Entering the Sharia governed Aceh almost fully covered

HOW DID I END UP FILMING IN ACEH, INDONESIA?

So we finally got a filming permit from the Embassy of Indonesia in Helsinki. We were to go to film evidence of a glorious paradise, model of a holy city, built according to sharia´s law. In this case it being Banda Aceh, situated in Northern tip of Sumatra, Indonesia. Marjaana Jauhola and I had accidentally met recently and her being an academic researcher and me a documentarist we decided to apply for a grant together. For our big surprise, we got almost the biggest grant the Finnish Cultural Foundation delivers, 80 000€.

We rented an office space, got a producer to join our team and started to plan a documentary. Marjaana had been in Banda Aceh many times before and was deeply involved in ethnographic research of the aftermath of Tsunami, civil war and peace process mediated by the former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari. She had had an idea to make further research in the form of a documentary and this is what we were aiming to do together.

COLLABORATION BETWEEN IS NOT ALWAYS EASY

As Marjaana had all contacts to Indonesia and knew the language, it became a bit frustrating to me to take lead as a documentarist. Being a documentarist also means that you aim at being neutral at your points of view. You let all stories to be told! Marjaana instead had an idea what she wants to prove. This is how science works; right? I was very interested in showing all sides of struggle there and she wanted to show exactly how common people struggle there to make her academic research points clear.

In spite of obvious difficulties coming our way, I decided to continue. It was a good money not to waste and a good learning point. I contacted our subjects there by myself and tried to learn to know them. I studied all I could about the conflicts and humanitarian efforts to help there and about this ideal model based on Islamic religion which they were to implement as destruction always leaves space to a new to take over. I built storylines and finally we got to fly over there.

Before that we also filmed in Helsinki as feminists of two generations from Aceh and Jakarta were invited to Finland. Our producer decided not to continue in our team and we left there just two of us. I taught Marjaana how to record audio and I was of course on cameras.

POWER CUT OFFS & STOMACH BUGS

I had sewn myself linen clothes, long dresses and long sleeved shirts to be properly dressed there. Head cover was only needed as a tourist when entering holy places, offices etc. We had a driver booked all the time to make it easier to move in the heat.

To tell the truth we weren’t going to film the glorious paradise model but instead the opposite. Marjaana had followed stories of people who were discriminated and criminalised there because they did not fit into this paradise model! There sanctions were quite heavy from behaviour remodelling camps to public caning and shaming!

So we filmed with a transperson, a Christian woman, a city gardener who lost everything in Tsunami and is very poor despite huge humanitarian efforts (money ending somewhere else). Also with a poet and activist who was trying to help in even poorer villages after guerrilla wars and many videos with ex-fighter turned into Sufi healer. He is living in poverty and wounded by many ways of injustice. We also met with professor and head of Shari’a Islam Department to have his opinion on everything. And followed two ladies who were small business owners and tried to make it there with all kinds of inventions to sell.

Of course I got a stomach bug and some most memorable filming moments were in a slum where I was lying on a floor almost vomiting and heavily sweating and asked Marjaana to tell me when exactly to stand up to film. Also often after long day of filming the electricity went off in the city. No water. No lights. In the dark I tried to transfer all the material of the day from memory cards to two different hard drives before allowing myself to go to sleep.

SO WHAT DID I LEARN?

I learnt how to follow Indonesian language and cut it in a right place on timeline. I also learnt how to blur everything that reveals locations and often faces too, which is hard work!

We ended up making many short documentaries instead of one. Marjaana taught in many universities and attended many conferences and shorter ones were easier to present.

INTRO VIDEO TO OUR SCRAPS OF HOPE PROJECT

HOW DID I END UP FILMING IN ACEH, INDONESIA?

So we finally got a filming permit from the Embassy of Indonesia in Helsinki. We were to go to film evidence of a glorious paradise, model of a holy city, built according to sharia´s law. In this case it being Banda Aceh, situated in Northern tip of Sumatra, Indonesia. Marjaana Jauhola and I had accidentally met recently and her being an academic researcher and me a documentarist we decided to apply for a grant together. For our big surprise, we got almost the biggest grant the Finnish Cultural Foundation delivers, 80 000€.

We rented an office space, got a producer to join our team and started to plan a documentary. Marjaana had been in Banda Aceh many times before and was deeply involved in ethnographic research of the aftermath of Tsunami, civil war and peace process mediated by the former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari. She had had an idea to make further research in the form of a documentary and this is what we were aiming to do together.

