Festival highlights will include a Balinese dance performance, a video on Aceh, and three English-subtitled films: 

"Gie" (2005), a docudrama about Soe Hok Gie, a well known Indonesian activist in the 1960s;

"Arisan" (2004) the first gay-themed Indonesian film to appear in the liberalized climate following the 1998 fall of Suharto (an arisan is a periodic social gathering ostensibly to help its members acquire capital); and

"Ungu (Violet)" (2005) a drama about a photographer and a supermodel. 

Program support provided by:

APARC (The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center), GSC (Graduate Student Council), Bechtel International Center, Indonesian Consulate General in San Francisco, IPA (Indonesian Professional Association), Bengkel Amal, EFA (Education for All), and VIA (Volunteer in Asia).

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Indonesian Film Festival
Day/Date: Friday and Saturday, 28-29 April 2006
Time: 06:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Location: Assembly Room, Bechtel International Center
422 Lagunita Drive, Stanford University California
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/icenter/festival/directions.html
 
It’s free and open to the public.  Refreshments provided.
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Program
 
Friday, 28 April 2006
 
6:00 – 6:05 pm           : Welcome

Evelyn Mintarno, co-President, Indonesian Club at Stanford (ICS)
 
6:05  – 6:20 pm          : Balinese Dance:  “Janger”

Indonesian American Association (IAA)
Janger is a Balinese social dance with mostly young participants in which female and male dancers (respectively janger and kecak) dance and sing.  The mood is jubilant and joyful.  Dancers will demonstrate their talents in solo parts during this performance, which will also incorporate hip hop music.
 
6:20 – 6:25 pm           : Video Clip:  “Aceh”

Education for All: Pendidikan untuk Aceh dan Sumatera Utara (PUAS)
        
6: 25 – 6:45 pm          : Introduction:  "Gie:  In Life and on Film"

Prof. Donald Emmerson, Director of the Southeast Asia Forum (SEAF), Stanford University (who knew Soe Hok Gie)

Soe Hok Gie was an Indonesian activist who opposed the successive dictatorships of Presidents Sukarno and Suharto.  Gie was an ethnically Chinese Roman Catholic, and an avid proponent of living close to nature.  In his diary, Gie quoted Walt Whitman: "Now I see the secret of the making of the best person.  It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth."  In 1965 Gie helped found Mapala, an organization for environmentally minded students wanting to enjoy the outdoors.  An avid hiker, Gie died from inhaling poisonous gas while climbing volcanic Mount Semeru on the day before his 27th birthday in 1969.  His diary was published in 1983 under the title Catatan Seorang Demonstran (Notes of a Demonstrator).  Gie's university thesis on the origins of left-wing nationalism in Indonesia was published in 1999, as Di Bawah Lantera Merah (Under the Red Lantern).  But it is the diary that inspired this film, "Gie."  (Original source:  Wikipedia's entry on "Soe Hok Gie") 
 
6:45 – 7:00 pm          : Break
 
7:00 - 9:27 pm           : "Gie"
 
Title in English:  "Gie"
Director: Riri Riza
Screenplay: Riri Riza
http://www.milesfilms.com/gie/
2005    147 minutes
Soe Hok Gie is a student activist who lived in Indonesia in the 1960s.  "Gie" is an interpretation of what happened to him and his country during the turbulent and violent transition from Sukarno's regime to Suharto's.  Although as an Indonesian of Chinese descent he might have been expected to behave passively, he did not.  His life as portrayed in the film was a clash between the high drama of political events and a small world of friendship and romance, including his disappointment that in battling for justice and truth he seemed only to have helped Indonesia trade one dictatorship for another.  In the film, as time passes, the people around him adjust to Suharto's authoritarian "New Order," but he remains true to his principles.  His uncompromised idealism drives people away from him.  His pragmatic friends leave him and the woman he loves rejects him.  In the end, only the beauty of nature can rescue and free him.
 
Saturday, 29 April 2006
 
6:00 – 8:09 pm          : "Arisan"
 
Title in English:  "The Gathering"
Director: Nia Di Nata
Screenplay: Joko Anwar, Nia Di Nata
http://arisan.kalyanashira.com/
2004   129 minutes
Even in the politically freer climate in Indonesia that followed Suharto's 1998 resignation, this movie's pro-gay stance shocked a society divided between liberals and conservatives.  Sakti is a successful, attractive Jakarta architect whose gay existence is hidden from view.  When Sakti is approached by Nino, an openly gay film director, their attraction is instant.  The affair between the two men is kept private.  But Nino wants more.  His relationship with Nino becomes strained as the closet door is thrown open by the force of necessity.  One of Sakti's female friends, MeiMei, is in an unhappy marriage and will do anything to become pregnant.  Another friend, Andien, is a wealthy socialite with a secret self-destructive streak. Sakti, MeiMei, and Andien join an arisan--a social club of wealthy women and gay men who share gossip and brag about their lives.  The three friends share superficial relations (filled with lies and omissions) until all the masks come tumbling down and nothing is left but their friendship.
 
8:00 - 8:10 pm           : Break
 
8:10 - 10:10 pm         : "Ungu Violet"
"Ungu Violet" 
Director: Rako Prijanto
Screenplay: Jujur Prananto
http://www.ungu-violet.com/
2005   120 minutes
Melodrama has a long history in Indonesian cinema.  That tradition is brought back to life in this film, which is also notable as the feature debut of Rako Prijanto, who in 2001 had won a viewer's-favorite award in the Indonesian Independent Film Festival in 2001 (for a role in a crime-action movie).  In "Ungu Violet," Lando (Ricky Hanggono) is a photographer who has just been just ditched by his fiancee.  He is dejected, but soon meets a beautiful bus-ticket vendor named Kalin (Dian Sastrowardoyo).  Lando builds her a career as a photo model.  In the process, he falls for her and recovers his zest for life.  But not for long.  One day, without explanation, he leaves her.  Time passes, and Kalin has become a supermodel.  Her presence is everywhere.  Lando is forced to face her and explain his reasons for having left her.  But something unexpected happens ...