[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-46122-en":3,"doc-seo-46122-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":90},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":11,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},46122,2336464648746,"Skyler","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c",8,"Research & Report","Indonesia in Motion: An Interview With Leonard Retel Helmrich","The interview by Scott MacDonald presents filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich’s view of cinema as movement, describing his development of camera techniques to create specific motions on screen. It traces his approach from experimental, object-manipulated cinematography to observational “fly-on-the-wall” single-shot methods. The discussion centers on Helmrich’s Indonesian trilogy about the Sjamsuddins, shaped by economic, political, and social upheaval and the rise of a fundamentalist Islam.","Indonesia in Motion: An Interview With Leonard Retel Helmrich  \nAuthor(s): Scott MacDonald  \nSource: Film Quarterly , Vol. 63, No. 3 (Spring 2010), pp. 35-41  \nPublished by: University of California Press  \nStable URL: [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/fq.2010.63.3.35](https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/fq.2010.63.3.35)  \nJSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [support@jstor.org](support@jstor.org).  \nYour use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at [https://about.jstor.org/terms](https://about.jstor.org/terms)  \nUniversity of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Film Quarterly  \nThis content downloaded from  \n[152.118.150.186](152.118.150.186) on Wed, 23 Oct 2019 08:03:00 UTC  \nAll use subject to [https://about.jstor.org/terms](https://about.jstor.org/terms)  \nINDONESIA IN MOTION:  \nAN INTERVIEW WITH LEONARD RETEL HELMRICH  \nSCOTT MACDONALD tAlKs to An InnovAtIve docuMentAry-MAKer whose recent worK deAls wIth IslAM’s IMpAct on IndonesIA  \nDutch–Indonesian filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich is an innovator, committed to the idea that cinema is movement. This has led him to develop new types of camera equipment in order to achieve particular forms of motion for particular films. With Moving Objects (1991), a study of Dutch experimental puppetry, Helmrich, like a puppeteer, began to treat the camera as an object to be manipulated and moved around in unfamiliar ways. (The director has also studied Tai Chi, which has influenced his sense of space and mobility.) For Somebody on the Stairs (generally known by its Dutch title of Jemand auf der Treppe, 1994), he directed his cinematographer (working with an early, heavy Phillips Digital Videocamera hanging from the ceiling on a crane Helmrich designed) to record a sound-art performance by Peter Zegveld and Tijs van der Poll, not only in a single, continuous sixtyminute shot (antedating Andrei Sokurov’s Russian Ark [2002] by eight years), but from within the performance itself: the camera moves through the performance space and around the performers the way a lightweight handheld camera might, but with more stability.  \nIn recent years Helmrich has used an unusual form of“fly-on-the-wall” observational documentary shooting for the first two sections of what will be a trilogy about an Indonesian family, the Sjamsuddins, dealing with economic, political, and social upheaval: The Eye of the Day was completed in 2001, The Shape of the Moon in 2005. These two engaging, often visually stunning films reveal many facets of Indonesian culture, including the ways in which the country is being affected by the arrival of a new, fundamentalist brand of Islam. The impact of this fundamentalism is the primary focus of two other films, Flight from Heaven (2003), shot in an Islamic school for young men, and Promised Paradise (2004), which follows Indonesian performance artist Agus Nur Amal as he reflects on the aftermath of 9/11 .  \nFilm Quarterly, vol. 63, no. 3, pps 35–41, Issn 0015-1386, electronic Issn 1533-8630 . © 2010 by the regents of the university of california. All rights reserved. please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the university of california press’s rights and permissions website, [http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintinfo.asp. doI:](http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintinfo.asp. doI:) 10.1525/fQ.2010.63.3.35  \nThough he has continued to design his own equipment, Helmrich has benefited from the arrival of smaller digital cameras and the opportunities they afford for a more intimate relationship with his subjects. Helmrich has filmed the Sjamsuddins","cbCaiuC0BssxTPhh","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiuC0BssxTPhh","pdf",8003579,4,1,"English","en",105,"# Trilogy and cinematic method\n## Moving equipment and camera-as-object\n## Single-shot cinema and observational documentary\n# Research and production background\n## Arrest and return during the economic crisis\n## Editing and the final installment","[{\"question\":\"How does Leonard Retel Helmrich understand the role of the camera in filmmaking?\",\"answer\":\"He treats the camera as an object that can be manipulated and moved to generate specific forms of motion, aligning cinema with movement as a guiding principle.\"},{\"question\":\"What is “single-shot cinema,” and why does Helmrich use it?\",\"answer\":\"It is an observational method that keeps the camera running for long stretches, often so subtly that the family forgets filming is happening, allowing viewers to feel inside the community.\"},{\"question\":\"What circumstances shaped Helmrich’s start of the Indonesian trilogy?\",\"answer\":\"After filming Jemand auf der Treppe, he received funding for research in Indonesia, where he was arrested while filming from within a student demonstration and later returned around the time of the economic crisis after Suharto stepped down.\"}]",1783471153,20,{"code":4,"msg":30,"data":31},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":32,"title":13,"keywords":33,"description":14,"schema_data":34,"social_meta":85,"head_meta":87,"extra_data":89,"updated_unix":27},"indonesia-in-motion-an-interview-with-leonard-retel-helmrich","",{"@graph":35,"@context":84},[36,52,67],{"@type":37,"itemListElement":38},"BreadcrumbList",[39,43,47,50],{"item":40,"name":41,"@type":42,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":44,"name":45,"@type":42,"position":46},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":42,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":42,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/indonesia-in-motion-an-interview-with-leonard-retel-helmrich/46122/",{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":53,"author":54,"headline":13,"publisher":56,"fileFormat":59,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":60,"datePublished":61,"encodingFormat":59,"isAccessibleForFree":62,"interactionStatistic":63},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":55},"Person",{"url":40,"name":57,"@type":58},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-19","2026-07-08",true,{"@type":64,"interactionType":65,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":66},"ViewAction",{"@type":68,"mainEntity":69},"FAQPage",[70,76,80],{"name":71,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":73},"How does Leonard Retel Helmrich understand the role of the camera in filmmaking?","Question",{"text":74,"@type":75},"He treats the camera as an object that can be manipulated and moved to generate specific forms of motion, aligning cinema with movement as a guiding principle.","Answer",{"name":77,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":78},"What is “single-shot cinema,” and why does Helmrich use it?",{"text":79,"@type":75},"It is an observational method that keeps the camera running for long stretches, often so subtly that the family forgets filming is happening, allowing viewers to feel inside the community.",{"name":81,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":82},"What circumstances shaped Helmrich’s start of the Indonesian trilogy?",{"text":83,"@type":75},"After filming Jemand auf der Treppe, he received funding for research in Indonesia, where he was arrested while filming from within a student demonstration and later returned around the time of the economic crisis after Suharto stepped down.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":86,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":57,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":88,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":91},[92,96,100,104,109,114,119,122,126,129,133],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":101,"show_sort_weight":102,"slug":103},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":105,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":120,"slug":121},30,"research-report",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":28,"slug":125},9,"Religion & Spirituality","religion-spirituality",{"id":28,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":127,"show_sort_weight":28,"slug":128},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":130,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":131,"show_sort_weight":130,"slug":132},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":134,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":135,"show_sort_weight":105,"slug":136},19,"General","general"]