Sukacita: Information centre in Bali for children with an intellectual disability

By: Yvette Benningshof

‘Sukacita’ in Bali provides information about children with an intellectual disability for special schools, teachers and parents. The founders of Sukacita have their own distinct vision on development work: ‘We share our knowledge and help people to develop. We don’t build schools or give money.’

‘In Bali the circumstances for children with an intellectual disability, like the ‘Down syndrome’, are not too favorable. There is a lot of misunderstanding and that’s why we got the idea to start an information centre’, Yolanda Onderwater of Sukacita explains.

Sukacita, originally a Dutch organization, was founded one year ago by Yolanda Onderwater, Marieke Nijland and Mila van der Meer. Sukacita collaborateswith the well-known Suryani Institute for Mental Health, led by Balinese professor Luh Ketut Suryani. This institute has several special programs to help people with a psychological disorder. ‘Ibu Suryani and I are both healers and mental coaches. We met in Bali and we immediately ‘clicked’, says Onderwater.

Author Marion Bloem: ‘Indonesian Grandma Moemie Predicted 9/11’

By: Yvette Benningshof

Dutch writer with Indonesian roots Marion Bloem stands in the spotlights this year. She has gracefully reached the age of 60 and celebrates a writing career that spans more than 40 years. She has travelled the world, including the Indonesian islands of Java and Bali, intensively. On her travels she met a clairvoyant Indonesian woman by the name of ‘Moemie,’ who had a great influence on her and is the protagonist in her latest novel. ‘Moemie was chased by visions of the Twin Towers collapsing.’

To celebrate this special year, Marion Bloem completed two books ‘Het Bali van Bloem (‘Bali by Bloem’, richly illustrated with photos of the island) and the novel ‘Een meisje van honderd’ (‘A hundred year old girl’) and re-issued her bestseller debut ‘Geen gewoon Indisch meisje’ (‘Not just an Indo girl’) from 1983.

Many of her books are about finding an identity in a world that seems alien. Bloem (1952) was born in The Netherlands as a second generation of Indo (Dutch East Indies) migrants. Her parents repatriated in 1950 from Indonesia. Her father survived the catastrophe of ‘Junyo Maru’, the Japanese cargo ship that was torpedoed by a British submarine in 1944 during World War II. More than 5000 war prisoners and Javanese slave laborers drowned.

Indonesian Writer & Activist Ayu Utami: ‘I love Indonesia with Pain in my Heart’

By: Yvette Benningshof

Questioning politics, human behavior and her own religion made Ayu Utami into a taboo breaking writer, journalist and activist. She gained instant success with her groundbreaking debut ‘Saman’, that was published just before the fall of Suharto in 1998. Her most recent novel ‘Bilangan Fu’ is dedicated to ‘Indonesia, that I love with pain in my heart.’

The question ‘Why?’ is the main drive for the most famous female author of Indonesia Ayu Utami. ‘I’m interested in the dark side of humanity. Why do people do what they do?’, she says at the Tong Tong Festival in The Netherlands. That is probably why she started off as a journalist for several newspapers. When Suharto banned magazines like ‘Tempo’ in 1994, Utami joined the ‘Alliance of Independent Journalists’ to protest against the ban.

Dutchman ‘Van Dis in Indonesië:’ A Critical & Personal View on Indonesia

By: Yvette Benningshof

The Dutch tv series Van Dis in Indonesië featured the well known writer Adriaan van Dis, traveling through Indonesië in search of his roots, traces of the Dutch and the shared history between Indonesia and the Netherlands. With his own complex family history as a leading thread, he travels through Java, Bali, Maluku and Sumatra. He talks with a colorful cast of people: writers, a bakso seller, a miljonair, a sultan and the son of Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia.

Best of all: All episodes are available online, so Indonesians and other international viewers can also watch this series!

Give it up for West Hill, Chinese Hip Hop band Features in Docu & on Stage!

By: Yvette Benningshof

‘I’m the pioneer of Yunnan’s local hip hop culture’, says MC ‘Nan’ laughing about his own statement in the documentary ‘Say Sing’. It’s a funny, honest and hilarious docu about the journey of the progressive Chinese hiphop group ‘West Hill’. Combining rap with traditional Chinese instruments and rhymes written in their local Kunming dialect with a healthy dose of self-mockery; ‘I’m the king of pop!’

