PROGRAMME
Address:
Program Pasca SarjanaISI YOGYAKARTA
Jl. Suryodiningratan No. 8 Yogyakarta
DIY 55143
Indonesia
23 JULY 2018 (MONDAY)
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09:00 – 09:30
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Registration
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09.30 – 09:50
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Welcome Address
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10:00 – 11:30
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Panel 1 – Representation of Gender
Chair: Gaik-Cheng Khoo (University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus)
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10:00 – 10:20
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Evi Eliyanah (The Australian National University / Universitas Negeri Malang)
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Fahri to Chudhori: Reel Muslim New Man in Contemporary Indonesian Cinema
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10:20 – 10:40
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Alicia Izharuddin (University of Malaya)
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Cinema of Misrecognition: Islam, Gender, and the Terrorist in Contemporary Indonesian Film
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10:40 – 11:00
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IGAK Satrya Wibawa (Universitas Airlangga / Curtin University)
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Seen the Unseen Balinese: Female Gaze in Children Space in Kamila Andini’s The Seen and the Unseen
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11:00 – 11:20
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Adrian Alarilla (University of Washington, Seattle)
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The Spectacular Body of the Father in Agony and Ecstasy
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11:20 – 11:50
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Discussion
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11:50 – 13:00
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Lunch
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13:00 – 14:50
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Panel 2 – Region and Place
Chair: Adam Knee (LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore)
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13:00 – 13:20
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Bayu Kristianto (Universitas Indonesia)
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Romantic Nationhood: A Critique of the Film 5cmthrough the Lens of Yi-Fu Tuan
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13:20 – 13:40
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Latifah and Ary Budiyanto (Kertarajasa Buddhist College and Brawijaya University)
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Narrating Islam and Adat in Contemporary Makassar Cinema
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13:40 – 14:00
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Tito R. Quiling Jr. (University of Santo Tomas)
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Distress in the Marshlands: Mapping Landscapes of Fear and Faith in Francis Xavier Pasion’s Bwaya (2014)
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14:00 – 14:20
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Katrina Ross Tan (University of the Philippines Los Baños)
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Religion in Philippine Contemporary Life: Analysis of Selected Regional Short Films
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14:20 – 14:50
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Discussion
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15:00 – 15:30
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Tea break
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15:30 – 17:30
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Film Screening: Sunya (The Talisman, Hari Suharyadi, 2017)
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17:30 –
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‘Field Trip’ to Parangkusumo (See description at bottom)
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24 JULY 2018 (TUESDAY)
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09:45 – 10:30
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Plenary Speaker
Associate Professor Antonio D. Sison
Chair, Historical and Doctrinal Studies Department
Catholic Theological Union, Chicago (USA)
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10:30 – 12:10
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Panel 3 – Poetics and Politics
Chair: Budi Irawanto (Universitas Gadjah Mada)
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10:30 – 10:50
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Chris Woodrich (Universitas Gadjah Mada)
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(De)Politicizing Religion: Islam and Politics in Asrul Sani’s Para Perintis Kemerdekaan (1977)
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10:50 – 11:10
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Rosalia Namsai Engchuan (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology)
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An Ethnography of the Dynamic Social Process of Film Censorship in Contemporary Indonesia
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11:10 – 11:30
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Chris Lundry (El Colegio de México.)
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Revisiting Passabe: Lisan, Government and Restorative Justice
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11:30 – 11:50
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Roland B. Tolentino (University of the Philippines Film Institute)
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Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Cultural Politics of Representation of Religiosity in Philippine Cinema
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11:50 – 12:10
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Discussion
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12:10 – 13:10
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Lunch
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13:10 – 15:00
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Panel 4 – Folk and Horror
Chair: Mariam Lam (University of California, Riverside)
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13:10 – 13:30
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Nguyen Thi Dieu Linh (Hanoi National University of Education)
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Representation of Spiritual and Traditional Elements as a Contemporary Phenomena in Vietnamese Movie Me Thao / The Legendary Age
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13:30 – 13:50
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Anton Sutandio (Maranatha Christian University)
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The Politics of Occultism and Religion in Sisworo Gautama Putra’s and Joko Anwar’s Pengabdi Setan
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13: 50 – 14:10
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Veluree Metaveevinij (Thammasat University / University of London)
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Spirits Across Borders: Case Studies in Transnational Horror Cinema
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14:10 – 14:40
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Discussion
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14:40 – 15:15
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Afternoon Tea
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15:15 – 16:45
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Panel 5 – Mapping the Trans/national
Chair: Popi Primadewi (Institut Seni Indonesia, Surakarta)
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15:15 – 15:35
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Thomas Barker (University of Nottingham Malaysia)
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Travelling Muslims: Cosmopolitans, Romance, and Newfound Independence
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15:35 – 15:55
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Meghan Downes (National University of Singapore, Asia Research Institute)
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Religion and Development in Indonesian Cinema
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15:55 – 16:15
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Adam Knee (Lasalle College of the Arts)
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Thailand in US Faith-Based Films
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16:15 – 16:45
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Discussion
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16:45 – 17:00
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Tea break
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17:00 – 18:30
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Screening: The Right to Kill (Arbi Barbarona, 2017)
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25 JULY 2018 (WEDNESDAY)
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09:00 – 10:50
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Panel 6 – Aesthetics / Reception
Chair: Ratna Erika Suwarno (Universitas Padjadjaran)
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09:00 – 9:20
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Azrain Arifin (Sunway University)
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The Five Stations of Artistry in Film: A Sufistic Perspective
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09:20 – 9:40
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Ekky Imanjaya (Bina Nusantara University)
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Astaghfirullah Film Indonesia!: Lady Terminator, Politics of Taste, and “The Other Kind of Public”
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09:40 – 10:00
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Muhammad Bahruddin (University of Indonesia)
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The Identity of Inclusive Islam in Films by Nurman Hakim
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10:00 – 10:20
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Ly Quyet Tien (HCMC Open University, Vietnam)
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Engaged Buddhism in Saigon Mobile Force
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10:20 – 10: 50
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Discussion
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10:50 – 11:00
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Tea Break
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11:00 – 12:00
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Plenary Speaker: Hikmat Darmawan (30 min/30 min discussion)
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The Aesthetics of Melodrama in the Indonesian Film Dakwah Industry
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12:00 – 13:00
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Lunch
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13:00 – 14:40
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Panel 7 – Auteurs
Chair: Novi Kurnia (Universitas Gadjah Mada)
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13:00 – 13:20
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Jonathan Driskell (Monash University Malaysia)
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Islam and Fame in the Malay Stardom Film: From P. Ramlee to Salam Cinta
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13:20 – 13:40
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Gareth Stanton (Goldsmiths, University of London)
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P. Ramlee and the Crisis of Faith: Extending Joel Kahn’s Analysis of the Ramlee Oeuvre
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13:40 – 14:00
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Adrian D. Mendizabal (University of the Philippines – Diliman)
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Metaphysics of Long Duration in the Cinema of Lav Diaz
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14:00 – 14:20
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Miguel Penabella (University of California, Santa Barbara)
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A Theology of Cinematic Salvation: The Political Necessity of Digital in the Contexts of Lav Diaz’s Slow Cinema
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14:20 – 14:40
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Discussion
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14:40 – 16:10
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Panel 8 – Practitioner Panel:
Arbi Barbarona (Philippines), Anucha Boonyawatana (Thailand), Hari Suharyadi (Indonesia), Makbul Mubarak (Universitas Multimedia Nusantara, Indonesia)
Chair: Roland B. Tolentino
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15: 40 – 16:10
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Discussion
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16:10 – 16:40
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Tea Break
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16:40 – 18:30
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Film Screening: Malila: The Farewell Flower (Anucha Boonyawatana, 2017)
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18:30 -
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Dinner
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26 JULY 2018 (THURSDAY)
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09:00 – 10:30
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Panel 9 – Producing Spiritual / Religious / Mystical Films
Chairs: Gaston Soehadi (Petra Christian University, Surabaya)
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09:00 – 9:20
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Immanuel P. Gintings (Universitas HKBP Nommensen)
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Linguistic Study on Shaman Mantra Book as Research for Producing Film Guru Sibaso
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09:20 – 9:40
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Tito Imanda (Goldsmiths, University of London)
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Fairies, Jinns, Spirits and Maintaining their Mood for Good Acting: Film, Filming and Ritual
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09:40 – 10:00
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Dag Yngvesson (University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus) and Koes Yuliadi (Institut Seni Indonesia, Yogyakarta)
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Many Chickens, Lots of Luck: Filming Islam, Capitalism and Media in Post Reformasi Yogyakarta
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10:00 – 10:30
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Discussion
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10:30 – 12:00
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Screening Short films
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Lagi Senang jaga Sekandang Lembu (It’s Easier to Raise Cattle, Amanda Nell Eu, 2017); Ruah (The Malediction, Makbul Mubarak, 2016). Tetangga(Neighbors, Tito Imanda, 2018), More TBA.
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12:00 – 12:30
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Discussion
Moderator: Tito Imanda (BPI / Goldsmiths, Univ. of London)
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12:30 – 13:30
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Lunch Break
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13:30 – 14:00
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Closing Remarks
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14:00 – 15:00
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ASEACC Steering Committee Meeting
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FIELD TRIP (Monday, 23 July, 17:30-)
Syncretic Religious Politics in Practice: Ritual field trip to Parangkusumo, gateway to the Queen of the South Sea
In line with conference themes, following the proceedings on Monday, we will take a short bus ride to Parangkusumo beach. Parangkusumo is known as the gateway to the underwater palace of the Queen of the South Sea, a legendary spiritual-political figure who also has appeared popular mystical/horror films from the 1970s until the present, as well as in numerous paintings and novels. Monday night is a special ritual date on the Javanese calendar, and the ritual area at Parangkusumo, built and maintained by the Yogyakarta palace, will be filled with people seeking the blessings of the Queen, and also usually looking for a rousing night out. The site is open to anyone, there is no entrance fee, and plenty of cheap food and drinks are available in the many cafes and stands.
