A window into Indonesia through films and music

A scene from Position Among the Stars, part of a trio of Indonesian films that will be preceded by performances by Gamelan orchestras from the New Zealand School of Music.

Wellington audiences will gain an intimate insight into modern Indonesia through a festival of music and films over the first three Sundays in March, April and May.

The film festival evenings, on Sundays March 3, April 7 and May 5, are a collaboration between the New Zealand Indonesia Association and the gamelan orchestras based at Te Kokī New Zealand School of Music.

Live gamelan music, traditional sounds of Indonesia featuring instruments such as xylophones drums and bamboo flutes, will be performed as a prelude to the screening of three award-winning films by Dutch filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich: Eye of the Day (2001); Shape of the Moon (2004) and Position Among the Stars (2011).

In these documentaries, Helmrich follows three generations of a single family in Jakarta, Indonesia, from the days before the fall of Suharto in May 1998 through to 2009. New Zealand School of Music events coordinator Stephen Gibbs says the camera neither comments nor judges but rather acts as a window into the lives of Rumidjah, the family’s Christian matriarch, the two Muslim sons and a granddaughter in a film which offers a personal and close-up look into modern Indonesia through a single family.

Preceding the screenings, one of the gamelan orchestras based at the School of Music, which is jointly run by Massey University and Victoria University, will perform a a range of traditional and contemporary music.

Some of the proceeds from the event will help fund a tour by the gamelan orchestras to Indonesia in July, Mr Gibbs says. They will tour cities in Java and Bali including the International Gamelan Festival in Yogyakarta where they have been invited to perform a programme of new works by New Zealand composers.

Each of the concerts and film screenings will be held in the Adam Concert Room on the School of Music Kelburn Campus, through gate 7 off Kelburn Parade at Victoria University. The evenings will start at 6pm and a light supper will be served following the film.

Tickets can be bought online through www.eventfinder.co.nz or by contacting members of the New Zealand Indonesia Association or the Gamelan ensembles. Seating is limited and remaining tickets will be sold at the door.


A window into Indonesia through films and music