Beyond The Ring Of Fire

INDO 1011 SPRING 2009

Please fill this out while you watch the film. If you know Indonesian, you may write in Indonesian as well. REFLECTION ON FILMS Date: February 19, 2009 Your name: Chandler Routman The title of the film: Beyond the Ring of Fire Name the islands or ethnic groups that you remember from the film: • The islands mentioned are the Eastern Moluccas, the Banda Islands, Maunk Island, Timor, Indonesian New Guinea and Bali. The ethic group called the Asmat is mentioned as well. What new information did you learn from this film? • Indonesia, especially Bali is rapidly becoming industrialized. Bali has a very unique ceremony of honor for their dead, a burning ritual that takes up to several hours and allows for the dead to be released into the afterlife. The Asmat Tribe is very different from other tribes in Indonesia especially in the way that they react with neighboring tribes. Shark poaching is very common in Indonesia, and it is killing the shark population of the country. The underwater world of Indonesia is very unexplored, and is home to thousands of endemic species. The people of the Eastern Moluccas are known for their strength and pain tolerance, it was once a way to scare off the spice traders, and is now a form of entertainment. Nutmeg is found in abundance on the islands of Banda. The Bandan Sea Snake is the most deadly snake in Indonesia. The people of the Bandan Islands and the Asmat were once cultures dominated by headhunting. How did you relate this film to any other history of some countries that you know about? Please explain. • Indonesia is a developing country and is making the transition from being a country where traditional ideas and cultures are becoming less important while becoming modern and industrialized is becoming much more important. This is the current trend of countries that are becoming industrialized. This is also happening to places like India and certain parts of Africa. What did you find interesting about this film? • It’s interesting to watch all of the videos from the 1970’s and then see the exactly same journey almost 30 years later. Many things have changed and there is more technology and modern tools, which makes traveling much easier and more efficient. If you follow any news about Indonesia at all, what are the things that remain the same as what the movie portrays, and if there are some changes, what are they? • This movie just re-enforces the current trend towards globalization and modernization in Indonesia. What questions do you have about this film, or about today’s Indonesia? • I think it would be interesting to see the changes that have occurred in Indonesia since this movie was made because even in a short amount of time many things Margaretha Sudarsih Department of Asian Languages & Civilizations University of Colorado-Boulder

INDO 1011 SPRING 2009

can rapidly change.

Margaretha Sudarsih Department of Asian Languages & Civilizations University of Colorado-Boulder