Director/Writer: I Made Suarbawa
Producer: Nirartha Bas Diwangkara, Yurika Dewi
Country of production: Indonesia
Date of Completion: April 2022
Format: Digital
Ratio: 16:9
Duration: 9':35"
Genre: Fiksi, Drama
A group of female teenagers in a rural area lost their friends while making Tiktok.
Dekra, a 13-year-old village girl who wants to be famous through Tiktok, is worried that her TikTok group will disband. She has to compromise so she will not lose her dream.
As a generation that was born in the 80s in the village of a small island named Bali of Indonesia and experienced the TV transition era from black-and-white to internet-based services, makes me naively wonder how far technology will go and merge into my life and my family. Will I still be able to ‘communicate’ with my children? The addiction to using social media, having the latest gadget, and acquiring the skill to showcase our ‘persona’ online have shown the hyperconnected life but disconnected at the same time. I am worried yet I am grateful to have the technology to ease my life. It becomes a new currency and we cannot avoid any of that.
My work as a film director, writer, and photographer has been influenced by this very specific theme. I pay a lot of attention to the transitions of children, youth, women, and the values of families related to technology. My previous short film entitled Pengen HP (2015) tells about the influence of gadgets in the lives of teenagers; continues with a photo series exhibition called “Ranjana: FAMILY T'H'REE” tracing the cultural transition in the family that is read from three generations; grandmother, mother, and daughter.
Currently, I have finished the short film ‘@ItsDekRaaa’, as an effort to study the emergence of TikTok and as an effort to cut the distance between me and my 10-year-old daughter who happens to be quite fluent in the latest technology. There is a gap between us. We watch different types of content, we laugh at different jokes, we learn in different ways, and we even have different ways of speaking.
In the film @ItsDekRaaa, I recorded the phenomenon of the use of social media in teenagers and children, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced them to study online using gadgets and the internet. The power of audio-visual media and various social media features provide a new creative space, new culture, new lifestyle, and various novelties that are far from the previous generation.
Change is always a double-edged sword, which can improve the quality of life and has the same destructive power. In this film, I recorded simply and specifically the imagination, expression and willingness of teenagers in the countryside to fulfill their interest in using the Tiktok application.
