Segudang Wajah Para Penantang Masa Depan (The Myriad Faces Of The Future Challengers)

synopsis

Emboldened by the 1966 Order of Eleventh March that handed him unrestricted power to restore control after the military coup attempt on October 1st 1965, General Suharto made himself de-facto leader of Indonesia, which he – soon officially installed as President – would remain until 1998. Suharto referred to his reign of vitriolic anti-Communism, Socialism, Islam as the New Order (Orde Baru). And he cemented his vision of history with a whole slew of propaganda epics, some of which became required viewing in schools and were screened annually on TV, most infamously Arifin Chairin Noer’s Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI (1984) – which members of the army wanted to screen again in 2017 to educate the people.

Thus, it’s high time for a new look at New Order cinema, especially one as serenely ironic as that of Yuki Aditya and I Gde Mika, who find hints of subversion in the most unlikely of places, but also a sense of make-do and compromise in films touted as dissident. What makes The Myriad of Faces of the Future Challengers special on an aesthetic level is its rigorous use of YouTube material – for this is the true memory and cinémathèque of a nation that has scant interest in something as lofty as film history. Here, every blurry image is an assault against forgetfulness.

– Olaf Möller (IFFR)

about the directors

I Gde Mika (Mataram, 6 desember 1999) is a cultural worker currently studying at the Jakarta Arts Institute (IKJ) majoring cinema studies. He is a member of Forum Lenteng and a participant of the Milisifilem Collective. He collaborated as a cameraman in the film Dolo (2020) directed by Hafiz Rancajale, as realisator with Yuki Aditya in the film The Hypothesis of Wandering Images of Jakarta (2021) and The Myriad of Faces of Future Challengers (2022). 

Yuki Aditya graduated from University of Indonesia majoring in Fiscal Administration. He once worked as a Tax Auditor at a Public Accountant in Jakarta. He is now the Festival Director of ARKIPEL International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival since 2013, and also acting as producer of films produced by Forum Lenteng; Golden Memories: Petite histoire of Indonesian Cinema (2018), Om Pius…This is My Home Come the Sleeping (2019), Dolo (2021). Along with I Gde Mika as realisator in the films The Hypothesis of Wandering Images of Jakarta (2021) and The Myriad of Faces of Future Challengers (2022).