A vital role for communication in Timor-Leste

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Communicators from across the Asia Pacific region had a first-hand look earlier this month at the vital role the Jesuit film production studio, Casa de Produção Audiovisual (CPA), is playing in telling the story of one of the world’s newest nations within the country.  Twice a week, CPA produces Tetum language programs that appear on prime time television in the country, each reflecting on East Timorese culture and history.

Amid the rapid changes that are happening in the country, CPA is working to preserve its cultural heritage, and the language of the Timorese. The “Povu Nia Matenek” (Wisdom of People) programme featured 25 episodes, appearing twice weekly on television from 2011 to 2012. The upcoming “Dalan Ba Futuru” (Road to the Future) series, will feature profiles of each of the 13 districts, with two 30-minute episodes on each district. The series will air from 2013 to 2014.

The annual JCAP Jescom meeting drew together a dozen Jesuits and lay collaborators from offices across the Asia Pacific region, to share insights from their work over the last 12 months, and to provide support and training for staff at CPA.

Opening the meeting, JCAP President Fr Mark Raper SJ outlined some of the new projects that the Society is initiating in Timor-Leste, but added that CPA was currently the ‘face of the Society’ in the country.

Held from July 3 to 5, the meeting included a visit to the Timor-Leste Catholic radio station, a visit to the new Jesuit secondary school in Kasait and workshops for CPA staff.

Highlights of the updates from the provinces and regions included:

  • The film, SOEGIJA, produced by Puskat in Indonesia was an enormous success, making a profit from screenings across the country, and winning awards at several local and international film festivals, the most recent being the first prize in the Feature Films category of the Niepokalanow Catholic film festival in Poland. Puskat has now begun fundraising for their next film.
  • Kuangchi Program Service in Taiwan is working on a documentary on the Jesuit missionary to China, Giuseppe Castiglione. 
  • Jescom Philippines organised a university campus tour with Cardinal Tagle, under the title “faith explored”. Hundreds of young people turned out at each of the events.