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Eddie Cahyono: For the sake of the audience
Eddie Cahyono - Courtesy of Kelik Sri NugrohoThe audience is everything for filmmaker Eddie Cahyono
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Eddie Cahyono - Courtesy of Kelik Sri Nugroho
The audience is everything for filmmaker Eddie Cahyono. Every time he directs a movie, whether independent or commercial, he wants to make sure that the audience is entertained.
'I want to make a movie that is enjoyable to watch,' the 37-year-old said in a recent interview with The Jakarta Post.
Eddie stepped into the world of independent filmmaking in 2001, when he and friends from the Indonesian Art Institute (ISI) founded Fourcolours Film, which he then used to make his name at local and international short film competitions.
His films have received many awards and good reviews from festival juries as well as film critics.
Eddie's first short film, Di Antara Masa Lalu dan Masa Sekarang (Between the Past and Present) won awards at the Indonesia Independent Film Festival (Konfiden) in 2001.
The film was also screened at international short film festivals in Hamburg, Germany; Melbourne, Australia; and Tampere, Finland.
Eddie's subsequent projects also won top prizes at local short film competitions and travelled to international film festivals around the word.
Among Eddie's notable films are Jalan Sepanjang Kenangan (Road of Memories), which won best short fiction film at Konfiden festival in 2007; and Bedjo van Derlaak, which was named best film by the Bali International Film Festival and was nominated for the prestigious Akira Kurosawa Memorial Short Film Competition in 2007.
The films of Akira Kurosawa played important part in Eddie's life, inspiring him to become a director.
'I watched his movies at a film festival in Yogyakarta,' Eddie says. 'It was like an enlightenment. After that I knew that I wanted to make movies.'
Eddie also had exposure to other directors, such as Hollywood's Steven Spielberg and Brian De Palma, Hong Kong's Tsui Hark and Taiwan's Tsai Ming-Liang, courtesy of free public screenings (layar tancap) and movie theaters.
'I saved some of my pocket money so I could watch movies in theaters,' Eddie said of his childhood hobby.
As Eddie's vocabulary in cinema expanded, his interest in moviemaking increased. He turned to pirated movies, because they allowed him to enjoy films more than once. 'I like to watch a movie three to five times because I like to observe and learn from them.'
Eddie said he did not have a strong background in filmmaking, even though he graduated from ISI's broadcasting faculty in 2007. He claims that he learned everything from watching movies.
After making short films for a few years, Eddie changed tack in 2011, directing the studio film Cewek Saweran (Cheap Girl), which was not well received and vanished from screens in two weeks.
Eddie kept at it, making a second feature, Siti, last year ' and opting to screen the movie on the international film festival circuit as opposed to local theaters.
So far, the reception from the audience and critics has been good.
The Hollywood Reporter said Siti was 'a vivid, intense character study of a small town working-class woman unraveling as she struggles to balance her role both as a mother and breadwinner'.
The movie was screened at the Singapore International Film Festival, where it received best actress honors; as well as the International Film Festival Rotterdam in The Netherlands. More screenings are slated in Melbourne and Amsterdam in April.
Eddie, however, says that he won't let critical success trap him into exclusively making non-commercial independent films.
While he stills want to make artistic films, Eddie says he'd also like to make a breakthrough in the local commercial film industry. The only question is when.
Looking at Eddie's work, one theme stands out: simplicity.
His works are different from typical film festival fare, involving simple themes, such as friendship or family conflicts; and simple narrative techniques.
Eddie's films also typically focus on social issues involving the rural or working class. 'It is because I know those issues ' this is the closest thing for me,' he says. 'I am not familiar with urban issues and I am not an urban person.'
He hopes this will not close doors for him in the local film industry, which is currently consumed with exploring the woes of the urban upper-middle-class.
Eddie says he does not mind learning new things, including how to be a city boy, if he can reach more people. In the end, it means he'll still be serving the people who buy the tickets.
'I just want to make something that can be enjoyed by the audience,' Eddie says.
