‘Breaking the chains’: reflections on the making of an ethnographic documentary on human rights violations against people with mental illness in Indonesia

Article


Colucci, E. 2023. ‘Breaking the chains’: reflections on the making of an ethnographic documentary on human rights violations against people with mental illness in Indonesia. Visual Studies. 39 (3), pp. 307-320. https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2023.2274892
TypeArticle
Title‘Breaking the chains’: reflections on the making of an ethnographic documentary on human rights violations against people with mental illness in Indonesia
AuthorsColucci, E.
Abstract

Breaking the Chains is an ethnographic documentary about the use of physical restraint and confinement of people with mental illness in Indonesia, a practice known as pasung. The film contributes to an understanding of the socio-cultural meanings of pasung, the sets of beliefs and customs that support such practices (including beliefs about mental illness and healing), and the challenges that must be overcome to eradicate this human rights abuse while highlighting the efforts to eradicate this practice at several levels. This article provides a reflection on the author's experiences and motivations for making Breaking the Chains. It also presents an opportunity to reflect upon the use of film as an applied, public and activist research methodology and the limits and possibilities presented by relying on film-documentary as a ‘generator’ of ethnographic knowledge.

KeywordsVisual Arts and Performing Arts; Anthropology; Cultural Studies
Sustainable Development Goals10 Reduced inequalities
3 Good health and well-being
Middlesex University ThemeHealth & Wellbeing
PublisherTaylor & Francis (Routledge)
JournalVisual Studies
ISSN1472-586X
Electronic1472-5878
Publication dates
Online14 Nov 2023
Print02 Jul 2024
Publication process dates
Accepted10 Oct 2023
Deposited20 Mar 2024
Output statusPublished
Publisher's version
License
File Access Level
Open
Copyright Statement

© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2023.2274892
Web of Science identifierWOS:001100496700001
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