A brief historical background: According to the Babad Tanah Jawi(the official history of the Mataram dynasty, the descendants of which is still hold political office in Yogyakarta), Parangkusumo is the location where Senapati, the first Sultan of Mataram encountered Kanjeng Ratu Kidul (aka Nyai Roro Kidul), the mythical Queen of the South Sea in the late 16thcentury. Finding Senapati meditating there, she escorted him to her underwater palace where they consorted physically, and she also instructed him in the principles of statecraft. At the time, Senapati was a rebellious vassal of Pajang; according to the Babad, his subsequent alliance with Ratu Kidul, and the knowledge she imparted, are what enabled him to defeat the reigning local powers and establish a new regime shortly thereafter. He also pledged that he and all successive Sultans of Mataram would be spiritually "married" to Ratu Kidul, and send offerings to Parangkusumo at least once a year. At her insistence, however, the bond she shared with each Sultan was not consecrated by the laws of mortal men, which she explained do not apply to her. The rituals that occur in Parangkusumo now are loosely based on this narrative pattern in which empowerment may occur through engagement with a powerful feminine outsider to patriarchal rule. Preceding the arrival of Dutch colonizers, the popularity and influence of the Queen have continued throughout the colonial era until the present. Her image, which adorned famous paintings beginning in the 1950s, has been called a “national icon” (Strassler 2014), and in 1998, Islamic leader Abdurrahman Wahid famously made a pilgrimage to Parangkusumo prior to his election as the first president of the post-Suharto Reformasi era. The numerous films and novels in which the Queen appears as a central have further cemented her legend, and in many cases reinforced the longstanding idea of politics grounded in both masculine and feminine aspects of power.
Site and ritual activities: The site contains a ritual area and two pendopo pavilions, as well as a mosque that directly intersects the ritual area on the West side. On ritual nights (which occur every few weeks) there are hundreds, sometimes thousands of attendees from all walks of life, including families with children despite the area's somewhat infamous aura. Usually there is a shadow play performance; people praying in the ritual area, combining Islamic and Hindu/Javanese discourses; a lively night market surrounding the ritual area; and rows of women who come to "work" the rituals, whose presence may reflect the spiritual Hostess’ socio-legal outsider status. One can sit and watch the shadow play and ritual prayers conducted in the center of the site, eat in one of the many surrounding cafes, or follow the ritual pilgrims out to the beach about 200 meters to the south, where they pray and place offerings into the water. There are usually also highly performative hawkers of medicines and charms with crowds of people gathered to watch them.
PANEL
1
Representation of Gender
Chair: Novi Kurnia (Universitas Gadjah Mada)
Presenters: Evi Eliyanah (The Australian National
University / Universitas Negeri Malang); Alicia Izharuddin (University of
Malaya); IGAK Satrya Wibawa (Universitas Airlangga / Curtin University); Adrian
Alarilla (University of Washington, Seattle)
____________________________________________________________________________________
Evi Eliyanah (The Australian National
University / Universitas Negeri Malang)
Fahri to Chudhori: Reel Muslim New
Man in Contemporary Indonesian Cinema
Abstract: The
presentation discusses the emergence of Muslim New Man as an alternative ideal
representation of masculinity in contemporary Indonesian cinema. New Man
masculinity is characterised by emotionally sensitivity, nurturance, and
involvement in domestic works. Through examining the production politics,
socio-political contexts, and the texts of three Islamic-themed blockbusters
(Ayat-Ayat Cinta, Perempuan Berkalung Sorban, and Ketika Cinta Bertasbih), I
will show that New Man in Indonesian contemporary Islamic-themed films signals
reinvigorated struggle for hegemonic masculinity in the first decade of twenty-
first century, a period marked by gender order crisis. The flourishing Muslims
New Man indicates a generational challenge against the older form of ideal
masculinity espoused by the Indonesian previous authoritarian regime. Secondly
it signals frustration against the stereotypical images of Muslim men in the
post authoritarian Indonesia and in the post 9/11. Eventually, Muslim New Man
of Indonesian cinema is an inward-looking critique launched by the emerging
urban Muslim middle classes with cosmopolitan worldview, who believe that
gender equality is not only modern but also inherently Islamic.
Evi Eliyanah
is a faculty member at the Department of English, Faculty of Letters,
Universitas Negeri Malang. She is an off-shore PhD candidate at Australian
National University. She is currently based in Malang. Her doctoral research
topic is representations of masculinities in contemporary Indonesian cinema.
Researching representations of gender in cinema has been her passion in the
past eight years. Previously, she was more into literature and development. Her
recent publications on Islam and Indonesian cinema can be found in Online
Supplement XIV of Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures (Brill 2016) and
in Social Sciences Vol 6(3) (2017).
Alicia Izharuddin (University of Malaya)
Cinema of Misrecognition: Islam, Gender,
and the Terrorist in Contemporary Indonesian Film
Email: alicia@um.edu.my
Abstract:
Likely to be a
response to Western representations of Muslims as terrorists, filmmakers in
majority Muslim societies outside the Middle East and South Asia have been
producing filmic narratives to counter, subvert, and come to terms with the
rise of terrorism within their own national boundaries. In the films discussed
in my paper, the reconfigured Indonesian nation is engaged, and at times forced
to confront, with a post-9/11 world and those beyond, where Muslims in
Indonesia are mapped onto a bigger picture of global Islam. This paper seeks to
unravel the gendered and classed underpinnings of misrecognizing ‘good’ Islam
and Muslims particularly in its attention to the misrecognition of the
Indonesian man as terrorist and the anxiety with the niqab. In the illustration
of ‘good’ Islam, its dark half, ‘bad’ Islam is expressed as a religious and
cultural ideology and embodiment that is foreign and Other to the self of the
Indonesian nation. It is possible that the misrecognition of Indonesian Muslims
as terrorists is attributed to Indonesia’s peripheral place in the Muslim
world, leading to the lack of understanding and indeed misunderstanding. As I
will explain in more detail, the contemporary Islamic film in Indonesia is a
genre that is both ethnographic and autobiographical in its attention to
presenting a narrative of Indonesian Islam in contradistinction to the threat
of extremism to the wider world. It is a genre that behaves unambiguously in
its treatment of difference, notions of the national Muslim self as its
‘determinant frame’ and its Other.
Alicia Izharuddin is a Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies at the Faculty of Arts and
Social Sciences, University of Malaya having graduated with a PhD from the
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in 2015. She is
interested in gendered practices in Islam and feminist theory in predominantly
Muslim societies. She has published in Asian Cinema, Indonesia and the Malay
World, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies and Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in
the Asia Pacific. Her first monograph on Gender and Islam in Indonesian Cinema
is to be published by Palgrave Macmillan in December 2016.
IGAK Satrya Wibawa (Universitas Airlangga
/ Curtin University)
Seen the Unseen Balinese: Female Gaze in
Children Space in Kamila Andini’s The Seen and the Unseen
Abstract:
In this paper, I
argue that the recent film of Kamila Andini, the Seen and Unseen, has provided
a locus for a discourse of female gaze within children space in the context of
the Balinese tradition. The Seen and Unseen is a film about a Balinese girl, Tantri,
who is devastated of losing her twin brother, Tantra because of a mysterious
disease. The film focuses the narrative on Tantri’s effort to bring her brother
back through spiritual connection between twins. However, in the end she has to
accept Tantra’s destiny. While drawing upon Mulvey’s thought of female as an
active role against male (Smelik, 2007), this paper will not attempt to define
Andini’s narrative on this film within a particular cinematic movement. I tend
to explore how Andini elaborates her thought of Balinese tradition through
children’s characters and contestation between male-female roles in which
female cinematic expression can be emphasised.
Satrya Wibawa
is a lecturer at Communications Department, Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia.
He is currently a PhD student at the School of Media Creative Arts & Social
Inquiry, Curtin University, Western Australia. His fields of research includes
children in Indonesian cinema, also new media and its intersection with cinema
and journalism
Adrian Alarilla (University of Washington,
Seattle)
The Spectacular Body of the Father in Agony and
Ecstasy
Email:
alarilla@uw.edu
Abstract: Fatherhood is almost universally
associated with virility and bounty, but there is also a representation of the
Father as self-sacrificial offering whose ritualized pain guarantees the
continuity of the family, a depiction that pervades contemporary Southeast
Asian Cinema. Using Elaine Scarry’s argument that in order to express
inexpressible pain, that which is expressible—the physicality of the body,
indeed its corporeality/corpo-reality—must be denied and unmade, “converting
the vision of suffering into the wholly illusory but wholly convincing
spectacle of power” (Scarry, 1985, p. 27) , we can posit
that in rituals of self-harm, the subject denies his own corpo-reality in order
to assert his own spiritual power, heightened by the transformation of private
torture into public spectacle. In the Singaporean film “My Magic” (2008) by
Eric Khoo, the father re-enacts elements of the Saivite festival of Thaipusam
and willingly offers his body to a sadomasochistic show in an underground night
club to provide for his only son. In the Filipino film “Kristo” (2017) by HF
Yambao, the father retraces Jesus’ footsteps to Calvary both physically through
the Passion play of the Senakulo, and figuratively through his everyday routine
of being a ‘Kristo’ in a cockfighting arena in the city, in the end providing
the ultimate sacrifice for the prosperity of his aspirational family. In the
Indonesian film “The Raid: Redemption” (2011) by Gareth Evans, the father is a
policeman with seemingly superhuman endurance, undergoing escalating stages of
corporeal violence so he can defeat the drug lord, rescue his brother, and keep
his wife and unborn child safe. In all three films, an ethos of the bodily
sacrifice of the Father is exulted, but only if said sacrifice is performed as
ritualistic spectacle, thereby circulating the spiritual power of the Father
and reproducing a sublime form of patriarchy.
Adrian Alarilla is
a filmmaker, community organizer, and film scholar interested in film history
and Southeast Asian Cinema. He was a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellow
and Thomas W. & Mary C. Gething Fellow while studying at the University of
Washington, where he obtained his MA in Southeast Asian Studies in 2018. He
helps run various community film festivals in Seattle, and his video essays
have been shown at various festivals in the Philippines, Mexico, and the United
States.
PANEL
2
Region and Place
Chair: Adam Knee (LaSalle College of
the Arts, Singapore)
Presenters: Bayu Kristianto (Universitas
Indonesia); Latifah and Ary Budiyanto (Kertarajasa Buddhist College and
Brawijaya University); Tito R. Quiling Jr. (University of Santo Tomas); Katrina
Ross Tan (University of the Philippines Los Baños).
