Remember when I said I should see more documentary films? Well, with the 1.000 things to do everyday, the thought sleeps and forgotten. Then, last week I got an e-mail from Erasmus Huis, Dutch Cultural Centre in Jakarta (they often held film screenings). They will held Erasmus Documentary Festival ’15. I was excited, especially after reading the program book. But not until couple of days before the festival ended that I could attend.
Initially, I would really love seeing Indonesia Merdeka (1976) and Woody Allen : The Documentary (2015). And realizing that Mahamoelia (1929), a silent film accompanied music by students of the Sjuman School of Music, I thought it would be amazing to see it and watching them perform. But, it’s okay. I managed to see 3 music documentaries and 1 documentary about Indonesian film, which is an amazing turn out for this documentary-seeker.
STONES IN EXILE (2010)
I only love couple of Rolling Stones songs, like Paint It Black and Love is Strong. The photographs and footages were quite a match for Rolling Stones. They were mostly in black and white, artsy and have bold characters. The Stones, according to the doc itself, is not just a band but also a ‘tribe’. To put together several artists to create music needs extra handle and timing. I learned their creative process, that they didn’t just sit for 10 minutes to create music and force their heads to make one. But rather many, many music sessions and let their minds free. Their drugs and lifestyle might be the thing they always do, but when they always played music. They got together one moment, they created an amazing music (according the documentary). The amazing thing was their ‘studio’ wasn’t a proper studio, but rather a house with their own limited spaces. Maybe we underestimated how musicians created their albums before.
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SPRINGSTEEN & I (2013)
When you get together several big fans of one musician to tell their thoughts about the artist, you’ll surely feel their energy and excitement. Also, we can see just how crazy they can be just to meet or interacted with him. I never really noticed just how grounded Springsteen was. I think the best description from the man, stealing from one fan who said this, he is a ‘working class hero’. Many people listened to him when they are feeling low or happy, just got out of work or in every key points in their lives. From their eyes, we see how Springsteen has been a true icon and inspiration. Their stories was touching, sometimes hilarious. But, the best thing was Springsteen connected with them, responded their excitement humbly. The funniest was about a guy waited 20 years just to be on stage with him, dressed up as Elvis and finally Springsteen invited him. Great story about one guy who just got dumped before watching his concert, made a banner about it and Springsteen invited him and hugged him, later saying, ‘I was once got dumped too. Now she must’ve regret it.’
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FOREVER AND A DAY (2015)
Through this documentary, I realized Scorpions has always been one famous but quite simple band. I don’t think they used drugs (or, they looked pretty fit at their age). The recordings of their last days before their retirement surely didn’t felt sentimental or sad. It felt like they were all still living their day to day basis like usual, and the thought of retirement just only effected them in the very last days. Maybe these guys just aren’t the most outspoken people, the easy going types or they didn’t want to be too focused on the sentimental stuffs. The documentary felt like a plain footage sometimes. Many times the pieces of interviews between sources were cutted too fast, and their accents made us hard to understand (no subtitles for English). Especially, the first parts of the documentary run with no focus, between one story to another. But I appreciated Scorpions, oddly one band with no drama or scandal. I didn’t believe these guys will stop playing music though, seeing the documentary.
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GARUDA POWER : THE SPIRIT WITHIN (2014)
Garuda Power : The Spirit Within initially was just a movie we chose to see before watching Forever and A Day as a closing film, but it ended up to be the best documentary that day. Growing up in ’80s and ’90s, I remembered seeing Indonesian action films in national TV. I was too young to understand why this genre always being played, but certainly because of the demand. It has rare clips of those films from the ’40s to today’s The Raid, which was amazing, hilarious and precious considering the clips now considered vintage. I learned that local movies have already imitated movies from west. Many interviews from local movie critics, directors and actors like Barry Prima. There are many knowledge about Indonesian film we can learn from this doc, especially if you’re a child from the ’70s and ’80s like me. It was a bit nostalgic and surely informative, but fun. It’s best that this movie to be screened in schools.
From the Question and Answer section with Dimas Jayasprana, the Associate Producer, they hope this documentary can open our minds about the real Indonesian action films (not just The Raid). What was shocking is that some of the old movie clips they got was from European archive (I didn’t remember the exact institution he shared), since Indonesian film archive is neglected by the government. The amazing thing was some of our action films was produced and distributed internationally back in the ’80s and even collaborated with American director, David Worth (Kickboxer). Dimas Jayasprana said that they have a lot of interviews and stories that are too big to be left behind from the making of this doc, so hopefully it will be their next project. Some movie lovers from other countries also excited what’s next from the team. And we are too.
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Thank you, Erasmus Huis
*all synopsis are from http://erasmusdocfest.com