Docs By The Sea Gives A Fresh Air for World’s Documentary Film Makers

BADUNG, NusaBali

In its second year, documentary film event of ASEAN, Docs By The Sea, was re-held. Actually, Docs By The Sea is a platform for global documentary film makers in Indonesia and ASEAN for being connected to international investors for documentary film industry. This event was held during 2 until 9 August 2018 which was still trusting Bali as the host.

For its smoothness, of course, Docs By The Sea was not alone. There were some popular brand names which engaged with the event, such as In-Docs, Indonesian Agency for Creative Economy (IACE/BEKRAF), AND Go-Jek. In-Docs itself is a non-profit organization which has dedicated itself and meritorious to find new talents especially for documentary film in Indonesia since 2002. While, IACE/BEKRAF is a government organization which concerns to creative industry in Indonesia, such as In-Docs and Go-Jek.

Something that made a different from the previous Docs By The Sea (2017) was, there were more participants registered and the decision makers (investors) were also eagerly for coming again and investing because of the success of the last event. From total amount of the projects, which were 31 projects, 12 others were from Indonesia. Aware of this, it could be seen that the Indonesian documentary film industry had been grown up well. Through the 38 decision makers which came from 14 countries around the world, which later on would invested their fund, it would give such ‘a fresh air’ for the sustainability of Indonesian even world’s documentary film.

Seeing the crowds of interest coming from the participants and investor, Amelia Hapsari, the Program Director of In-Docs viewed that this event was very successful, it could be seen from so many documentary film projects especially from Indonesia which got offers from the international investors.

“For me, this event has very successful, considering that there are so many documentary film projects from Indonesia which got offers of infestation and distribution from international,” said Amelia when met by NusaBali at the same place and time.

She also said that there was no awarding on this event, yet for the participants, who had passed the pitching process, would get a prize in the form of funds for seeking another support in the overseas. The event that was held during 8 days in Bali was dividing its agenda into some stage, such as, workshop/mentoring, pitching forum/business meeting, and peak of the event that was held on Thursday night (09/08) at The Patra Kuta, Bali.

Moving from In-Docs, NusaBali was also has a chance to interview Hanifah Makarim, as the Head of Sub Fund Society at BEKRAF which was also attend the event of Docs By The Sea. She also stated that the aim of BEKRAF was to promote the creative industry in Indonesia, in this case was documentary film.

“Of course BEKRAF cannot work alone. For this event, we collaborate with In-Docs because we know, In-Docs also has a wide connections in documentary film field and they need our support as government. Hopefully, Docs By The Sea can be developed well for many time ahead because this event becomes popular in Asia as well as in the international that Indonesia has an event of documentary film called Docs By The Sea,” Hanifah said.

The hope was also wished by one of the participants which was from Jakarta, Indonesia. She was Lutfi Retno Wahyudyanti and her partner, Gugun Junaedi, which at that time presented their work entitled ‘ The Poly Bag Journal’ which told about a man named Dimas Bagus Wijanarko, who was the founder of Get Plastic community, that made a machine which could change plastic garbage to be gasoline and it could be used for bike. This topic became interesting when he with his scooter was adventuring around Java and Bali to hold a workshop about the machine.

The idea was chosen because it was matched with Lutfi’s interest which was about an issue that became trending in Indonesia. She also stated that in choosing a topic, we could not be carelessly because it would relate to the budget and time which must be paid. So, it was a must to choose something that we like most.

The woman who had been 10 years for having interest in documentary film was also being grateful and happy for Docs By The Sea event because she could meet the other film makers like her and had a platform to contribute their passion and fight for their works.

“All this time, the documentary film industry in Indonesia does not develop well yet. When we produce film, we do not know where to distribute and sell because for me, when something wants to sustain it should have the business side. When I come to this event, I feel that I become more optimistic because I see the opportunity here to develop documentary film,” Lutfi said.

A happy face still radiated from her face because after this event, she had already have another project with her friends about documentary film. Thus, she hoped that this kind of event would be frequently held so that the documentary film makers could gather and shared about their ideas in term of documentary film.

“Because when you have friends, the possibility of surrender will be decreased,” Lutfi closed. *ph

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