Bayu Kristianto (Universitas Indonesia)
Romantic Nationhood: A Critique of the
Film 5cmthrough the Lens of Yi-Fu Tuan
Abstract:
Directed by Rizal Mantovani, the film 5cm (2012) tells the story of a group of
five young Jakartans united in an intimate, long-lasting friendship. In order
to test the strength of their friendship, one member of the group, Genta,
suggests that they refrain from seeing each other for three months. At the end
of this absolutely-no-contact period, they end up climbing Mount Mahameru, the
highest mountain in Java, and prove again the resilience of their bonding.
Sponsored by two leading companies in Indonesia, i.e. Pertamina (whose flagship
product, Pertamax, is featured in the film), and Djarum Super, one of the giant
tobacco companies in Indonesia, it is a motivational movie targeted for nature
lovers and young Indonesian in general. It is aimed to tell the Indonesian
youth of the need to love their country and its beautiful landscape, shown
through the journey of climbing Mount Mahameru taken by these five young
people. Contrary to Yi-Fu Tuan’s contention that space transforms into place
due to human experience that shapes it, the film shows that the natural
landscape of Mount Mahameru is a place replete with meanings in itself. Indeed,
it is through the journey to and on the mountain and engaging closely with its
natural features that the significance of their friendship is reinstated.
Despite serving as a critique of Tuan’s anthropomorphic conception of place as
meaningful solely through human experience, the film itself is disputable from
Tuan’s perspective for subsuming the natural environment into the power of the
state displayed through each member’s testimony of their love and devotion to
the state after witnessing first-hand the beautiful landscape. These marvelous
lands are believed to be under the sovereignty of the state. This analysis is
aimed at showing that while the film is inspiring through its critique of Yi-Fu
Tuan’s anthropocentrism, it is also problematic for calling to the sovereignty
of the state in order to define the place of the natural landscape, which in
Tuan’s view should never be confined by the arbitrary power of the state
pertaining to how humans engage with place.
Bayu Kristianto
is an instructor and faculty member at English Department, Faculty of Humanities,
Universitas Indonesia. He is currently the head of American Studies Program (a
Masters program), the School of Strategic and Global Studies, Universitas
Indonesia, where he is also an instructor. He earned his Bachelors degree in
literature from English Department at Universitas Indonesia, his Masters degree
in American Studies from American Studies Department at State University of New
York (SUNY) at Buffalo, and his Ph.D. degree in Native American Studies from
Native American Studies Department at University of California, Davis. His
areas of interests are Native American Studies, American Studies, English and
American literature, Cultural Studies, and film studies. He has published a
number of articles in the form of literary and film criticism in several
academic journals both in Indonesia and abroad, as well as given presentations
grappling with various issues in literature and film studies.
Latifah and Ary Budiyanto (Kertarajasa
Buddhist College and Brawijaya University)
Narrating Islam and Adat in Contemporary
Makassar Cinema
Abstract:
The cultural expressions of the Makassar community,
especially the Bugis, as described by Christian Pelras (2006), are more on
archaeological remains, literary and artistic works. In its current
development the cinema, as the community’s artistic works, became a new
significant medium of strong religious and cultural expressions. These cinema
are narrating and representing the tension and negotiation of the strength of
moral values which is considered
as a main cause of conflicts in society such as in “silariang” and “uang
panai” genre. In this respect, it is interesting to examine whether the
role of religious values, especially Islam, neutralized or confirmed the
existence of indigenous custom or tradition. Thus, the study of the Makassar
cinemas can answer the criticism of Heddy Shri Ahimsa-Putra (2011) to study the
elements of Bugis Makassar culture which are more glued to the past and see
less change in the present with various complexities such as strengthening of
religious identity. The relationship between religion and adat (tradition) in
the contemporary of Makassar cinema is examined through naratology analysis
(Mieke Bal, 1985) to see its respective positions in power-function-receiver
and actant-helper or actant opponent relationships.
Latifah graduated from her undergraduate
at Faculty of Cultural Sciences - Gadjah Mada University,
Yogyakarta, and an M.A. in Asian Studies from the from University of Hawai‘i at
Mānoa. In addition, she studied a year at the Center for Cultural and Religious
Studies (CRCS) at Gadjah Mada University. Since 2001, she has worked as an
editor and a journalist contributor. Since 2012, she teaches
Bahasa at Kertarajasa Buddhist College, Malang, East Java,
Indonesia. She is a also a researcher at the Center for Culture and
Frontiers Studies (CCFS) of Brawijaya University. Her research interests
include gender, culture, and religion. She can be contacted atefi_latifah@yahoo.com
Ary Budiyanto is lecturer at Antropology
- Fakultas Ilmu Budaya, Brawijaya University, Malang, Indonesia. He
received his Master degree in Religion and Cultural Studies at
the Center for Religious and Cultural Studies, Gadjah Mada University,
Yogyakarta. He is a co-founder, secretary, and researcher at the Center for
Culture and Frontiers Studies (CCFS) at Brawijaya University. He is
interested in the issues of religions and cross-cultural studies, especially as
related to Indonesia, Chinese-Javanese
relations,Islam, Buddhism, Javanism, and modernity in the field
of visual,material, and food studies. He has published his first book on
Buka Luwur of Sunan Kudus ritual (Bahasa) and now he finished his second draft
book on ethnoSOTOgrafi. And now he is doing his third draft book on Javanese
Culture of Drinking Coffee. He can be reached
through arybudhi@ub.ac.id;ary91budhi@gmail.com
Tito R. Quiling Jr. (University of Santo Tomas)
Distress in the Marshlands: Mapping Landscapes
of Fear and Faith in Francis Xavier Pasion’s Bwaya (2014)
Email: titoquiling.jr@gmail.com
Abstract: Landscapes affect inhabitants: urban spaces often cause varying levels
of apprehension with simultaneous events happening, while rural areas bear an
enigmatic quality because of the unexplored terrains that may incite anxiety.
The atmosphere of dread is a central layer in the film Bwaya [“Crocodile”]
by Francis Xavier Pasion (2014) which uses dramatization, news footage, and
interview cutaways in narrating the experiences of a community troubled by a
crocodile attack in 2009. Focusing on the formations of anxiety and alarm, this
paper first explores how fear is projected by the landscape in the docudrama
piece. Anchoring on the visual components of the filmic environment, the study
intends to delve into the main characters’ responses towards the landscape, where
beliefs alongside fears are primary sentiments. In this reading, the
conceptions of fears as outlined by Yi-Fu Tuan (1979) supplement the paper,
which additionally looks at pre-colonial roots in Southern Philippines,
correlating with local traditions and man’s alleged inherent “fear of nature.”
The marshes of Agusan del Sur Province is home to the Manobo—one of the
indigenous groups that have adapted to different environmental settings,
ranging from the coastline to the highlands of Mindanao. The marshlands serve
as a sanctuary for freshwater crocodiles, which are revered figures in the
Manobo folklore, particularly, their creation myth chronicling the rise and
fall of the mythical couple, Dinagye-an, the warrior and his wife, Dehunajen.
Following the media frenzy caused by the attack, the film critiques the local
government’s involvement in such events, ebbing and flowing according to media
coverage—a similar response by the national government. Anchoring on the main
characters’ state of affairs, the film echoes one of the realities that ethnic
groups (collectively termed as “Lumad”) continue to confront: cultural
distortion, exploitation, disturbances and expulsion from their homelands.
Tito R. Quiling, Jr. has
a BA in Literature from the University of Santo Tomas and an MA in Media
Studies (Film) from the University of the Philippines Diliman. He has received
fellowships for national workshops in creative writing and arts criticism, and
his works have been published in Unitas, Tómas, Humanities Diliman, Plaridel
Journal of Communication,Media, and Society, among others. His research
and writing interests include film and literary criticism, cultural and urban
studies, architectural studies and heritage conservation. At present, he is
with the Department of Literature of the Faculty of Arts and Letters at the
University of Santo Tomas in Manila.
Katrina Ross Tan (University of the Philippines
Los Baños)
Religion in Philippine Contemporary Life:
Analysis of Selected Regional Short Films
Email: katrina.tan@monash.edu
Abstract: The arrival of Roman
Catholicism in the Philippines via Cebu in 1521 is celebrated annually through
the Sinulog Festival, a religious and cultural festival that honors the Sto.
Niño, or the Holy Child. Aside from the fluvial parade and street dancing that
characterize Sinulog, a film festival has also been added in the last decade as
part of the festivities. One can argue that the film festival is a religious
one because of the festival rule of integrating the Sto. Nino in the narrative.
This paper analyses selected short films from the Sinulog film festival in Cebu
City on how they represent the role of religion in contemporary lives of the
local. It also looks into the short film format as further democratizing and,
more important, decentralizing, filmmaking in the country. Because the festival
has now become national in scope, the short films provide case studies on how
Filipinos in general regard religion in contemporary time. Whether the
filmmaker integrates the religious element as central to the narrative or not,
the films represent the extent to which religion still permeates the lives of
Filipinos for better or for worse. While these films suggest that religious
faith brings salvation from various crises, they also suggest that it is only
through personal and/or collective action that such hardships will be
thoroughly resolved. This idea is encapsulated in the Filipino proverb, “Nasa
Diyos ang awa, nasa tao ang gawa” (God gives mercy to those who help
themselves), but, when played up in contemporary time, it critiques religious
institutions and followers as they remain passive in the practice of their
faith. As these films show, religious passivity is incongruous with the conditions
of massive poverty, deadly natural disasters, and increasing criminal acts in
contemporary time. In this instance, people themselves initiate how to make
religion remain relevant to their present lives.
Katrina
Ross Tan is a PhD candidate at Monash University and a faculty member at
the Department of Humanities in University of the Philippines Los Banos. Her
current research examines the emergence of regional cinemas in the Philippines.
In 2013, she served as festival director in Cinema Rehiyon, a state-funded film
festival of regional films. She is the founding festival director of
Pelikultura: The Calabarzon Film Festival that showcases works by filmmakers in
Southern Tagalog region.
