About Edo Natasha and his personal legend!

Hi everyone,

I am new with this community and it seems a great idea to just introduce myself right off the bat because it is the right thing to do, right?

So cut to the chase. My name is Edo Natasha; a young first-time award winning filmmaker. The founder of Matahari LLC, a trans-media production company located in Honolulu Hawaii, with a vision to bring positive value to the world through storytelling in various mediums. @vizualsamuri recommend me to join steemit - and I am thankful for them. Love you sir. Anyway just would like to share quick story of who am I and what I am about in this world.

I was born and raised in Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia. Culturally, however, it gets complicated. When I was six, my parents decided to fly me out to Australia. So, when I returned to Indonesia, I stuck out like a sore thumb. I did not belong. To cope with the feeling of being an outcast, I began to write. By claiming it “fiction”, I can express myself freely without being judged. My classmates took interest in my writing and began to fall in love with the protagonist. Little did they know, he was nothing more than an unfiltered version of me. It hit me then: I have a voice. I keep doing this till my high school years. Then I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to study abroad at Iowa State University (USA).

My dream of becoming a director really blossomed when I went on a mission trip to Kyushu, Japan. I quickly learned that I have the fit to connect with people through stories. I might not be able to build a house, but I know how to keep my audience engaged through theater and videography. When I returned to the States, I felt a sense of purpose for the first time in my life. I know what I want to do. I want to tell stories. I want to be a director.

Upon graduating college, I was faced with a tough decision. Being from Indonesia, I did not have a legal status to stay in the US. With the economic crises at the time, I had a hard time finding employment that would sponsor my green card for what I wanted to do. The opportunity came in the form of the uniformed services. US Army was looking for an Indonesian bilingual in exchange of citizenship. Now I had to choose between going back to Indonesia, or going to war in hopes of returning safely and having an opportunity to chase my dream. I choose to follow my personal legend.

While deployed in Afghanistan, two of my battle buddies were killed and one committed suicide. These were soldiers that stood for their country and their family’s tradition. Much nobler than my desire to make a movie for life. Yet I was the one still standing. It all still makes no sense to me, but the best way to honor and respect their lives is for me to make something of myself. I MUST SUCCEED.

Burning with the desire, once I come back from deployment (2012), I jump right back in to my artistic endeavor. Started in theater community as assistant director, while working on my first feature film. And all this when I’m still full time active duty soldier. My goal was to start filming once I finished my contract in August 2014. I finished my contract - honorable discharge -and we start filming October 2014.

Popolo was premiered January 2016 in San Diego and since then had a remarkable degree of success. Popolo has won many awards such as Platinum REMI for Best First Feature at WorldFest International Film Festival Houston, Best Feature Film at International Filmmaker of World Cinema in London, Best Hawaii Film at Honolulu Film Festival, Best Drama at San Diego Black Film Festival, Best Director at Charlotte Black Film Festival, and a closing night film for Honolulu African American Film Festival. Now Popolo is available at Vimeo Digital on Demand worldwide (link on my profile to rent or purchase it) while we are negotiating for iTunes and Amazon digital distribution.

However my journey is far from over and so is my personal legend - my destiny if you will. So yeah, that's my story pretty much. I will post more at steemit about my experience in getting Popolo done - since it is my first feature and what I learn, while at the same time updating you with what I'm working on or random stuff that interest me. Thank you so much for reading this - Aloha and Mahalo (means thank you and goodbye in Hawaii).