ARKIPEL Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival

About ARKIPEL - Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival The word ARKIPEL was taken from ‘archipelago’ which refers to a term in Indonesian language ‘nusantara’. The word was known since the early 16th century. Nusantara is a group of thousand of islands keeping long globalization history of politics, cultural, and economics. More than 500 years ago, this region has become one of main destinations for Western explorer whom tried to find new areas to be colonized or as trading partner. Besides the European, there were also people came from the East (China, Arab, and India) which made this Nusantara region as an exploration destination in their trading missions of spices and silk. ARKIPEL International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival was initiated by Forum Lenteng to read a global phenomenon in social, political, economic and culture contexts through cinema. Of cinema, it is expected to capture the global society phenomenon, both in terms of aesthetic and socio-political context through the language of documentary and experimental filmmaking. The festival will always see the development of the cinematic language with critical thinking, regardless of the terms ‘cinema industry’ or independent cinema. For this reason, ARKIPEL will always bring a critical discourse to observe it through curatorial programs, symposium, and public lecture to broaden the knowledge of the ever-changing cutting-edge cinema aesthetics. ______ ARKIPEL 2020 theme: Twilight Zone "Ones Who Inhabit The Twilight Zone" The twilight is in that place, refracting gazes. Red-colored world. It was the time when the wandering spirits rule, coalescing with the power of nature. In the Southeastern traditions, parents suggest their children to stop any activities during this time, as they sense the presence of power that exceeds their understanding as human beings. They might think, it is too soon for their children to witness something that goes beyond their logic, beyond what they all have learned at school. Or were they afraid, not wanting their children to see it? But why? Centuries since the Renaissance era, humans on earth see “the otherworldly” as something superstitious, illogical. In their logic, “the otherworldly” occurs during a narrow zone where the sun almost sets upon the horizon. For centuries they call it “fata morgana”, dim illumination tricks their sight to see things that are not really there, appearing as if it exists. Later on, humans attempt to interpret it logically through calculation of light, optical bias, even memory. For centuries, human’s excellence with their ratio has been systematically confirmed through various revolutions, colonialism, to the classification of collective identity in the nation-state system. Thus, parents forbid their children who are not old enough to see "something" that is beyond their logic, worrying it will clash with what they have learned in any school or institution in the dominant system. To be a subordinate in contrast with the dominant is considered subversive. The choice of surviving through local beliefs must be fought for, by practising the subcultural traditions while restraining oneself. In the Southeast, where the fata morgana is alive and made alive, it is its subjectivity and distortive trait that makes the "otherworldliness" still relevant. There is no single truth, there is truth at a certain location and at a certain time. Similar to how the religious system works, what you cannot see doesn't mean it doesn't exist, you just need to believe it and devote yourself to it. Similar to how the culture of cinema works, injecting and regulating its influence to society through all channels of cultural space. Civilization changes, and no one can claim who the sole disseminator is, because the most important of all those things is the use of the medium: eyes, lens, and screens. The twilight zone is the enlargement zone, like the camera work, which allows our senses to frame with sensitivity. The images in it, simultaneously blurring and clarifying the sight that has been determined previously. Makes us need to tear it down again, armed with questions, which one is real; the one on the screen before the eyes or the one in front of the lens. So, in the twilight zone, the relationship between the eye, lens, and screen is always a deceptive relationship. The twilight zone is knowledge that restrains itself because it is forced to live in a dominant system. Even though all this is just a matter of understanding the light, trapping it in a frame and turning it into a new reality, the reality of cinema. The reality that can be seen as bewitching charm, then later reveals the "otherworldly" to "exist". __ Check out and download our previous festival catalogues for free at http://arkipel.org/