| Standing on the Edge of a Thorn (32 min) Indonesia/USA |
[watch trailer] [buy tickets] |
Director: Robert Lemelson
Producer: Alessandra Pasquino, Robert Lemelson
Description:
Standing on the Edge of a Thorn is an intimate portrait of a family in rural Indonesia grappling with poverty, mental illness and involvement in the sex trade. Shot over the course of twelve years, the film centers on Iman Rohani, a former civil servant struggling with a mental disorder, who takes in Tri, an unwed pregnant teenager thirty years his junior. Iman refuses to marry Tri, which would have made her an accepted member of the village. Instead, the couple are scorned by the other villagers and become isolated. Over time, trapped by traditional values that stigmatize their relationship, Iman and Tri sink even deeper into destitution and make a series of choices that lead Tri into a life a prostitution and violence.
Biography:
Robert Lemelson is a cultural anthropologist and ethnographic filmmaker. Lemelson's areas of specialty are transcultural psychiatry; Southeast Asian Studies, particularly Indonesia; and visual, psychological and medical anthropology. He currently is a research anthropologist in the Semel Institute of Neuroscience UCLA, and an adjunct professor of Anthropology at UCLA. Lemelson founded Elemental Productions, a documentary production company, and has directed and produced numerous ethnographic films on diverse topics such as social and state violence, mental illness, ritual life, trance and possession, the sex trade, and polygamy.
Contact Information:
e: festivals@elementalproductions.org
w: www.thornfilm.com
