Street Opera

In a film production, from pre-production to post-production involves many roles from multi-disciplinary backgrounds–which undeniably entails a large amount of money and time. Through this program, I invite you to check out some short films. Some aspects of the production of these films are deliberately not executed, not presented, skipped, or ignored by the film-makers. In other words, if it is seen from the aspect of production, they are incomplete and undisciplined films–at least when we are talking about the standard film production process. These films have an inclination to show their creative power, even, it successfully discovers artistic aspects that are (apparently) very exploratory in documentary production while carrying a message.

There are Fish in the Water and Rice in the Field is a film in which they did not undergo the process of shooting, but they utilized Google Street View in capturing the scene. Street Opera, a documentary that films (source) the sounds emitted by various devices and noises created by street vendors when hawking their wares around villages in Jakarta. The main act of the film–if I may say so–is organized in line and in harmony with the creation of melodious musical compositions from the collection of noise, “watching sound”, where sound is the subject of the film itself. The film entitled (((O))) is quite different. The combination of images that associate certain sounds and sounds that sometimes do not directly correlate with poetic visuals throughout the film, the editing of soft and rough sounds, sometimes, and images, with soft and expressive voice-overs, and nearly poetic texts, scripts, and film scenes. The one that is needed to underline is the film-maker states that this film can be watched with your eyes closed.

Transparent I am, a self-portrait poem with a cross-disciplinary approach, featuring an archive of personal works in the form of drawings, photography, scribbles, sketches, paintings, memories, and stories presented in a very personal way. An artistic approach by processing archives of videos, still photography, and sounds that are, then, arranged to talk about a specific topic, can also be found in Blinded by the Light which shows the stories of Thai film workers. It, even, incorporates performance art in the Chronicle of Nowhere which talks about how the human desire discovering utopia through futuristic architectural projects that are not fully completed and ends up being abandoned. In the short film, The Partian, there is no verbal narrative, but we, as the audience, are invited for a walk to take a look at the situation of the problematic landscape which is nearly Mars by its nearly-astronaut character in a near-fiction documentary.

The indiscipline of these films–if I may say so–can be pictured as if we get into schools or other places where shoes are required and forbid us from wearing slippers. However, instead of wearing shoes, these films are like those people who get into the places wearing slippers.

The incompleteness of these films seems to be someone who is incapable of conveying his thoughts verbally in a clear way. However, is that true? The incompleteness is a loophole, an empty space given by the films to us as the audience to choose whether or not to fill it out. A space that allows the audience to be free and to actively participate. The emancipatory space for thinking and speculating to complete the films that lets the audience share their diverse thoughts to fill the incompleteness. At the end, it is a complete spectacle and experience where a film finds its own audience. Happy watching and discovering the invisible ghosts of the Atacama Desert in Fantasmagoria. The same ghost which is everywhere infiltrating our living space.

— Wimo Ambala Bayang
Programmer