From Stage to Screen: Early Filmmaking of Indigenous Performers in Highland Central Java

Abstract

This paper is based on an empirical study that explores issues around the process of a traditional performance art group in a village in highland Central Java adapting to film production. Wayang orang—or loosely translated human puppet—is a traditional opera-like performance rooted in Central and East Java, Indonesia. As part of a traditional society living in a rural area, members of the group discuss their productions mostly without written documents. Storylines were experienced through performing and watching different shows. Technical skills were built through lifelong intimate practices. The project explores a general explorative question: how does a traditional oral and aural art group adapt to electronic apparatuses of cinema and create their films? In answering this question, the research uses ethnography or participant observation followed by filmmaking collaborations that involve these artists, the writer and different filmmakers from the industry. The writer positions himself as the producer for the films, supporting and managing the members of the group to explore their own artistic decisions. This paper focuses on one particular production at the early stage of the project.