On June 15-16, 2023, Forum Lenteng organized the “Candikala Essay Film Premiere Public Exhibition” at the National Museum of Indonesia. In this event, the premiere of the films ‘Terracotta Batujaya’ (Dir: Hafiz Rancajale & Luthfan Nur Rochman) and ‘Batu-batu di Ketinggian’ (Dir: Hafiz Rancajale & Luthfan Nur Rochman) was held in the Theater Room of the National Museum of Indonesia. The films are part of the Candikala platform program, an effort to document and recontextualize classical Indonesian cultural heritage (Hindu-Buddhist period) which is fully supported by the Directorate of Film, Music and Media, Directorate General of Culture, Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia. This screening is fully supported by the Cultural Media Center, Indonesiana TV. The event also featured a discussion with speakers from Candikala alongside professional researchers and archaeologists to discuss what archaeology can offer on current issues and its relationship with new media, cinema. The first day of the event began with remarks from Hafiz Rancajale as Chairman of Forum Lenteng and director of the film “Terracotta Batujaya” who thanked the audience and Mrs. Ingrid Harriet Pojoh as the wife of the late Drs. Bambang Budi Utomo who is the main character of the film. The screening began by playing the trailer of the Indonesiana.TV event program and continued with the film “Terakota Batujaya” as the main presentation. After the movie, a discussion with the theme “Critical Reflection on Archaeology and New Media Today” with speakers Dicky Caesario Wibowo, M.Si. (Archaeologist) and Hafiz Rancajale (Curator & Filmmaker) with moderator Luthfan Nur Rochman was held. Hafiz opened by talking about his reflections on the development of media art today and how to bring together historical research with film and media art from the experience of making the Terracotta Batujaya film. Dicky continued with how the development of archaeology can make it play a role in solving humanitarian problems that occur in Indonesia. Through his forensic studies, he proposed the role of archaeological research in researching clandestine graves in Indonesia. The discussion lasted for 1.5 hours with questions from the audience. The total audience today consisted of 60 people including the organizers. The event continued with a speech from Luthfan Nur Rochman who called all the Candikala film production team including one of the main actors Drs. Sugeng Riyanto, M.Hum. who is also an archaeological researcher at BRIN (National Innovation Research Agency) in Yogyakarta. Mr. Sugeng shared his experience when making essay films in contrast to his experience making archaeological films that he made when he was the head of the Yogyakarta Archaeology Center. The screening began by playing the trailer of the Indonesiana.TV program and continued with the film “Batu-batu di Ketinggian” as the main presentation. After the film was finished, a discussion with the theme “Archaeological Research in the Construction of Candikala Essay Film and its Interpretation” with speakers Prof. Dr. Agus Aris Munandar, S.S., M. Hum. (Professor of Archaeology, University of Indonesia) and Luthfan Nur Rochman (Filmmaker) with moderator Anggraeni Widhiasih was held. Luthfan opened by giving the premise and method of filmmaking from Candikala-Forum Lenteng, what is different from historical films in general and how different directors make films with different forms. Prof. Agus continued with a presentation entitled “Moving Image Archaeology” which explained the Hindu-Buddhist concept that can be applied in film shooting. He departed from how to see in Hindu-Buddhist rituals and their religious meaning, after which he correlated it with camera capture and scene arrangement. The discussion lasted for 1.5 hours with questions from the audience. The total audience today consisted of 70 people including the organizers. Year Location
2023
Jakarta, Indonesia
Candikala Essay Film Premiere in National Museum of Indonesia
