2012 CSEAS Film Series: Sang Pencerah (The Enlightener)
2010
Indonesia
Wednesday, May 2, 2012 @ 6:30 PM
Korean Studies Auditorium
Directed by Hanung Bramantyo
Starring: Lukman Sardi, Zaskia Adya Mecca, Slamet Rahardjo, Ihsan Tatote, & Giring Ganesha
Sang Pencerah (The Enlightener) is a 2010 Indonesian film directed by Hanung Bramantyp and starring Lukman Sardi, Zaskia Adya Mecca, and Slamet Rahardjo. It is a biopic of Ahmad Dahlan which describes how he came to establish Muhammadiyah–the Islamic organization.
2012 CSEAS Film Series: The Pleasure Factory
2007
Chinese [Thailand]
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 @ 6:30 PM
Korean Studies Auditorium
Director Ekachai Uekrongtham
Starring: Kuei-Mei Yang, Ananda Everingham, & Zihan Loo
The sophomore feature film from the Beautiful Boxer director, Pleasure Factory has an ensemble cast that includes Ananda Everingham and Taiwanese actress Yang Kuei-mei and a bunch of newcomers, many whom were recruited off the street. Sometimes mysterious, sometimes heartbreaking, the film follows three loosely intertwining storylines: A girl going to meet an older prostitute (Yang), and being followed by a mysterious young man (Ananda); a guy taking his virgin army buddy around to the brothels; and a woman in a red dress buying a song from a busker. Lit by Brian Gothon Tan, Geylang never looked so good. [Synopsis by Wise Kwai]
Dependent Communities: Aid and Politics in Cambodia and East Timor
by Caroline Hughes
Cornell University Press, 2009
Dependent Communities investigates the political situations in contemporary Cambodia and East Timor, where powerful international donors intervened following deadly civil conflicts. This comparative analysis critiques international policies that focus on rebuilding state institutions to accommodate the global market. In addition, it explores the dilemmas of politicians in Cambodia and East Timor who struggle to satisfy both wealthy foreign benefactors and constituents at home.
Ordering Power: Contentious Politics and Authoritarian Leviathans in Southeast Asia
by Dan Slater
Cambridge University Press, 2010
Like the postcolonial world more generally, Southeast Asia exhibits tremendous variation in state capacity and authoritarian durability. Ordering Power draws on theoretical insights dating back to Thomas Hobbes to develop a unified framework for explaining both of these political outcomes. States are especially strong and dictatorships especially durable when they have their origins in protection pacts: broad elite coalitions unified by shared support for heightened state power and tightened authoritarian controls as bulwarks against especially threatening and challenging types of contentious politics. These coalitions provide the elite collective action underpinning strong states, robust ruling parties, cohesive militaries, and durable authoritarian regimes all at the same time. Comparative-historical analysis of seven Southeast Asian countries (Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Vietnam, and Thailand) reveals that subtly divergent patterns of contentious politics after World War II provide the best explanation for the dramatic divergence in Southeast Asia ‘s contemporary states and regimes.
Political Change, Democratic Transitions and Security in Southeast Asia
by Mely Caballero-Anthony
Routledge, 2009
The fragility of democracy in Southeast Asia is a subject of increasing concern. While there has been significant movement in the direction of democratisation, the authoritarian tendencies of popularly elected leaders and the challenges posed by emerging security threats have given rise to a shared concern about the return of military rule in the region. This book examines the nature of political transitions in Southeast Asia and why political transitions towards political liberalisation and democracy have often failed to take off. It considers political systems in Southeast Asia that have gone through significant periods of transition but continue to face serious challenges toward democratic consolidation. Some key questions that the book focuses on are – Are emerging democracies in the region threatened by weak, failed or authoritarian leadership? Are political institutions that are supposed to support political changes toward democratisation weak or strong? How can democratic systems be made more resilient? and What are the prospects of democracy becoming the defining political landscape in Southeast Asia?
