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ReelOzInd! short film competition supports screen creativity
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A new pathway – Noted Indonesian producer Mira Lesmana (right) and movie director Riri Riza (left) speak a launch event of the ReelOzInd! Short Film Competition and Festival in Jakarta recently.
(Courtesy of the Australia-Indonesia Centre/-)
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ubmissions for ReelOzInd!, a short film competition and festival, are now open, and all creative Australian and Indonesian filmmakers are invited to contribute their works.
Prominent Indonesian producer Mira Lesmana has been appointed as ambassador to help promote the festival.
“I hope the festival will receive many submissions because the genres are varied, it could be animation, or drama...and so on,” she said as quoted in an Australia-Indonesia Centre (AIC) press statement released on Tuesday.
Movie director Riri Riza said he hoped the festival would help young Indonesians see their country from a new perspective.
“This festival will open a pathway for young people in Indonesia to bring new perspectives, new pictures of Indonesia. I hope their perspectives are fresher and wider than the standard approach of only talking about Bali or other common stereotypical portrayals of our identity as Indonesians,” he said.
Riri said ReelOzInd! was a very exciting festival that hopefully would be held routinely.
“I imagine young people in Indonesia will be eager to learn about their neighbor. I hope they can investigate and find creative and interesting themes for their short films and during this process they will learn, and through this learning process, a cultural process will occur,” he said.
Indonesian Ambassador to Australia Nadjib Riphat Kesoema gave his support to the competition in a video message.
“Even though we are neighbors, living less than 200 kilometers from each other, we still don’t know much about one another. It’s like two families, in two houses, living in the same neighborhood. Every day they’re tired with their respective work, school and social commitments, then they forget to spend enough time to get to know their neighbors,” said the ambassador.
“This inaugural short film competition, with the theme ‘tetangga’, or ‘neighbors’, is like one family getting invited for a barbecue and drinks by their neighbors. And you know how Sunday barbecues are, like a picnic – we meet, we share stories, we eat, we laugh, and sometimes we cry together. We spend time with each other and listen to the real story.”
“And I bet those stories will be much different from the political drama and stereotypes we hear from the news headlines,” Nadjib said. (ebf)
