Belgian producer Kristian van der Heyden spoke to a panel of a panel of NGOs, distributors and outreach changemakers during the Movies That Matter Take On Impact pitch session. In the project Slave Island two filmmakers, the Belgian Jimmy Hendrickx and Indonesian filmmaker Jeremy Kewuan (pictured above), explore the hidden paradise of Sumba island, only to discover atrocities of present-day slavery.
The Belgium/France/Estonia/Taiwan project started quite by chance, producer Van der Heyden pointed out to Business Doc Europe in October 2021. Co-director Jimmy Hendrickx, who lives ‘part-time’ in Jakarta needed a break and decided to go to Sumba island as he heard it was very beautiful, a place he could practice his photography.
“But the moment he arrived on the island, he got into a car with these nuns, and Rina, the victim [of slavery, seen in the film trailer] was sitting in the back of the car. So that’s actually the very first footage he shot. He was surprised that this girl was coming back from slavery in Malaysia,” says Van der Heyden. “He just stumbled into this story. So he reached out to me and said ‘look at this footage, I met these nuns and they’re dealing with local slavery, there’s something going on on this island we should investigate.’ And so as soon as I saw the footage, I was like, okay, clearly this is our next film.”
During his MtM pitch this week, Van der Heyden underlined the dilemma at the heart of the film. “Slave island is a feature documentary about present day slavery on the island of Sumba, where women and children are still traded as commodities.”
The pitch included an impassioned from co-director Jeremy Kewuan. “We ask your help in any form you can. All your help is appreciated. It really needs to be acknowledged that the youth are the agents of change…The youngsters are the new movement…Therefore we want to fight for improvement through a media school, with focus on video activism.”
He added: Also the youth can centralize statistics from their villages so we can bring change, build upon serious analysis…We want change media school in video. Activism will be our tool.”
Co-director Hendrickx added for the MtM audience: “Concepts of trauma are fake or non-existent on the island. So as a very important extension to Jeremy’s media school, we want to open an office that focuses on mental healthcare and bringing experts, psychologists from Jacarta and Bali to organize classes in psychology and to create special educational content for the locals together with the youth and distribute this to the schools in villages.”
In October 2021, Van der Heyden further commented on the project: “Slavery is despicable, yet the objective is to offer a multifaceted view…A film that reflects on the universal mechanisms in which there are rulers and victims, in which religion is both a danger and a solution whilst our own moral judgement is an endless project under construction.”
Towards the end of the MtM pitch, Van der Heyden was asked what would be the shortest road to impact and can organizations help with that? “I’m still new at impact,” the producer conceded, adding that he was looking for as much help as he could muster. “We’re still working on that to see what is it exactly that goes the fastest, but we will have a fundraising plan in different stages where we bring on board, for example, an NGO. I’ve had talks with the Rotary Club… They have a special branch for slavery, so they’re willing to help with a fundraiser. So I think we just need to sit together and look at what’s the strategy and how can we work together to make this happen.”
