Standing on the Edge of a Thorn

Synopsis

A family grapples with poverty, mental illness, and the sex trade (34 min)

Shot over the course of 12 years, Standing on the Edge of a Thorn explores the rural origins of the Indonesian sex trade. The film is narrated by Lisa Ariyani, the daughter of Imam Rohani—a retired civil servant struggling with a mental disorder—and Tri Suryani, an unwed pregnant teenager.

Trapped by traditional values that stigmatize their relationship, Tri is eventually lead into a life of prostitution and violence. It is against this unstable family backdrop that Lisa matures into a young woman and the film documents her struggle to understand her parents’ predicaments while she herself is being drawn into the sex trade.

(34 min)

Crew

Robert Lemelson

Director

Robert Lemelson is a cultural anthropologist, ethnographic filmmaker and philanthropist. Lemelson received his M.A. from the University of Chicago and Ph.D. from the Department of Anthropology at the University of California Los Angeles. Lemelson’s area of specialty is transcultural psychiatry; Southeast Asian Studies, particularly Indonesia; and psychological and medical anthropology. He currently is a research anthropologist in the Semel Institute of Neuroscience UCLA, and an adjunct professor of Anthropology at UCLA. His scholarly work has appeared in numerous journals and books. Lemelson founded Elemental Productions in 2008, a documentary film company. He has directed and produced over a dozen ethnographic films related to culture, psychology and personal experience. He is also the founder and president of the Foundation for Psychocultural Research, which supports research and training in the social and neurosciences.

Alessandra Pasquino

Producer

Alessandra Pasquino is a filmmaker and producer of documentaries, commercials, and special projects. She has collaborated with many artists and celebrities including: Oliver Stone, Wayne Wang, Klaus Kinski, Gregory Colbert, Leonardo Di Caprio, Pietro Scalia and Matthew Rolston. She is currently developing documentary projects both with Elemental Productions and independently.

Chisako Yokoyama

Editor

Born in Mie Prefecture, Japan. As a graduate of the University of California, Chisako began her motion picture career in Hollywood as an Editor’s Assistant. She met Oscar-Winning editor, Pietro Scalia, and has been involved with the editing of many memorable films such as; "Good Will Hunting", "Gladiator", "Hannibal", "Black Hawk Down", "Memoir of a Geisha" and "American Gangster".

Mike Mallen

Editor

Mike Mallen is a New York based Editor and Motion Graphics Artist. His knowledge in production is grounded by 10 years of professional experience in Los Angeles, during which time he collaborated on a Documentary with two-time Oscar award winning editor Pietro Scalia, edited a series nominated in the 2010 International Documentary Association awards, helped clear the music for The Darjeeling Limited and directed a short film which premiered with professional surfer Rob Machado‘s The Drifterat the New York Surf Film Festival. Mike has worked for such brands as Jack Daniels, New Balance, Krave, Progressive, PUR Water Filters, Angie’s List and American Eagle and Networks including Showtime, VICE, MSNBC, MTV and VH1.

Wing Ko

Director of Photography

Wing Ko has collaborated with a who’s who of modern artists, musicians and filmmakers. He worked with Spike Jonze on several music videos and edited the pilot for MTV’s “Jackass.” Wing helped create more than 80 music videos for Nine Inch Nails, Soundgarden, Public Enemy and other top bands of the time. For more than 15 years he has traveled around the world and crewed skateboard videos.

Malcolm Cross

Music Composer

Malcolm Cross BSc Mus. Studied music performance and composition in London at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, additional Post Graduate studies in Jazz and Studio Music. Malcolm has been a professional composer for film, television and stage since 1996. His original film scores include ‘Insomniac Obsession’ (directed by Paul Cameron Carter/PS Films) and ‘Oh Saigon’, a feature-length documentary for Sundance Channel directed by Doan Hoang, ‘I Dream of Dog’ an independent comedy short directed by Jessica Rice and ‘The Grey’, a supernatural thriller directed by Norman Trotter IV.

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“I feel my life isn’t going anywhere. Javanese people say it’s like ‘standing on the edge of a thorn.’ I could fall at any time.” -Tri

TRT 32:18 min
Indonesian & Javanese audio
English subtitles

Tri with a young lisa during an interview

Press

Standing on The Edge of a Thorn,” a short film about the family and community origins of prostitution and sex trafficking in rural Indonesia, was nominated for a distinguished Media Impact Award in the new category, Best Documentary-Style Reality Production.

It’s the second nomination in less than five years for filmmaker and anthropologist Dr. Robert Lemelson and his Los Angeles-based ethnographic film company, Elemental Productions.

The Impact Media Awards will be presented at the Impact Media Summit in New York, January 24, 2013.

The Impact Media Awards recognize the best in history, current affairs, archives and social issue programming across TV and digital platforms. The Best Documentary-Style Reality Production category honors a program or series that follows people within special living environments and promotes social change in their subjects and/or audiences. Elemental’s first nomination was for “40 Years of Silence: An Indonesian Tragedy” in 2011.

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