcity of clean water due to the project.


Darwin’s Nightmare (2004)

Directed by Hubert Sauper

Jan. 23, from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at CCF Jakarta

An Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature, “Darwin’s Nightmare” details the impact of the fishing of the Nile perch, a predatory fish, in Tanzania’s Lake Victoria. A Russian cargo plane comes in to collect the white fillets, bringing a supply of weapons in exchange, which prompts a violent conflict in the region. The film looks at the different ways this fishing industry affects indigenous people, the African region and the European market, and shows the damage uncontrolled globalization can cause.


Ayam Mati di Lumbung Padi (Dead Chicken in a Rice Barn)

Directed by Darwin Nugraha

Jan. 23, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Goethe Haus

This 70-minute documentary follows Seno, Indra and Lasno, all residents of Blora, an oil-rich district in Central Java. Despite the wealth of natural resources surrounding them, the three protagonists suffer from a common predicament where the residents of an oil-rich area are not the ones to profit from the natural riches. Indeed, the district drowns in poverty, with its residents struggling to find employment and receive adequate health care.
Look Out for These Festival Highlights

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