Documentary Tracing of The Roots

Abstract

Tracing of The Roots is a participatory documentary that explores the cultural identity of urban teenager whose parents come from different ethnic backgrounds. Many of them, including filmmaker grow up in cities like Jakarta without understanding of their parents’ cultural roots. This film is based on the filmmaker’s personal experience of feeling distant from both traditions and places of origin. Using autoethnography, a method that highlights personal experience and reflection, the filmmaker overviews her identity by visiting her parents’ hometowns: Palangkaraya in Central Borneo and Larantuka, East Nusa Tenggara. These journeys help her reconnect with extended family and explore traditional values still practices in those regions. The film presents cultural experiences that are rarely found in urban settings, such as traditional food, the ways of greeting and the big family traditions. At the same time, it also uncovers similarities between the Dayak and Flores tribes—especially how water plays a vital role in daily life, as both places are surrounded by rivers and the sea. This documentary shows how personal narrative and participatory documentary techniques and autoethnographic methods can be used to explore questions of cultural identity. The documentary used autoethnography, a qualitative research method that combines personal narrative with cultural analysis to examine how individual experiences reflect broader social or cultural meanings. In this creative process, autoethnography guided the filmmaker to reflect critically on her memories, emotions, and identity while documenting her journey. Voice-over narration, recorded conversations with family, and mixed footages from field visits were used to express these reflections visually and emotionally.