On 12 January 2015, we screened Papuan Voices Vol. II at Kineforum in Taman Ismail Marzuki, Jakarta. The event was scheduled for 6pm, but people started coming right from 4:30pm, fearing they wouldn’t get a seat in the venue which was only meant for 45 people. And sure enough, we were running of seats pretty fast, and actually had to hold two screenings that night to accommodate the over 80 people who showed up!

The first screening was followed by a discussion moderated by our Dhyta Caturani, with Dr. Hilmar Farid and Zely Ariane as resource persons. Dr. Hilmar pointed out that the film he liked most was Sekolah Papua (School of Papua), which he said portrayed the most basic problem in Papua. Discrimination with regards to access to education creates several problems and becomes a foundation for other forms of discrimination.

Zely spoke about how we, the people outside Papua, should start paying more attention to our brothers and sisters there by getting to know them better through more reliable information such as those presented in the films screened. “It’s time for us to stop ignoring Papua,” she said. Enrico Aditjondro, who was also present at the screening, shared his experiences working on Papuan Voices I and during the early stages of Papuan Voices II.

The audience expressed a lot of appreciation for the films, saying that people outside Papua need to understand what is really going on there, from sources other than the mainstream media, adding that Papuan Voices II does just that.

In the month ahead, we’ll be organising more screenings at universities in some other cities. If you would like to organize your own screenings of Papuan Voices II for your communities, institutions, or organizations, feel free to contact us so that we can send you a DVD toolkit of the films and offer other forms of support.

The Papuan Voices II video collection is available for viewing and downloading at papuanvoices.net.