Twenty-six-year-old Kuswati from Purbalingga regency in Central Java has no hands, but that does not keep her from working.

Using her feet, she makes fake eyelashes.

“I earn Rp 3,000 [less than 50 cents] a day. I save [the money] so I can build a simple kiosk to run [a business],” said Kuswati, who dropped out of elementary school while she was only a second-grader as she could no longer bear the bullying by her classmates.

The story of Kuswati’s life is recorded in a 10-minute documentary titled Bulu Mata Kaki (Foot Eyelashes) directed by Firman Fajar Wiguna.

The film is one of eight documentaries on the topic of disability screened at the Documentary Film Festival (FFD) in Yogyakarta, which runs from Dec. 1 to 7 as part of the “Feeling of Reality” program.

Coinciding with the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on Tuesday, the FFD organized a discussion on the eight documentaries, which were created with the help of virtual reality technology.

Four people of the audience were given the opportunity to enjoy the documentaries through virtual reality gadgets.

One of them, named Zaka, was given virtual reality gloves and stood up and danced as he watched Riani Singgih’s Alun, which tells the story of Isro, a deaf woman who works as a dance teacher.

“I danced along, because I could hear the sounds through the vibrators on my hands,” said Zaka, who is deaf and communicated with the audience through sign language with the help of an interpreter.

During the discussion, M. Ismail, an activist at the Institute for Inclusion and Advocacy of the Disabled (SIGAB), said today's developments in information technology and cinematography could help educate persons with disabilities about their rights.

Ismail, who is deaf and communicated through sign language, said anyone could make films on issues of disability and upload them to YouTube for the public.

“We hope the government will get a new perspective on difabled people,” said Ismail, who is also a mentor in the “Feeling of Reality” program, using a modern Indonesian term to stress disabled people’s different abilities rather than the lack of certain abilities.

Ajiwan Arief Hendradi, an editor at SIGAB-run media website solider.com, said the mainstream media had not yet fully utilized its capability to advocate the rights of persons with disabilities. Therefore, he said, films describing the everyday life of disabled people were a way to fill the gap.

Ajiwan, who suffers from low vision, said the situation in Indonesia was not yet ideal for the difabled. Even in a developed city like Jakarta, he said, people with disabilities found it difficult to access public spaces, as shown in Yovista Ahthajida’s documentary Menjadi Agung (Becoming Majestic).

Law No. 8/2016 on people with disabilities is far from ideal, as disabled people still face discrimination in various social spaces. For example, they are not able to access education at many schools due to a lack of specialized teachers.

“Let’s keep on moving to make Indonesia more inclusive,” said Ajiwan, who also serves as one of the program's mentors.

Filmmaker Aji Kusuma said the “Feeling of Reality” program could become a medium for learning about inclusiveness. Virtual reality technology, he added, could allow viewers to “hack reality”, because it could create the impression of being in a scene with disabled people.

“The result is a film that is far from engineering,” said the director of Menjadi Teman (Becoming Friends) on friendship between deaf and blind people.

The program’s manager, Alwan Brilian, said the event had focused on disability as a theme since 2018.

The theme was chosen because many of the films screened at the FFD put disabled people in the spotlight.

“We hope the FFD will grow into an inclusive organization,” he said. (yun/kes)

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