Synopsis
Shadows and Illuminations paints a portrait of Nyoman Kereta, a rural Balinese man in his late sixties who, by psychiatric standards, suffers from a psychotic-like illness. He experiences auditory and visual hallucinations that are a source of great distress, prevent him from tilling his rice fields, and isolate him from his family and fellow villagers. Through the lens of local Balinese standards, he is seen as haunted by spirit visitations that villagers interpret within the frame of their culture and religion.
Shadows and Illuminations explores how unusual mental events and behavior can be understood or interpreted in multiple ways outside the confines of western psychiatric diagnostics. It looks at Nyoman's history of trauma and loss during the politically inspired mass killings that swept through Indonesia in 1965–66, his prolonged sickness from pesticide poisoning, and his treatment by traditional healers. The film illustrates how his wife's love and support have ameliorated his pain and helped him find peace in life with what the west terms "mental illness."
Total Running Time 34:36 minutes
Affliction or Afflicted may refer to:
The Balinese people are an ethnic group native to the Indonesian island of Bali. The Balinese population of 4.2 million live mostly on the island of Bali, making up 89% of the island's population. There are also significant populations on the island of Lombok and in the easternmost regions of Java.
Robert Whitaker is an American journalist and author, writing primarily about medicine, science, and history. He is the author of five books, three of which cover the history or practice of modern psychiatry. He has won numerous awards for science writing, and in 1998 he was part of a team writing for the Boston Globe that was shortlisted for the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for a series of articles questioning the ethics of psychiatric research in which unsuspecting patients were given drugs expected to heighten their psychosis. He is the founder and publisher of Mad in America, a webzine critical of the modern psychiatric establishment.
Cross-cultural psychiatry is a branch of psychiatry concerned with the cultural context of mental disorders and the challenges of addressing ethnic diversity in psychiatric services. It emerged as a coherent field from several strands of work, including surveys of the prevalence and form of disorders in different cultures or countries; the study of migrant populations and ethnic diversity within countries; and analysis of psychiatry itself as a cultural product.
Museum Rudana or Rudana Art Museum is an art museum in Peliatan, Gianyar Regency, Bali, Indonesia. It was built by Nyoman Rudana, following the concept of the Bali humanist philosophy of Tri Hita Karana, where art makes a contribution to public wellbeing.
Nyoman Rudana is a former member of the Regional Representatives Council of Indonesia. He is also the founder and owner of Museum Rudana, Rudana Fine Art Gallery and Genta Fine Art Gallery, and founder of artist support organizations in Ubud, Bali.
I Nyoman Masriadi is a painter and a leading artist of the post-Suharto era in Indonesia. His works have gained a collectors base which includes prominent collectors in and around the region.
I Gusti Nyoman Lempad (1862?–1978) was a Balinese stone sculptor and architect who built palaces and temples in Ubud and its neighboring villages. Lempad's exact birth date, as is the case for many Balinese of his time, is unknown. But he was married when Krakatoa erupted in 1883.
The Puri Lukisan Ratna Wartha Museum is the oldest art museum in Bali which specialize in modern traditional Balinese paintings and wood carvings. The museum is located in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. It is home to the finest collection of modern traditional Balinese painting and wood carving on the island, spanning from the pre-Independence war (1930–1945) to the post-Independence war era. The collection includes important examples of all of the artistic styles in Bali including the Sanur, Batuan, Ubud, Young Artist and Keliki schools.
John Emigh is Professor Emeritus from the Departments of Theatre, Speech and Dance and of English at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Emigh taught at Brown from 1967 to 2009. Since his retirement, he has mainly been teaching and directing in the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA program.
Gajah Gallery is an art gallery in Singapore that hosts artwork related to the socio-cultural interests of Asia. It was established in 1995 by Jasdeep Sandhu and promotes Southeast Asian Contemporary Art with an emphasis on Indonesian Contemporary. The gallery holds exhibitions, some of which have been collaborations with the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) and the National University of Singapore Museum (NUS). Gajah Gallery is also a member of Art Galleries Association in Singapore.
The Dancer is a 2011 Indonesian film based on the trilogy of novels Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk by Ahmad Tohari and directed by Ifa Isfansyah. Starring Nyoman Oka Antara and Prisia Nasution, it tells the story of a young man and his friendship with his small village's new ronggeng.
Oka Antara is an actor of Balinese descent. He is best known for starring in the films Sang Penari (2011), V/H/S/2 (2013), Killers (2014), and The Raid 2 (2014).
Afflictions: Culture and Mental Illness in Indonesia is a six-part ethnographic documentary film series on the lives of the mentally ill living on the islands of Bali and Java in Indonesia. Each film documents the personal journey of a patient's diagnosis, care and treatment and the impact of culture, family, and community on the course of their illness. The films were directed and produced by ethnographic filmmaker and psychological anthropologist Robert Lemelson.
40 Years of Silence: An Indonesian Tragedy is a documentary film by anthropologist Robert Lemelson about the personal effects of Indonesian killings of 1965-66. The film was shot on the islands of Bali and Java from 2002–2006. The score is a collaboration between the British composer Malcolm Cross and the Balinese musician Nyoman Wenten, and combines Western tonalities and chordal structures with Balinese and Javanese scalar progressions and melodies. The film was released in the United States in 2009, and has had limited screenings throughout Indonesia.
Elemental Productions is an independent documentary film production company whose mission statement is to produce films exploring issues on culture, mental health and personal experience in Indonesia and around the world. The company was founded in 2008 by cultural anthropologist and filmmaker, Robert Lemelson, and is based in Los Angeles, California.
Robert Lemelson is an American cultural anthropologist, ethnographic filmmaker and philanthropist. Lemelson received his M.A. from the University of Chicago and Ph.D. from the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Lemelson's area of specialty is transcultural psychiatry; Southeast Asian Studies, particularly Indonesia; and psychological and medical anthropology. He currently is a research anthropologist in the Semel Institute of Neuroscience UCLA, and an adjunct professor of Anthropology at UCLA. His scholarly work has appeared in numerous journals and books. Lemelson founded Elemental Productions in 2008, a documentary production company, and has directed and produced numerous ethnographic films. His blog Psychocultural Cinema contains numerous blog-posts and edited film works.
I Gusti Ketut Pudja was an Indonesian politician and national hero, who served as the first governor of Lesser Sunda from 1945 until 1946. He was a member of the Investigating Agency for Preparatory Work for Indonesian Independence (BPUPK). He was also present at Admiral Tadashi Maeda's house, during the preparation for the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence on 17 August 1945. Making him the only Balinese to be present during the proclamation.
Larry Reed is a shadow puppeteer. Reed is one of the first westerns to train in traditional Balinese shadow theatre and is considered a Dalang, or shadow master. He first began studying in San Francisco Art Institute before moving to study in Bali in the 1970s. Reed founded the company Shadow Light Productions to expose the general public to shadow theater and has created many original works while collaborating with others. Reed was born in Los Angeles, California but lived most of his life in San Francisco, California.
