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Wellington audiences will have the opportunity to gain an intimate insight into modern Indonesia through a festival of music and films to be held from 6pm on Sunday 3 March, Sunday 7 April and Sunday 9 May.

Sponsored by Garuda Indonesia Airlines, the film festival evenings are collaboration between the New Zealand Indonesia Association (NZIA) and the gamelan orchestras based at Te K?k? New Zealand School of Music. Live gamelan music will be performed as a prelude to the screening of three remarkable award-winning films by Dutch filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich: Eye of the Day (2001); Shape of the Moon (2004); and Position Among the Stars (2011).

In these very personal documentaries, Helmrich follows three generations of a single family in Jakarta, Indonesia, from the days before the fall of Suharto in May 1998 through to 2009.  The camera neither comments nor judges but rather acts as a window into the lives of Rumidjah, the family’s Christian matriach, the two Muslim sons Dwi and Bakti, and granddaughter Tari (Theresia).  No narrator guides the audience through the three documentaries. No third person speaks authoritatively about the family members, about the political and religious developments engulfing them or the social and cultural effects globalization has on the fabric of their lives. It is simply a personal and up-close look into modern Indonesia through a single family.

Preceding the screening of each film, one of the Gamelan orchestras based at NZSM will perform a range of traditional and contemporary music. Gamelan Padhang Moncar (Javanese) will perform before Eye of the Day on Sunday 3 March; Gamelan Taniwha Jaya (Balinese) before Shape of the Moon on Sunday 7 April and Gamelan Ngripto Raras (Indonesian Community Gamelan) and Gamelan Padhang Moncar before Position Among the Stars on Sunday 5 May. Some of the proceeds from this event will help fund a tour by the gamelan orchestras to Indonesia in July this year. They will tour various cities in Java and Bali including the International Gamelan Festival in Yogyakarta where they have been invited to perform a programme of new works by New Zealand composers.

Each of the concerts and films screenings will be held in the Adam Concert Room on the NZSM Kelburn Campus, through Gate 7 off Kelburn Parade at Victoria University. The evenings will start at 6pm and a light supper will be served following the film.

The Garuda Indonesia Films and Music Festival is a fundraising project for both NZIA and the Gamelan and tickets are Adults $20, Students $12. Tickets can be purchased online through Eventfinder or by contacting members of NZIA or the Gamelan ensembles. Seating is limited and remaining tickets will be sold at the door.