Wanita selalu peduli dengan kecantikan, selalu ditekan dengan standar kecantikan yang selalu berubah selama beberapa dekade. Usaha wanita untuk selalu bisa terlihat cantik pun terkadang justru menimbulkan keraguan diri pada wanita itu sendiri. Lantas bagaimana sikap wanita terhadap hal ini? Dalam film Cleo from 5 to 7 (1965) kita diajak melihat ke dalam diri Cleo (Corinne Marchand), bagaimana ia selalu berkutat dan selalu gelisah tentang penampilannya sebagai seorang penyanyi.

Read more at: https://maniacinema.net/blog/2022/01/30/cleo-from-5-to-7-melihat-cermin-feminitas-yang-telah-surut/

Photocopier (Penyalin Cahaya) is a 2021 Indonesian crime mystery drama film, co-written and directed by Wregas Bhanuteja. This film is the director’s feature-length directorial debut. The film premiered in October 2021 at the 26^th Busan International Film Festival. Photocopier also won in various categories at the Citra Awards which in total they have won 12 awards including Best Director and Best Picture. The success of this film has led people to believe that this film has something valuable and is very recommended to watch. The premise of this film is written as such “After losing her scholarship when photos of her at a party surface online, a student pairs with a photocopy worker to piece together what happened.” (IMDB, 2021). As stated before, this film is a crime-mystery-drama film and it lived up to the genre. The film was filled with scenes that looks almost sherlock-holmes-esque film but make it local and more theatrical.

This film first shown to a segmented public audience during JAFF (Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival) in 01^st December 2021. The film received some considered well reaction from the public such as loud clap and standing ovation from the audience during the screening. Although it was generally accepted well by the public, there are also some audiences who felt that this film has issues. The official and bigger launch for the film was launched by NETFLIX on 13^th January 2022 to the public. During this launch, the reaction wasn’t as good as the first public screening at JAFF. It can be understood that this film has been receiving mixed opinions from the public. Why does this happen? How can public reaction have shifted this much just in a short time?

In January 10^th 2022 Rekata Studio and Kaninga Pictures posted a tweet on their twitter account @rekatastudio and @kaningapictures. In that tweet (Rekata Studio Tweet) they stated that (I will make a short summary from the tweet) there has been an information from a community whom has been dealing with sexual harassment saying that one name from the team have been written as the reported for their past doings, therefore Rekata Studio is taking a step to remove the reported’s name from the credit and the film’s materials publication, and that the person is no longer a part of the Penyalin Cahaya and Rekata Studio.

This new development is a major development for the film because as we know (for the people who have watch the film) the story revolves around sexual harassment. It seems ironic that the film which have been receiving praise for being ‘brave’ enough to brought up issues such as sexual harassment being found out that one of their team itself is reported in a sexual harassment case. Many was disappointed, many was debating on how they will perceive the film. What’s interesting from this phenomenon is how the public shift their worldview regarding the film.

Worldview as a concept has a deep and decorated history. Worldview also have close partnership with philosophy (Vidal, 2008). The term itself is a translation from the German word “Weltanschauung” and was first used by Immanuel Kant. Since the events of 9/11, the term worldview is often used as a very general label for how people view the cultures with which their culture clashes. Sire (2014: 24) has written about the term as “A worldview is the fundamental perspective from which one addresses every issue of life.”. Bourne (2009:3) stated that “The emerging shift in worldview is accompanied by a corresponding shift in values-what we deem to be important.”. Bourne also stated regarding a shift in worldview as a collective as “A shift in the collective worldview is likely to accompany (though not necessarily cause) the types of fundamental changes in values and actions required by humanity. This worldview shift is part of a broader change that includes a far-reaching cultural, economic, and political restructuring of society” (Bourne 2009:4).

The worldview shift can be influenced by many things. Worldview itself has been debated on its relativity. Public’s worldview towards this movie has shifted from ‘a movie that is accepted very well and won 12 Citra awards’ to ‘a movie that is insensitive towards sexual harassment victims and a biographical work of a reported sexual offender. This can be analysed using worldview shift theory. As Bourne stated, (2009:3) “The emerging shift in worldview is accompanied by a corresponding shift in values-what we deem to be important.”, what the society understood during the time is that we deem issues regarding sexual harassment as important and people needs to brought it up to the public more, and that is why Penyalin Cahaya at first was perceived very well by the public for its bravery on bringing up the issue. After January 10^th, 2022, with the new development, the worldview of the public has shifted towards condemning the film because the public hate the idea of an alleged perpetrator being in the production.

The shift in this worldview is highly influenced by the mass opinion about sexual harassment. It is normal to see people keeps changing their opinion, following public’s new norms. Sexual harassment have been a very sensitive thing to talk about in public. The struggle to acknowledge this issue also rise these past few years in Indonesia. It is important to show support and awareness towards this issue, and this film has tried to do that. Meanwhile, in bringing up awareness about sexual harassment, public also loves to ‘hurt’ the perpetrators. To shame and condemn them is a way to support the victim. Therefore, it can be easily understood that people will join the ‘bandwagon’ to cancel this film.