PLENARY SPEAKER
Associate Professor Antonio D. Sison
Chair, Historical and Doctrinal Studies
Department
Catholic Theological Union, Chicago (USA)
Plenary Title: Surrexit… She Has
Arisen: “The Rites of May” and the Folk Catholic Imaginary
Email: asison@ctu.edu
Given the ubiquity of Folk Catholicism
in Filipino social reality, grassroots piety has enjoyed great currency in
Philippine cinema. My project is to explore the matter-affect dialectic
apparent in the representation of the Filipino devotion to religious statues
and images within the interpretive framework of what I term as the “Folk
Catholic Imaginary,” the way by which devout Filipino Catholics imagine and
image their relationship with their immediate and extended community, with
their religious institution, and with their God. Following a hermeneutic of
suspicion, I propose that a precolonial, Filipino “primal religion,” as
expressed in an inculturated folk Catholicism, is the shadow referent that
innervates such a devotion, infusing it with a fervor flowing from indigenous
roots that run much deeper than the 16th Century ingress of Spanish-colonial
Catholicism. In view of this, I propose the folk Catholic imaginary as a lens
to refract the homologies between cinematic representation and actual religious
practice. In Philippine cinema, Folk Catholic iconography has been vividly
portrayed as at once being definitively material and audaciously metaphysical,
holding both in creative tension so that it is never a question of an either/or
but a both/and. This holds true in representations across film genres, e.g.,
the intrepid hybrid The Eyes of Angelita (1978), the socially resonant
masterpiece Himala (1982), and my primary case study, The Rites of May (“Itim,”
1976), the first feature-length work of Filipino film auteur Mike de Leon. In
The Rites of May (Itim or “Black” in its original Filipino title, religious
statues of Catholic saints appear in dreamscape to a journalistic photographer
to alert him to a heinous crime committed sub-rosa by his own father against a
mysterious young woman. From the optic of the folk Catholic imaginary, the
statues have rent the curtain between spirit world and material world,
trespassing the divine-human boundary and disrupting the quotidian in order to
exercise their divine guardianship.
Antonio D. Sison
Antonio D. Sison is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Catholic
Theological Union, Chicago, with a research focus on the inter-discipline of
religion, cinema, visual culture, and the postcolonial. His authored books
include The Sacred Foodways of Film (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2016), and World
Cinema, Theology, and the Human (New York/London: Routledge, 2012); among his
published chapters are contributions to The Routledge Companion to Religion and
Film (2009), and Representing Religion in World Cinema (New York/London:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). He has written and lensed his own independent films,
and is currently a film critic for the US newspaper National Catholic Reporter.
PANEL
3
Poetics and Politics
Chair: Budi Irawanto (Universitas
Gadjah Mada)
Presenters: Chris Woodrich (Universitas Gadjah Mada); Rosalia Namsai Engchuan
(Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology); Chris Lundry (El
Colegio de México.); Roland B. Tolentino (University of the Philippines
Film Institute)
Chris Woodrich (Universitas Gadjah Mada)
(De)Politicizing Religion: Islam and Politics
in Asrul Sani’s Para Perintis Kemerdekaan (1977)
Abstract: The film Para Perintis
Kemerdekaan, produced beginning in 1977 and released four years later,
was adapted by its screenwriter and director Asrul Sani from Hajji Abdul Malik
Karim Amrullah's novel Di Bawah Lindungan Ka'bah(1938). During the
adaptation process, Sani introduced various additions, subtractions, and
deletions, including multiple original characters and events. This article
argues that Sani's modifications to the narrative, made in the context of the
Suharto regime, shifted the narrative's message from criticism of classism to promotion
of Indonesian independence while at the same time maintaining the narrative's
Islamic tone. By depicting the pro-independence struggle as based in Islam, the
film simultaneously politicized and depoliticized Islam. Islam was politicized
through its use in addressing both the historical political issue of Indonesian
independence as well as the contemporary political issues of women's roles,
communism, and pluralism, At the same time, it was depoliticized by framing its
influence on political issues as stemming solely from a requirement to seek the
truth. In exploring the implications of these textual modifications for the
filmic narrative, this article highlights how socio-political contexts
influence the adaptation process, as well as the how fictional narratives are
shaped to promote specific political interests.
Christopher A. Woodrich
is a doctoral student at Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, with an interest
in Indonesian cinema, Indonesian literature, and the intersection between them.
His publications include "Between the Village and the City: Representing
Colonial Indonesia in the Films of Saeroen" (_Social Transformations_,
2015), "Sexual Bodies, Sensual Bodies: Depictions of Women in Suharto-Era
Indonesian Film Flyers (1966–1998)" (_International Feminist Journal_,
2016), and "Inside Gazes, Outside Gazes: The Influence of Ethnicity on the
Filmmakers of the Dutch East Indies (1926–1936)" (_Plaridel_, 2015), as
well as the book _Ekranisasi Awal: Adapting Novels to the Silver Screen in the
Dutch East Indies_ (Gadjah Mada University Press, 2017). He is conducting his
doctoral research on the history of the practice of adapting films from novels
in the Indonesian archipelago. Email: chris_woodrich@hotmail.com
Rosalia Namsai Engchuan (Max Planck
Institute for Social Anthropology)
An Ethnography of the Dynamic Social Process of
Film Censorship in Contemporary Indonesia
Abstract: The presentation will give an
insight into my ethnographic study of film censorship in contemporary
Indonesia. Film censorship is often ridiculed because of its perceived
ineffectiveness. Nevertheless, censorship bodies exist and remain the
gatekeepers of official screenings and censorship laws and policies determine
what is officially “appropriate” content. Furthermore, filmmakers are
challenged by authorities and unofficial censors who all have a particular urge
to control what is represented on screens. Against the background of Islamic
revivalism, voices outside
official censorship channels calling for cuts become increasingly loud. Often,
calls for cuts are linked to religiously framed discourses on morality and the
nation which are gendered and especially discriminatory against women and queer
subjects. I conceptualize film censorship as a dynamic social process at the
interface between the state, its bureaucracies, filmmakers and society at
large. In contemporary Indonesia, this process cannot be thought of without
considering the role of religiously framed discourses on morality. Bearing in
mind that state power is not one-directional but co-produced and contested in
society in uncertain and unpredictable ways my research asks: how do filmmakers
and censors experience and navigate the dynamic social process of film
censorship? Filmmakers have engaged in various strategies, from confronting and
subverting official censorship to actively reproducing official
“appropriateness”. At the same time, as both a response to the changing context
(socio-cultural and technological changes) as well as a pro-active move towards
a desired future, the censorship board has re-oriented its strategy towards a
culture of self censorship (budaya sensor mandiri) and the support of
Indonesian film. My research looks at film censorship not only as negative and
oppressive but as a discourse on the aesthetics of morality that defines the
playground for film practitioners. A playground that they can and do actively
co-produce.
Rosalia Namsai
Engchuan is a PhD Candidate at
the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany. She is
currently doing fieldwork in Indonesia to research the conditions under which
films are being made with a focus on independently produced short films outside
of commercial cinemas. On a broader level, Rosalia wants to contribute to the
overall field of Southeast Asian Cinema Studies by ethnographically looking at
cinematic practices and the cinematic depictions of gender and sexuality that are
grounded in these practices. She is particularly interested in the boundaries
of “appropriateness” that are constantly being negotiated among various actors
and reflect state/religion/society relations in censorship discourses.
Rosalia's earlier research focused on representations of femininity and teenage
sexuality in Thai television. Her video essay on the same topic - “On Thai
Women // They are weak that’s why they dream of weak women” was screened as
part of the Asian Film Festival Berlin in 2017.
Chris Lundry (El Colegio de México.)
Revisiting Passabe: Lisan,
Government and Restorative Justice
Abstract:
Following the militia violence before, during and after the 1999 referendum in
Timor-Leste, the reintegration of former militia members who wanted to return
to their home villages presented a problem for the United Nations Transitional
Authority for East Timor and later the independent Timor-Leste government. With
its emphasis on restoration, lisan (roughly analogous to adat in Indonesia)
presented an indigenous mechanism to reintegrate militia members, but left out
western (retributive) elements, and so was initially rejected by the UN. An
eventual compromise was found with the creation of the serious crimes unit,
which would allow prosecution of crimes deemed more significant such as rape or
murder. The film Passabe (2006) explored the process of reintegration through
lisan, including elements that appeared unsatisfactory to the victims (such as
the perpetrator’s incomplete confessions). This paper examines the processes of
lisan explored in the film and returns to Passabe ten years later to examine
the effectiveness of the restoration process. It also examines the role of
lisan as an extragovernmental process steeped in “animist” tradition in the
context of a predominantly (nominally) Catholic country in a democratic
setting. The film is an excellent representation of indigenous justice, but was
indigenous justice ultimately successful in Passabe?
Chris Lundry is
a profesor-investigador in el Centro de Estudios de Asia y África at El Colegio
de México in Mexico City.He studies Southeast Asia, predominantly Indonesia and
Timor-Leste, and his work focuses on separatism, rebellion, terrorism, and
democratization. He has published work in American Behavioral
Scientist,Contemporary Islam, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Asian
Politics and Policy,Estudios de Asia y África, and Small Wars Journal,
among others. With his co-authors, he received the 2012 International
Communication Association Best Co-Authored Book award for Narrative
Landmines: Rumors, Islamist Extremism, and the Struggle for Strategic
Influence. He is a Fulbright and a Blakemore fellow. In 1999 he was a United
Nations-accredited observer to the referendum in Timor-Leste, and has worked
with the Carter Center and various human rights and justice oriented NGOs. He
teaches Southeast Asian politics and history, including courses that focus on
film.
