JAKARTA, ARKIPEL, Forum Lenteng — Suasana aula GoetheHaus di Goethe Institut Jakarta, Jalan Sam Ratulangi, lebih sepi pada pukul 20:00 WIB, 12 September, 2014. Malam itu, giliran filem berjudul FRAGMEN! (2005) produksi ruangrupa yang dipresentasikan kepada publik untuk pertama kalinya di perhelatan ARKIPEL Electoral Risk – Jakarta International Documentary & Experimental Film Festival 2014. Terlihat, hanya lima orang yang mengisi bangku penonton.
Hafiz, Direktur Artistik ARKIPEL, yang kali itu berperan sebagai penyaji, memberikan sedikit pengantar tentang latar belakang isu dibuatnya FRAGMEN!.
“Filem ini, sedikit banyak, mengangkat fenomena kontemporer yang berkembang saat itu, terutama fenomena media yang menjadi satu persoalan yang lekat dengan masyarakat,” jelasnya. “Filem ini menjadi kritik bagi media tersebut.”
Penjelasan itu pun terbukti ketika penonton menyaksikan bagaimana subjek-subjek di dalam filem mem-performa-kan gaya membaca koran, tetapi kita sadari bahwa yang dianggap sebagai koran oleh tokoh-tokoh di dalam filem hanyalah lembaran-lembaran kertas lebar berwarna cokelat tanpa satu pun huruf di dalamnya. Adegan ini ditingkahi oleh audial yang melafalkan separagraf dua paragraf isi berita dari suratkabar.
Isu tentang bagaimana kerja media telah mengkonstruksi cara berpikir masyarakat juga ditegaskan pada adegan percakapan antara tiga orang yang membahas asal-muasal dan alasan kemunculan fenomena “malam minggu”, serta adegan seseorang di balik komputer yang sedang membalas surat pembaca —yang dapat ditebak bahwa rubrik surat pembaca tersebut berasal dari koran-koran kuning yang umum mengangkat persoalan seputar seks. Selain itu, filem ini juga menyinggung soal stereotipe ‘kata-kata kotor’ atau umpatan, semacam “ngentot”, “taik”, dan lainnya, yang identik dengan pemaknaan negatif publik terhadap lingkungan pertemanan geng atau preman.
Namun, di awal filem kita telah diberi semacam kode, bahwa media adalah suatu soal yang begitu intim pada keseharian kita, yang membuat memori tak lekang oleh waktu, melalui adegan perbincangan tentang suatu lokasi di Depok dan Serang melalui corat-coret peta di atas kertas. Rangkaian fragmen-fragmen ini seolah menjadi metafor yang mengingatkan kita bahwa media akan menjadi arif ketika publik mampu mengkritisinya.
Berto Tukan, dari Indoprogress, bertanya dalam sesi tanya-jawab.
Lebih kurang satu jam kemudian, ketika filem usai ditayangkan, Hafiz membuka sesi tanya-jawab singkat. Salah seorang penonton mencoba memberikan pendapatnya bahwa makna adegan pada filem FRAGMEN!, mungkin, akan mudah ditangkap oleh masyarakat penonton untuk konteks Jakarta, tetapi belum tentu di daerah lain. Pendapat ini pun ditanggapi oleh Hafiz bahwa, pada penayangan perdananya, filem itu sendiri ditayangkan di Yogyakarta, dan respon penonton kala itu cukup positif.
Tak ada penanya kedua, sehingga Hafiz pun menutup acara terakhir di GoetheHaus pada hari itu. Aula yang memang sudah sepi sejak pemutaran filem FRAGMEN itu, mendadak senyap ketika ditinggali penonton.
Filem dokumenter eksperimental ini akan ditayangkan sekali lagi di Studio 1 XXI, Taman Ismail Marzuki, pukul 16:00 WIB, tanggal 14 September, 2014.
Criticism against Media in Fragmen, an Experimental Documentary
JAKARTA, ARKIPEL, Forum Lenteng – The atmosphere in the hall of GoetheHaus, Goethe Institut Jakarta, Jalan Sam Ratulangi, is more subdued by 08:00 pm, September 12, 2014. That night, FRAGMEN! (2005) the work of ruangrupa was presented to the public for first time in ARKIPEL Electoral Risk – Jakarta International Documentary & Experimental Film Festival 2014. There were only about five people present at the screening.
Hafiz, Artistic Director of ARKIPEL, who acted as the presenter, gave an introduction about the background to the issue that gave birth to FRAGMEN!.
“The film, in a way, presented the contemporary phenomenon that developed at the time, especially the media phenomenon that was becoming an inherent problem with the community,” he explained. “The film became a critique toward the media.”
The explanation was also evident when the audience witnessed how the characters in the movie performed a theatrical reading of a newspaper, until we realize that what is regarded as a newspaper by the characters in the film are just sheets of wide brown paper without any letters in it. This scene was acted by the actors reciting one or two paragraphs of a news clipping.
The issue of how the media work to unknowingly construct the way society thinks was also affirmed by the scenes where conversations between three people who were discussing the origins and reasons for the emergence of the phenomenon of “Saturday night”, and the scene wherein a person behind the computer answers reader’s letters-which the audience understood that it was . In addition, the film also touched on stereotypes ‘dirty words’ or a curse, a sort of “fuck”, “shit”, and many others, which are synonymous with a negative connotation the public has associated with gangs or thugs.
However, at the beginning of the film we have been given some sort of context clue, that the media is an issue so closely intertwined with our daily life, which makes the memory timeless, through scenes that talked about locations in Depok and Serang via doodles on paper maps. These fragments seem to be a metaphor that reminds us that the media would be wise when the public is able to criticize it.
Approximately one hour later, when the film is finished, Hafiz opened a brief question and answer session. One of the audience members stated that the context in FRAGMEN! is easily grasped by the audience in Jakarta, but not necessarily in other areas. This was addressed and refuted by Hafiz who commented that, on its first airing, the film itself aired in Yogyakarta, and the audience’s response was quite positive time.
Nobody asked another question, and thus Hafiz ended the last event in GoetheHaus of the day. The hall which had been deserted since the screening of the film fragment, fell into silence when the audience left.
This experimental documentary film will be screened once again at Studio XXI 1, Taman Ismail Marzuki, at 16:00 pm, 14th of September, 2014.
