Wa’anak Witu Watu (Natasha Tontey, 2021) is a piece that examines Minahasa culture to see the relationship between humans and stone. Stone is an important inanimate object in life. Various types and forms have functions and relationships, which are often crucial. Even the relationship between stones and humans in Minahasa is more than just a function of use, but there is a spiritual connection. The film was screened together with I WAS THERE (Chi-Jang Yin, 2023), Terra Incognita (Timoteus Anggawan Kusno, 2022), and An Asian Ghost Story (Bo Wang, 2023). The four films included in the Spektrum program were screened in the second screening slot at IFI-LIP Yogyakarta on Wednesday (6/12/2023).
A speculative geological epic about man’s relationship with stone is the main narrative in Wa’anak Witu Watu (2021). The stone referred to in this film is Watu Pinawetengan, located in Pinabetengan Village, Tompaso District, Minahasa, North Sulawesi. The stone is described not only as a functional foundation, but also a source of knowledge for the Minahasan people that also produces and distributes knowledge.
After the screening, the audience had the opportunity to take part in a Q&A session hosted by Wimo Ambala Bayang, the Spektrum program manager. In this session, Natasha Tontey as the director of Wa’anak Witu Watu (2021) was present to answer questions from the audience. Several audience members took turns giving impressions and questions to Natasha, both in terms of the narrative, form, and the creative process of making this film.
Natasha explained her decision to incorporate visual forms in the film as a result of research gathered in Minahasa. This research was conducted by collecting stories from elders and local residents. Although in the research, there were no archives and visual data to support the findings. From the research, Natasha found a narrative that explains that the first people in Minahasa were born from a rock. There is a belief that the form of the ancestors of the Minahasa people is not human as the general knowledge (now). “Minahasan people are non-heteronormative, so they are just skulls, flying skulls,” Natasha explained. To connect the missing visual data, Natasha chose to use animation as a medium to represent the outcome of her research.
There are many video recordings with anthropologists and researchers, but Natasha chose to include a recording of her interview with her drunk cousin. The reason is because the explanation is easy to understand for Natasha, who only learned about Minahasa culture during the filming of Wa’anak Witu Watu (2021). Moreover, access to Watu Pinawetengan is restricted if not for academic research. Therefore, Natasha chose to bring the discourse in this film through the narrative of ordinary people.
The filming of Wa’anak Witu Watu (2021) is Natasha’s attempt to reconnect with her ancestors. This effort was made to deal with generational trauma, because when she was a child playing around Watu Pinawetengan was considered something wrong. Approaching the stone was considered a practice of opok-opok or black magic. Moreover, such practices are widely practiced by people with all forms of rituals on the stone. The prejudice of always practicing opok-opok when approaching Watu Pinawetengan is the result of the loss of stories that are revealed in the folds of history.
In the production of her films, Natasha acts as an artist who does everything herself, be it as a director, writer, cinematographer, and even producer. Not only in Wa’anak Witu Watu (2021), she also did it in the production of Garden Amidst the Flame (Natasha Tontey, 2022) which also screened at FFD 2023 in Lanskap: Grotesque Cinema.
Therefore, there is an artistic bias of the films she uses in her creative process. Moreover, most of Natasha’s previous works were shown in the form or format of art installations in art exhibitions. This format is actually interesting to bring out the issues and discourses that Natasha wants to convey, but often the format she chooses makes the audience strain to see this work. One audience member responded that Natasha’s work is more interesting to be displayed in an art installation format rather than being brought into the cinema space in a theater studio. Therefore, Natasha’s work can give the audience a break to understand and take a moment to mentally rest when watching this series.
Answering questions about the screening of Wa’anak Witu Watu (2021) in her native land of Minahasa, Natasha explained that the film was screened there. In fact, during the screening, the laptop that was showing the film was placed on a rock. Natasha also explained that the human figure who was born and gave birth to a rock is a representation of the story of Lumimuut and Toar, the ancestors of the Minahasa people. There are many versions of the story of Lumimuut and Toar. Natasha chose to add her own version of the story rather than following the existing story.
The efforts made by Natasha in making Wa’anak Witu Watu (2021) are an attempt to explore the relationship between humans and stones in another form. It does not stop at physical forms and spiritualistic narratives. Natasha tried to take an alternative way to find the story of her ancestors and represented through this film. Let’s discover interesting narratives in 84 other films that will be screened in Festival Film Dokumenter 2023 until December 9, 2023.
Covered by Ahmad Radhitya Alam on December 6, 2023.
