with filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich
In this vivid follow up to The Eye of the Day (2001), director Leonard Retel Helmrich again visits Indonesia through three generations of the Sjamsuddin family. Rumidjah, a 62-year-old Catholic widow, lives in a working-class district of Jakarta with her son, Bakti, a new Muslim convert, and her granddaughter, Tari. Since the fall of Suharto, she has witnessed the country pass through a period of socio-political chaos. Islam, Indonesia's largest religion, is trying to maintain order and discipline, while becoming increasingly fundamentalist in its tone. These changes and conflicts with her son make Rumidjah long for life in the simple country village of her birth. Mother and son's good-natured quarrels take place against the background of anti-U.S. demonstrations and an Islamic neighborhood watch. In this way the film continually connects small issues with large ones. There are no interviews, no voice-over. The Shape of the Moon offers the kind of cinema verite where the camera moves intuitively along with the action. Joris Ivens Award, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam; Grand Prize, World Cinema Documentary, Sundance Film Festival. Video projection. Cosponsored with the Southeast Asia Program and the CNYPG, which is funded by NYSCA.
2005, color, 1 hour 32 minutes, Holland/Indonesia