Bitter Honey
Bitter Honey offers a dynamic, intimate, and emotionally charged portrait of three polygamous Balinese families. Shot over a four-year period on the island of Bali, Indonesia, this feature-length film draws attention to the plight of Balinese women in polygamous marriages—which are frequently characterized by psychological manipulation, economic hardship, infidelity, and domestic violence. Due to a societal structure where men predominate in many domains, these women are left with little voice. Bitter Honey draws attention to their struggle, documents those making courageous efforts to better protect and empower them, and aims to trigger a wider conversation about contemporary polygamy and women’s rights.
Directors
Robert Lemelson
Robert Lemelson is a cultural anthropologist, ethnographic filmmaker and philanthropist. Lemelson received his M.A. from the University of Chicago and Ph.D. from the Department of Anthropology at the University of California Los Angeles. Lemelson’s area of specialty is transcultural psychiatry; Southeast Asian Studies, particularly Indonesia; and psychological and medical anthropology.
Lemelson currently is a research anthropologist in the Semel Institute of Neuroscience UCLA, an adjunct professor of Anthropology at UCLA, and a visiting professor at USC. His scholarly work has appeared in numerous journals and books. Lemelson founded Elemental Productions in 2008, a documentary film company. He has directed and produced over a dozen ethnographic films related to culture, psychology and personal experience. He is also the founder and president of the Foundation for Psychocultural Research, which supports research and training in the social and neurosciences.
FILMOGRAPHY OF ELEMENTAL PRODUCTIONS:
SHADOWS AND ILLUMINATIONS (2011)
MEMORY OF MY FACE (2011)
RITUAL BURDENS (2011)
THE BIRD DANCER (2011)
KITES AND MONSTERS (2011)
JATHILAN (2011)
NGABEN (2012)
STANDING ON THE EDGE OF A THORN (2012)
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