Edwin Jurriëns

Jemma Purdey

Novi Kurnia

This edited volume seeks to evaluate the complex tensions between democratic renewal and regression by focusing on the activist efforts by Indonesian filmmakers to maintain and open spaces for creative experimentation, critical reflection, and social diversity. After the fall of the authoritarian New Order regime (1967–98), Indonesia embarked on a journey of renewed freedom, known as Reformasi. However, in recent years, democracy and civic freedoms have been in decline. To critically examine the possibilities, contradictions, and impact of a broad variety of film activism, this volume engages with local debates about gender and sexual inequity, state violence, and environmental destruction. The contributing authors include film scholars and critics, as well as film practitioners, directors, educators, and festival makers. This volume covers commercial feature films and producers, as well as short films, documentaries, web series, and video art, along with the collaborative practices of independent film communities and festival organizers.

Platforms of Participation and Representation

Film Activism in Contemporary Indonesia

Indonesians of Chinese descent constitute only two to three per cent of the country s population but dominate the private business sector. Serious acts of violence against this ethnic minority occurred during Indonesia s colonial past, and after a period relatively free of such incidents became increasingly frequent during the final years of Suharto s New Order. In this first book-length study of anti-Chinese hostility during the collapse of Suharto s regime, Jemma Purdey presents a close analysis of the main incidents of violence during the transitional period between 1996 and 1999, and the unprecedented process of national reflection that ensued. The mass violence that accompanied the fall of the regime in May 1998 affected not only ethnic Chinese but also indigenous or pribumi Indonesians. The author places anti-Chinese riots within this broader context, considering causes and agency as well as the way violence has been represented. While ethnicity and prejudice are central to the explanation put forward, she concludes that politics, economics and religion offer additional keys to understanding why such outbreaks occurred.

Jemma Purdey

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