Through a layered exploration of human experiences, the Indonesian Feature-Length Competition at Festival Film Dokumenter 2024 aims to be a window to the different perspectives surrounding the complexity of existence and agency in present-day Indonesia. One of these documentaries is Under the Moonlight (Tonny Trimarsanto, 2023), a look into the Al-Fatah transgender Islamic boarding school in Yogyakarta. On Thursday, 7 November 2024, the film was screened at Militaire Societeit, Taman Budaya Yogyakarta.
Under the Moonlight (2023) observes the life of the transgender adult students, where they cheerfully work and live their lives the way they choose to, a stark contrast to the hostility and threats they face from the world outside. Festival Film Indonesia award-winning director Tonny Trimarsanto took time to answer questions about his film at the screening, as well as Nur Ayu, a former student at the boarding school.
This is director Trimarsanto’s fifth film on the transgender community in Indonesia. He recognised the continued need to bring up issues faced by minorities, citing the lack of progress, that it’s never truly solved and riddled with tragedy. In particular, he spoke of how he felt being faced by hatred he saw around him, “I was at a loss. At the time in Jogja there were a lot of signboards and billboards discriminating against (the LGBTQ+ community). And we never see it as a human tragedy. What we keep with us is fear, we then hide, we are silent.”
“They are actually victims. But I don’t want to show the transgender community as victims anymore. What I found is a daily life filled with happiness and laughter; where they don’t feel like they’re persecuted, terrorized, not at all,” director Trimarsanto on the life he found and filmed at Al-Fatah, and that he wanted to focus on in Under the Moonlight (2023).
Wanting to focus on the humans in a human tragedy, director Trimarsanto spoke about providing an intimate look into these issues with respect, far removed from the contentious political aspect. Under the Moonlight (2023) is a result of this, with human-to-human interactions, and day-to-day activities at Al-Fatah taking centre stage of them praying and reciting the qur’an. For five years between 2016 and 2022, director Trimarsanto would come to Al-Fatah often, without a plan or purpose, often not even taking any footage. By the end of the process, he felt like they had become his family. He would be there with them, in the worst and best of times; when they’re harassed by municipal police or when they happily express themselves at a dance performance.
Protagonist Nur Ayu spoke about director Trimarsanto’s time at the boarding school, “I first met Mas (brother, ed.) Tonny in 2016, before the attack (on Al-Fatah). At first I was scared, I thought something was wrong. Turns out he actually talked to me, he’s nice. He took footage of the daily activities at the boarding school, when I cooked there, when I used to busk… I became the star!” Other than Nur Ayu, many from the transgender community from all over Yogyakarta were present at the screening. They, and many others, thanked director Trimarsanto for his honest picture on the daily lives of transgender people. A slice of life, Under the Moonlight (2023) painted a day to day which humanizes them, shown in a society which often demonizes them. Sadly, that is still the reality for the transgender community, often a fatal one.
Director Trimarsanto noted that many of those featured in the documentary, many of them his own friends, have sadly passed away, even during the six year shoot. Tearing up, in a touching tribute he added, “The names that you all read at the end are of those (in the film) who have died. We have only written four names, but there are actually many more who have died throughout the filmmaking process. I feel a deep loss, but that is part of my motivation to finish this film.”
Covered by Aradi Ghalizha on 7 November 2024. (Ed. Vanis)