Southeast Asia in Political Science: Theory, Region, and Qualitative Analysis
edited by Erik Kuhonta, Dan Slater, & Tuong Vu
Stanford University Press, 2008
This book argues that Southeast Asian political studies have made important contributions to theory building in comparative politics through a dialogue involving theory, area studies, and qualitative methodology. The book provides a state-of-the-art review of key topics in the field, including: state structures, political regimes, political parties, contentious politics, civil society, ethnicity, religion, rural development, globalization, and political economy. The chapters allow readers to trace the development of Southeast Asian politics and to address central debates in comparative politics. The book will serve as a valuable reference for undergraduate and graduate students, scholars of Southeast Asian politics, and comparativists engaged in theoretical debates at the heart of political science.
The Next Front: Southeast Asia and the Road to Global Peace with Islam
by Christopher S. Bond, Lewis M. Simons
John Wiley & Sons, 2009
A U.S. senator and Pulitzer Prizewinner, both experts on Southeast Asia, offer a bold new approach to address radical Islam and fight global terror
The next front in the war on terror is in Southeast Asia, warn Senator Christopher Bond (R-MO) and Lewis Simons, both leading experts on the region. The U.S. has bankrupted its policies in dealing with the Islamic world. As Fundamentalist Islam gains traction in Southeast Asia, backed by Saudi money, the U.S. must act swiftly to re-establish its credibility there and help defuse global terrorism. Bond and Simons present a bold plan to accomplish this key goal by substituting smart power (civilians in sneakers and sandals) for force (soldiers in combat boots) in Indonesia and the other nations of Southeast Asia, home to the world’s greatest concentration of Muslims.Introduces a critical new “smart power” approach to combat global terrorWritten by two experts on Southeast Asia with extensive contacts in Washington and overseasTackles a crucial challenge to U.S. foreign policy and President Obama’s administrationExamines a wide range of views and people, from Osama bin Laden-trained armed terrorists to radical clerics to western-trained officials who plead for Americans to come to their countries to teach, start small businesses, and improve health care
“The Next Front” offers exactly the kind of fresh, out-of-the-box thinking the United States needs to rebuild its credibility and transcend its foreign policy failures.
2012 CSEAS Film Series: The Leap Years
2008
English
Wednesday, April 4, 2012 @ 6:30 PM
Korean Studies Auditorium
Director Jean Yeo
Starring: Wong Lilin, Ananda Everingham, Qi Yuwu, & Joan Chen
Li-Ann, a single and attractive teacher in a Singaporean girl’s school teaches her students about an obscure leap year custom practiced in Ireland, where men cannot refuse a proposal or date from a woman should she do so on February 29; she chances upon Jeremy at Windows Cafe who becomes a major part of her life.
FOURTH ANNUAL FILIPINO FILM FESTIVAL | THE DORIS DUKE THEATRE
Fourth Annual Filipino Film Festival
April 21-29 2012
Celebrate Filipino film making and culture with six of the best new films from acclaimed and emerging Filipino directors.
Many thanks to Dr. May Ablan and the Philippine Medical Association of Hawaii for sponsoring this festival, Vicky D. Belarmino, Arts Officer and Film Archivist of the CCP Media Arts Division and the Assistant Festival Coordinator for Cinemalaya.
Opening night reception: Apr. 21, 6-7:30pm
Enjoy Pinoy bento and wine for purchase. Screening at 7:30pm. Tickets: $15, $12 museum members. Click here to purchase tickets in advance and guarantee your seat.
Festival pass: $50, $45 museum members; Includes all 6 screenings. Tickets for opening night on Apr. 21 must be purchased separately. Click here to purchase a pass online
Related programming: Spotlight Tours – Highlights of Filipino Art
Apr. 24 – 28 at 1:30pm
No reservation required. Free with museum admission.
DANCE OF MY LIFE
Hawai‘i Premiere | DANCE OF MY LIFE
Directed by Lydia Benitez-Brown, Philippines/USA, 2011, 75 mins., Filipino
Apr. 21 1 + 7:30pm
Apr. 26 at 1pm
Portuguese and English with English subtitles, Hawai‘i premiere.
