Jatiwangi / The Scent of Jati Trees
A film by George Clark
Indonesia / UK, 2018, 35mm, sound, colour, 25min
World Premiere, BFI London Film Festival, 12 October 2018
Jatiwangi / The Scent of Jati Trees is a collaborative portrait of the Jatiwangi Art Factory (JaF), their life and work in West Java, Indonesia. The film offers moments of village life captured in a series of 100ft 35mm film rolls, each of which unfolds against a single unedited field recording. Playing with possibilities of synch sound and in-camera editing, the film was made with large cast of local collaborators and performers from school children to factory workers, organic rice farmers to ceramic musicians. Each sequence was produced with a different group, reflecting the participants to present an unadorned document not only of the transformations and rebuilding of the art factory but the operations of the performative communities that criss-cross the villages were JaF members live and work. The film proposes an open form to experience Jatiwangi’s model of embedded art practice, attempting at once to trace the elusive scent of the local Jati Trees and learn from their practice of ‘kajian kehidupan lokal’ or ‘the discourses of local rural life’.
Cast in order of appearance
JAF #1 (24 July 2017)
with Tedi Nurmanto, Kiki Rasmadi Permana, Alma Nöxa
JAF #2 (24 July 2017)
with Illa Syukrillah Syarif (Kadus Ila), Tedi Nurmanto, Moyo Aprianto, Alma Nöxa
JAF #3 (26 July 2017)
with Aris Wandi, Mang Nana Supriyatna, Kiki Rasmadi Permana
JAF #4 (28-29 July 2017)
with Tamyiz Noor Ramadhan, Ali Mulyawan, Pandu Rahadian, Ismal Muntaha, Bunga Siagian
JAF #5 (29 July 2017)
with Ismal Muntaha, Bunga Siagian
JAF #6 (30 July 2017)
with Tedi Nurmanto, Fitry Haryono, Ratu, Tamyiz Noor Ramadhan, Aiko, Indira, Bunga Siagian
JAF #7 (2 Aug 2017)
with Balfad, children of SD Negeri Jatisura II, unknown old man
JAF #8 (3 August 2017)
with Ali Mulyawan, Mang Kesti, Lio Bata, Tamyiz Noor Ramadhan
JAF #9-10 (11 August 2017)
with Arie Syarifuddin, Jebor Cup 2017 contestants
JAF #11 (12 August 2017)
with Maman Suherman, Kang Kribo, Iing Solihin, Kampung Wates
JAF #12 (12 August 2017)
with Maman Suherman, children of Wates
JAF #13 (13 August 2017)
with Airport security officer
JAF #14 (14 August 2017?)
with Yuliati Shalihat, Aah Konaah (Enin), Bu Jaya, Wa Iin
JAF #15 (14 August 2017)
with Eman Sulaeman
JAF #16 (15 August 2017)
with Jaya, Ginggi Syar Hasyim, Dede Ahmad Sujai (Jai), Ivo Incarnation, Aris Wandi
JAF #18 (17 August 2017)
with Iqbal, Mukti Mukti, Yuliati Shalihat, Ono Haryono, Fitry Haryono, Indir, Ratu, Yumma Loranita Theo, Ming
JAF #19 (12 September 2017)
with Kasmin
JAF #20 (20 September 2017)
with Nandar, Ipan, Dower, Nendi
JAF #21 (15 October 2017)
with Andzar Agung Fauzan (AAF), Tedi Nurmanto, Arief Yudi Rahman, Didin Aminudin (Ketut), Ary Darjanto, Rizal Nugraha
JAF #22 (15 October 2017)
with Rizal Nugraha, Feri (Peyet)
Credits:
Filmed with help from Tamyiz Noor Ramadhan, Pandu Rahadian, Alma Nöxa, Josette Chiang, Tedi Nurmanto, Ismal Muntaha, Aris Wandi, Bunga Siagian, Kiki Rasmadi Permana & Maman Suherman.
Thanks to the people of Jatiwangi, Laurin Federlein, Hang June Lee and Will Rose
Film processed at Kodak Lab, London
Colour grading by Daniel Crussell
35mm print by Cinema Printing Company London Ltd
Sound masting Alex Bonney
Supported by British Council Indonesia and West Java West Yorkshire Cooperative Movement