A student of Payangan’s SMAN I high school edits the documentary she and her friends filmed during the documentary filmmaking workshop organized by the 2008 Ubud Writers and Readers Festival and the Bali Taksu Indonesia Foundation. (JP/Ananta Wijaya)

It was near midnight and the music from the singing crickets coming from the steep ravine next to the quiet open hall was growing louder. Yet in the hall groups of young students were still working seriously in front of several laptops.

The hall was on the ground floor of the Indus, Ubud's celebrated restaurant and the main venue of the 2008 Ubud Writers and Readers Festival (UWRF). The students were participants in a documentary film workshop co-organized by the UWRF and the Bali Taksu Indonesia Foundation.

Ni Luh Putu Ayu Tantri, a student from Ubud's SMAN I Senior High School, sat quietly, her eyes fixed on her laptop's screen, checking the last version of the documentary film she had made with her school friends Dwi Febriyanti and Ayu Cindy TS Dwijayanti.

The film had undergone several editing processes and Tantri wanted to make sure the final rendition truly represented the totality of their ideas.

Next to her, Dwijayanti lay sleeping peacefully, curled up on a comfy rug. Tantri refused to give into her drowsiness. She carefully reviewed each part of the film which was running on the laptop.

Titled Mereka Di Antara Kita (They are among us), the 9:27 minute documentary explores the mass-trance phenomenon which frequently occurs in their school. Images of students being possessed by what were believed to be invisible spirits filled the laptop's small screen.

Tantri yawned as the film reached its ending. Now came the most exhausting stage -- the "rendering", when all the data and files of the movie would be finalized into one single informational entity. The first rendering, which took an hour, failed. After three hours, the second rendering hadn't finished yet.

"I think the laptop has also been possessed by spirits," Tantri quipped.

Two experts, who had trained, assisted and accompanied the participants during the eight-day workshop, laughed at Tantri's joke.

It had been a very long night for Tantri and her friends, student groups that had come from eight different schools. However, the participating students had gotten used to the long nights and the equally long days required by the workshop.

"During the filming stage we had to spend several nights at a friend's house at Buahan village," said a participant, Ni Putu Suciati.

Suciati, a student at Payangan's SMAN I Senior High School, and her friends had created a documentary on the hardships of poor farmers in Buahan village.

Their film had focused on Dadong Tambang, an elderly female farmer, who had been embroiled in debt. To settle the debt, she decided to sell her rice field which was her only source of livelihood. It turned out to be a bad decision. After selling her rice field, Tambang's life took a turn for the worse.

Titled Uma Dadong Tambang (Dadong Tambang's rice field), it drew a parallel between the fate of Tambang and one of Buahan village's living myths. The myth states that misfortunes will befall those who sell their rice fields.

"We borrowed a laptop from one of UWRF's volunteers because our school's laptop wasn't powerful enough to edit movies," the documentary's editor Ni Putu Ayu Werdhianty said.

For Suci and Dian, the workshop had given them their first filmmaking experience.

Through the workshop, these young students had acquired every skill needed in the making of a film -- from screenplay writing, filming and directing to editing and post-processing.

The lack of sufficient equipment such as powerful computers or professional-grade cameras weren't the only obstacles these novice filmmakers faced.

Ni Komang Widya Jayanti had directed Pegat Saet, a documentary of the emotional distress a young girl endures following the death of her twin sister. Jayanti had almost given up filming it after she was censured by the principal of her school, Ubud's SMK Pariwisata Putra Bangsa Vocational School.

"The principal criticized my team because we didn't wear school uniforms when we filmed several scenes at the school," she said.

Yet the students proved they were not quitters. At the end of the workshop, all the groups submitted their documentaries.

In just eight days, the participants had succeeded in producing nine documentary movies.

Some of the documentaries tackled the serious issue of modern values versus traditional ones, such as Mengapa Tri Sandya Ditinggalkan? (Why is the daily prayer no longer popular?) by students of Tampaksiring's SMAN I, Barong vs. PlayStation by Sukawati's SMKN I and Bikin Banten, Gimana Ya? (Reluctant to make an offering?) by Denpasar's SMAN 3.

The last title focuses on the growing number of Balinese youths reluctant to make religious offerings. This documentary also presented the results of a public polling on the issue conducted by the students.

All the documentaries were later screened at the Balinale Film Festival, held Oct. 22 to 31, which certainly had the participating students smiling proudly.

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