Icon Bessie Badilla was the first Filipina to become Carnival Queen in Brazil. This film traces her journey from a humble childhood in the Philippines, to success as an international supermodel, and to her life as a Connecticut wife and mother. Official selection: Chicago Filipino American Film Festival.
Opening night reception: Apr. 21 6-7:30pm. Screening at 7:30pm. Purchase tickets here
DANCE OF THE TWO LEFT FEET
DANCE OF THE TWO LEFT FEET
Directed by Alvin Yapan, Philippines, 2011, 85 mins., in Filipino with English subtitles
Apr. 22 at 1, 4 + 7:30pm
To impress his literature teacher, who moonlights as a dance teacher and choreographer, Marlon hires a classmate to give him private dance lessons. A unique love triangle unfolds set to Filipino poetry intertwined with haunting music and stunning choreography. Official Selection: Hawaii International Film Festival. Winner: Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Cinemalaya.
TEORIYA
Hawai‘i Premiere | TEORIYA
Directed by Zurich Chan, Philippines, 2011, 100 mins, in Filipino, Chavacano, Cebuano with English subtitles
Apr. 24 at 1 + 7:30pm
Apr. 29 at 1pm
After hearing the news that his estranged father has passed away, Jimmuel Apostol II goes home to Zamboanga City for the first time in a decade. He arrives to find that his father left him a piece of land, a rundown car, a diary and no clue as to his burial place. As he searches for his father’s grave, he discovers his secrets and finds meaning in his own life. Official Selection: Cinemalaya
PINTAKASI
Hawai‘i Premiere | PINTAKASI
Directed by Nelson Caguila, Lee Meily, Philippines, 2011, 72 mins., in Filipino with English subtitles
Apr. 25 at 1 + 7:30pm
Apr. 27 at 9pm following ARTafterDARK
In this urban hip-hop fairy tale, aspiring graffiti artist DJ moves to a big city “garbage island” to practice his craft. After joining a local gang, he falls afoul of their leader. The ensuing results in a multimedia “pintakasi” or human cockfight of artists, rappers, dancers, and thugs. Featuring award-winning hip-hop dance group Philippine All-Stars. Winner: Best Film, New Wave Section, Metro Manila Film Festival
THE GIFT OF BARONG: A JOURNEY FROM WITHIN
Hawai‘i Premiere | THE GIFT OF BARONG: A JOURNEY FROM WITHIN
Directed by Benito Bautista, USA/Philippines, 2006, 88 mins., in Filipino and English with English subtitles
April 26 + 29 at 7:30pm, April 27 at 1pm, April 29 at 4pm
In this poignant documentary, two Filipino-American surfers from the Bay Area travel to the Philippines to immerse themselves in the culture, surf the islands, and rediscover their roots. More than a surf tale, the film is an exploration of cultural identity as it follows two men reconciling their Asian heritage with their American selves.
Official selection: Cinemanila International Film Festival, San Diego Asian Film Festival, Chicago Filipino Film Festival. Winner: Best Cinematography, New York International Independent Film Festival
Director Benito Bautista will be in attendance to introduce the film before each screening and will lead q+a sessions afterwards.
BOUNDARY
Hawai‘i Premiere | BOUNDARY
Directed by Benito Bautista, Philippines, 2011, 110 min., in Filipino with English subtitles
Apr. 28 at 1, 4 + 7:30pm
A slick businessman takes cab, not knowing that the driver and two local gang members are conspiring to kidnap him. Their journey along the streets of Manila makes for an innovative, breathtaking thriller. Official Selection: Toronto International Film Festival. Winner: NETPAC Prize, Cinemalaya, Special Mention, Cinemanila
Director Benito Bautista will be in attendance to introduce the film before each screening and will lead q+a sessions afterwards
Plan Your Visit to the Doris Duke Theatre
Location
Honolulu Museum of Art | Doris Duke Theatre
900 South Beretania Street
Honolulu, Hawaii 96814
The Theatre entrance is on Kinau Street, between Victoria Street and Ward Avenue.
Parking
• Art Center Lot, Victoria Street with entrances on Beretania and Young streets: Mon–Sat 7 am–11 pm, Sun 10 am–6 pm. The fee is $3 for every 4 hours with validation until 4pm, and $4 flat rate from 4pm until closing.