Roland B. Tolentino (University of the
Philippines Film Institute)
Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Cultural Politics
of Representation of Religiosity in Philippine Cinema
Abstract: Lino Brocka’s Maynila
sa Kuko ng Liwanag (Manila in the Claws of Neon, 1975), offers two scenes from
which to infer the relationship of religious piety and popular film. Julio’s
search for Ligaya in Manila ends with his surveillance of Ligaya coming out of
a church in Chinatown. In order to maintain anonymity, Julio and Ligaya catch
up with their sagas inside a movie house, ignoring the film about the passion of
Christ. Catholic devotion by Ligaya is a convenient excuse to escape the prison
house of her Chinese husband. And through movie going, the star-crossed lovers
are able to catch up and make sense of their predicament. In Tirador
(Slingshot, 2007), the final scene takes the lumpen group into an outdoor
service of a megachurch primarily catering to the city’s poor. This is not an
ordinary service as the film takes actual footage of an event where the
megachurch’s leaders endorse candidates for the Philippine senate race. Against
this real backdrop, the lumpen group does what is expected of their kind, they
pickpocket and rob from their fellow poor. What is being interrogated in the
scene is the hypocrisy of the church engaged in national politicking that manufactures
docile bodies among its mass of followers. Philippine cinema has an arduous
trajectory of engaging with and critiquing of religion and popular religiosity.
This paper examines the modalities of engagement and critique of films that
represent religiosity in the country. Philippine cinema, while not wholly
tacking the matter of religion in film which will emplace such film in the
unnecessary ire of the church, is still able to provide a critical discourse of
religiosity through scenes that implicate the church and religiosity in the
hegemony of the state. “Lead us not into temptation” is a phrase borrowed from
a popular Catholic prayer that provides the impetus for what, why and how
Philippine cinema represents religiosity in film. By providing a critical
fulcrum to the culpability of the church in the historical social injustice of
the people, Philippine cinema interrogates the cultural and political
apparatuses that have interpellated the people to the ideology of state
hegemony. In such scenes in select films, the ideological underpinnings are
laid bare for audiences to recognize and identify as their own collective
predicament. In this sense, Philippine cinema leads audience not into the
temptations of state hegemony.
Roland B. Tolentino is faculty of University of the Philippines Film
Institute and former dean of the UP College of Mass Communication. He is Director of the UP Institute of
Creative Writing where he also serves as fellow. He has taught at the Osaka University,
National University of Singapore, and University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include Philippine
literature, popular culture, cinema and media, interfacing national and
transnational issues. He writes and has published books on fiction and creative
non-fiction. He is a member of the
Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino (Filipino Film Critics Group), Altermidya
(People’s Alternative Media Network), and Congress of Teachers and Educators
for Nationalism and Democracy (CONTEND-UP).
PANEL
4
Folk and Horror
Chair: Mariam Lam (University of
California, Riverside)
Presenters: Nguyen Thi Dieu Linh (Hanoi National University
of Education); Anton Sutandio (Maranatha Christian University); Veluree
Metaveevinij (Thammasat University / University of London)
Nguyen Thi Dieu Linh (Hanoi National University
of Education)
Representation of Spiritual and
Traditional Elements as a Contemporary Phenomena in Vietnamese Movie Me
Thao / The Legendary Age
Email: linhqrt2004@yahoo.com
Abstract:
Me Thao – The Legendary Age (Me Thao – Thoi vang
bong) is a 2002 Vietnamese movie directed by Viet Linh, based on the Nguyen
Tuan’s short novel “Dan Pagoda” (Chua Dan) which was published in 1946. The
movie belongs to a trend in Vietnamese movies after the 2000s in which
directors attempt to explore and represent the power of traditional elements in
modern life. The movie plot shows us two heartbreaking love stories: one is
between Nguyen, a Westernized Vietnamese landlord, and his fiancée who is an
young urban girl; and the other is between Tam, a “dan day” (three stringed,
long neck lute, Vietnamese musical instrument) player, and To, a “ca tru” (a
Northern Vietnamese traditional chamber genre) singer. There are multiple
themes in this movie: the conflicts between tradition and modernity from
different perspectives , the complexity and ambiguity of the local people’s
feeling to the colonizers, the decisive role of traditional religious belief in
ordinary life as well as in art creativities. By exploring these themes, our
paper argues the representation of spiritual and traditional elements as
contemporary phenomena in the movie Me
Thao – The Legendary Age, which could be seen as part of a trend in
Vietnamese literature, movies, and art in the period from 2000 till present.
Nguyen Thi Dieu Linh is known for her layered, personal, and poetic
approach to contentious histories and current events through experiments with
the moving image. Her practice has consistently investigated the role of memory
in the necessary unveiling of hidden, displaced, or misinterpreted histories,
often making use of original documentary footage or undertaking extensive
investigative field work. Inspired by her heritage, her pieces are powerful and
haunting, and focus on social and cultural issues — especially the complex,
traumatic history of her home country Vietnam and its after-effects in the
present. Her materials are diverse – from video and photographs shot by herself
to those appropriated from various sources including press photos, corporate
videos, and classic films; her practice traverses boundaries between film and
video art, installation and performanc
Anton Sutandio (Maranatha Christian University)
The Politics of Occultism and Religion in
Sisworo Gautama Putra’s and Joko Anwar’s Pengabdi Setan
Abstract: This research compares two
films, the original Pengabdi Setan
and its remake, in the context of politics of occultism and religion. I view
the display of occultism and religion in the two films as an allegorical
representation as well as critical responses to the socio-political situation
of the two eras. Separated by almost four decades, I argue that Joko Anwar’s
nostalgic remake and the original film subtly converse with each other, share
distinctive similarities yet also polarized differences that underlie their
endeavor to allegorically bring back and relive public memory of certain
national trauma such as marginalization and repression. By focusing on the
films’ cinematography and mise-en-scene, this research attempts to locate those
allegorical moments within the depiction of occultist and religious practice
that challenge or accentuate the dominant ideology of their respective eras.
Anton Sutandio
is a full-time lecturer at the Faculty of Letters, Maranatha Christian
University, Bandung. He specializes in
teaching drama, film, philosophy and cultural studies. He got his master degree
from University of Indonesia majoring in Literature and Cultural Studies. In 2014 he received his doctoral degree from
the School of Interdisciplinary Arts, Ohio University, USA majoring in film and
theatre. His dissertation is on
contemporary Indonesian horror films. At
present he is the Dean of the Faculty of Letters, Maranatha Christian
University, Bandung.
Veluree Metaveevinij (Thammasat
University / University of London)
Spirits Across Borders: Case Studies in
Transnational Horror Cinema
Abstract:
This paper centres on
representation of spirits in the films that portray Thai and other ASEAN
characters. The paper examines a notion of horror that the transnational cinema
provides. Ghosts in the films are ASEAN migrant workers living in Thailand and are
abused before their death. But they return as ghosts to get revenge on those
who harm them. Appadurai’s five dimensional ‘-scapes’ of global cultural flows,
including ethnoscapes, technoscapes, finanscapes, mediascapes, and ideoscapes,
are being used to analyse the films. Particularly, ethnoscapes and the ethnic
spaces appearing in the films can represent insecurity
of Thai people whose
national economy heavily relies on migrant workers, prejudice and
discrimination against migrant workers who are considered as the others in Thai
society.
Veluree Metaveevinij is a
lecturer at College of Innovation, Thammasat University, Thailand. I received
Ph.D. in film studies, SOAS, University of London in 2015. My area of interest
is media and cultural studies, Southeast Asian cinema in particular.
PANEL
5
Mapping the Trans/national
Chair: Popi Primadewi (Institut Seni
Indonesia, Surakarta)
Presenters: Thomas Barker (University of Nottingham
Malaysia); Meghan Downes (National University of Singapore, Asia Research
Institute); Adam Knee (Lasalle College of the Arts)
Thomas Barker (University of Nottingham
Malaysia)
Travelling Muslims: Cosmopolitans, Romance, and
Newfound Independence
Abstract:
As Indonesia’s Muslim’s have undergone an embourgeoisement over the past two
decades and as a marketplace of Islamic products has emerged, a distinct
middle-class Muslim identity has become discernable in Indonesia. Religious
piety and symbols of the good life are consumed and expressed through a new
marketplace of ‘Islamic’ products that include fashion and a variety of pop
culture products. Alongside television, literature, magazines and online media
feature films following in the wake ofAyat-Ayat Cinta (Verses of Love, Hanung
Bramantyo, 2008) also provide representations of new middle-class values and
lifestyle preferences. Within this new matrix of piety and consumption, this
paper looks at the associated phenomena of overseas travel as a new vector for
representing class status and consumption patterns for the middle class. In
this paper, I situate overseas travel as a new status symbol for the
middle-class Muslim character but one that brings certain challenges and
complications. By looking at a number of recent Islamic travel films by
director Guntur Soeharjanto includingAssalamualaikum Beijing(2014),Jilbab
Traveller: Love Sparks in Korea (2016), andAyat-Ayat Cinta 2 (2017), this paper
traces the emergence and features of the new Muslim middle class. In pursuit of
pleasure and transnational desires, Indonesian Muslim characters encounter
others of different faiths and cultural practices. Travel films provide new
ways of understanding the cosmopolitan character of Indonesia’s middle class,
its cultural politics, and the ways in which these new consumers engage with
the world.
Thomas Barker is
Associate Professor and Head of Film and Television at the University of
Nottingham Malaysia. In 2018 he was a visiting fellow at the College of
Communication, NCCU in Taiwan, in 2016 he was a visiting scholar at the School
of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA, and in 2012 a Visiting Fellow at the
Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore. Thomas researches
and writes about the Indonesian and Malaysian film industries, creative
industries, Islamic pop culture, and transnational Asian cinema. His
monograph Going Mainstream: Indonesian Cinema after the New Order is
forthcoming with Hong Kong University Press.
Meghan Downes (National University of
Singapore, Asia Research Institute)
Religion and Development in Indonesian Cinema
Email: downes.meg@gmail.com
Abstract: The post-reform Indonesian mediascape has
featured a remarkable explosion in ‘inspirational’ and ‘self-help’ products:
from motivational seminars to guides on how to become a ‘Muslim Millionaire’,
there is a huge push to improve oneself in a variety of ways, and religion is
frequently a central part of these self-development narratives. My paper
examines how this phenomenon plays out in Indonesian cinema, focusing in
particular on intersections between motivation and morality, between
inspiration and Islam, as well as broader links between discourses of
self-development and national development. Pembangunan (development) ideology has a long history in
Indonesia, and I argue that it continues to play a central role in
dominant narratives of progress, interacting in complex ways with religion, both
on and off the cinema screen.
