Indonesia film festival voices gay issues

JAKARTA: Indonesia’s gay film festival faced violent opposition in its early years. Members of a hardline Islamic group tried to storm theatres to stop screenings, but as the festival enters its sixth year, organiser John Badalu has no such fears.

The opening of the week-long Q! Film Festival (QFF) on Friday drew a flamboyant crowd in Jakarta, with members of the audience dressed in colourful wigs, fish-net stockings and cupid wings. Homosexuality is not banned under Indonesian law, but remains taboo in a country where 85 per cent of the 220 million people are Muslim.

“The festival has provided some sort of impetus for the gay rights movement in Indonesia, and has enabled many issues to surface,” Badalu told Reuters. Arisan, a 2003 feature film about a routine get-together of upper-class Indonesian women, was the first Indonesian film with a gay theme, dealing with a woman in a troubled marriage who is attracted to a young gay executive.

QFF, one of the largest gay film festivals in Asia, features about 80 films from countries including the Philippines, Thailand, Germany and Indonesia, and deals with topics such as sexual abuse and HIV/AIDS.

In a country where many homosexuals remain in the closet, the festival takes a sensitive look at the problems faced by an often marginalised community through films such as Hong Kong film-maker Wong Kar Wai’s Happy Together, which chronicles the slow deterioration of a gay relationship.

Other international films that try to create awareness and break some myths about homosexuals include Oscar-winning director Pedro Almodovar’s cult film Bad Education, the story of a novice Spanish actor trying to sell a screenplay on his alleged childhood sexual abuse by a paedophile priest.

This year’s festival was almost pulled — not because of opposition from Muslim hardliners but for lack of funding. “The festival was on the brink of extinction,” said Badalu. He fired off e-mails seeking financing to everyone in his address book.

“A gas station worker from the Midwest sent me a long letter, describing how he, a simple working-class guy, sympathised with the festival’s mission. At first I thought the letter was a joke, it was so long. But then at the bottom of the letter he said he had donated $100.”