• 1035 Kinau Street Lot: (Diamond Head of the Admiral Thomas building) The lot is closed to the public 10am-4:30pm Monday to Friday. It is open to the public and free on weekends and from 4:30 to 11pm during the week.
• Street parking is available along Victoria Street
• Parking for persons with disabilities is available in the Luce Pavilion lot on Victoria Street; patrons using disabled access stalls should proceed to the main entrance on Kinau Street. There are two stalls, which are open on a first-come, first-served basis.
Getting here
Bus: The Academy is on the following bus lines; 1, 2, 13, B and 1L.
Car: On the H-1 freeway from Waikiki, take the Lunalilo St. exit and make a left at Ward Ave, and another left on Kinau Street. From downtown or the airport, take the Lusitana exit to Kinau Street.
Anton “The Wonder Boy” Gabriel is an up-and-coming, powerful boxer. His success has allowed him to provide for his whole family. Unfortunately, as a result of his fighting he’s developed some dizziness. Can he keep fighting or will this be the end of his boxing career and his family’s financial stability? The film promotions proclaim, “Family is everything”
Wednesday, March 07, 2012 @ 6:30 PM
Korean Studies Auditorium
Director: Songyos Sugmakanan
Cast: Charlie Trairat, Sirachuch Chienthaworn, Ungsumalynn Sirapatsakmetha, Ratchu Surachalas, Chutima Teepanat, Focus Jirakul, Lu Ting Wei, Chantawit Thanasewee, Thaniya Ummaritchoti, and Sora Aoi
This film follows a group of high school and university students during their school breaks and the interplay about the relationships they develop or don’t.
There are four threads to follow in this film. 1) Pu (Charlie Trairat, Dorm, 2006) and Mai (Sirachuch Chienthaworn) are best friends and fall for the same girl, Nana (Ungsumalynn Sirapatsakmetha, Bangkok Traffic Love Story, 2009); 2) class geek Jo (Ratchu Surachalas, Seasons Change, 2006) is in love with a popular girl C (Chutima Teepanat, Seasons Change, 2006; Dear Galileo, 2009); 3) Oh Lek (Focus Jirakul) is wild about Taiwanese pop sensation Didi (Lu Ting Wei), 4) and Hern (Chantawit Thanasewee, Hello Stranger, 2010; ATM, 2012) is thinking of cheating on his girlfriend Nuan (Thaniya Ummaritchoti) when he meets Japanese tourist Aoi (Sora Aoi, AV model and actress).
Director Sugmakanan admits that he was inspired by the style and format of the British romantic comedy Love Actually 2003, but he points out that relationships in Asian culture are not comparable to those in Western culture. The film saw national release in 163 theaters and earned an unprecedented (for GTH films) 10 million baht on its first day, totaling 34.1 million baht in its opening weekend. It earned a total of 80 million baht in the box office and was the third-largest grossing Thai film in 2008.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 @ 6:30 PM
Korean Studies Auditorium
Director: Nguyen Vinh Son
Writer: Chau Tho (based on the novel by Tran Thuy Mai)
Cast: Hong Anh, Hoang Cao De
Hanh, a dutiful wife and schoolteacher in a rural village, enjoys a happy marriage with her husband Phoung, the local school headmaster. However, Hanh is childless and Phuong takes a second wife in order to have children. In the small village their secret is impossible to keep for long.
