Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Hardline - The Jakmania
A few weeks back I mentioned the release of a movie about The Jakmania. It's actually a trilogy and will be screened from June 15th at TMI in Jakarta. Members of The Jakmania get discount.
English people with long memories may recall early documentaries about hooliganism in the 80's and this pretty much follows the same format. Working class kids with nothing to do, attach themsleves to their local team and unite against those who they perceive oppose them.
Every home game you see lads wearing t shirts bearing this slogan:
Gue cinta Jakarta
Karena
Gue anak Jakarta
Roughly I love Jakarta because I am a Jakarta lad/child.
But pockets of wealth in the city exclude them. If you see them at shopping malls they're probably the security guards or cleaners or ojek riders. A decent education is denied them because their parents lack the money to keep them through school. Even if they have the money to go to the best schools, the best malls, the best cafes, their dark skin is enough for 'sophisticated' folk to reach unconciously for their wallets or handbags.
I'm no sociologist but when people have very little, then they have little to lose. People with a stake in society don't, ususally, go a hooking and a whacking at the weekends. People with mortgages don't throw bricks.
These are the guys who provide the colour and passion that makes football here such a vivid spectacle. The downside is the frustrations of day to day living in narrow, dirty kampungs with no hope of escape also gets released at the football.
This movie comes from www.bogalakonpictures.com. If you would like more information about it feel free to contact me and I'll pass it on to the guys who made it
