Eagle Awards 2008

Eagle Awards is an annual documentary film competition held by Metro TV.
Targeting amateur to semi-pro documentary filmmakers, I find the program interesting as it aims to bring up the unseen lives of Indonesia and its residents.
Each year selected projects were chosen to be developed under guidance of professional documentary/feature filmmakers, and the projects, usually the chosen ones are up to 10 or sometimes less, will then be screened on Metro TV.

A panel of judges will choose the winner, while audiences at home can choose the winner of the most favorite film. A rule of thumb these days: you cannot make any event without our involvement with text messages.

In its early years, it was co-organized by In-Docs, a documentary film community aims to provide documentary film-making coach, documentary film public screening and distribution to film communities throughout Indonesia. It happens that In-Docs is a sister organization of my present workplace, JIFFest, which allows me gaining easy access to the outputs of what In-Docs has made in the past few years.

The year 2008 marked the last year of partnership with Metro TV. It remains to be seen how the films will turn out this year.

Even at the last year of the joined forces, I was a little disappointed with the select projects. Perhaps I was riding on a very high expectations after successive winning films for the past two years: Suster Apung (The Floating Nurse), about a nurse facing the high seas everyday on a small boat while serving her patients in remote areas of Sulawesi, and Kepala Sekolahku Pemulung (My Headmaster The Waste-Taker), a slap-on-the-face look at the failure of education system in Jakarta.

The finalists of 2008 were either walking on a safe, comfortable side, or simply digging the research materials with less efforts. The eventual winner is Prahara Tsunami Bertabur Bakau (Raising Mangroves After the Tsunami), the most compelling of the lot.

Read the full article here, while queries about watching the films can be directed to In-Docs.

The photo was taken during the public preview of the 2008 Eagle Awards finalists at Erasmus Huis, Jakarta, September 16, 2008.

Is Big Screen Equal to Big Ads?

Earlier last week, I wrote a piece on the excessive product placement in local cinema.

One particular film, Best Friend?, irked me greatly for going where no (local) film has gone before: displaying full-fledged sponsored products as the essential part of the film's main poster!

Now how desperate can a production company be in allowing such to happen? How aggressive a company does its negotiation to gain maximum benefits from a film? What or how much is the value of doing such? And in a much more ambiguous question that everyone would like to avoid: is it ethical?

As much as I am trying to decipher the logic behind the action, which clearly there isn't any, and as I kept wondering to find the answers to above questions that I am yet to find, I decided to trace back a little to past Indonesian films doing blatant product placements. The similarities, as you can read in the article, are the presence of the products in the film, not in the poster which easily goes to the subsequent derivatives, i.e. merchandise and DVD/VCD. Imagine the exposure, in which the film also includes the products in the storyline.
Or perhaps you won't, not when I tell you that a drinking game from instant-tea is possible.

My curiosity of the aforementioned invention made the cut. However, a particular editing made me as if I embrace the equally forceful product insertion in both Sex and the City: The Movie and Quantum of Solace. One of my interviewees actually said that, which I had not asked further as I wanted to give balance views from every possible angles: the filmmakers, audiences, and those working in marketing department of a company.

There goes my constantly-absent credibility.

Alas, I believe on what I write here, and I shall continue questioning and being intrigued with such practice.

(courtesy of Detikhot.com, and in case you're wondering, those are the sponsored products of instant-tea drinks on the background. All of them. And this is the final artwork.)

Read the full article here.

On the Road with Riri Riza

My interview with Riri Riza to promote his latest film 3 Hari Untuk Selamanya (3 Days to Forever).

We did the interview in a cafe in Menara Imperium. I did the arrangement with Miles Films' publicist, Imelda Achsaningtias. The film's producer, Mira Lesmana, was also present, although she left the two of us engaging in quite a lengthy conversation about road trip, film, his own life journey, and women. 
A little more than an hour of a very focused interview for less than a thousand words, so I guess I didn't do too bad, did I?

One thing that draws me to Riri's works is his consistency in portraying strong female characters. These could not be more apparent in Petualangan Sherina, Eliana, Eliana, and Untuk Rena.

While he hardly works in the vein of George Cukor as women-themed director, albeit I mentioned the name in the conversation, Riri just smiled without wanting to elaborate further.

Instead, he told me a very interesting statement:

"I find the sexy appeals in male actors and characters, too."

I was intrigued to probe, yet, being an amateurish freelance journalist, I was only stunned. It was indeed the last statement I expected from him.

Of course, later he elaborated on Nicholas Saputra, the object of the above compliment, and Gie, which clearly marked his departure of the above said strong women persona, and the start of the actor and the director's fruitful collaboration in 3 Days.

The above quote did not make to the final submission.

Still, I did not mind the editing, pretty much the printed article kept the essence of what I had aimed on the first place: a profile of an emerging prolific director.

Read the full article here.

Photo is courtesy of Miles Films, although what appeared in the printed paper was taken from the paper's archive. 

Obviously it was taken during the making of the film.

Diana Krall in Singapore

My very first published article.

Yay! Can't believe it!

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2005/04/08/genuine-jazz-produced-diana-krall-singapore.html