Inviting Youth to Speak Up

Name: Inviting Youth to Speak Up
Uploaded: 2021-01-06T04:16:12Z
Duration: 20 min 32 s
Description: Through audiovisual media, Dian Herdiany is inviting Indonesian youth to understand the potentials and problems of the areas where they live.

Through audiovisual media, Dian Herdiany is inviting Indonesian youth to understand the potentials and problems of the areas where they live.

Denty Piawai Nastitie

· 6 minutes read

Through audiovisual media, Dian Herdiany is inviting Indonesian youth to understand the potentials and problems of the areas where they live. Film as a tool for documentation is being used to give voice to adolescent issues to raise awareness among peers, parents, and local governments.

“When I invited teenagers to make films for the first time in 2006, I saw that film was successful in showing how youth perceive diversity. In my opinion, this was really cool because they dared to speak up," Dian said on Monday (4/1/2021) at the Kampung Halaman Foundation office, Sleman regency, Yogyakarta.

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The foundation occupies a multi-storey bamboo building in Ngemplak district, Sleman. The area is rural, and the building is in a green area flanked by rivers and rice fields. The building holds the foundation’s offices as well as a space that has a coffee shop, a restaurant and a performing arts hall, and is also the venue for holding film screenings and discussions.

Looking for a solution

The idea of establishing Kampung Halaman came to Dian after she learned that teenagers were seen to be synonymous with juvenile delinquent activities like street brawls. In the 2000s, when many people began to use the internet, teen pornography videos started spreading in cyberspace.

"Teens were often seen as a social problem rather than a solution," she said.

In fact, she often met adolescents in the regions who possessed a sense of adventure and exploration, high curiosity, and who were caring, serious and diligent in solving regional problems, such as issues related to agriculture, the high rate of child marriage, and intolerance. It is from here that Dian developed an idea to invite teenagers to map out regional potentials and problems through film. She also encouraged youth to communicate their views publicly during film screenings and discussions in their village.

Teens were often seen as a social problem rather than a solution.

The first opportunity appeared in 2006, when Kampung Halaman collaborated with filmmaker Riri Riza and the British Council to organize a film workshop on diversity in five cities in Indonesia. Through the Video Diary program, teens were invited to capture the diversity around them.

Through their audiovisual projects, the youths also succeeded in raising awareness on regional problems. For example, a youth group in Indramayu, West Java, produced 17 Tahun ke Atas (17 Years and Above), a film that highlighted the high incidence of child marriages. The film, released in 2007, is still being screened today and reveals that marrying young is very common in Indramayu.

When teenagers realize they have potential, they become confident.

The film program transformed teenagers from being timid and afraid to being critical and bold about speaking up.

"When teenagers realize they have potential, they become confident. From there, we carefully assist youth from vulnerable families, such as those at risk of dropping out of school or of becoming victims of child marriage or unwanted pregnancies. We believe that the impacts of mentoring can be tremendous for teenagers,” said Dian.

The challenge in assisting adolescents, according to Dian, was that their interests changed frequently because they were still in the transitional stage to adulthood. Moreover, their parents and environment were less keen to listen to adolescent needs.

"Parents are often judgmental towards teenagers. In fact, when teenagers are asked about their needs and challenges, their answers can be very different from their parents’,” she said.

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Dian\'s activities in cinema and with youth are somewhat of a shift from her educational background in anthropology at the University of Indonesia (UI). However, she has been enthusiastically producing films since her university days. Together with her friends, she founded the UI Anthropological Visual Community.

She was then recruited by Shanty Harmayn, the cofounder and a board member of the Jakarta International Film Festival (JIFFest), to engage in film studies and make academic discussions on social issues. From there, Dian began watching many good films of various genres, including documentary films. Dian and Shanty also collaborated to establish In-DOCS, a documentary film community. Dian and her peers also established the PopCorner Foundation in 2003. This foundation helps senior high school students make short films.

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Through these activities, Dian’s interest and enthusiasm grew in organizing educational activities that used audiovisual media. Moreover, anyone can produce films today at relatively affordable costs.

After more than a decade since its establishment, Kampung Halaman Foundation continues to grow. The foundation not only encourages teenagers to produce films, but it also holds various learning activities that focus on youth empowerment, such as learning about agriculture, entrepreneurship, horticulture, library management, traditional arts, and regular film screenings and discussions.