For the first two weeks of April 2012, my colleague Yerry (our Indonesian Content and Projects Coordinator) and I travelled across three Indonesian cities, Jakarta, Bandung, and Yogyakarta, conducting workshops and presentations on Universal Subtitles and online video distribution to activists, video makers, students, and the media.
Starting in Jakarta on the 31st of March, we began with a press conference and went on to make presentations to a number of organisations including InDocs, Tempo TV, and Asia Calling.
We held three workshops in Jakarta, one of which was held in the prestigious Universitas Negeri Jakarta (UNJ), involving students from various faculties. It was the start of our partnership with academic institutions in Indonesia, and we’re looking forward to many more similar opportunities in the near future.
In our second workshop at Kontras, we had two Papuan participants which led to an interesting lunch session, where everyone shared on social and environmental issues in Papua, Indonesia, and Singapore.
We also had the first-ever workshop in our brand new office space. It’s a neat and spacious place which you’re welcome to utilize for your meetings, screenings, and other events, so feel free to contact us in you’re interested.
Our next stop was the city in the valley, Bandung. There we had presentations and workshops in two interesting community spaces, Tobucil and Common Room.
A participant even travelled from a neighbouring city to attend our cosy Tobucil workshop. And the workshop at Common Room was equally memorable, where we got a good mix of activists, artists, and students attending and subtitling videos together.
Our final destination was Yogyakarta, where we presented to several reputable organisations such as Combine, FFD, KUNCI, IVAA, and the Press Club at Universitas Gadjah Mada.
We also had an interesting workshop at Kampung Halaman, discussing and subtitling critical video content in the middle of a lush and green rural environment. The fresh air, beautiful scenery, and keen participants made it a great ending to our tour.
To sum up, during the tour we’ve seen over 60 videos subtitled and translated in Indonesian, English, and Javanese. We’ve also had over 70 new members joining our team page and adding lots of great new videos which you can collaborate on.
One of the videos we’d like to highlight is ‘Gendjer Gendjer‘, which is now available in Javanese, Indonesian, and English. Other noteworthy videos that were transcribed and translated include ‘Islamic Hardliners Attack Valentines Day‘, ‘Papua Calling (Episode 1)‘, ‘Portrait of Mamdouh Habib‘, and ‘Awin Meke‘.
By joining the EngageMedia team page now, you can quickly and easily add more translations in the languages you know, contributing to having more people around the world understand these important stories.
For more updates and opportunities to communicate and contribute, join the new EngageMedia Subtitles group on Facebook, or email me at [email protected]. More pictures from the tour are available here.
It’s been a fantastic tour, and I’d like to express my appreciation to all our hosts and partner organisations who’ve made it possible for so many people in Indonesia to get accustomed to Universal Subtitles. I’d also like to say a big thank you to my colleague Yerry for being so helpful in bringing everything together, and improving my command of the Indonesian language in the process.
Moving forward, in May I’ll be conducting a workshop at the CJ.MY Conference in Penang, Malaysia, and making visits and presentations to other organisations there. This will also tie-in with a workshop in Pattani, South Thailand, where we’re all looking forward to share and learn more.
Seelan Palay
Lingua Desk
