The practice of using shackles and chains (known in Indonesia as pasung) to physically restrain persons with mental illness by members of family or the community is widespread in Indonesia (as in many other developing countries) and almost universally ignored. As result of this practice, thousands of people are estimated to live in isolation, chained, and/or inside "animal cages", naked, undernourished and often living in their own excrements. The mental and physical consequences of these conditions (e.g. some people loose the ability to walk as result) are enormous...

This film documents and contextualizes this severe human rights violation - which is usually the result of poverty in rural communities, fear and lack of basic mental health services- and the “Free Indonesia from Pasung” movement. This film aims to give a voice to the thousands of mentally ill people in Indonesia who are living in restraints, and tell an original story about the social and political activism to free them from this practice. The film-documentary will be accompanied by a photo-documentary series.

This film-documentary, the first of this kind, highlights the activities carried out at several levels in the country (from a consumer volunteers organization very active in eliminating this practice, to the pasung survivors and their community) to eradicate this form of human rights abuse and give freedom and dignity to the mentally ill.

By showing the social and political activism in Indonesia to stop the practice of Pasung, this documentary aims to stimulate and encourage movement and reaction in other developing countries around the world where similar practices that deny the basic human rights and promote abuses of the mentally ill are presently occurring. This film also intends to increase awareness and stimulate action in high income countries that are in the front-line in the advocacy for the “rights” to dignity, respect, freedom and health of people with mental illness in low income/developing countries. The project has received seed funding from One World Media, U.K. I am currently looking for funding to pay for the basic costs of shooting, editing and distributing the film and to produce a photo-booklet to accompany the DVD. My intention is to use this film, upon completion, to organize events (such as film screenings) to raise funds for the non-gov. consumers-based organization I follow in the documentary.

Please take part in this project and contribute to the fight for human rights for the mentally ill and tell your friends about it! If you care about this important cause but have not cash, you could organize some fund raising activities, like a lunch, or party, or film screening, anything that can bring people together to share...

Film screenings and photo-exhibition will be organized to raise funds to support the NGO that is providing  help to pasung victims and to help pasung survivors in need.