Dr. Meghan Downes
completed her PhD at the Australian National University in Canberra, in the
School of Culture, History and Language. She is the recipient of two Australian
government Endeavour Awards for her research on contemporary Indonesian film,
literature, media, and the politics of popular culture. She will be working on
a project that examines urban youth engagement with the natural environment and
how everyday environmental problems and solutions are represented in Indonesian
popular culture.
Adam Knee (Lasalle College of the Arts)
Thailand in US Faith-Based Films
Email: adam.knee@lasalle.edu.sg
Abstract:
Thailand
has in the past decade cropped up quite regularly as a setting in global cinema
and television for a variety of reasons both economic and industrial on the one
hand (a function of the development of a Thai production services industry and
government production incentives), and cultural and symbolic on the other (an
outgrowth of the varied signifying functions of Thailand for national cultures
around the world). Even aside from such highly visible Hollywood examples
as Bangkok Dangerous (2008) and The Hangover Part II (2011),
Thailand has played a central “role” as a setting in numerous low budget
American action films, in Indian films from across that country’s various
language-differentiated industries, and in European films ranging from art
house excursions to comic romps. Reality television has also found
Thailand an attractive locale. But Thailand
has also far less predictably found its way into repeatedly serving as a
setting for a fairly obscure kind of American niche cinema, that of the predominantly
Christian “faith-based film,” despite what might at first seem the
contradiction of Thailand being a Buddhist country. This presentation
will therefore be interested to explore this phenomenon, with a particular
focus on outlining the tendencies in the representation of Thailand in these
films and determining the particular signifying value that the country has has
had for this very niche genre. A brief
look at Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter (2010) will serve as a springboard
for this discussion, not only because the film is arguably a rare example of a
mainstream faith-based crossover film (with its focus on the afterlife), but
because its coupling of Thailand with ideas of the spiritual continues a trend
already present in world cinema and, I will argue, clearly retained in the
lower-profile dramas to be analyzed here, all of which appeared in the years
immediately following. The faith-based films to be examined include Escape
(2012), The Encounter: Paradise Lost (2012), The Mark (2012), and
The Mark: Redemption (2013).
Adam Knee
is Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Media & Creative Industries at
Singapore’s Lasalle College of the Arts. Prior to this, he held
appointments at University of Nottingham Ningbo China (where he was Head of the
School of International Communications and Professor of Film and Media
Studies), Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) and Ohio University
(USA). He has published widely on topics pertaining to Asian and US
popular cinemas.
PANEL
6
Aesthetics / Reception
Chair: Ratna Erika Suwarno (Universitas Padjadjaran)
Presenters: Azrain Arifin
(Sunway University); Ekky Imanjaya (Bina Nusantara University); Muhammad
Bahruddin (University of Indonesia); Ly Quyet Tien (HCMC Open University,
Vietnam)
Azrain Arifin (Sunway University)
The Five Stations of Artistry in Film: A
Sufistic Perspective
Abstract:
Sufism is the branch within Islam that deals with spirituality. Originating
from the Arabic word Tasawwuf, which literally translates as “becoming a Sufi”,
it is concerned with the inner self- development of a Muslim. Focusing on the
cleansing of the heart through disciplined rituals of zikr, or the remembrance
of God, it is aimed at attaining the spiritual enlightenment of truth. Through
the persistence practice of zikr, as the heart transcends through several
stations of purification, a Sufi appreciates the beauty in God’s creation in
the universe around him. This appreciation is often reflected through the
manifestation in Islamic art, and in particular in film. Combining the
interpretation of the Quran and Ahadith, as the two primary sources in Islam, and
the contextual analysis of the scholarly study of film, this paper examines how
the principles of Sufism can be applied to cinema to create an aesthetically
complete motion picture. It shows that film has five stations of artistry,
which are similar to the stations or maqam that a Sufi attains in his journey
of spiritual growth. It therefore claims that cinema is not just a vehicle for
religious representation and ideologies, but most importantly, is also a spiritual
medium for the remembrance of God.
Azrain Arifin
is the award-winning writer-director of On the Streets of London. He is
currently a lecturer in the BA (Hons) Digital Film Production programme in the
Department of Performance and Media at Sunway University, Malaysia. Starting
out as a screen actor at the tender age of ten, Azrain moved on to study
filmmaking at Akademi Filem Malaysia and London College of Communication,
University of the Arts London before founding his own film production company,
Tokdalang Productions. Awarded with an MA in Scriptwriting from Goldsmiths,
University of London, he is a regular workshop facilitator with the National
Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS) and a member of the Film
Directors’ Association of Malaysia (FDAM). Prior to joining Sunway University,
he spent a decade teaching documentary and screenwriting at industry workshops
and across universities in Malaysia. He is currently working on Juwitaku (My
Juwita), a film about a tragic tale of forbidden love that explores the
conflict between ideas of Western individualism and those of Malay traditional
customs.
Ekky Imanjaya (Bina Nusantara University)
Astaghfirullah Film Indonesia!: Lady
Terminator, Politics of Taste, and “The Other Kind of Public”
Abstract:
The
withdrawal of Pembalasan Ratu Laut Selatan (1989) or globally known as Lady
Terminator is one of the most significant cases in Indonesian film history,
particularly the politics of taste in New Order era. General opinion——led by
influential members of society, from senators and journalists to religious
leaders--- in national media shows how some cultural elites along with other influential
members of society (often seen as the voice of “the public”) attacked the film
due to concerns over scenes depicting explicit sex and violence.
As a result, they forced its withdrawal, and the film was
withdrawn after 9 days on theatrical release. The biggest national magazine, Tempo
weekly, addressed this phenomenon, particularly the case of Lady Terminator,
in 22 July 1989 headline “Astaghfirullah Film Indonesia”, or “Oh
My God, Indonesian Movies!”. Astaghfirullah is an Islamic term,
which literally means “Oh God Please forgive
me”, and I find it interesting that this term was used by a secular
and liberal magazine to illustrate the heated situation in 1989. However, along with and following this event, the massive
demand to watch this particular movie, both nationally and globally, increased.
Apparently, the withdrawal elicited the distribution of illegal and uncensored
video versions of the film. The situation above is unique because it is
notoriously known that Indonesia’s New Order (1966-1998) undertook state
control on every aspect of life, including sharp censorship and controlling
film organizations. The government also framed movies to “search for the real
Indonesian faces on screen” and “represent the true Indonesian culture”, which
means excluding violence and erotic scenes from the screen. By looking at the
discussions published in newspapers and magazines, as well as the film policies
related to the issue, I will demonstrate the politics of tastes among various
parties. By focusing on audience reception, particularly
the attempt of film distributors, and popular consumption, this paper is
expected to give a better understanding of the consumption of “the other kind
of public”
Ekky
Imanjaya is an Indonesian film critic/journalist. He is a faculty member
at Film Department, Binus International. He is also co-founder and editor of rumahfilm.org, a popular online
film journal from Indonesia. He has graduated from a Masters Program for Film
Studies at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. He just finished PhD program at Film
Studies, University of East Anglia, UK. He has written some books, including A
to Z about Indonesian Films, and some articles on film, pop culture, philosophy
and Islamic issues.
Muhammad Bahruddin (University of Indonesia)
The Identity of Inclusive Islam in Films by
Nurman Hakim
Abstract:
This study aims at exploring new developments in Indonesian
film production with Islamic themes within the framework of cultural studies.
It examines the films directed by Nurman Hakim titled “3 Doa 2 Cinta” (3
Prayers 2 Love) (2008), “Khalifah” (2011), and “Bid'ah Cinta” (2017), by
director and screenwriter, Nurman Hakim. Using the Qur’an and hadith scriptures
to conduct contextual interpretation of these three films, it is possible to
identify features of Islam in Indonesia as an inclusive, tolerant, and local
culture accommodating by interpreting the texts of the Qur'an and hadith
contextually. Moreover, these films counteract Islamic-themed films that
prioritize an exclusive identity of Islam, that is, the identity of Islam which
take scriptural interpretation of the texts of the Qur'an and hadith. Hakim’s
three films convey that groups that promote Islamic exclusivity threaten the
harmony of Muslims in Indonesia. The films convey the belief that such groups
create the roots and footholds of radicalism in Indonesia, thus representing
the concerns of many Indonesian citizens in contemporary times. The film
describes the socio-political, cultural, ideological, and religious
circumstances of a society. A filmmaker, intentionally or not, will create a
new world in his movie. It will represent all that has been absorbed. Audiences
can read the religious views of a filmmaker in the movies he creates.
Therefore, a filmmaker has the power to represent his ideology through his
works. Recognizing that film-makers create their own descriptions of social,
political, ideological and religious circumstances, the three films by Nurman
Hakim provide a glimpse into the struggle over construction of Islamic identity
in Indonesian culture. This study uses a cultural study approach, an in-depth
interview with Hakim, and close analysis of the three films as artifacts to
reveal how Hakim as a filmmaker constructs Islamic identity in the process of
producing Islamic-themed films. In addition, this study illustrates the
diversity of Islamic identity in Indonesia and expands from previous studies
that have primarily focused on Islam based on Indonesia’s urban middle-class.
Muh. Bahruddin
is student of PhD program in Communications at University of Indonesia.
Currently, he is finishing fieldwork for his PhD program with thesis topic:
Islamic identity construction on a terrorism-themed Indonesian film. In
2005-2010 he was a lecturer and head of communications program at Yudharta
University, Pasuruan. In 2010 – now, he is a lecturer in media and
communications at visual communications program, Stikom Surabaya. On this campus he has been the head of visual
communications program for 4 years (2012-2016).
