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Ivan takes passion to big screen
Features - April 02, 2006
The Goethe Haus recently screened the newly completed surfing documentary, Thank You and Good Night Mother, by a young graphic designer-turned photographer, Ivan Handoyo. Film writer Paul F. Agusta met with the filmmaker, who is planning for a cinematic road show to universities and art houses throughout Indonesia, to speak about his dual passions.
PFA: How did you come to select surfing as the theme for your first full-length documentary film? IH: Surfing has long been a ritual for me. When I surf, everything that has been imposed upon me, like my identity and social status, all becomes nothing. All of my energy becomes focused on that one moment of activity.
I often get tired of the urban stimulation I experience everyday, and I say to myself: "What is this all about, everything is so fake?" It's all about material things, and I have found surfing to be an effective form of meditation to get me away from all that.
But I'm not trying to indoctrinate anyone into surfing, this film is just about sharing my own personal connection with the waves. Your film comes across as a kind of personal video diary; did you intend it to turn out that way? Also, why did you not focus more on the lives of the surfers encountered in the film?
I intended to be very objective about it. There was a part of me that I wanted to share; I was far more than an observer in this film. I became aware of an interior side of my consciousness responding to the images I was collecting, and I wanted to share that too. The exterior side of my consciousness, I tried to convey through the surfer kids, their social lives and how surfing has become a sort of religion to them.
The truth is that there's not much difference between me and them; almost none at all. The way they perceive me is the way I perceive them. We have one voice, which is what I felt I was trying to show in the film.
This film belongs to all of us, me and the kids. I was just the one that put it together. How long did the filmmaking process take, from the beginning to the completion?
It started with a wave-finding trip in February 2004. Bali was too far away, and surfing has become too much of a pop culture and commercial venture there, so I went to Bandulu and Carita. I found that the feeling was different there. The 2004 trip was just the beginning. I met those guys and kept going back every two weeks or so because it's so close to Jakarta.
And I got inspired. I had to create something with these guys. It was spontaneous; I absolutely had no plans to make a film. The observation process took quite a while because it was hard to get them used to the camera. I had to break down the boundaries between us as filmmaker and cast, so that we became one.
So I lived with them for weeks at a time, only coming back to Jakarta when I had work... It takes a long time with documentaries because the narrative is so expansive. You don't have a clear script; you have to pick your stories from what you record. What was most interesting about the film to me was that they all have day jobs and their own lives, but all that stops when a wave comes. Could you tell me a little more about their jobs and their lives?
Well, when we're talking about professional surfers, surfing has become their vocation, they have sponsors and paid exhibitions. But these guys are just regular people who have to find a way to make a living elsewhere, who all share one voice when they start talking about the waves.
And the waves there are so rare that they would leave their work without hesitation and run to get their boards and head to the sea. Everyone there understands this, and just lets them be.
Mostly they make their money from tourism, from the resorts by working as security guards, lifeguards or water sport coaches. Most of them also get some sponsorship from the Banten provincial administration for sailing competitions. So, after the Goethe Haus screening, what are your plans for Thank You and Good Night Mother?
I am currently looking for sponsorship to fund a road show of this film to campuses and art houses across the country that might want to screen it. I also plan to enter it in various festivals around the world.
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