Organizers of the ‘Documentary Days 2016’ film festival that was held on November 25-26 at Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM), Cikini, Central Jakarta, say that they were forced to cancel the screenings of two documentary films that explored controversial subject matter.
The two films are WatchDoc’s “Jakarta Unfair”, which details the perceived injustices committed by the Jakarta Provincial Government in its evictions of the capital’s slum dwellers, and Noor Huda Ismail’s “Jihad Selfie”, which tells the story of a 17-year-old Indonesian boy’s desire to join ISIS after being lured by the jihadist group’s social media activities.
“We regret that we are forced to cancel the screenings,” head organizer Rahma Indira Marino wrote in a statement, as picked up by Tempo on Saturday.
According to Rahma, the event’s organizers put up a large poster for “Jakarta Unfair” at the entrance to TIM on Friday afternoon. Half an hour later, two people, who the organizers believe to be police officers, came and expressed their concern for potential “security risks” involved in screening the controversial documentary.
TIM’s management, along with the management of Cinema XXI where the film was going to be screened, then advised against the screening of “Jakarta Unfair” at the event. They also advised against the screening of “Jihad Selfie”, as it had also drawn police enquiries the last time it was screened at TIM.
Documentary Days 2016 is an event hosted by Universitas Indonesia students, with this year’s theme concerning films about different aspect of Indonesia that evoke feelings of nationalism in the audience.
While there is no clear indication of government censorship in this case, there have been numerous previous occasions in which similar events were cancelled amid pressure from certain groups over safety concerns. The most notable of these in recent times was the forced cancellation of a discussion on Indonesia’s role in the 1965 anti-communist purge – during which up to 1 million people were believed to be killed by the government – at the Ubud Writers Festival in Bali in 2015.
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