Ly Quyet Tien (HCMC Open University,
Vietnam)
Engaged Buddhism in Saigon Mobile
Force
Email: lyquyettien@yahoo.fr
Abstract:
The Vietnam War has inspired lots of local film makers to produce such good
films as 17th parallel-days and nights,
The Wild fields, Saigon Mobile Force, Season
of Northeast Monsoon, The Little Girl
in Ha Noi, etc. These films express the destiny of a country that struggled against its dramatic fate to survive and
the atrocities of a people who had
experienced a long history of war with millions of deaths and losses. Among these films, Saigon Mobile Force is
distinguished from the other Vietnam war films as it concerns a special force who took an important part in the
struggle for peace and the reunification
of Vietnam in 1975. The heroine in the film is a Buddhist nun who engaged in the peace movement to fight
for the end of the conflict in Vietnam. She
died before the end of the war and never saw the return of peace to the
country. Saigon Mobile Force is the
rare Vietnamese film that sketches out the portrait of the Vietnamese Buddhists, their philosophy of integration, social and
political activism and the role of
the Vietnamese women in the wartime. This paper will explore the questions of
Vietnamese Buddhism in the Vietnam War through Saigon Mobile Force: Is
Vietnamese Buddhism an engaged religion? What are the social and economic
factors that compel Vietnamese Buddhism to engage in the struggle for the peace and reunification of the country? What
makes it different from that of other
countries in Southeast Asia? What role does tradition, culture, education, and gender bias play in the
Buddhist movement? How does it exert influence
over the country? By way of this analysis, it is the author’s hope that by examining the Saigon Mobile Force a better understanding the role that Buddhism played during this most challenging
time of Vietnam history, a role underappreciated and often unknown by many.
Ly Quyet Tien
is Head of Department of Southeast Asian Studies at the HCMC Open University
(Vietnam), Doctor Ly Quyet Tien has been guest lecturer at many universities in
Ho Chi Minh city. He holds bachelor's degrees in History & in English from
the University of Social Sciences and Humanities. He also holds M.A. degrees in
FLE from University of Rouen, in Vietnam History from the Southern Institute of
Social Sciences and Humanities in HCMC. In 2008, he received his Ph.D. in
Eastern Asia and Humanities from University of Paris 7- Diderot. Specialist in
Vietnamese studies, he has taken part as presenter in international conferences
since 2014. He can be contacted at lyquyettien@yahoo.fr
PLENARY SPEAKER
________________________________________________________________
Hikmat Darmawan
Plenary Title: The
Aesthetics of Melodrama in The Indonesian Film
Dakwah Industry
Email: hikmatdarmawan@gmail.com
Hikmat Darmawan (Bandung, West Java, May 22,
1970) has been active in many cultural communities since 2000, co-founding the
Musyawarah Burung community to accommodate a common passion for cultural and
art activities. From virtual discussions, the Musyawarah Burung community
developed concrete projects such as piano recitals, poetry readings and
cultural orations. He also co-founded Akademi Samali in 2005. It is a comic
community dedicated to exploring possibilities for Indonesian comic artistic
and industrial development. Aside from this, Hikmat actively engages in public
discussions. He has given workshops on nonfiction writings, journalism and
between 2003-2004 gave a series of special comic workshops on conflict
resolution in Poso (Sulawesi), Jakarta and Madura, a program supported by
Common Ground Indonesia. In 2006-2007, he was program manager for MP Book
Point, a bookstore in Jakarta catering to a wide range of interests. There, he
developed partnerships to hold public activities on literature, movies, comics,
social movements and art. In 2007 he cofounded www.rumahfilm.org, a platform for Indonesian movie critics to
explore Indonesian cinema within its socio-cultural context. He returned
to print media as editor of Madina Magazine in 2008-2009 and in 2010 was
selected for the Asian Public Intellectuals Fellowship Program from the Nippon
Foundation. During this period, he conducted research in Japan and Thailand
about the globalization of manga subculture. Since 2012, he has resumed
activities with Akademi Samali and ID Kreatif, besides acting as consultant on
comics, books and film programs for the Ministry of Tourism and Creative
Economy. His current project Pabrikultur (pabrikultur.com) is a brand
journalism provider, which also offers programming of cultural events. His
latest book is Komik Gebrak! Esai-Esai Komik: Narasi dan Eksistensi (2015).
PANEL 7
Auteurs
Chair: Novi Kurnia (Universitas Gadjah
Mada)
Presenters: Gareth Stanton (Goldsmiths, University of
London); Adrian D. Mendizabal (University of the Philippines – Diliman); Miguel
Penabella (University of California, Santa Barbara).
Gareth Stanton (Goldsmiths, University of
London)
P. Ramlee and the Crisis of Faith: Extending
Joel Kahn’s Analysis of the Ramlee Oeuvre
Abstract: With the untimely
death of Joel S. Kahn in 2017, Southeast Asian studies lost a nuanced
commentator. His most recent work showed an increasing engagement with forms of
religiosity with a particular focus on Indonesian Sufi beliefs. While
Kahn’s very early work concentrated on the insertion of Malay and Indonesian
peasantries into global systems of capitalist development, his later work
shifted to discussions of nationalism and cosmopolitanism in the Malay world
(notably in his 2006 book, Other Malays). In this context,
religion, and its dialectical relationship with emergent forms of modern
national identities which come to redefine the Malay world, takes on a central
importance. One way in which Kahn attempts to demonstrate these transformations
is through a focus on cinema. In particular, he focusses his analysis on the
work of one of Malaysia’s most celebrated directors, P. Ramlee. Using
what amounts to textual analysis, Kahn reads two early Ramlee films Penarik
Beca (1955) and Semarah Padi (1956) in order to
construct an emerging version of Malay modernity which evolves out of forms of
identity centred on the communal ethos of the kampung. This paper
will seek to extend Kahn’s reading of Islam in this process and cast the net
wider in the oeuvre of Ramlee to look at some of the later films which
increasingly call into question some problematic aspects of the emerging
‘national’ forms. These can be taken to include the film industry itself which
is satirised in films such as Ramlee’s 1961 comedySeniman Bujang Lapok.
In conducting such an exercise, however, it is important to account for the
eclipse of Ramlee the man and his tragic early death. His work has now become a
zone of contestation, open to a variety of increasingly politicised interpretations.
Gareth
Stanton has a background in anthropology.
His interest in literary representations of exile led to his translation
of Tahar Ben Jelloun’s novel La reclusion solitaire, which was published by
Quartet books in the UK. He has also published a critical edition of another
francophone Moroccan writer’s work, Driss Chraibi’s novel Une enquéte au pays.
In particular, he has written about Tom Harrisson and the Mass-Observation
movement in Britain, and the British cultural commentator Geoffrey Gorer. More
recently, he has written about the area of London in which he lives, Peckham.
After many years as Head of Goldsmiths’ renowned Media and Communications
Department, he has stepped down to focus his interests on areas of visual
culture ranging from Nollywood cinema to the colonial postcard. He is currently
working on questions of world cinema, media and politics and environmental
change. The geographical focus of his research at present is on West Africa and
Bangladesh
Adrian D. Mendizabal (University of the
Philippines – Diliman)
Metaphysics of Long Duration in the Cinema of
Lav Diaz
Email: adrian.lessegers@gmail.com
Abstract: This
paper seeks to problematize the concept of long duration in contemporary phenomenon of slow cinema as exemplified by the
cinema of Lav Diaz. The main rationale for this film philosophical research is
to categorically assess the metaphysics of long duration as deployed in the
Diaz’s cinema as a form of dematerialization and sublimation of cinematic time. In order to demystify the metaphysics of long duration in
Diaz’s cinema, this research uses the critical framework of dialectical
materialism, as espoused by the praxiological synthesis of Marxism, to
enunciate a potential material basis of long duration.
Adrian
D. Mendizabal is a Filipino media studies scholar
based in Manila, Philippines. He is completing his degree on MA Media Studies
(Film) at the University of the Philippines Film Institute (UPFI). He is
recently a contributing film reviewer of VCinema. He has contributed
several essays on Philippine cinema and the local media industry to various publications
like Asian
Politics & Policy, Plaridel
Journal, Kino Punch, NANG
2, La Furia Umana, New Durian
Cinema, Transit Journal, Sinekultura Film Journal and MUBI
Notebook and is currently
working on a
research project exploring the relationship of time and Lav Diaz’s cinema. His
main interest is film-philosophy.
Miguel Penabella (University of
California, Santa Barbara)
A Theology of Cinematic Salvation: The
Political Necessity of Digital in the Contexts of Lav Diaz’s Slow Cinema
Abstract:
Those familiar with the films of Philippine director Lav Diaz understand his
works to be lengthy, averaging four to ten hours. Diaz’s films are often
couched in discourses of slow cinema, referring to a loose collection of
contemplative films that privilege decelerated takes and a lack of narrative
causality, often outside the Hollywood system. Digital technology affords increasingly
longer takes not possible on celluloid. This project aims to rethink slow
cinema within the contexts of digital technologies and questions of agency and
access, reframing slowness less as an aesthetic choice and more as a political
necessity and even as quasi-religious doctrine. For Diaz, digital represents a
form of “liberation theology,” likening it as a political instrument to reclaim
the tools of cinematic production for impoverished, independent filmmakers
seeking to circumvent an exploitative, capitalist studio system (Baumgärtel,
2012). While scholars have considered slowness in cinema as oppositional to
neoliberal global frameworks (Flanagan, 2012) and as renewing attention to the
experience of duration amidst a hyper-connected world of late capitalism (Lim,
2014), this paper argues that digital allows filmmakers to resist dominant
power structures by making accessible the materials of production, and in doing
so, conceives of digital not as the death of film, but as a newfound creative
afterlife. A closer examination of such themes confronts scholars with several
questions: What does it mean to conceive of digital as a religious theology?
How might considering his Catholic- Socialist upbringing inform this belief
system? In addressing these questions, I will consider the politics of this
digital liberation theology, confronting Diaz’s optimism with the staggering financial
and environmental costs associated with digital storage. By interweaving
theories of digital cinema and slowness, this project links slow cinema
scholarship with broader questions of environmental problems and redistributed
agency atypically brought to such analysis.
Miguel
Penabella is a MA/PhD student in Film and Media Studies at the University of
California, Santa Barbara. His research examines the complex effects of
temporality on narrative, national identity, and spectatorship, and he is interested
in theorizations of slowness in film, slow violence, and the relationship of
politics and style in global art cinema with a focus on Southeast Asian
filmmakers. In addition, he also has a background in theorizing videogame
narrative and game space.