COLLABORATION BETWEEN IS NOT ALWAYS EASY

As Marjaana had all contacts to Indonesia and knew the language, it became a bit frustrating to me to take lead as a documentarist. Being a documentarist also means that you aim at being neutral at your points of view. You let all stories to be told! Marjaana instead had an idea what she wants to prove. This is how science works; right? I was very interested in showing all sides of struggle there and she wanted to show exactly how common people struggle there to make her academic research points clear.

In spite of obvious difficulties coming our way, I decided to continue. It was a good money not to waste and a good learning point. I contacted our subjects there by myself and tried to learn to know them. I studied all I could about the conflicts and humanitarian efforts to help there and about this ideal model based on Islamic religion which they were to implement as destruction always leaves space to a new to take over. I built storylines and finally we got to fly over there.

Before that we also filmed in Helsinki as feminists of two generations from Aceh and Jakarta were invited to Finland. Our producer decided not to continue in our team and we left there just two of us. I taught Marjaana how to record audio and I was of course on cameras.

INTRO TO OUR SCRAPS OF HOPE PROJECT

POWER CUT OFFS & STOMACH BUGS

I had sewn myself linen clothes, long dresses and long sleeved shirts to be properly dressed there. Head cover was only needed as a tourist when entering holy places, offices etc. We had a driver booked all the time to make it easier to move in the heat.

To tell the truth we weren’t going to film the glorious paradise model but instead the opposite. Marjaana had followed stories of people who were discriminated and criminalised there because they did not fit into this paradise model! There sanctions were quite heavy from behaviour remodelling camps to public caning and shaming!

So we filmed with a transperson, a Christian woman, a city gardener who lost everything in Tsunami and is very poor despite huge humanitarian efforts (money ending somewhere else). Also with a poet and activist who was trying to help in even poorer villages after guerrilla wars and many videos with ex-fighter turned into Sufi healer. He is living in poverty and wounded by many ways of injustice. We also met with professor and head of Shari’a Islam Department to have his opinion on everything. And followed two ladies who were small business owners and tried to make it there with all kinds of inventions to sell.

Of course I got a stomach bug and some most memorable filming moments were in a slum where I was lying on a floor almost vomiting and heavily sweating and asked Marjaana to tell me when exactly to stand up to film. Also often after long day of filming the electricity went off in the city. No water. No lights. In the dark I tried to transfer all the material of the day from memory cards to two different hard drives before allowing myself to go to sleep.

SO WHAT DID I LEARN?

I learnt how to follow Indonesian language and cut it in a right place on timeline. I also learnt how to blur everything that reveals locations and often faces too, which is hard work!

We ended up making many short documentaries instead of one. Marjaana taught in many universities and attended many conferences and shorter ones were easier to present.

SEE BELOW SOME OF THE VIDEOS I CAN SHOW. MOST ARE NOT MADE PUBLIC FOR SECURITY REASONS.

Aziza is a single mother and a skillful gardener living in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. What is the life like for women in Aceh, after war & post Tsunami and present strict Islamic city under sharia´s law?
2015-16

Cha Cha is a Chinese christian woman living in strict Islamic country. Her life story carries sorrows from Tsunami and hard struggle with her mother. She is believer of hope.
2015-16

SEE BELOW SOME OF THE VIDEOS I CAN SHOW. MOST ARE NOT MADE PUBLIC FOR SECURITY REASONS.

Cha Cha is a Chinese christian woman living in strict Islamic country. Her life story carries sorrows from Tsunami and hard struggle with her mother. She is believer of hope.
2015-16

Aziza is a single mother and a skillful gardener living in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. What is the life like for women in Aceh, after war & post Tsunami and present strict Islamic city under sharia´s law?
2015-16

Video collage and a poem by Indonesian activist, researcher, poet and dancer Zubaidah Djohar. Is there real peace for people in Aceh, after war & post Tsunami?
2015-16

Interview with Syahrizal Abbas, professor and head of Shari’a Islam Department, Government of Aceh, Indonesia. His views on development of the country.
2015-16

Video collage and a poem by Indonesian activist, researcher, poet and dancer Zubaidah Djohar. Is there real peace for people in Aceh, after war & post Tsunami?
2015-16

Interview with Syahrizal Abbas, professor and head of Shari’a Islam Department, Government of Aceh, Indonesia. His views on development of the country.
2015-16