he seats were almost full as the lights dimmed and an audio speaker transmitted the decades-old announcement of voice actress Marie Oentoe Tinangon, familiar to most Indonesian moviegoers: “The door to Theater 1 is open.”
This did not happen at a theater owned by Cinema XXI, Indonesia’s largest movie theater chain, but during the XXINY Take 1: Indonesian Film Night at The Brooklyn Monarch in New York City.
The XXINY screening event was held on Aug. 24 to celebrate the country’s 80th independence anniversary with a simple but genuine mission: Bring the nation’s cinematic heartbeat to one of the world’s cultural capitals.
The event is the brainchild of Anne Yasmine and Yealinzka Tinnovia, both members of the Indonesian diaspora and recent graduates of New York University who share an interest in converting “wild and fun ideas” into actual events.
“We asked ourselves, ‘What happens if we join forces?’ So there you have it: a screening event!” said Anne, executive producer and film programmer of XXINY.
The pair wanted to show that Indonesians “exist in New York”, added XXINY project manager Yealinzka, with the movies represented not just Jakarta, but the country as a whole. She and Anne also aimed to show that Indonesian pop culture could be widely accepted by international markets, especially New York.
The screening event featured eight short movies across various genres from young Indonesian filmmakers.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.thejakartapost.com ’
