Indonesia: One Struggle, One Change

Producer / Director: Maria Luisa Mendonca
Co-Producer: Medea Benjamin
A Global Exchange Production.

Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, is at a tenuous point in its fractured, violent history. President Suharto came to power more than 30 years ago in a military coup that resulted in up to a million dead and thousands jailed. His regime's development model has opened the archipelago to international investment while increasing the gap between rich and poor. Since 1975, it has brutally occupied East Timor, killing more than 200,000 people and engaging in systematic campaigns of rape, murder and torture.

Pro-democracy advocates, East Timorese, labor organizers, students and workers speak out about life under the boot of the Suharto regime in Indonesia: One Struggle, One Change. Shot in Indonesia and East Timor in 1997, this documentary captures the current political climate through the voices of those long silenced. This video features interviews with co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, Jose Ramos-Horta; jailed labor leaders Muchtar Pakpahan and Dita Sari; professor of Indonesian literature Sylvia Tiwon and award-winning Indonesian journalist Andreas Harsono.

Local public television broadcast
San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival
National PBS Broadcast
1997, 30 minutes, documentary