Done Bali - Documentary - Opening

"Prime Ministers, presidents, pop stars and poets have all done Bali." Kerry Negara took her film crew to Bali in 1992, and in a ground breaking documentary interviewed for the first time, local Balinese about the traumatic history of their so called paradise island.

She did not find Nehrus, morning of the world, but rather an anxious society juggling the complexities of having one foot in the ancient world and one foot in the modern, in a constant struggle for day to day survival.

'Done Bali' unravels the spin and exposes the vested interests that created the myth of Bali as a paradise during the most traumatic century the Balinese had endured the 20th century.

Australian historian Dr Adrian Vickers with Balinese academics Degung Santikarma, I.B. Palguna and Putu Suasta, trace the political manipulations of the early 20th century where bizarrely, in the colonial European imagination, Bali went from being a savage island to a paradise island almost overnight.

The elderly I.B. Rupa gives first hand reports of of the suffering endured by himself and his family in Bali during these same 'paradise years' - the harsh Japanese invasion of the second world war that saw food supplies diminish, volcanic eruptions and natural disasters on a grand scale, poverty and social unrest in the 1960's, the bloody communist purge of the 1960's where an estimated 80,000 Balinese were murdered...

In Ubud, the so called cultural heart of Bali, Kerry finds the disempowered aristocracy busily reinventing itself to take advantage of the financial boon of cultural tourism, while in the beach areas of Kuta, Legian and Seminyak a highly competitive group of expat manufacturers are partying and playing hard, creating havoc in their corner of paradise.

Meanwhile the tourists are in a daze with the golden flowers, the incense and the amazing surf. Through their eyes its all a happy paradise, where every child is a dancer and every farmer an artist.

In an era of mass tourism many vested interests rigidly protect this highly lucrative, saleable image of a cultural paradise - at the expense of truth.

While paying tribute to a resilient island people and a stunning tropical environment 'Done Bali' will forever change the way you see this paradise island.

When Done Bali first premiered on SBS Television it was screened three times in one month due to audience demand and record breaking ratings - such was the shock of the truth to Australians who knew so little of the island they had visited so often.

Done Bali continues to screen internationally and is on curriculum lists around the world.

'Done Bali' - Documentary, versions: 52 min / 60 min www.negarafilmtvmedia.com

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• bali+paradise
• myth+
• tourism+margaret
• mead+
• walter
• spies+
• adrian
• vickers+
• degung
• santikarma+
• putu
• suasta+
• i.b.
• palguna+
• abbey
• ruddick+
• dianna
• darling+