“Microfinance has emerged as a powerful poverty alleviation idea and tool in the developing world. A multitude of actors/institutions are involved in microfinance – from community revolving credit associations to formal NGOs and banks. By using microfinance to support other urban development initiatives (integrated microfinance), such as comprehensive slum upgrading, urban planners and policymakers are keen on leveraging microfinance’s touted potential and transforming this hitherto standalone development tool (minimalist). This fits well with the larger neoliberal shifts, such as decentralization and participation, which have significantly altered planning and development in much of the non-western world. This research analyzes the microfinance component, managed by formal community-based organizations (CBOs), of a comprehensive slum upgrading program (CKIP) in Surabaya, Indonesia. While Indonesia has the world’s oldest and largest network of public financial institutions providing microfinance as well as a strong tradition of small women’s microfinance groups, CBO-managed microfinance integrated with slum upgrading is quite recent. In Indonesia’s post-decentralization environment, the CKIP is a local government-supported but community-led program in which CBOs manage a community revolving fund. There is yet limited evidence that explains how community-managed microfinance fares as an integrated component of slum upgrading. This research aims to further our understanding in that regard. Using multi-method analysis I find that the microfinance performance in CKIP is independent of physical upgrading success. Factors such as project design and size, the composition and expertise of CBOs, the emphasis on savings, the levels of guidance and targeting provided by the local government, community cohesiveness, as well as the broader socio-political context tend to impact microfinance’s efficacy. To be an effective development catalyst microfinance must respond to the uniqueness of local institutions and communities.”
Bio:
Dr. Ashok Das was trained as a planner and an architect. He received his PhD in Urban Planning from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Department of Urban Planning, School of Public Affairs (now the Luskin School of Public Affairs). He has Master of Architecture and MA in Environmental Planning & Management degrees from Kansas State University, and Bachelor of Architecture from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. Prior to coming to UH Manoa he taught at the San Francisco State University. Broadly, Dr. Das’s research explores challenges to and innovations in ameliorating urban poverty in developing countries, primarily in South and Southeast Asia. Community participation and empowerment, slum upgrading and low-income housing, decentralization and local governance, and the role of civil society in development are among his key interests. Dr. Das’s doctoral work in Urban Planning at UCLA explored the nature, measurement, and comparison of empowerment arising from participation in slum upgrading programs in post-decentralization India and Indonesia. His new research seeks to explore community-managed integrated microfinance for urban poverty alleviation, and local government-led and community-based efforts towards disaster preparedness and risk reduction.
Event Sponsor:
Center for Southeast Asian Studies
For more information, please contact The Center for Southeast Asian Studies at cseas@hawaii.edu.
The Minangkabau Response to Dutch Colonial Rule in the Nineteenth Century
by Elizabeth E. Graves
University Of Hawai’i Press, 2010
“Despite the considerable expansion of scholarly studies of Minangkabau society in recent years, the paucity of historical research on West Sumatra is still notable. Especially is this so for the nineteenth century, where, apart from the new perspectives provided in Christine Dobbin’s series of articles on the Padri Wars, virtually nothing has been published during the past decade. A significant study dealing with this period that certainly merited publication was the 1971 University of Wisconsin dissertation of Elizabeth E. Graves, which, following her revision, we are now pleased to bring out in our Monograph Series. In this revision Dr. Graves was not able to draw on Dobbin’s work and other germane material published during the last few years, but most of the data she has marshaled and analyzed cannot be found in other published sources, and there is no doubt that her monograph fills many of the extensive gaps in our knowledge of nineteenth century Minangkabau society and its interaction with Dutch political and economic power. Moreover, those familiar with Taufik Abdullah’s classic study, Schools and Politics: The Kaum Muda in West Sumatra (1927–1933), will find an excellent complement in her chapters on the development of secular education during this earlier period.
“In publishing this study, the Cornell Modern Indonesia Project is confident that it provides an important addition to the regional dimension of Indonesian history and illuminating insights into the shaping of nineteenth century Minangkabau society and the way its character set the stage for better known developments in the present century.” —George McT. Kahin
This account of culture and society in the villages of West Sumatra, Indonesia, during the period of Dutch colonialism is based on materials collected from the colonial archives, local Indonesian newspapers and recent fieldwork in Malaysia and Indonesia. The author argues that the impact of colonial land-grabbing and political control led to the formation of a peasant economy in the period.
At the same time, the author tackles issues in the recent anthropological debates about ethnography and culture to argue that this period also witnessed the construction of what we now call ‘Minangkabau Culture’ – a process that involved western ethnographers, colonial officials and Minangkabau intellectuals in an often conflicted process of modern cultural transformation.
