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Eagle Award: Films show realities of aspiring ‘4.0’ nation
The winners of this year’s Eagle Awards Documentary Competition were not only the filmmakers but almost all the communities featured in the films.
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Desperately seeking signal: Health volunteer Wilhelmina seeks a spot in her village to call the local health center in Sikka, East Nusa Tenggara, in a scene from the short documentary "Jejak Sinyal di Kaki Egon" (Traces of signal at the foot of Mt. Egon). The film took third place at the 2019 Eagle Awards Documentary Competition.
(Courtesy of Eagle Institute Indonesia/-)
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erched on a high tree limb, a villager talks business on the phone – prevailing crop prices. Two women at the base of the tree shake it violently, demanding their turn, in a scene from a short documentary set in Sikka regency, East Nusa Tenggara.
“It’s the only tree where they have found a signal,” whispered a facilitator for the amateur documentary makers, at the screening of the 2019 finalists of an annual competition by the Eagle Institute Indonesia, established in 2004 by MetroTV.
One of the women under the tree, Wilhelmina, a health volunteer in her village, had been running up the hill and along the beach, frantically seeking a signal to call the local health center to get an ambulance for a resident who was going into labor.
The gleaming ambulance at last arrived in Nakatoli village, and thankfully, the woman agreed to deliver her baby at the health center or puskesmas. Earlier, a neighbor said, the woman had scrambled up a tree, even with her big belly, to avoid having to leave the home where she had given birth to her previous children.
Health workers are right to take precautions. Late access to professional medical services is one factor blamed for Indonesia’s high maternal mortality rate, particularly in areas lacking health facilities. Nationwide, about 300 women die for every 100,000 live births.
The film, directed by Theresia S. Malinto and Katarina Makthildis and called Jejak Sinyal di Kaki Egon (Traces of signals at the foot of Mount Egon), won third place at the 2019 Eagle Awards Documentary Competition.
Working with the Agency for Accessibility of Telecommunication and Information (BAKTI) of the Information and Communication Technology Ministry, the competition’s 2019 theme for short documentaries was access to communication.
