18.03.25, 20:30, The Myriad of Faces of the Future Challengers (2022), Archives in Dialogue

For this fourth edition of ‘Archives in Dialogue’, members of Jakarta-based collective Forum Lenteng are invited. They research and produce films on the history of Indonesian cinema and in particular film production during the Suharto New Order regime (1966-1998).

In 1966, General Suharto seized power in Indonesia and remained self-proclaimed ‘father of the Indonesian people’ until 1998. This reign was overshadowed by an anti-socialist attitude with atrocities against his opponents. Suharto called his regime, which vehemently opposed communism, socialism and Islam, the ‘New Order’ (Orde Baru). He underpinned his vision of history with a series of propagandistic films, some of which were compulsorily shown in schools and broadcast annually on TV.

It is high time for a renewed look at New Order cinema, preferably through the slightly ironic glasses of Yuki Aditya and I Gde Mika, who, with The Myriad of Faces of the Future Challengers, still manage to find hints of subversion and dissonance in the craziest places. The film is rigorously constructed with YouTube material, because that is the true memory and cinematic history of a country that has little interest in anything lofty like film history. Every blurry image in this film is an attack on forgetfulness.

Archives in Dialogue, organised by KASKcinema i.c.w. Film-Plateau and KASK & Conservatorium's Archival Sensations cluster, is a space for reflection on archival practices, art and memory. This event is part of Mohanad Yaqubi's research Aesthetics of Transnational Solidarity Cinema at KASK & Conservatorium.