UMN Students’ Short Films Enter Minikino Week 9 Festival

Burning Blue is a movie about a collection of feelings of fear and love from life.

TANGERANG – Two short films by students and alumni of Multimedia Nusantara University have successfully entered the international film festival, Minikino Week 9, which will take place in Bali on September 15-23 (28/06/2023). The first short film is titled Burning Blue, while the second work is titled I Saw A Ghost, and It Was Beautiful. 

Ezra Cecio, Garry Christian, and Michael Rainheart are UMN students of the film studies program class of 2019. Ezra is the director and writer, Garry is the writer, and Michael is the producer of a short film entitled Burning Blue (2023). 

Initially, Garry suggested Burning Blue as the film’s title because he considered two contradictory things, such as the influence of water from the strong blue color juxtaposed with the word burning, which cannot be united. However, the two words describe the main character’s feelings, who wants freedom. 

The elements of water and fire cannot merge because they have the same dominant characteristics. It is difficult to define, but it can be felt. This understanding is used to present the main character with a complex mindset in the short film.

Ezra says, “In short, the story is about a young woman who is forced by her father to become an athlete.” 

The main character in this movie is a woman who is desperate because she is forced to follow her father’s dream. The short film Burning Blue wants to give a new perspective on the condition of children who are never listened to and fight for every individual’s right to choose their own path in life. 

“That we are complete subjects, not just objects shaped by the generations before us,” Ezra said. 

The 13-minute 50-second short film is produced to fulfill the Independent Learning Independent Campus’ independent project. The Burning Blue production team has worked on it since early January last year. Overall, the story development process took approximately four months.

Burning Blue is Michael’s third film in collaboration with Ezra, including his previous short film Sunday (2022), which was screened at the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival and curated to be nominated for the Indonesian Film Festival. 

Michael explained that to determine the female lead’s point of view, the production team went through several discussions with lecturers and other filmmaker friends from within and outside UMN to get a broader perspective. 

“In fact, we have one of the editors who is also a woman, so that we make sure it’s not from a men’s perspective,” Michael said. 

Various discussions were held so that the female characters in the movie could be presented respectfully. Nevertheless, the core of the film is about young people.

“Although the main character in the movie is a woman, we didn’t want to fall into the maze of stereotypes about women’s traits that are often untrue and based on mere presumptions,” Garry added. 

Garry also explained that while writing the script of the short film, the writing team did not emphasize the gender of the main character but instead focused on the feelings of the main character as a human being. 

“Human feelings are universal. That’s also why we can understand and enjoy movies from any part of the world because the conflicts and feelings experienced by the characters in the movie can be felt by everyone from different parts of the world,” Garry explained. 

Ultimately, the film emphasizes the dynamic relationship between children and parents.

I Saw a Ghost, and It Was Beautiful is a movie about a disappearance.

The next short film to be included in the Minikino Week 9 festival is “I Saw a Ghost, and It Was Beautiful.” 

Bobby Fernando, an alumnus of UMN’s Visual Communication Design (VCD) program class of 2013, acted as director, writer, and co-animator in the production of “I Saw a Ghost, and It Was Beautiful (2023).” 

“I Saw a Ghost, and It Was Beautiful, tells the story of a property agent’s ordinary day that suddenly turns into a surrealistic sequence of events that may be related to the disappearance of a tenant from the property he is managing,” Bobby said.   

Bobby also said that the filming process was planned to be completed in one year but was delayed to one and a half years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  After the film was successfully produced, the whole team entered the film for distribution in various film festivals, including Minikino Week 9.

In addition to Minikino, the film “I See a Ghost, and It Was Beautiful” was also selected as an official selection at the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) held in Switzerland from June 30-July 8, 2023.

The Independent Learning Independent Campus independent project is a special program that can improve student achievement and provide a portfolio through participation in various festivals. 

By Sherlina Purnamasari – UMN News Service

English translation by Levina Chrestella Theodora

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