Events

Title: Rayuan Pulau Palsu (The Fake Islands)
Director: Rudi P Saputro
Producer & Advisor: Dandhy Laksono
Length of Film: 59 minutes

There will be a question-and-answer session with the producer after the film screening.

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Rita Padawangi, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

SYNOPSIS

Rayuan Pulau Palsu (The Fake Islands) is a documentary film about Jakarta Bay reclamation project produced by WatchdoC documentary house. The documentary follows the daily lives of some fishermen and coastal residents who reside and work in Muara Angke, North Jakarta as it sees the case from their point of view.

One of the figures in the film is Ilyas, a 67 years old fisherman. He experiences the impact from reclamation in northern Jakarta, including how the fishermen now have lost a good spot for fishing as the area has been covered over with sand. Ilyas refers to Islet G, a phony islet developed by one of giant developer in Indonesia, Agung Podomoro Land. Reclamation of 5.100 hectare in northern Jakarta is only one of at least 14 similar projects in the coastal cities of Indonesia, including Benoa Bay in Bali (700 hectare). The projects aim to expand Indonesian property sector business.

Since the development of Islet G and Jakarta Bay reclamation, Ilyas could barely manage to haul in 2 kilos of fish while previously he used to return home with 10 kilograms of fish in hand.

Islet G and all development related to the project is currently on hold due to a graft case.

It is the second production about reclamation project from WatchdoC. The first documentary, Kala Benoa that discusses about the reclamation in Benoa Bay, Bali was screened earlier on 2015.

Rayuan Pulau Palsu was first launched in fishermen village of Muara Angke on April 30, and also screened for Dadap fishermen in Banten, Pasar Ikan and Pinangsia, as well as in Tunda Island, where companies involved in the reclamation project are said to have taken sand from.

Since it was first launched, Rayuan Pulau Palsu has been screened in 30 cities, including London, Leiden, and Melbourne. Some discussions held among Indonesian students and communities to see reclamation case from different aspects such as public policy, urban planning, and environment studies.

ABOUT THE PRODUCER

Dandhy Laksono is a documentary filmmaker based in Jakarta, who has journalist background. Before producing “The Fake Island, he traveled around Indonesia for one year with a used motorcycle and producing a number of advocacy themed documentaries such as “Kala Benoa” (reclamation project in Bali), “The Mahuzes” (one million paddy field in Papua project which treat the indigenous people), and “Samin vs. Cement” (about conflict between farmers and state-owned and international cement industry).

He has co-founded the documentary production house, named “Watchdoc” and produce some television documentary series to fund his advocacy projects. The business model of self-financing or non-proposal based documentary project is being subject for several research from under-graduate student until PhD candidates from national and international university.

His documentary about labor strikes in world-biggest gold mining company, Freeport Indonesia (2011) won the Screen Below the Wind South-East Documentary Film Festival and screened at a number of European campuses in 2013. Another film, “Yang Ketu7uh”(The Seventh) about the Indonesian Republic ‘s seventh presidential election is a seventh documentary film that played in commercial cinema since Indonesia’s independence in 1945.

REGISTRATION

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