Social media activists have brought forth inspirational and eventful stories that the mainstream media failed to broadcast through a movie called Linimassa 3 (Timeline 3).
The premier screening of this movie was held during the Internet Governance Forum at the Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center recently.
The movie is the third in a sequel, following on from Linimassa 1 and 2, which similarly portrayed social media movements to campaign and fight for certain causes. ICT Watch coined the idea, while documentary film director Dandhy Laksono brought it to reality.
Linimassa 3 features five social media activists — alongside others — who were assigned by the producers to document their own activities fighting for their causes.
The activists are Yustinus Esha, Tuteh Pharmantara, Sobirin, Jafar G. Bua and Yayan Zamzani.
“These people represent activists from the western, central and eastern parts of Indonesia,” said Onno W. Purbo, an activist with ICT Watch, during the behind the scenes section of the movie.
The first scene was about people in North Kendeng mountains in Pati regency, Central Java, struggling to save a spring water source supplying thousands of residents from natural calamity. The story — titled Jejaring Perlawanan (Network of Struggle) — was recorded by the owner of Twitter account @OmaheKendeng.
The second story, by Jafar G. Bua, is titled 3 Sosok, 3 Gerakan (3 Figures, 3 Movements). Jafar presented the struggle of people in Poso regency, Central Sulawesi, to abolish corruption, build schools for children of conflict victims and empower the local economy.
Meanwhile, @darahuntukaceh presented Setetes Darah Setitik Harapan (A Drop of Blood, A Point of Hope), a story about the gathering of blood donors for people with the blood disorder thalassemia in Aceh.
Following was #1MugBeras untuk #Rokatenda (A Bowl of Rice for Rokatenda). Owner of Twitter account @Flobamorata said the story was about efforts to find aid for victims of the Rokatenda volcano eruption in North Flores. The account owner says mainstream media in the country overlooked the disaster.
The last was Gerakan Samarinda Menggugat (The Samarinda Critics’ Movement) by @timpakul. This narrates the movement by the people of Samarinda in East Kalimantan that criticizes coal exploration that damages their environment.
Selection committee members from WatchDoc and ICT Watch selected these five inspiring stories from a total of 30 proposals.
“These are five of the most amazing stories the general public has yet to notice,” said Manda, one of the movie initiators.
The Gerakan Darah untuk Aceh narrative showed how youths in the province worked together to donate blood and interact with thalassemia patients. The story started with Zulfan, a young man who had the chance to meet with a young female patient who became his blood recipient.
No less inspiring was the story from North Flores that showed how refugees struggled to survive amid mounting difficulties. The remote location of the volcanic eruption was believed to have caused mainstream media to skip reporting on the calamity.
Through social media, bloggers in East Nusa Tenggara gathered in the Flobamora Community to raise funds through donations.
In the Samarinda story, Linimassa 3 presented the people’s campaign to stop coal exploration activities due to the resultant environmental degradation and death of some children.
The scene is similar to @OmahKendeng’s story about the Pati people’s rejection of a cement factory that displaced farms.
Meanwhile, the Poso story broadcast an activist movement to establish schools for child and women victims of the conflict in the regency.
From this movement, activists also initiated the Sophia Project; a move to start a mobile library. The movie initiators said that Linimassa 3 was a follow on from the earlier movies.
Linimassa 1 documented some famous social media movements, such as Koin untuk Prita (Coins for Prita) which generated financial support for Prita Mulyasari who was being sued by a hospital in Tangerang for making public her complaint about the hospital’s treatment through the Internet.