Straight after the screening of ‘Say Sing’ at the CinemAsia Filmfestival in Amsterdam West Hill performed their songs and in no time the audience was jumping, while no one understood what they were rapping about. ‘The energy of those guys is just catching’, says Kuang-Chong Yu, Taiwanese music producer and director of ‘Say Sing’. ‘When I started filming I also didn’t understand what they were talking about. I just felt the atmosphere was important enough to keep filming. Afterwards when we translated the texts into Mandarin it proved that it was worth filming.’

CinemAsia Festival Filmtour 14-15 April

By: Yvette Benningshof & Emma Kwee

Did you miss the CinemAsia Film Festival in Amsterdam? Blast! But luckily, CinemAsia is going on tour with a few selected films. Don't miss your last chance to watch Arisan!2 in The Netherlands, as well as other Indonesian and Chinese films, during the CinemAsia Festival Filmtour.

Director Nia Dinata’s Arisan: Sex and the City with Substance

By: Yvette Benningshof

Flashing Jakarta big city life, the pristine beaches of the Gili’s, socialites, parties, fashion, friendship and romance: you’ll find plenty in ‘Arisan!2’. But there is more to this film than meets the eye. In this Indonesian style ‘Sex and the City,’ controversial topics are tackled with humor and satire in a playful setting. The long awaited sequel of Arisan! (2003) that featured the first homosexual kiss ever in Indonesian Cinema, cheerfully carries on where the first installment left off.

Nia Dinata Wins Another One

Award winning Indonesian filmmaker, director and producer Nia Dinata received the CinemAsia 2012 Achievement Award at the CinemAsia Filmfestival in Amsterdam. She was praised ‘because through her films as a director and producer she has brought the topic of women, gays and marginalized people to the forefront in Indonesia’.

‘We have a special history with Dinata’, says festival director Doris Yeung, ‘At our first edition in 2004 we world premiered Arisan! and now eight years later we come full circle with the screening of Arisan!2 and carrying out the Achievement Award.’

Children of Srikandi: The First Indonesian Docu about Queer Women

By: Yvette Benningshof

For the first time in the history of Indonesian cinema, queer female filmmakers are breaking the code of silence. Eight Indonesian women, all lesbian, had their coming out on the big screen, as they produced a documentary together about themselves: ‘Children of Srikandi’.

This is the first documentary about queer women in Indonesia; unique in this country with the largest Muslim population. The film is inspired by the mythological figure Srikandi from the Hindu epic Mahabharata. In traditional Javanese shadow puppet theater (wayang kulit), Srikandi signifies a strong and brave character who is neither woman nor man. Srikandi is often depicted as a female warrior.

Indonesian Travel Writer & Photographer Agustinus Wibowo: ‘Traveling is about Losing your Ego’

By: Yvette Benningshof

Passing borderlines is almost a daily routine for Agustinus Wibowo. The travel writer and photographer from Indonesia picked up his backpack at the age of 19 and started to travel throughout Central Asia. He has lived in Afghanistan for three years as a photojournalist and has written two bestsellers books about his borderless travels. Wibowo’s current latitude: Beijing, China.

Agustinus Wibowo (30) left his village Lumajang in East-Java, Indonesia in 2000 to study Computer Science in Beijing. From there he started his travels to Mongolia where he got robbed on the first day. That didn’t hold him back to travel to even more ‘dangerous’ countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2003.

As a true budget backpacker he took off with only 300 US dollars. ‘I traveled by the cheapest train in China, 70 hours on a hard seat. Then by public transport and hitchhiking trucks in Pakistan. Crossing the border with Afghanistan I used horses and donkeys or just walked my way. I also stayed with local people, that’s why it’s so important to learn the local languages. The key of budget traveling is full adaptation and daring to suffer.’

CNN Hero of the Year: Bali based Guerrilla Midwife ‘Ibu’ Robin Lim!

By: Yvette Benningshof

In the small clinic of Bumi Sehat (Healthy Mother Earth) in Bali Robin Lim (55) flies around like a busy bee. Driven by the strong belief that a gentle childbirth creates loving human beings Lim has dedicated her life to ‘help mothers and save babies’ for free. ‘It’s common in Indonesia that women who give birth in a hospital, have to leave their babies and stay outside until they can pay their bills.’

Robin Lim: CNN Hero of the Year!

Yesterday Robin Lim won the election of CNN Hero of the year. She attended the ‘Allstar Tribute show’ in the US, broadcasted live on December 11 on CNN. Huge billboards at the clinic and around Ubud plus daily reminders on their Facebookpage calling for people to vote proved effective.