PANEL
8
Practitioner Panel
Chair: Roland B. Tolentino
Arbi Barbarona (Philippines): The Right to Kill (Arbi
Barbarona, 2017);
Arbi Barbarona is an established Filipino cinematographer and
editor. His first feature as a director, The Right to Kill (Tu
Pug Imatuy 2017), won six awards, including best film, at the 2017
Sinag Maynilla Film Festival, also winning best film at the 2017 Quezon City
Filmfest. The Right to Kill, which Barbarona will present and
discuss at ASEACC 2018, centers on the currently ongoing conflict between
indigenous Lumad peoples in Mindanao and national logging corporations
supported by the Philippine military. The film’s dramatic conflict focuses on
the clash of epistemologies between the Lumad, whose animist beliefs fall into
neither of the Muslim or Christian majorities, and the invading, Manila-based
troops who represent Catholic national modernity. Through adapting traditional
legends and symbols, the soldiers’ “right to kill” is reframed by the Lumad
protagonists, legitimizing their own acts of violence in defense of the land on
which their livelihood and lifestyle is based.
Anucha Boonyawatana
(Thailand): Malila: The Farewell Flower (Anucha
Boonyawatana, 2017);
Anucha Boonyawatana is a Thai film director and founder of G-Motif
Productions. Her debut feature film, The Blue Hour (2015) was
nominated for best feature at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival. Her second
feature, Malila: The Farewell Flower (2017), which will screen
at this year’s ASEACC, won the Kim Jesoek award at the 2017 Busan Film
Festival. The film provocatively combines Thai spiritual practice and
philosophy with a queer romance, engaging a number of key conference themes
Hari Suharyadi
(Indonesia): Sunya (The Talisman, Hari Suharyadi, 2017);
Beginning his career with a starring role in the
independent film Kuldesak (1998)–which touched off the
“New Wave” of post-Suharto, Reformasi-era cinema––director, actor, and novelist
Hari Dagoe Suhariyadi is a founding figure in contemporary Indonesian popular
culture. His latest feature film, The Talisman (Sunya 2017)
follows a dynamic career as a director that moves between independent and
popular drama and blockbuster horror. The Talisman has played
to critical acclaim in theaters and at venues such as the 2017 Singapore
International Film Festival. The Talisman focuses on the
continuity of syncretic Javanese spirituality undergirding contemporary
national sociopolitical reality, connecting with the conference’s focus on
intervention into the worrisome popular trends toward conservative, intolerant
religious thinking, particularly in Indonesia.
Makbul Mubarak (Universitas Multimedia Nusantara, Indonesia):
Ruah (The
Malediction, Makbul Mubarak, 2016)
Makbul Mubarak is a film critic
turned filmmaker. The 2012 Berlinale Talent Campus alum co-founded and writes
for Cinema Poetica, now an acclaimed collective of film critics, journalists,
academics, researchers, and activists in Indonesia. His contributions are
nationally recognized when Indonesia’s Ministry of Education hailed him Best
Film Critic in 2015. Makbul
built a filmography of short films. His debut short film SUGIH/DOG'S LULABY
(2015) won Best Film in XXI Short Film Festival 2016, the biggest festival for
short films in the country. His short film THE MALEDICTION won the Indonesian
National Award for Best Short Film and receives special mention at the
Singapore International Film Festival, both are in 2018. He is currently
preparing for his feature film debut, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, selected to FeatureLab
Program at TorinoFilmLab.
PANEL
9
Producing Spiritual / Religious / Mystical Films
Chairs: Gaston Soehadi (Petra Christian
University, Surabaya)
Presenters: Immanuel P. Gintings (Universitas HKBP
Nommensen); Tito Imanda (Goldsmiths, University of London); Dag Yngvesson and
Koes Yuliadi (University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus and Institut Seni
Indonesia, Yogyakarta)
Immanuel P. Gintings (Universitas HKBP
Nommensen)
Linguistic Study on Shaman Mantra Book as
Research for Producing Film Guru Sibaso
Abstract:
This paper explains linguistic research for producing film about “Guru”; (literally: Teacher), the shaman
in Karo culture, North Sumatera. Guru in Karo is someone who traditionally help
people for their daily problems: they heal illness, speak to the dead, or even
help couples to get children. Today, the remaining gurus are very rare and
already mixed with religious positions, transforming the old beliefs into
acceptable religious practices, and thus, limiting access to knowledge for the traditional
beliefs. However, there are remaining guru’s mantra books. Discourse and
semiotic analysis on its content is expected to explore new ways of understanding
the old culture, especially the Guru practice and spiritual context of Karo
people in the past. Meanwhile, in bigger picture, the paper also argues that
understanding language is often
overlooked in filmmaking, especially for films that focus on specific cultural
context. Recent feature film set in Karo culture, Tiga Nafas Likas, for instance,
fails to project specific intonation and pronunciation orders within local
language, highlighting the problems of generalist approach of making film in
specific cultural context, and let down Karo community members for the cultural
accuracy.
Immanuel Prasetya Gintings
is a linguist and filmmaker from Medan. He finished Doctorate linguistic at
Universitas Sumatera Utara. Since 2014 he has been engaged as Head of the
English Program at HKBP University Nommensen Medan. In addition to being active
as a lecturer, he also develops local film in North Sumatra through Yayasan
Sinema Manuproject Productions Indonesia which he manages with other indie
filmmakers in Medan. Together they produced some movies, most of them about
culture of North Sumatera. In 2016 he was elected as head of Cinematography and
multimedia department of Dewan Kesenian Kota Medan. For him language, art and
culture are the three things that keep creativity growing to the end.
Tito Imanda (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Fairies, Jinns, Spirits and Maintaining their
Mood for Good Acting: Film, Filming and Ritual
The paper explores the rural
Javanese indigenous filmmaking, especially in its use to implement their local
beliefs and customs., with a big question: can film be a part of a rituall? The
filmmaking projects are done with a traditional performance group in the
highland central Java called Tjipta Boedaja, where collaboration between urban
filmmakers and the locals seeks to transform the group’s performance arts from
stage to film. For a particular film, Tetangga (Neighbors), collaborators try
to create an audio-visual representation of a ritual involving children
distributing food offerings to different parts of the village. The dancers play
the spiritual beings: fairies, a jinn, and spirits who accept the offerings.
Collaborators hope that the film becomes not only a documentation of social and
cultural situation, but also a pedagogical device for younger generations.
Film scholar Fatimah Tobing
Rony reminds social scientists to break from their objective constraints and
embrace the people they are studying, to accept their subjectivities,
especially when related to their spirituality (2006). In accordance with this,
I try to look at the shooting and the film from the locals perspectives.
Indeed, the production was not an easy process for them. Elders and those who
interacted with these creatures keep giving contradictory information. The
dancers felt they need to prepare their body as good as possible and their soul
as pure as possible. Some started to freak out when found out that the shooting
would be done in the exact spot of these creature’s territories. Some others
expected the creatures to enter their performing bodies.
Tito Imanda is an
anthropologist and filmmaker. His master thesis from the Department of Media,
Culture and Communication in New York University (2007), is about the political
economy of the Indonesian film industry. In 2008-2013 he developed and managed
a film school at a university in Jakarta. These days he is mostly in
Yogyakarta, Indonesia, finishing fieldwork for his PhD program at the
Department of Media and Communication, Goldsmiths, University of London, with
thesis topic: collaborative filmmaking with a wayang orang group from the foot
of Mount Merapi. He is also the Head of Research and development at the
Indonesian Film Board.
Dag Yngvesson and Koes Yuliadi (University of
Nottingham, Malaysia Campus and Institut Seni Indonesia, Yogyakarta)
Many Chickens, Lots of Luck: Filming Islam,
Capitalism and Media in Post Reformasi Yogyakarta
This presentation will discuss
the ideas and logistics behind the production of Banyak Ayam, Banyak Rejeki (Many
Chickens, Lots of Luck), a feature length ethno-fiction that mixes
documentary and narrative techniques with archival elements and contemporary
events. The resulting bricolage of images, sounds, genres, and times is
deployed as an irreverent satire of current developments in gender politics,
conservative trends in Islamic thought, and the social and economic effects of
neoliberalism in Java, Indonesia. Co-presenters Dag Yngvesson and Koes Yuliadi
(co-directors of the film and scholars of film, theater, ethnography and
cultural studies) will focus on their critical engagement with the use of Islam
as a symbolic foundation for idealized patterns of economic development. In
this context, a hardworking and gregarious Muslim persona (often male) is
frequently deployed as a veil of piousness that obscures and simultaneously
fuels expectations of high profitability and rapid corporatization driving the
formation of small, grass-roots businesses. There is an unspoken local ‘rule,’
however, that in order to be truly marketable on a local level, these elements
must somehow be combined with established Javanese cultural tropes that exceed
(often quite far) what is otherwise considered “Islamic.” The film takes up
this complex negotiation, satirically amplifying and deploying it––along with
the effects of various new and old media used to promote small businesses––to
break down and historicize the shrouds of patriarchal Islamic piety and
bootstrap capitalism increasingly attached to local socio-economic practice.
Dag
Yngvesson is a filmmaker and Assistant Professor
of cinema and cultural studies at the University of Nottingham, Malaysia
Campus. Using extensive archival and ethnographic research on globalization and
political mass media in Indonesia, his forthcoming book challenges basic
scholarly assumptions about the role of Hollywood and US imperialism in the
development of non-Western cinemas. Current film projects include collaborative
film/ethnographies on the politics of peace in Aceh, Indonesia and on the
experience of migration and labor in a large migrant community in South
Philadelphia. He is also finishing post-production on the experimental
narrative feature Banyak Ayam, Banyak Rejeki (Many Chickens,
Lots of Luck), co-directed and produced with Indonesian filmmaker Koes
Yuliadi. Dag has published scholarly articles in Jumpcut, Indonesia
and the Malay World, Plaridel Journal of Communication, Media,
and Society, and others.
Koes Yuliadi first studied drama as an undergraduate in Theater at ISI Yogyakarta
in Indonesia, majoring in creative writing and direction. Building on these
skills, he began writing for television in Jogjakarta and Jakarta in 1992. In
1999-2000, he was awarded the title of best writer for television by the
Jakarta Arts Council. He continued writing for television until 2006, while
also working as a director. Thereafter his concentration shifted to cultural
research and independent filmmaking. Since 1993, Yuliadi has been a lecturer in
film and drama in the Theater department at ISI Yogyakarta. He received a
Masters in Humanities from Gadjah Mada University in 2000, and completed his
PhD (ISI Yogyakarta) in 2013. His latest film, on body ornamentation in Bali,
is entitled The Devil’s Tatoo (2017).