Indonesia Film Weekend

Staging Indonesia in London is a challenging undertaking. On the one hand, there's widespread public lack of understanding about Indonesia as a whole, which is less well-known than Bali. At best, Indonesia is placed on a foggy mental map called "Southeast Asia," along with Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, and, again, Bali. Because of this, Indonesia is often introduced through the contexts of tourism, vacations, and exploration, due to the exotic nature and culture of the country as a “faraway place”. 

Meanwhile, for some Indonesian diaspora in London, Indonesia often manifests as longing and nostalgia for the calm and comfort of home, and the basis for that nostalgia never truly disappeared. Indonesia is present in food, social interactions, dangdut music, batik motifs, and all other forms of everyday life. Like a memory, Indonesia exists at a relatively safe distance, as a reproduction of the stability of home.

Indonesia Film Weekend aims to address these perceptions through film screenings, featuring films that showcase Indonesia. This could start, for example, with the idea that Indonesia was a key figure in the vibrant Decolonization Movement of the 1950s. This occurred before the 1965 genocide in the country, which not only transformed Indonesia but also inspired ideas for political intervention and violence in countries with strong resistance movements against capitalism (Bevins, 2020). 

This film screening aims to provide an "insider’s view" that emerges from aesthetics that are not produced in tourism and diplomatic brochures that ignore domestic realities. These aesthetics are meant to problematize how Indonesia is perceived in other countries by both Indonesians and non-Indonesians. This will be presented through films with marginal themes that don't appear in and even challenge mainstream Indonesian aesthetics, such as themes of decolonization, LGBTIQ issues, or underground music. They are expected to spark further discussion about Indonesia, one that doesn't fall into recurring stereotypes.

Indonesia Film Weekend will be held at SOAS, University of London, over three days, beginning on Thursday afternoon, April 16th, and concluding on Saturday afternoon, April 18th, with four screenings. The screening is a collaborative work between SOAS University of London and marginalia.id, with guest programming by Minikino, Bali. 

Programme