indonesian_open FW: via Michele Ford, a new film about Aceh

[Wittman, Leonie]

Teman-teman yang baik
Please see below for a new film about Aceh.

Leonie

Leonie Wittman
Chief Learning Design Officer
Learning Design and Resource Development
Centre for Learning Innovation
NSW Department of Education and Training
51 Wentworth Road
Strathfield NSW 2135
 
Tel: 02 9715 8263
Fax: 02 9715 8279
leonie.wittman at det.nsw.edu.au

-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Drakeley [mailto:S.Drakeley at uws.edu.au] 
Sent: Tuesday, 2 May 2006 11:30
To: Steven Drakeley
Subject: FW: via Michele Ford, a new film about Aceh

 Dear friends and colleagues

You may be interested in the information below concerning a new
documentary film about Aceh.

Steven Drakeley for the SISC Organising Committee


Steven Drakeley PhD
Lecturer Asian History and Politics
BA Honours Coordinator
School of Humanities and Languages UWS
 
Email: s.drakeley at uws.edu.au
Phone: +61 2 4736 0442
Fax: +61 2 4736 0244
Mobile: 0412 299849
 
School of Humanities and Languages
University of Western Sydney
Locked Bag 1797 Penrith South DC
NSW 1797 Australia
 

-----Original Message-----
From: william nessen [mailto:wanessen at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2006 6:05 PM
To: Steven Drakeley
Subject: via Michele Ford, a new film about Aceh

Steve - my name is William Nessen. I've finished my documentary film
about Aceh. It will be shown on SBS and in quite a few other countries
in the coming months, but I'm also trying to sell DVDs.

Here is what Ed Aspinall posted on his list. I'm wondering whether you
might send out to list that Michele says you run:

The Black Road, William Nessen's film about the conflict in Aceh, is an
extraordinary achievement. It is one of the most courageous and
unflinching journalistic efforts I can recall."
Jonathan Holmes, ABC Four Corners

 
"Heart-stoppingly good. A triumph. One of the best documentaries in
years. A stunning piece of work and a wonderful tribute to a brave,
spirited and woefully uncelebrated people." 
Andrew Marshall,Time Magazine 


>From the filmmaker, William Nessen:

 Several months ago, I finished my 52-minute documentary film, The Black
Road: on the front line of Aceh's War.  It will be screened in Australia
on SBS later in the year.

 
It is immediately available on DVD for your universities, institutes,
classroom use and personal libraries.  Institutional cost is Aus$150;
personal, $35. Postage not included. 

It is the only full-length documentary about the Aceh conflict. As the
reviews from top journalists and scholars make clear, The Black Road is
not only informative, it's extremely moving. Numerous people have told
me that if they could give only one thing to someone to inform them
about Aceh and Indonesia, it would be this film.

It is intended for a general audience (funded by SBS and Australian Film
Finance Corporation), but is already being used in undergraduate
classrooms and graduate seminars at UC Berkeley, Cornell, NUS and other
universities.

I Please contact me wanessen at yahoo.com directly if you or your school
might be interested in getting a DVD copy (or two).


------------------------------------------------------

 BACKGROUND

I shot the film from 2001 to 2005, gathering more than 150 hours of
footage, during numerous multi-month stays in the province. 

Working in Australia last year,  I edited it down to a 52-minute film.
The film will be screened later this year on SBS and on television
stations around the world. 

The film is a personal story and a gripping history of the conflict. It
focuses on the years that I was there, recording  the dangers and
dilemmas I faced as a journalist and the lives - and deaths - of people
I knew well.  There's also historical background from pre-Dutch times up
through Suharto's fall to give someone totally unfamiliar with Indonesia
and Aceh a context.  

The footage I shot is unsurpassed and the bits of archival and Indo
footage I was able to get allow me keep the visuals strong throughout.
This film has a real story arc and will keep viewers engaged from start
to finish.


The film recently won the two top awards at Asia's largest documentary
competition in Mumbai, best documentary under 60 minutes and best film
of the festival.

-------------------------------------------------------More
REVIEWS

Barry Bearak, The New York Times: A riveting film... and extremely
courageous.

 
Jonathan Head, BBC correspondent, formerly in
Indonesia: An amazing film - a unique perspective on the long-ignored
struggle in Aceh - with a lot of truly powerful, extraordinary footage.
I found myself in tears during parts of it. What a testament to the
filmmaker's courage, and the extraordinary courage of the Acehnese.


Bob Connolly, acclaimed Australian documentary director of Black
Harvest, First Contact, and Joe Leahy's Neighbours: What can I say?
Powerful, personal, shocking, brave, very very moving.



Daniel S. Lev, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, U. of
Washington: Nessen's documentary on the most recent Aceh war provides a
stark sense of the painful reality of it.  It is hard to stop watching
this film, and harder to come away from it without wanting to cry.

 
Edward Aspinall, Australian National University: By showing conflict
from the perspective of ordinary villagers and insurgents, Nessen's film
presents a perspective of war that is not only unique in reportage of
Aceh, but which is rare in the media's coverage of any of the "small
wars" which take so many lives around the globe. So often, we see only
the view of governments and their troops. Here, the lens is reversed,
and the effect is remarkable.
 

Anthony Reid, Director of the Asian Research Institute, NUS: A very
powerful film. At times I thought filmmaker Nessen had got himself into
a blind alley, seemingly making the case for resistance when the world
and the Acehnese wanted peace... and seem for the moment to have it. But
Nessen manages to end the film on a poignant appropriate note, turning
it into a remarkable personal voyage of discovery as well the
story of Aceh.   There is no doubt it will last the
time, and be seen long term as a very important documentary of this war.



Damien Kingsbury, Associate Professor, International and Political
Studies, Deakin University: The Black Road' is perhaps the most moving
documentary I have seen, bringing the stark facts of Aceh's tragic
situation to the viewer, but with a depth of feeling and inside
understanding that can only come from long and profound involvement with
the landscape and its people. William Nessen's portrait of life under
military rule and the devastating consequences of the
2004 tsunami takes its audience on an emotional roller-coaster, as
Nessen's own experiences were. He takes us inside the thinking, feeling
and actions of the Free Aceh Movement... inside the lives of more
ordinary Acehnese... and the high and too often ultimate price paid by
those who speak out against military brutality. And he shows that even
amongst the tragedy of life in Aceh, there remains hope and a genuine
possibility for the future. 


I include here part of the description of the film used by the Mumbai
festival:

"Nessen gains the trust and friendship of the top Indonesian general in
the province, and patrols with his men. He falls in love with a local
'fixer,' who works secretly for the independence movement. Days after
Nessen's marriage to her, the security forces kidnap his 'best man,' an
outspoken human rights activist. 

"Nessen, the only journalist to report from the rebel zones of Aceh,
lived and filmed for months with Free Aceh independence guerrillas and
found himself hunted by the Indonesian military.

"The film brings us directly to the battlefields and burnt-out villages
of the province. We step into the lives and experience the deaths of
Aceh's guerrillas, its human rights activists and its ordinary farmers.
We march with demonstrators and witness the massacres that follow.
Acknowledging a hundred-year history of resistance to outside rule, the
film focuses on the post-Suharto years of escalating fighting and
martial law.  The film begins and ends in the days after the devastating
tsunami: we see the conflict continue and learn the fate of the film's
central characters. A brief epilogue takes us through the historic peace
accord.

"There is some laughter here too, and the possibility of healing. It's a
story about how people endure, struggle and maintain their dignity
against the odds."