The Production Journey of the Movie Payung Dara

Kembang Gula works with young people, this project moves away from the anxiety of young people related to the experience of puberty, especially adolescent girls, physical and psychological changes that are uncomfortable and confusing. Education related to adolescent reproductive health and also knowledge related to the prevention of sexual violence is important for everyone. We campaign on this issue through short fiction films, which we feel can be a fairly effective educational medium. We have also been involved in film production for a long time, so we came up with the idea to make a short fiction film with the theme of adolescent girls’ reproductive health.

We started writing the story idea, collaborating with Reni Apriliana, a film director whose first film, Telur Semengah Matang, tells the story of unwanted pregnancies experienced by teenage girls and how they can make choices. Reni wrote the story with Puspa Intan Fitriamurti, so we also invited Puspa to write a story idea related to the anxiety of teenage girls going through puberty and their confusion when changes occur in their bodies.

We brainstormed on a logline and synopsis, compared several existing short films and looked for unfilled stories in Indonesian short films that talk about the issue of breast growth for adolescent girls at puberty. Then came the character of Dara as the main character, who lives with her uncle Aman and her elderly grandmother. The title came up Payung Dara, in English Um((breast))lla. We also collaborated with Solo Pukap (Center for Women’s Studies) in the process of conducting a pre-production FGD (Focus Group Discussion), where we invited representatives from the film’s audience segments: students, college students, teachers, and parents to discuss acceptable approaches to discussing this issue. The second FGD was during post-production, where we watched the draft movie together and collected inputs related to the responses from the FGD participants.

This movie raises an issue related to adolescent girls’ reproductive health, and we also worked with teenage actors. We realized how important it is to create a safe space. The production of Payung Dara involved 54 crew members, who also came from other film communities outside of Kembang Gula. Some of the team had worked together before. Usually we make House Rules, containing rules or agreements that must be maintained and implemented by all crews during the production process. Currently, we are making an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for the Prevention of Sexual Violence with the help of Solo Pukaps, and also conducted an SOP socialization workshop during the last Pre Production Meeting. We also include articles in contracts related to sexual violence cases, where everyone must respect each other and if a case occurs, both witnesses and victims can report and will take firm action, as well as termination of employment against the perpetrator.

The challenge during the FGD was to open up the perspective of teachers/teaching staff, students and parents that talking about reproductive health is not taboo. With a presentation from the Solo Pukaps team related to cases and forms of sexual violence that occurred in the city of Solo. The participants also discussed their puberty experiences, and their responses to the cases.

Meanwhile, the challenge in the production environment was to expose habitual forms of harassment, such as the type of sexist jokes that are common on set. By pointing out the forms of sexual harassment and violence, it became new knowledge for our team. So our team is educated and can change their attitude. Filming can also be conducive to running smoothly in accordance with what we aspire together.

We also held several screenings in Solo, located in schools, campuses and communities. These screenings were followed by discussions with the filmmakers and expert speakers related to the issues we presented, the discussion sessions were guided by a moderator. After the screening we also provided barcode related questionnaires to get feedback from the audience. Of course we get a variety of responses, almost all responses can measure that the message conveyed in the film can be well received by respondents.

One impression conveyed by Riza Utomo, during the special screening at Kulonuwon Kopi said that when he was in school, what he did with his male friends he thought was just a joke, like pulling the strap of his BH, he did not understand that it was a form of harassment. Then the response from a mother named Tita Sekartaji, stated that as a mother and having a daughter, she felt that this issue was important to discuss. From this response, we are increasingly convinced that the importance of education related to reproductive health and prevention of sexual violence can be discussed openly.

In the course of screening Payung Dara, the obstacles we encountered included opposition from the teachers at the school, when we wanted to screen this film. However, we were able to overcome this by watching the movie first with the teachers and then holding a discussion, so that we could convey the purpose of the movie. We are also happy that Payung Dara received appreciation from the 2023 Indonesian Film Festival, as a nominee for the best Short Fiction Film. Also from Sinedu (Sinema Edukasi), a teaching workshop platform through film media, which opened a collaboration to use Payung Dara in the adolescent reproductive health curriculum.

For us, the production of the movie Payung Dara provided a very memorable experience because we could process with teenage girls, parents and teachers, we could learn from each other, try to understand each other and understand reproductive health issues and steps to prevent sexual violence. We were also very impressed with the parents of Sasha, who played Dara, who accompanied us during the rehearsal and filming process and were very supportive of this project from start to finish.

In addition to the screening in Solo, we also held a roadshow in 4 cities, namely: Sidoarjo, Semarang, Jakarta and Bandung. In addition to the screenings that we organized ourselves, we also received many requests for screenings from other communities both in Solo and outside the city. We are open to communities who want to screen Payung Dara in every city. We hope that the movie can be accessed by a wider community.