Tales of Disasters: Programme Summary

No Strings has produced a series of films for Indonesia and East Timor which look at natural disaster prevention and peace advocacy in a country repeatedly affected by devastating tsunamis, earthquakes, flooding, landslides and volcanoes.

Badu, a likeable but lazy villager who teaches by negative example, is delighted one day when the tide goes out way further than normal and fish are left flapping on the sand. Easy pickings!

Fortunately, not everyone is as ignorant as he is. The Little Girl character recognises the warning signs and sounds the village alarm signal. Badu is caught when the first wave comes, but he is thankfully rescued by the Squirrel, who helps him grab onto a tree.

These films have been funded by the Irish organisation Trócaire, and were made in consultation with two key local partners in Indonesia, IDEP and the Jesuit Refugee Service, who liaised with the No Strings Creative Team in New York to ensure cultural appropriateness and continuity.

In Aceh, almost 170,000 people were killed or left missing in the December 2004 tsunami. Disaster Risk Reduction management is an important part of the work that goes on right around Indonesia to help minimise the effect of these disasters, and the No Strings Tales of Disasters series has been welcomed as a valuable educational tool to assist in this area.

Three other short productions accompany the Tsunami film, - Earthquake, Volcano and Flood / Landslide .

A fifth film has been added to the series, which is shown in regions that have experienced community tensions. Two Gardens uses the same characters, but explores peace advocacy issues through a story that demonstrates how easy, and how wrong, it is to mistrust someone because they are different. 

Once the editing process was complete, they were dubbed into three of Indonesia's main languages: Bahasa Indonesian, Acehnese, and Timorese.

Characters are based on typical villagers, but are generic enough to allow them to be used in all parts of Indonesia and East Timor, as well as further afield. They are being shown to school children and community groups in many affected areas of Indonesia through our local partners, who conduct pre and post Q&A sessions to check knowledge and understanding.

Creative Team in New York: 

Michael Frith, Kathy Mullen, Heather Asch, Rob Graydon, Tim Lagasse, Jim Kroupa, Ron Binion, Amanda Maddock, Martin Fahrer, Luke Geissbuhler, Lisa Buckley, Alex Eaton, Andrew Roddewig, Nat Anguilar, David Bryant, Bill Berner, Carol Klien, Tim Lagasse, Weston Almond, Lori Reffet, James Godwin, Anney McKilligan, John Barrett, Jeffery Price, Sharon Lerner, Martin Fahrer, Walter Rainard, Peter Born, Diane Andazola, Stephen Joseph Ruggiero, Paul Long, Ulysses Jones, John Orberg, Matt Stoddart, Felix Tod, Leslie Asch, Darren Henshaw, Megan McNerney, Kat Katz