In finding validity, it is important to understand that subjectivity matters. A person’s history is different to another person’s history. That is why worldview will always shift as human beings keeps evolving to a better, more humane society. The most important thing to take from this phenomenon is to see that society has started to open discourses regarding sexual harassment and people has started to side with the victim more. In this article I as a writer cannot state whether Penyalin Cahaya is a good film or not. Penyalin Cahaya has its agenda, and it had its moment for some times, but its good reputations were tarred by the disappointments it has cause because of one person’s act. Sexual harassment is never acceptable, and we should always give the victims safe spaces to talk.

Bourne, E. J. (2009). Global shift: How a new worldview is transforming humanity. New Harbinger Publications.

Sire, J. W. (2014). Naming the elephant: Worldview as a concept. InterVarsity Press.

Vidal, C. (2008). What is a worldview?. In De wetenschappen en het creatieve aspect van de werkelijkheid.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13729220/ (Accessed 19 January 2022)

https://twitter.com/rekatastudio/status/1480343635652714503?s=20 (Accessed 19 January 2022)

“Rausah pacar pacaran, mending makan cilok”- YUNI

YUNI is not just a coming-of-age film about a young girl who loves purple. It is so much more. The thing about Indonesian cinematic universe is that when it covers the characterization of women it only produces something that only plays on the surface and it only uses shallow themes. Genres like cheesy rom-coms and sexualized horror films seems to be a trend for some time. One great film with reputable mention are made by women like Mouly Surya and her film Marlina The Murderer in Four Acts.

Now, YUNI is a breakthrough in Indonesian cinema. It is brave and very well packed. It brought up discourse about underage marriage, abusive behavior in marriage, sex education for women, and most importantly woman’s limitation in our Indonesian society. While this film is very good at educating people, some of more older citizen (boomer) criticize this film with their moral standards. It is quite sad to understand that the older generation consider the main character Yuni to be ‘stupid’ for her own decisions, and that this film is too ‘vulgar’ for talking about sex. This really shows how the older generation are very depraved about the current morality standards and very far from open-mindedness. I’d say, this film had the chance to educate people in Indonesia who are still occupied with bigots and traditionalist, but it is difficult to touch some of them too. A film can be presented with modern outlook but still shows the traditionality and locality of an area. YUNI successfully implemented that.

YUNI represents us women. We live in the society where the opinion is “women’s job is only to be wed to a man and then to bear child”. Well, that’s supposed to be not true. Because of this harmful opinion, some women even married to someone because people told them to. This is really harmful to women, it reminds women that choices are never in women’s hand. This toxicity in Indonesian society is a giant wall to prevent women from striving to be better and reaching up their dream. To reach for a dream is every human being’s right. But that right was often crushed because they were between this thought that women and marriage means better life.

With this film, I hope people can see how women should not be someone’s property to gaslight, own, or dictate just because people who told them are fragile men who doesn’t truly appreciate women, or a society with unreasonable traditional beliefs.

“Hold on, pretty butterfly. Ugliness is a kind of death. As long as I’m beautiful, I’m more alive than others.”

First noticeable thing from this film is how beautiful this is. That first scene with Cléo and the mirrors is probably my favorite shot. This story follows Cléo , a beautiful singer who is struggling with her receding beauty as she age. Women has always been concerned with beauty, being pressed with the beauty standards that's always changing through the decades. As she waits for her health results, she's meeting a stranger that opens her eyes and mind to different ways of thinking regarding this fading beauty.

Cléo loves her young and beautiful figure and she always looks at her reflection in the mirror. But what did I take from this? Her vanity lies on her fading beauty. And she ended up loathing it. To see your reflection in the mirror too often is to see the flaw in yourself, the more you stare at it, the more things you would criticize of yourself. And when she stops looking at the mirror, and started to meet and talk with people for a few hours, she start to forget a little about her flaws.

“That unchanging doll’s face, with that ridiculous hat. I can’t see my own fears. I think others look at me. I look at no one but myself. It wears me out.”

This film is very influential during that time, Agnes Varda really shows femininity at its vulnerable an most beautiful place. Varda shows women's nakedness and it is beautiful because it's shown not from a male gaze, but from the female gaze and it is shown as a woman's own choice. I love women and their confidence and how they’re supposed to just be happy with their body instead of living just to please the eyes of anybody else. 

“Even great feelings are full of vanity, and great minds full of foolishness.”

"Beauty is pain" people said. But is that true? It is true if you let it. Beauty standard in society has influenced how women should look to be desireable, to be acceptable in society. Painful high heels suppose to make you look 'sexier'. No body hair supposed to make woman 'more woman' because apparently only male can have body hair. Painful and expensive face treatments to make you look a certain way. All of those rituals woman did only for what?

Through the eyes of Cléo , we see that no matter what, we will age, we will change, it is a journey and we should accept what is coming for us with good judgement.