What if puppet works could travel from one festival to another, crossing continents through the screen and opening new encounters along the way?
Initiated by UNIMA (Union Internationale de la Marionnette) through its Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Festivals Commissions, A.L.A. Puppet Movies is a solidarity-based exchange initiative connecting puppet theatre festivals across Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
The project creates a shared circulation network for audiovisual works related to puppetry. Through participating festivals, short films, animations, documentaries, and recordings of stage performances from one region can travel to another—allowing artists and their stories to meet new audiences across continents.
Rather than working through a one-way exchange, A.L.A. Puppet Movies are built around reciprocity. Participating festivals receive access to an international selection of works while contributing voices, stories, and artistic practices from their own regions. Each festival therefore becomes both a host and a bridge, helping works move further and creating connections between puppetry communities that may be geographically distant but share many questions, experiences, and possibilities.
Through this circulation, A.L.A. Puppet Movies hopes to create greater visibility for artists and companies from the Global South, expand access to international programming, and open possibilities for future collaborations between festivals and puppetry communities across the three regions.
At PESTA BONEKA, we are happy to become part of this journey—opening another window for our audiences in Yogyakarta to encounter the many forms, voices, and imaginations of puppetry travelling from Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
Puppet Movies List :
Gone Fishing (Kenya)
Duration:11.34 mins
Synopsis
This is a story of a man who lived his entire life as a fisherman on the Kenyan coast. Recently, he started blaming his neighbor, whom he accused of destroying the environment by chopping down the mangrove trees to build a house by the ocean.
He neglects that he has also contributed to polluting the same ocean where he goes fishing day in and day out.
In the end, he loses the thing that matters most to him, his boat, due to worsening weather.
Author: Fedelis Kyalo
Director- Fedelis Kyalo
Camera - Victor Otieno
Puppeteers- Fedelis Kyalo, Victor Otieno and Cynthia Chepkoech
Set Design - Cecilia Yelo, John Gachuiri
Puppet making - Victor Otieno and Fedelis Kyalo
Country: Kenya
Year:2023
Festival of reference: IPFest INTERNATIONAL Puppet Festival (KENIA)
The Trip To Mars/El viaje a Marte (Argentina)
Duration:16.04 mins.
Synopsis
Antonio is a boy who lives with his grandfather and his mother; he enjoys watching TV series about wars in space and on Mars.
After watching his show, he plays in the garden, pretending to be an astronaut.
Author: Juan Pablo Zaramella
Country: Argentina
Year: 2005
Festival of reference: Festival Internacional Mundo Títere Fest (ARGENTINA)
At The Opera / En La Opera (Argentina)
Synopsis
A very moving night at the opera.
Author: Juan Pablo Zaramella
Country:Argentina
Year: 2010
Festival of reference: Festival Internacional Mundo Títere Fest (ARGENTINA)
Maracosa (Papermoon Puppet Theatre, Indonesia)
Duration:25.30 mins
Synopsis
Mbak Malam, an old woman who owns a batik workshop, loves her dear granddaughter named Canting. One day, when Canting fell sick, Mbak Malam decided to tuck her in using a batik cloth decorated with a ‘tambalan’ motif. ‘Tambalan’, which translates to patch work, is believed to mend sadness, cure illness, and fill in losses.
For Mbak Malam, batik is not just any piece of textile commodity, but has a deeper significance. Hence, amongst hundreds of batik cloth, Mbah Malam always manages to find miracles. Motifs of fauna pictured in each of the batik cloths had always kept her company and brought joy. However, this wasn’t so for Canting.
Until one day, Canting experienced the miracle herself amongst the hundreds of batik cloth hung in the grandmother’s old batik workshop.
The miracle made her believe that batik had a different meaning in her life. Her faith had grown because she had seen and experienced the miracle herself.
—-
MARACOSA, from the Sanskrit language, translates to seing for oneself.
Inheriting a business or traditional art, especially a family legacy, has always sparked dilemmas on the continuing generation.
It has occured in many fields and amongst Asian families.
In this performance, Papermoon Puppet Theater would like to highlight how choices made by the next generation might seem very contrasting to previous generations. What must be passed on must be beyond objects and techniques. The reason to love must also be found, despite in different forms. It must be experienced, seen, and discovered by the next generation.
Production Credit
Director & Conceptor: Maria Tri Sulistyani
Artistic Designer: Muhammad Alhaq
Director of Photography & Video Editor: Rangga Yudhistira
Puppet Makers: Muhammad Alhaq, Beni Sanjaya, Anton Fajri, Pambo Priyojati, Hardiansyah Yoga, and Retno Intiani
Puppeteers: Muhammad Alhaq, Beni Sanjaya, Anton Fajri, Pambo Priyojati, and Hardiansyah Yoga
Music Composer: Yennu Ariendra
Crew: Ega Kuspriyanto
Producers: Papermoon Puppet Theatre and Nona Rara Batik
Country: Indonesia
Year: 2021
Festival of reference: Pesta Boneka International Puppet Festival (INDONESIA)
