johnholdaway

This follows a young didong singer whose father was a ceh (didong master) like his father before him. It is an interesting portrait of the current state of didong in Gayo.

The kid is amazing and it's kind of heartwarming to see him interact with his family and engage in the didong form of what we saw eminem do in 8 mile in the didong duels.

Everything was nice and happy and didong is healthy and non-threatening to the government because everyone loves President Suharto is the impression I got. The filmmakers obviously toed the party line in making this, but then again, it's hard to get very far in the Indonesian film world if you don't.

The kind of short film your mother would love.

3 stars (out of five)

I saw four of these documentaries at the Melbourne International Film Festival this year not knowing anything about them at all, and they blew my mind.

I don't know if he takes hours and hours of footage and edits it down to a perfect half-hour, asks the perfect questions or it's just that his subjects are amazing, but this series is one of the funniest, saddest and most bizarre things I've ever seen.

I've heard that his other films are of a similar high standard, but I've only seen Mr. Death (Which is also really, really good).

I just wish more of his stuff was released in Australia.... (here's to hoping)