While deeply rooted in the Indonesian archipelago, Rizaldi’s work uncovers systemic injustices that resonate profoundly with the Australian experience, specifically the compounding scars of colonisation, the violent disruptions of Indigenous ancestral lands, and the dominant frameworks of Western science and resource extraction. From the corporate extraction of tin in Kasiterit to the quantum metaphysics of Mirage: Eigenstate , these films mirror Australia's own ongoing struggles with extractivism on First Nations Country and the enforcement of colonial worldviews. By bringing these works together, this screening program invites viewers to look beyond geographical borders and witness a shared narrative: how state-backed technology and capital continue to exploit the earth and dictate reality, and how ancestral memory, pluralistic cosmologies, and ecological resistance remain the ultimate tools for reclamation. – Blu Huang, Senior Creative Producer, MAV
Mirage: Eigenstate Dir. Riar Rizaldi, 2024, Indonesian with English subtitles, 30 mins Riar’s latest work is a dialogue between particle physics and ideas about the nature of God in tropical Sufi mysticism.
Becquerel Dir. Riar Rizaldi, 2021, Indonesian with English subtitles, 19 mins In an alternative future of Indonesia, when nuclear technology reaches the point of generating an artificial sun for endless energy resources, a lazy philosopher Sajad Ali wandering around seeks a place to sleep.
Notes from Gog Magog Dir. Riar Rizaldi, 2022, Indonesian, Korean and English with English subtitles, 19 mins An exploration of the interconnection between ghost stories, tech company culture in South Korea, and the economy of logistics in Indonesia told through a notebook/premake film and dossier of an unmade techno-horror feature-length film set in between port in Jakarta and an unnamed employee assistance programme office in Seoul.
Kasiterit Dir. Riar Rizaldi, 2019, Indonesian with English subtitles, 16 mins Natasha, a solar-powered AI voice, traces the story of tin mining on Bangka Island, narrates the emergence of tin in Bangka Island and their existence from the perspective of tropical anthropology of nature, value theory, philosophy of time, genetic mutation, geopolitics, and automation.
