PA Screens Queer Women of Indonesia Documentary

The lives of eight queer women in Indonesia unfold when Laura Cohn screens the documentary "Children of Srikandi" on Dec. 5 in Philadelphia, to help benefit the William Way LGBT Community Center.

"The event is about promoting the culture of Indonesia, which is my second home," said Laura Cohn, who imports the country's handicrafts and sells them to support local non-profit groups in Indonesia.

Cohn screens a different documentary each year to promote Indonesia culture in "a way that's cutting edge, that give people the opportunity to expand people's view beyond just traditional folk arts, to see all the elements of it."

This documentary is the first to look at queer women in Indonesia, and weaves together eight authentic stories with shadow theater scenes that tell the story of Krikandi, a little girl in the Indian Mahabharata who wants to be a boy.

Srikandi is neither man nor woman, moving fluidly between both genders. When she falls in love with a woman, she has to understand that the only way to survive is to become a "female warrior." Srikandi's tale reminds us that same-sex love and gender variety were not imported from the west, but in fact form a deep and ancient aspect of Indonesian society.

Soleh (25), the puppeteer and Anik (59), the singer, are both male to female transgendered people that have worked for many years as wayang kulit performers in Surabaya, East Java. In the film, Srikandi becomes a mirror image, moving from fiction to documentary, and from the past into the present.

In the movie, participants collectively worked as crew members or actresses in each other's film, with individual stories ranging from observational documentary and concept art to personal essay. Transformation is always inscribed in the narrative, form and identity are fluid, and perspectives are shifted.

"It was a huge step forward for the six lesbians and two transwomen who made it as a collective, in two years with German directors" Angelika Levi and Laura Coppens, said Cohn. "They gained a skill set as well as empowerment and in my eyes the experiment was a great success."

Cohn hopes that LGBTs will enjoy the film, but also that the film will draw some of the 4,000 Chinese Indonesians that flocked to Philadelphia in 1998, after the government crackdown. She said that while the community is very insular and has many undocumented aliens, she hoped that they would see the movie and realize that there are segments of the population there that they don't know exist.

"There is a lot of Islamic women, but behind the veil you don't know what's happening," said Cohn. "It is the largest Islamic country on earth, and is moderate and progressive, but a lot of Western countries don't understand the distinction. I have out lesbian friends in Indonesia, but I also see lots of faux marriages."

Cohn donates to different charities for each event she does. The proceeds from this event will go to the East Bali Poverty Project, with a smaller portion going to the William Way LGBT Community Center. She also has ten copies of the film for sale at $25 a piece; Cohn hopes that others will buy and screen it, to show the progress among LGBTs in Indonesia.