M

ost children would agree that studying science can be incredibly difficult (or worse — boring) and that watching movies means a lot of fun and excitement, especially when you go to the movie theater with your friends.

Now, the question for adults is: When you combine learning about science and watching films, can the result actually be incredibly fun and exciting for kids?

Some will say the answer is a definite and resounding yes, and that is what the Science Film Festival is all about.

“Our society has an old-fashioned way of thinking that science is hard and difficult to learn. What we want to emphasize in this event is that it is important to start learning about science at an early age and that it can be fun and burden-free,” Paramadina University rector Anies Baswedan said.

The 2012 Science Film Festival, the third time the annual event has been held in the country, is a roadshow of 13 science-themed short films and documentaries geared to children and teenagers.

Organized by the Goethe Institute with the help of several other companies, the event will visit 17 cities across Indonesia from Nov. 1 to Nov. 15 this year, offering the chance for thousands of inquisitive students and the general public to see the films for free.

Tour stops for the festival include provinces in the list: Ambon, Maluku; Gowa, South Sulawesi; Jakarta; Jayapura, Papua; Makassar, South Sulawesi; Manado, North Sulawesi; Manokwari, West Papua; Medan, North Sumatra; Pontianak, West Kalimantan; and Surabaya, East Java.

“This year’s festival will be attended by more than 25,000 Indonesian students. It is a real effort to introduce youngsters to science in a different yet interesting way that is both easily understood and fun,” executive chairman of the Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO, Arief Rahman, said.

“I hope this festival can motivate the nation’s youth to love and enjoy science even more,” he added.

The film selection process for the festival also involved two students (one is 10, the other 14) who joined a panel of five judges responsible for selecting the 13 movies for the festival out of the dozens of films submitted from around the world.

After tackling the themes of biodiversity and forest conservation in the last two years, this year’s festival is all about the importance of
water conservation, which is reflected in the choice of films in the festival’s lineup.

One of the short films, the animated My Dear Little Planet, tells the journey of two small droplets of water that jumped from high up in the clouds all the way to the ocean and back to the clouds again in search of a missing friend.

Another film, Mouse TV: What Happens When You Wash Your Hands?, features a scientist and a group of young students in a lab experiment that illustrates the differences between washed and unwashed hands.

Indonesia is represented in the film festival by Kamila Andini’s short documentary Lagu untuk Tukik (A Song for Tukik). Set in Wakatobi in Southeast Sulawesi, the 7-minute documentary features local turtle habitats and adoption programs. It was jointly made by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the local government and communities.

Local singer and WWF supporter Nugie said the film, as well as the film festival, would hopefully change people’s mindset to help preserve nature.

“Hopefully the film festival will make people realize that we have to take care of our environment,” he said.  

What’s more about the Science Film Festival is that it is not just about film screenings, as eight of the 13 films will be followed by quick and easy experiments for kids in the audience to take part.   

For example, following the screening of Mouse TV: What Happens When You Wash Your Hands? at the festival’s opening at Blitzmegaplex at Grand Indonesia on Thursday, student volunteers from Paramadina University took to the stage to set up an experiment.

Using fat-based milk, water-based food coloring, liquid hand soap and cotton swabs, the experiment’s goal was to find out why you had to use soap when washing grease-stained stuff.

The moment host Iwet Ramadhan asked, “Who wants to go up on stage and lend a hand?”, dozens of arms of eager youngsters shot up high. Around a dozen were then chosen to go on stage, and two were instructed to follow the steps in the experiment.

“The fat-based milk and the water-based food coloring can’t be mixed with each other. Soap will do the trick. It can mix fat and water easily, which is why you need soap to clean your greased hands,” Indah, a student volunteer, explained afterwards.

Vice President Boediono, who was a special guest at the festival’s opening, said he hoped the students could learn many things from the films screened throughout the festival.

“The films have important lessons for us all, such as the need to preserve nature and conserve water. I hope all of you can learn a lot from the films,” he said during his speech in front of the kids.  

The Science Film Festival was first held in Bangkok in 2005. This year, the festival will be held in seven Southeast Asian countries from Oct. 15 to Dec. 15.

In Indonesia, the festival was first held in Jakarta in 2010, attracting 12,000 viewers.

In 2011, the number of viewers increased to 27,000. Organizers are hoping that the number will increase even more this year.

The 2012 Science Film Festival will also bestow six awards, with the winning films chosen by an international jury. Five of the awards will be complimented with a cash prize of ¤1,000. The other award, the Jury Prize, has a cash prize of ¤3,000.

Even after seeing so much progress, the organizers still see some challenges for future Science Film Festivals.

“Hopefully, in the future, the festival can be held in regions outside of large cities so that many more kids will be able to enjoy the films. We’re trying to find a way to do that,” Anies said.

“The ‘science’ in the festival’s title so far only refers to exact science. I hope someday we can hold a Social Science Film Festival to build the character of the nation’s youth, so that there will be no student fights anymore,” said Arief.