2019/34 min/Indonesia/USA
Synopsis
Two visually impaired childhood friends, Andrea and Salsabila, who are now teenage girls, living with their blindness in two different places— USA and Indonesia.
At five years of age, Andrea’s family moved with her from Jakarta to Virginia, in the U.S. while Salsabila remained in Jakarta. Despite the distance, the friendship continues. With adulthood waiting around the corner, the two girls strive to be independent and seek strength in their childhood friendship as they prepare for adult life in two different world.
Longer Synopsis
Andrea (Dea) and Salsabila (Salsa) are childhood friends from Indonesia. They met in the same kindergarten for the visually impaired. Both of them have been blind since birth. At five years of age, Andrea’s family moved with her from Jakarta to Virginia, in the United States, to pursue a better future for the family and better educational opportunities for their blind daughter. Salsa remained in Jakarta. Despite the distance between them, the friendship is continues.
In this coming of age story, we follow them both as they prepare for adulthood in two very different worlds. In Virginia, Andrea goes to a school that includes visually impaired and disabled students. Aware of being the central attention from the supportive family help her to get all access, in other side Dea sees the dark side of it. She then challenge herself to be independent! During her summer break, she attends a creative residency program that encourages visually impaired youth to develop the skills necessary for living independently.
Back in Jakarta, Salsa who is seventeen lives in a dormitory far away from her parents so that she can attend one of the very few “inclusive schools” that accepts visually impaired students to study alongside non-disable students. Salsa’s dream is to become a math teacher for the blind, but she must navigate a home life and an education system with limited support for her needs.
With adulthood around the corner, the two girls seek strength in their childhood friendship as they prepare for adult life in Indonesia and the USA.
Director’s Statement
Late 2016, I temporarily moved from Indonesia to the United States. While I tried to adjust and learn English to be more independent in my new surroundings, I found the Indonesian community in the DC area, and came to know Andrea and her family. I saw young Andrea, also an immigrant, was able to contribute to her community as an advocate for blind and vision impaired people. I witnessed Andrea promoting initiatives to improve tour accessibility for museum visitors with vision impairment, and often being invited to speak at events around Virginia where educators worked to address the needs of students with vision impairment.
I was so impressed, and surprised, to see such a young woman making a difference in the lives of the vision impaired community. Such things do not happen in our home country, Indonesia. Inclusive schools already exist in Indonesia, but in practice access to inclusive schools is still very difficult.
Andrea then introduced me to her childhood friend in Jakarta, Salsabila. And their stories then revealed: Andrea was refused entry to an inclusive elementary school, therefore her parents took her to the U.S. to improve her future prospects as a vision impaired individual. Salsabila managed to enter an inclusive school, but the school has no Braille text book nor audio books that can help her understand the lesson. The facilities are not provided, the educators are not ready, and a provision for additional and expert teacher of visually impaired students incurs more cost
Blindness is just a matter of state of mind, Andrea thinks. The most important thing for her is to be able to have the equipment and tools to help her to navigate. As for Salsabila, she believes that knowledge and education are important but as an Indonesian living with blindness, you just have to wade through life, as long as you can reach the future.
Access to knowledge is a fundamental human right. Over 4 million Indonesians are blind: the second highest population in the world. With this staggering statistic, I think it is time for Indonesia to take its commitment seriously to its visually impaired population, especially in the field of education.
I do believe that Inclusive society is important, and hopefully one day Dea’s, Salsa’s and mine – Our country, Indonesia, can go beyond reducing blindness (most of it caused by cataracts), but also to start to devise a program that ensure an accessible, welcoming working and learning environment for the blind and visually impaired community, thus build a path towards equality.
Ucu Agustin 