Keseharian Sapi-sapi di Hamparan Sampah
Kuliah masih berlangsung ketika pintu bioskop Forum Lenteng dibuka pada Rabu, 3 Desember 2021. Hari itu kelas sedang membahas ekokritik sastra, tapi pemutaran gabungan Kompetisi Internasional 7 dan 8 akan dimulai sesaat lagi. Salah satu filemnya, Diary of Cattle (2019), memperlihatkan persoalan sapi dan sampah di Kota Padang.
Saya masuk ke bioskop, membawa laptop dengan kuliah daring yang sedang berlangsung. Pemutaran diawali dengan penayangan video kuratorial Otty Widasari untuk Kompetisi Internasional 07 dan Afrian Purnama untuk Kompetisi Internasional 08. Saya memakai satu headset di telinga kanan untuk mendengar perkuliahan, sementara telinga kiri diharapkan bisa untuk menonton Mary, Mary, So Contrary (2019) dari program Kompetisi Internasional 07 yang sedang diputar. Tentu saja tidak bisa.
Meskipun bioskop diisi oleh 14 orang, kursi di dalam bioskop tidak penuh. Terutama di bagian depan, seolah tidak ada orang yang menduduki kursi di deretan tersebut. Ternyata, para penonton duduk di bawah, di lantai, di depan kursinya. Selain itu, di sisi kiri dan kanan bagian depan bioskop ada yang menonton sambil tiduran. Saya yang duduk di bagian belakang pun bisa secara penuh melihat layar, tidak terhalang oleh penonton yang mestinya duduk di depan. Hal itu disadari ketika headset di telinga kanan telah tanggal, perkuliahan usai, dan laptop dilipat. Sementara, di layar Mary, Mary, So Contrary telah tiba ke sesi kredit.
Filem selanjutnya diputar, Diary of Cattle, disutradarai Lidia Afrilita dan David Darmadi. Saya mengenal mereka melalui filem sebelumnya; Padang in Carnival (2009) tentang angkutan umum di kota itu, dan Jembatan Sibuk (2016) tentang sebuah jembatan kecil tapi penting di tepi kota itu. Kali ini melalui Diary of Cattle mereka membingkai sebuah drama sapi di tempat penampungan sampah terbesar di kota Padang, Sumatera Barat.
Pada bagian awal filem ini, bidikan lanskap sampah sepanjang hamparan bukit dan langit di atasnya langsung mengingatkan gambar lanskap di Indonesia yang umumnya berhamparan sawah, gunung, dan langit. Kali ini, hamparan sampah yang mendominasi. Kemudian, sapi-sapi turun dari atas bukit, lama-kelamaan mereka semakin ramai, membentuk barisan yang membelah hamparan sampah.
Sapi-sapi diikuti oleh kamera. Mereka beraktivitas di hamparan itu. Memakan sampah plastik, bermain dengan kelompoknya, berbagi ruang bersama traktor yang mengeruk sampah, istirahat, tiduran di karpet yang terdiri dari sampah, bahkan peristiwa mengerubungi dan meratapi jasad temannya. Seolah sedang menyaksikan kegiatan sehari-hari suatu subjek. Sapi-sapi ini dibingkai layaknya aktor, ucap Otty Widasari, Kepala Selektor ARKIPEL setelah pemutaran usai.
Tentu saja kuliah tadi tentang ekokritik ada hubungannya dengan filem ini. Tetapi, tanpa kuliah itu pun, filem ini bisa memperlihatkan wujud sampah sebagai hasil dari perilaku konsumsi manusia, regulasi dan sistem pengolahan sampah oleh pemerintah kota, hingga dampaknya terhadap ekosistem sekitar yang akhirnya akan kembali berdampak bagi manusia (saat menonton, saya membayangkan apakah daging dendeng atau rendang di rumah makan kota Padang bersumber dari sapi-sapi ini). Dalam bahasa Afrian Purnama, penyaji program Kompetisi Internasional 8, film ini menggambarkan katastrofi ekologi yang memaksa makhluk hidup terperangkap dalam siklus yang dihancurkan oleh sistem ekonomi dan politik.
Filem ini akan ditayangkan di website Festival ARKIPEL selama 12 – 18 Desember 2021.
Terjemahan Bahasa Inggris oleh Gladyza Vanska
The Daily Lives of Cattle on a Mountain of Garbage
A lecture was still underway when the door of Bioskop Forum Lenteng (the Forum Lenteng Theatre) was opened on Friday, December 3, 2021. Our class were discussing literary ecocriticism that day but the double-feature International Competition 7 & 8 programs were about to start any minute now. One of the films screened, Diary of Cattle (2019), exposed the matter of cattle and garbage in the city of Padang.
I entered the room, bringing a laptop with an online class in progress. The screening started with Otty Widasari’s curatorial video for International Competition 07, and Afrian Purnama’s video for International Competition 08. I was wearing one piece of earphone on my right ear to listen to the lecture, while I expected my left ear to follow Mary, Mary, So Contrary (2019) from the International Competition 7 program which was being screened at the time. Obviously, I could not do both.
Even though 14 people filled the cinema room that day, the seats were not full. Especially the front seats that were empty. Apparently, some audience were sitting on the floor, in front of the seats. And not just that, people were lying on the floor, on the front left and right sides. I had a full view of the screen even when I sat on the far back as my vision was not obstructed by the people which were supposed to be sitting at the front. I was only noticing it after the earphone fell off my ear, the lecture ended, and the laptop lid shut. Meanwhile on the screen, the end credits of Mary, Mary, So Contrary had rolled.
The next film was screened, Diary of Cattle, directed by Lidia Afrilita and David Darmadi. I was first introduced to them by their previous films, Padang in Carnival (2009), about the public transportation in the city, and Jembatan Sibuk (literal translation: The Busy Bridge) (2016), about a small yet important bridge on the outskirt of the city. This time with Diary of Cattle, they framed a cattle drama in the biggest landfill in the city of Padang, West Sumatra.
At the start of the film, a landscape shot of garbage along the top of a hill and the sky just above it immediately recalled in mind paintings of landscapes in Indonesia which usually highlight paddy fields, mountains, and skies. This time, a mountain of garbage dominated the frame instead. Then, some cattle went down the hill, more and more filled the screen, and they all formed a line which parted the mountain.
The cattle were followed by the camera. They were just doing their thing on the garbage mountain. Eating plastic waste, playing with their herd, sharing space with garbage-raking tractors, resting, lying on carpets of garbage, even crowding and lamenting a death of one of their own. As if we were witnessing the daily activities of a subject. These cattle were framed as if they were actors, said Otty Widasari, head of selectors of ARKIPEL, after the screening ended.
Obviously the ecocriticism lecture I attended was relevant to the film. But even without the lecture, I would not miss much because this film taught me many things, from garbage as the product of human consumer behavior, the regulation and system of waste management by the city government, to the effect it had on the surrounding ecosystem which eventually returned to humans (when watching, I was wondering if beef dendeng and rendang served in Padang restaurants were sourced from these cattle). In the words of Afrian Purnama, presenter of the International Competition 8 program, this film painted an ecological catastrophe which forced living beings to be trapped in a cycle destroyed by the economic and political systems.
This program will be screened on the Festival ARKIPEL website from December 12th to 18th, 2021.
English Translation by Gladyza Vanska
