It was a lovely Friday evening and people started to gather at the EngageMedia office in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, for a screening of five films from West Papua. One of the films (featured below) was produced by Martha Langowuyo, who has been with us for one month as a participant of our new residency programme.

Over 40 people of different backgrounds and nationalities came out to the screening, including many young Papuans who are currently studying in Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta is fast becoming a hub for students from the Eastern part of Indonesia as the city has a combination of high education standards and a rather low cost of living. It’s a good mix, I would say.

After screening Martha’s film, we also played some videos from both volumes of Papuan Voices. The short but intense showing of Papuan content almost immediately started a heated discussion on the political and social affairs of the beautiful land. Aside from the larger political situation, one issue that got attention was the rising case of violence against women in Papua.

After many requests from our guests, we played the selection of videos for a second time that night. We were really glad that so many people came to our event, packed out office and participated actively. We hope they would share and continue these discussions everywhere they go.