Between Individualism and Mutual Help: Social Security and Natural Resources in a Minangkabau Village
by Renske Biezeveld
Eburon Publishers, Delft, 2004
This book deals with the role of natural resources for social security and livelihood in a Minangkabau village in West Sumatra. First of all it touches on problems of property rights; an analysis of communal land rights in this matrilineal society, the clash between adat and state law and perceived changes therein.
Matriliny and Migration: Evolving Minangkabau Traditions in Indonesia
by Tsuyoshi Kato
Equinox Publishing, 2007; First published 1981
The Minangkabau, who are from the mountainous region of western Sumatra, have long been a tangle of paradoxes to the outsider. Ardent believers in Islam – a partially orientated religion – the Minangkabau are one of the few remaining matrilineal groups in the world. A well-educated and enterprising people, they continue to uphold a seemingly archaic kinship system. They have always been highly mobile, yet their strong sense of ethnic identity is rooted in their homeland. Focusing on Minangkabau matriliny and its relation to migration, Tsuyoshi Kato has written a comprehensive and authoritative study of the society, history, and traditions of this complex people. Studies of the Minangkabau since the middle of the nineteenth century have often indicated that matriliny is giving way to a bilateral or even patrilineally inclined system. Kato, however, asserts that the matrilineal system is surviving, owing to Minangkabau mobility. Exploring matriliny’s evolution in response to changing times, he studies the reasons for the tradition’s resilience. Kato adopts an historical approach, claiming that a static analysis can capture only part – or seemingly contradictory parts – of a complex and changing culture. He examines different types of migration that characterizes three distinct historical periods: village segmentation – a migration to establish new settlements – which took place up until the mid-nineteenth century; circulatory migration to small towns and markets by individual males, a distinguishing feature of the period from the late nineteenth century to the 1930s; and the more permanent Chinese migration, in which nuclear families leave the village for larger cities, a pattern thatcontinues today. Kato bases his analysis on his extensive field work in Sumatra and on such varied evidence as recent census data and Minangkabau proverbs and legends. Matriliny and Migration, now brought back to life as a member of Equinox Publishing’s Classic Indonesia series, is a balanced account of change and continuity in a society. It will appeal to readers interested in Southeast Asia and to sociologists and anthropologists studying the family, urbanization, mobility, and the question of ethnic identity.
Minangkabau Social Formations: Indonesian Peasants and the World-Economy
by Joel S. Kahn
Cambridge University Press, 1981
In this anthropological investigation of the nature of an underdeveloped peasant economy, Joel S. Kahn attempts to develop the insights generated by Marxist theorists, by means of a concrete case study of a peasant village in the Indonesian province of West Sumatra. He accounts for the specific features of this regional economy, and, at the same time, examines the implications for it of the centuries-old European domination of Indonesia. The most striking feature of the Minangkabau economy is the predominance of petty commodity relations in agriculture, handicrafts and the local network of distribution. Dr Kahn illustrates this with material on local economic organization, which he collected in the field in the highland village of Sungai Puar, the site of a blacksmithing industry, and with published and unpublished data from other parts of Indonesia. Dr Kahn’s book is unusual for its combination of a theoretical analysis of underdevelopment with a detailed regional study. It will appeal to those interested in South-east Asian studies, in development, and in neo-Marxist approaches in anthropology.
Theater & Martial Arts In West Sumatra: Randai & Silek of the Minangkabau
by Kirstin Pauka
Ohio University Press, 1999
Randai, the popular folk theater tradition of the Minangkabau ethnic group in West Sumatra, has evolved to include influences of martial arts, storytelling, and folk songs. Theater and Martial Arts in West Sumatra describes the origin, development, and cultural background of randai and highlights two recent developments: the emergence of female performers and modern staging techniques.
This book also explores the indigenous martial arts form silek, a vital part of randai today. The strong presence of silek is illustrated in the martial focus of the stories that are told through randai, in its movement repertoire, and even in its costumes and musical accompaniment. As Kirstin Pauka shows, randai, firmly rooted in silek and Minangkabau tradition, is an intriguing mirror of the Minangkabau culture.
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