By: Dina Indrasafitri
Still from 'Rock 'n Roll 2'
Creative workers have had enough of unrealistic tourism campaigns to promote Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, and found their own ways to present the city to the world, unpolished, imperfect, yet still lovable. “This place is such a bastard,” Alex Sihar from the Jakarta Arts Council said of his hometown, the capital of Indonesia.
He went on to describe his daily task of driving his child from their house in Kemang to the school, in Jagakarsa. Both areas are in South Jakarta, and in fact close to each other, as he said the distance can be covered in “12 minutes at night. “
“In the morning, it takes two hours, man,” Alex said.
But he loves it. He would even miss the congestion when he spends some time away from the city, and would arrange his return flight to land just in time for him to experience the crawling traffic all the way home.
“Do you realize we create new habits to survive those conditions?” the man whose working hours extend to late nights said, “My quality time talking with my wife and kid is spent in the car.”
Alex’s seemingly irrational love for Jakarta is apparently a sentiment shared by many, and a group of young directors recently produced short films that embodies such love for the city– no sugarcoating necessary.
Still from 'Mencari Sudirman'
The films were born of an project funded by the Jakarta’s Tourism and Culture Office.
As many as three selected as the best were shown last month as part of the ‘Film Untuk Kota’ (Movies for the City) event.
A discussion before the premiere revealed a desire among creative workers to be involved in marketing the city, not with artificial gimmicks, but with honesty, so that the world will still somehow put Jakarta on its bucket list despite all the city’s faults and craziness.
For movies to do that, it requires far more than simply having a scene with the landmark National Monument in the background.
The discussion cited ‘Chungking Express’ as an example of how a movie can foster a curiousity about a city – in this case Hong Kong – regardless of the aesthetics of that city.
As the three movies in ‘Film Untuk Kota’ shows, the effort to reach that effect may need to go way deeper, until it can actually make Jakartans smile that exasperated yet resigned smile, that seems to say, “Well, that’s Jakarta for you.”
Mencari Sudirman
Chock-full of distinctively Jakartan dating style, Mencari Sudirman plays with memories surrounding ‘Sudirman’, which is the name of a national hero, a bustling main street, and, in this case, a missing lover.
The character ‘A’,s journey to find her lover Sudirman, who misteriously disapeared without warning, takes viewers into the lives of young, middle class Jakartans, from their glitzy offices to their congested rented rooms, from posh walkways to cheap food stalls, where many Indonesian office workers eat their midday meals.
Kok Ke Mana?
A middle class-Jakartan would give a good descripition of how difficult it is to own a house in the capital, while those from lower classes would hardly even think of the possibility of owning a proper house.
Kok Ke Mana? describes this situation through a boy’s effort to look for his missing pet rat, found in an abandoned building in which he lives with his father, who turned the building into a makeshift badminton court.
While the issue is highly relevant, unfortunately most of the acting and dialogues in this movie aren’t powerful or grabbing enough.
Rock ‘N Roll
Despite the wanting title, Rock ‘N Roll by Wisnu Surya Pratama paints a good picture of things to love and hate about Jakarta.
Powered by snappy dialogues, convincing acting and delightfully shameless exploitation of street food knowledge, Rock ‘N Roll follows a reunion of two friends, who have both spent some time away from the capital.
Incorporated smoothly in their conversations are their affection for the city, and, of course, for each other. The whole movie itself is a journey towards a quite surprising conclusion.
Those interested in watching or screening the movies can contact the Jakarta Arts Council (Dewan Kesenian Jakarta)
