For the 2019 election, the director, whose place of origin is Malang, East Java, noted in a message received by Antara here on Monday, that she had voted for two ballots readied by the election organizers at the Indonesian Consulate General in LA to select the presidential and vice-presidential candidates for the 2019-2024 term and to vote for legislative candidates.
"The experience of voting in Los Angeles this time is very interesting since at the Indonesian Consulate General, LA, the organizer had organized entertainment activities, including live music, and we could also purchase Indonesian specialties," she pointed out.
"In addition, it is a pleasure to meet with friends and other Indonesian citizens in Los Angeles that I have not met in the past few months, as I have traveled across Asia, from Korea, China, and Indonesia to Singapore for the distribution of the film Bali: Beats of Paradise," Zheng remarked after casting her vote.
The premiere of Zheng's recent film, "Bali: Beats of Paradise" was held on South Korea's biggest screen which the 2014 Guinness World Records calls the largest wide-screen in the world.
"Bali: Beats of Paradise" is a stirring movie that charts the path of gamelan player and composer Nyoman Wenten, who follows his aspiration as a Balinese artist in the United States through Balinese gamelan music.
Zheng admitted to her journey being riddled with numerous challenges since the onset, as she had to leave her hometown and family in Bali.
However, now all that is in the past and accolades are aplenty, she stated, adding that owing to Wenten, major campuses in the United States teach gamelan and it is Wenten's life journey, "Bali: Beats of Paradise" that ultimately got nominated for the Best Picture category in the 2019 Oscars.
Several US universities comprising Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), and University of California-Berkeley (UC-Berkeley) current teach gamelan.
The film, whose shooting took place in Indonesia and the United States, will shortly be seen on television screens of passenger aircraft on the Singapore Airlines flight network worldwide. Bali: Beats of Paradise will also be screened in cinemas in Indonesia from next July.
Translator: Bambang Purwanto
Editor: Sri Haryati
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
