REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MAKASSAR -- The Visit Indonesia Tourism Officer (VITO) and South Sulawesi's Cultural Office are making a documentary movie titled "Man On Boat" on the Phinisi traditional ship to be filmed in Bulukumba District. Head of Tourism Promotion and Marketing at the Provincial Cultural Office Yulianus Batara Saleh remarked here on Wednesday that the documentary film will feature the ship-building process and fishermen's activities in Bulukumba.

The movie will be screened across various VITO offices overseas, such as in Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, the Netherlands, Malaysia, Japan, India, Germany, France, Australia, and China.

"We hope the film would be successful and be watched by the foreign community," he emphasized.

Filming Phinisi is in accordance with VITO's commitment to promoting and highlighting Indonesia's top destinations internationally.

Saleh is optimistic that the film would attract more foreign tourists to visit and view firsthand the Phinisi-making process in Bulukumba.

On December 7, 2017, the 12th Session of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had designated the art of phinisi shipbuilding from South Sulawesi as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The designation is UNESCO's recognition of Phinisi as part of a priceless art of sailing in the archipelago, considering the shipbuilding process symbolizes the cultural and spiritual values apart from the application of sophisticated and unique technology and form during its time to the present day.

Each shipbuilding process always begins with a certain ritual. The first stage is to calculate the most auspicious day to look for wood, as raw material, that usually falls on the fifth and seventh day of the month, with each day holding significance in the form of "sustenance is at hand" and "always ensure sustenance" respectively.

The traditional phinisi-making process can still be found in some areas in South Sulawesi: Tana Beru, Bira, and Batu Licin in Bulukumba District.

Currently, Phinisi is the mainstay of economic activities in Indonesia, especially in the inter-island transportation sector. Phinisi ships are widely spotted in major ports, such as in Makassar, South Sulawesi; Surabaya, East Jakarta; Jakarta; Semarang, Central Java; Pontianak, West Kalimantan; and Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan.

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