KAGHATI
OUR JOURNEY TO
CHAPTER 2
More than a Kite Story
Our team had a zoom meeting for the very first time on March 22nd, 2020. The goal of that call was to brainstorm and finalize the story for our short film. After exploring and filtering through our options, we ended up with 5 potential story ideas.
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We had an in-depth discussion for each idea - examining what complications and challenges would arise, how we would tackle them, and how achievable and realistic of a goal each one is. Only after thorough consideration, we were finally ready to vote, and that 3.5-hour call finally yielded our story concept - about a kid visiting the house of his/her grandpa, who is a kitemaker.
Sometime after, while Amanda and I were roughing up the story beats, I recalled an Indonesian poem entitled Layang-layang Ungu (translates to A Purple Kite) by Joko Pinurbo. I wrote an analysis of this poem during my time in IB for my Indonesian A Literature class (ah, what a throwback), and here's an extract of what I wrote:
(translated to English)
"A kite is a traditional toy that requires wind to be flown and is connected by a thread for it to be controlled. Without the presence of one of these elements (wind or thread), the kite would not function optimally."
Book cover of Joko Pinurbo's poem collection where I read 'A Purple Kite'
The poem used kite as a metaphor to represent a familial bond, but I took this idea and built it around the theme of appreciating our cultural roots, in a sense that much like the thread of a kite, is what keeps us grounded and humbled in life so we don’t stray away and get lost as we go on chasing our dreams and passions. Amanda helped to put it into these better words:
"In the loosest sense, kites symbolize freedom. They fly openly into the sky but at the same time are supported from the ground below. Without its spool and thread, the kite will fly uncontrollably; getting stuck to power lines or wandering astray. In this fast-paced, technological world, we often get caught up in our future goals and how to keep moving forward. 'Kaghati' aims to highlight the importance of looking back—understanding and appreciating our cultural roots—be it through the simple, shared moment of flying a kite."
And from there, our journey began...