The Indonesian Independent Film Society Foundation (In-Docs) is holding an Open Table program, a forum for providing consultations to documentary film makers. Participants will be provided with various insights, guidance and feedback that will help develop their abilities in documentary filmmaking.
In-Docs Executive Director, Gugi Gumilang explained the aims and hopes of holding the Open Table. “The story telling and perspective on the project will be sharpened, the preparation of proposals and pitches will also be forged. “The hope is that new film makers from Indonesia who are ready to collaborate internationally will continue to appear in documentary labs and forums in the future.”
Open Table will last for seven months, starting from August 2023 to February 2024. There are six selected documentary projects, one of which is the project entitled The Fishing Nets, by Fajaria Menur Widowati who is an Educational Staff at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Brawijaya Malang.
In this program, Fajaria and Sulaeman along with 5 other teams will receive guidance from two experienced mentors, one of whom is Koval Bhatia, a cross-genre film director and producer and founder of A Little Anarky Films. Koval Bhatia is known as someone who has extensive experience in making international documentaries. Meanwhile, the second mentor, Ernest Hariyanto, is an experienced producer, writer and editor in the documentary film industry who has won various international awards.
Fajaria together with Sulaeman M. Nur told the story of a traditional fisherman in Popo Village, South Galesong, Takalar, South Sulawesi who lost access to the sea, the existence of his identity and his living space as a maritime community due to sand mining.
Apart from intensive mentoring, Open Table participants are given travel grants to attend and become observers at the Docs by the Sea Program, an international documentary laboratory and forum for creative documentary projects from Indonesia, Southeast Asia and other Asian regions. Docs by the Sea will be held in Sanur, Bali on 3 – 8 September 2023.
Gugi Gumilang said that the aim of Open Table participants was to be given the opportunity to attend Docs by the Sea so that they could observe and see how film makers pitched to the international market.
“The hope is that Open Table participants will be able to take part in Docs by the Sea next year, because they already know what film makers are like when pitching, so they can prepare their film projects,” said Gugi.
Fajaria Menur Widowati, one of the Open Table participants, revealed that by being given the opportunity to take part in Docs by the Sea, her team gained insight into the perspective of Asian films and how to take part in international documentary forum pitches.
“We hope that by becoming Open Table participants and observers at Docs by the Sea, we will further develop and contribute more in highlighting unique Indonesian stories through creative documentaries,” she said. [pon/UB PR/ Trans. Iir]