From Stage to Screen: Early Filmmaking of Indigenous Performers in Highland Central Java

Tito  Imanda

doi:http://doi.org/

Abstract

This paper is based on an empirical study that explores issues around the process of a traditional performance art group in a village in highland Central Java adapting to film production. Wayang orang—or loosely translated human puppet—is a traditional opera-like performance rooted in Central and East Java, Indonesia. As part of a traditional society living in a rural area, members of the group discuss their productions mostly without written documents. Storylines were experienced through performing and watching different shows. Technical skills were built through lifelong intimate practices. The project explores a general explorative question: how does a traditional oral and aural art group adapt to electronic apparatuses of cinema and create their films? In answering this question, the research uses ethnography or participant observation followed by filmmaking collaborations that involve these artists, the writer and different filmmakers from the industry. The writer positions himself as the producer for the films, supporting and managing the members of the group to explore their own artistic decisions. This paper focuses on one particular production at the early stage of the project.

Keywords

collaborative filmmaking, indigenous media, Javanese performance art

Please login first to access subscription form of article

Read Full text in PDF

Browse By

Title

Author

Issue

Kritika Kultura
Department of English
School of Humanities
Ateneo de Manila University

The Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) declares Kritika Kultura as a CHED-recognized journal under the Journal Challenge Category of its Journal Incentive Program.

International Board of Editors

Jan Baetens
Professor
Faculty of Arts
Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven (Belgium)

Joel David
Professor of Cultural Studies
Inha University (South Korea)

Michael Denning
Professor of American Studies and English
Department of English
Yale University (US)

Faruk
Faculty of Cultural Sciences
Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia)

Regenia Gagnier
Professor of English
University of Exeter (UK)

Leela Gandhi
John Hawkes Professor of the Humanities and English
Brown University (US)

Inderpal Grewal
Professor of Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies
Professor of South Asian Studies, Ethnicity, Race and Migration Studies
Yale University (US)

Peter Horn
Professor Emeritus and Honorary Lifetime Fellow
University of Cape Town (South Africa)
Honorary Professor and Research Associate in German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

Anette Horn
Professor of German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

David Lloyd
Distinguished Professor of English
University of California, Riverside (US)

Bienvenido Lumbera
National Artist for Literature
Professor Emeritus
University of the Philippines

Rajeev S. Patke
Director of the Division of Humanities
Professor of Humanities
Yale NUS College (Singapore)

Vicente L. Rafael
Giovanni and Amne Costigan Endowed Professor of History
University of Washington (US)

Vaidehi Ramanathan
Department of Linguistics
University of California, Davis (US)

Temario Rivera
Professorial Lecturer
Department of Political Science
University of the Philippines

E. San Juan, Jr.
Philippines Studies Center (US)

Neferti X.M. Tadiar
Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
Barnard College (US)
Director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
Columbia University (US)

Antony Tatlow
Honorary Professor of Drama
Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)

From Stage to Screen: Early Filmmaking of Indigenous Performers in Highland Central Java

Tito Imanda: Universitas Bina Nusantara, Jakarta

Abstract

Keywords

International Board of Editors

Journal

Contact Us