For Australian festival participant Anna Helme, the gamble of mixing art with documentary projects paid off: "Activism that is not creative is dull and not the kind of revolution I am interested in," said Helme, who visited Jakarta on behalf of EngageMedia, a nonprofit video-sharing Web site based in Melbourne, "Art that is not engaged or critical to some degree of wider concerns than art itself can be too inward-looking."
Helme was originally interested in exhibiting in the festival but, realizing that OK. Video Militia's aims were complimentary to EngageMedia's expertise, offered to come to Jakarta to conduct a workshop on online video. Designed to encourage participants to get serious about the possibilities of video as a form of personal and political expression, the free workshop explored distribution strategies.
Explained Helme, "Often video-makers are highly skilled in video technology and familiar with esoteric software, but when it comes to the Internet it's a whole new ball game. They really are different skill sets; the art of being a producer and the art of being a distributor". She is convinced, however, that self-distribution is becoming gradually more feasible. All it takes is a little bit of knowledge.
An important part of the workshop was a discussion of the video-sharing Web sites available to the low budget video-maker; and the unseen consequences of this choice. For instance, video-makers relying on services like YouTube for online distribution may not understand that such sites, though free to use, are themselves commercial entities; the user is licensing content to the Web site with the potential of jeopardizing future control.
Helme advocated a concept as old as activism itself: "It is important for the people to own the printing presses". So what are the options? Set up your own Web site, if you have the skills and access to the necessary equipment. Or use the services of a noncommercial organization.
EngageMedia provides one such opportunity for users around the world; the organization exists as a means for activists, documentary-makers and independent journalists to disseminate video material, with a particular concern for issues of social justice and the environment. Technical support is available for those who need it, including links to open source software that might come in handy.
Video-makers also have the option of "vodcasting", meaning users may request notification of new content by a particular author, or opt to have it automatically downloaded to their computer or cell phone. Vodcasting allows anyone, no matter how small their budget or how geographically isolated they may be, to create their own dedicated channel, broadcasting day and night all over the world.
Helme conceded that, with broadband Internet still relatively unreliable in Indonesia, online video is not going to work for everybody. It's a matter of maximizing what can be achieved with the resources available. "You have to be forward-looking and come up with strategies for making the technology relevant".
Innovative strategies were certainly apparent throughout OK. Video Militia's activities in 2007. Combining fine arts videos with grassroots documentary and activist works was certainly a bold move: the work of highly-regarded video artists could be viewed alongside the work of novice video-makers, many of whom had never previously picked up a camera.
These "DIY" videos, greatly diverse in style and content, were the result of workshops conducted over several months. Ruangupa sent trainers to 12 cities across Indonesia, working in collaboration with organizations from the film school at the Jakarta Institute of Arts, to a group of street kids from the Depok railway station, to students at a vocational school in Pekanbaru, Sumatra.
Participants received instruction in camera work and editing before being unleashed; their only directive being that their video should in some way respond to the local environment. Many of the works produced were technically basic, like the videos by Jakarta high school students shot entirely on cell phone cameras.
But such limitations sometimes led video-makers to impressive feats of ingenuity. Listrik (Electricity, 2006, 10 minutes), made by Riosaja and Riri at the Padang workshop, featured an almost black screen with a long, irate phone conversation with an electricity company providing the soundtrack. Another intriguing work was Tinju (Boxing, 2007, five minutes), from Awal Gendut Udin at the Malang workshop, showing two boxers fighting in slow motion in front of a local shopping center, to the bafflement of onlookers.
Videos made for OK. Video Militia 2007 are now available to view at EngageMedia's Web site.
http://www.engagemedia.org/ok-video-militia
http://www.ruangrupa.org/
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