MONTASE’S SHORT: NGELIMBANG
Ngelimbang (2015) is the debut film directed by our colleague, Rian Apriansyah, with his independent production house, Becuasfilm. Although the filmmaker produced his film independently in his hometown of Beruas Village, Pangkal Pinang, Bangka Island, both the idea and the concept were still under Montage Productions colleagues’ guidance. The potential for film and stories in the Bangka region is extraordinary. This place is supported by beautiful natural panoramas that we cannot possibly see on the island of Java.
The idea for the film Ngelimbang was inspired by the true story of the filmmaker himself, who as a child had to refine tin to earn extra pocket money. In the film’s story, we bend the goal a little to buy a cellphone. Considering the results are quite large, you can earn up to hundreds of thousands of rupiah a day if you are lucky. The act of mining shown in the film is illegal. Even then, it only takes the remaining tin from the excavation of the larger mining workers. This action has become the norm there; anyone can do it whenever we want.
The process of finding players and locations is not as complicated as we think. Andre is still a colleague in the director’s village, and his production location is not far from his hometown. Our colleagues, it only remains to look for suitable areas visible on the camera. The film production also hardly took the usual amount of time, only done by two people, the player and our colleague, armed with a CANON 600D KIT lens and a tripod. The young player doesn’t need to act anymore because he is used to losing. There were no production problems, except for the final shot depicting the little boy buried in the dirt. The camera must also be buried under the ground, covered with a combination of wooden and glass boxes. Cleverly, our colleague used the Kuleshov Effect editing technique, as in the Soviet Montage motion films. The result of this final shot is compelling.
From the very beginning, we predicted that this film would succeed at the festival because of its theme’s strength and uniqueness. Unfortunately, our colleagues do not use cameras and better sound recording tools. However, even without this, the results would have been exceptional. This film is the first trial for distributing our short films through the film freeway portal with the film 05:55 (2014). The results were beyond expectations. From 2015 until now, Ngelimbang has won 17 official selections for international film festivals, three times as semifinalists, one time as a finalist, and 2 noted as the best film. There have not been dozens of achievements recorded at local film festivals outside the film freeway portal. If only we were able to submit this film to a large paid film festival, I think this film would speak more.
Ngelimbang is an ideal example of how a short film is produced without using large equipment and budgets. The strength of the theme is the biggest strength of the film, which unexpectedly has a wide range of themes, namely the exploitation of natural and human resources in third world countries by superpowers, exploitation of underage workers, the psychological side of children, to social and environmental issues. Of course, the director’s talent with the team to produce the film’s final result is also a significant factor. In Italy, one environmental film festival, the 4th Life After Oil International Film Festival 2017, awarded Ngelimbang the best short film with high praise for the film. “To keep in mind that the hyper-technologic tertiary sector is based on the exploitation of raw materials and of someone that” somewhere, we have got to exploit. ”
Finally, the filmmaker wants to dedicate this film to his hometown as a form of childhood memory with his colleagues.
Please watch the film!
