As the march of the ages steadily progresses on, very little of our world’s old cultures are expected to survive — here is the last dalang eking out a meagre living through wayang kulit, there the remnants of a Laotian hill tribe under pressure to move to the city. But there is something about Bali that has the island’s culture prevailing under the most unlikely of odds. In the world’s most populous Muslim country, it is a bastion of the last Hindu-Buddhist civilisation of Indonesia and cultural practices here have gone unchanged for centuries.

Local filmmaker Justin Ong’s documentary ‘Subak’ is a look at one such practice.No stranger to the world of celluloid, Justin Ong is a US graduate in film and broadcasting and did a stint at major US television network, CBS. He has now found his niche at GS Productions making documentaries and feature films, however, it was a sharp contrast from his previous experience producing magazine programmes and game shows. And it isn’t surprising to learn that Justin hadn’t considered documentary filmmaking prior to joining GS Productions, as he recalls the monotonous state-made educational films of his youth.

Justin has certainly changed his tune with one documentary already under his belt — a piece on the Hindu festival of Thaipusam — before embarking on an in-depth piece on the Subak, the centuries-old Balinese irrigation system.

While a documentary on agricultural practices might sound like a dull lead, ‘Subak’ is more than just about watering padi fields. Justin explains that the Subak, like every other aspect of Balinese life, follows the Balinese concept of Tri Hita Karana, which means ‘the three causes of happiness’ and those causes can be found in nature, God and your fellow man. ‘It’s about balance and working in harmony with the environment and your neighbour,’ says Justin. He goes on to describe the system that draws water from Lake Batur down to the cascading padi terraces by way of natural rivers and man-made canals and bamboo pipes. The maintenance of the irrigation system is a shared responsibility and a matter of civic pride.

But in the 1970s, the Green Revolution, an agricultural movement, attempted to overhaul the system. Justin explains that in their zeal to increase crop yields, foreign organisations introduced new agricultural practices and redrew the water distribution system of Bali. Unfortunately, they disregarded local farmers who were more familiar with the earth and in the long-term the new system resulted in lower yields and in declining quality. In the end, the Balinese farmers returned to their tried-and-true Subak.

‘Subak’ was one of two entries that Justin submitted to The Asian Pitch, a cooperative project between three major public broadcasting networks in Asia — Japan’s NHK, South Korea’s KBS and Singapore’s MediaCorp. The callout was made for proposals for documentaries about Asian issues from an Asian perspective in high definition (HD), a move to balance the number of documentaries about Asia out there made from a Western point of view. Out of over 130 proposals they received, 15 were shortlisted and the three with the most convincing pitch were given US$80,000 and help using HD technology — although Justin was already familiar with HD after his four years at GS Productions.

The end result, as I saw for myself, is a beautifully shot documentary that is less about ditches and more about its people. ‘Subak’ has little narration and is left to tell its own story drawing from interviews with the farmers of the Subak and its village head embodies everything you’d imagine a man of his job description would: wizened, stern and fatherly. The film is no doubt an artistic success — a montage of Balinese rural life interspersed with awe-inspiring shots of the natural splendour that surrounds the Subak. It, however, pays little attention to the factual details, for example it neglects to mention the water temples that are intricate to the Subak and the messy business of the Green Revolution is also noticeably absent.

The picture of how ‘Subak’ should be viewed becomes clearer recalling Justin’s explanation that he’s not in the business of making politically-motivated documentaries. He’s more interested in telling stories and just like fiction, documentaries are a fine medium for doing so. The only difference is that you can’t make the facts up. He points to Yasmin Ahmad and how she moves people with her story-telling and he aspires to perhaps work with the influential local director one day.

Having returned from Cannes where ‘Subak’ was shown at Mipdoc, an international showcase for documentary screenings, he was also the only filmmaker of the three Asian Pitch winners invited to speak there. But where foreign programme buyers have expressed an interest in picking up ‘Subak’, hisreception here has been less than promising. Justin realises that the local perception of documentaries needs to change. Or, in other words, documentaries don’t necessarily have to mean ‘boring’.

He hopes that the art form might be elevated to the level they’re accepted in Japan and South Korea, where they occupy prime-time slots. And when that happens, Justin has plans for more documentaries that focus on the heritage and culture of their diverse nation. Until then, look out for ‘Bali: Sacred & Secret’ coming out in October, a feature-length documentary that details the lifecycle of the Balinese people, from birth to death.

The director’s picks
Justin Ong’s Top Five Favourite Documentaries

‘Buena Vista Social Club’ by Wim Wenders ‘Wenders documentary on Cuban musicians first caught my attention on the beauty of documentary storytelling.’

‘Bowling for Columbine’ by Michael Moore ‘For drawing awareness to a very critical issue of gun control in the US.’

‘Planet Earth’ BBC series ‘Mind-blowing visuals using revolutionary filming techniques.’

‘Becoming a Woman in Zanskar’ produced by ZED ‘Brilliantly delicate tale of two women in the Himalayas as they achieve adulthood and deal with the conflicts on their various paths of their lives.’

‘An Inconvenient Truth’ by Al Gore ‘Created awareness about our environmental problems and managed to reach out to a massive amount of people. Told a potentially boring story in an interesting and entertaining way.’