11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

KAMILAANDINI, RYUSUKEHAMAGUCHI ANDTSAI MING-LIANG Presenting near-complete career surveys of the filmmakers Kamila Andini (Indonesia), Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Japan) and Tsai Ming-liang (Malaysia/Taiwan), these programs for Asia Pacific Triennial Cinema explore the work of directors who are expanding the amorphous boundaries of contemporary cinema in singular ways. These filmmakers’ cumulative bodies of work represent myriad paths of modern production and exhibition — from crowdfunding and independent production to state sponsorship and international financing, from film festival showcases and art gallery installations to streaming platforms and wide theatrical releases. While these three directors’ approaches to the art of filmmaking are individually distinct, they share formal and narrative preoccupations. Andini, Hamaguchi and Tsai each explore understandings of time and memory in their work, and how our relationship with these concepts is ever‑changing. They have each interrogated their own country’s psyche in moments of national pain and mourning, while continually expanding the formal possibilities of the medium. KAMILAANDINI, INDONESIAB.1986 Kamila Andini makes films that are uniquely Indonesian. Born in Jakarta, her still-ascendant rise as a filmmaker mirrors the growing prominence of Indonesian cinema on the global stage. Andini explores her country’s many histories through work that forefronts the often unheralded roles of women in society, nimbly using both the conventions of feature films and the more expansive model of the streamed series to tell these stories. She is passionate about showcasing Indonesia’s diverse range of cultures, shooting her films in the local language of the region in which they are set and incorporating specifics of those social worlds. Andini is a significant figure of contemporary Indonesian cinema and works alongside her husband Ifa Isfansyah and her father Garin Nugroho, both filmmakers, at the influential independent production company FourColours Films. Initially wary of pursuing a career in the same field as her prominent film director father, Andini moved to Australia to study sociology and media arts at Melbourne’s Deakin University. After returning to Indonesia, she embraced filmmaking, making several short documentaries and music videos before premiering her debut feature Laut Bercermin ( The Mirror Never Lies ), in 2011. A visually dazzling bildungsroman set amid the Bajau fishing community, it was the first film to feature the Bajau people on screen. As with her later films, Andini weaves implorations for ecological harmony into an emotional coming-of-age narrative. Andini subsequently wrote and directed Sekala Niskala ( The Seen and Unseen ) 2017, a magical realist exploration of grief deeply infused with Balinese spirituality and culture. The film — which Andini later adapted for the stage — met with considerable acclaim on its release, and won Best Youth Feature Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in 2017. Her subsequent films Yuni 2021 and Before, Now & Then 2022 premiered just months apart, following COVID-19 pandemic-related delays. Both films explore the roles and restrictions of women in Indonesian society. While Yuni is set firmly in the modern day, Before, Now & Then takes place in the mid twentieth century. Despite being set in different time periods and localities, the films remain personal and interconnected, with Andini stating: ‘each [film] represents who I am as an Indonesian, as a woman, at that certain moment’. 1 Her most recent production is the limited streaming series Cigarette Girl 2023, co-directed with Isfansyah. Cigarette Girl drifts between the 1960s and the early 2000s, delving into the history of the kretek cigarette industry. 2 Andini and Isfansyah use the series to patiently explore a woman’s journey amid the violent transition to Suharto’s New Order. 3 The series acts as an expansion of Kamila Andini’s artistic philosophy to date — by interrogating the past, she reveals historical parallels with the present, and continues to highlight the hidden stories of women through the power of cinema. RYUSUKEHAMAGUCHI, JAPANB.1978 Ryusuke Hamaguchi is one of the most fascinating directors to emerge from Japan since the start of the new millennium. An astute observer of the human condition, Hamaguchi has crafted a prolific body of work that explores the performance of self, the unknowable nature of others’ inner lives, and the joys and impossibilities of connection in the modern world. Both piercing and droll, his films feel exquisitely composed yet freeing in their rawness. He is a filmmaker who is forever pivoting just as he approaches the familiar. Hamaguchi produced his earliest significant work, Nani kuwanu kao ( Like Nothing Happened ) 2003, during his time as a student at the University of Tokyo. After working briefly in commercial film, he undertook postgraduate studies at Tokyo University of the Arts. There, Hamaguchi studied under the revered filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa (b.1955) — with whom he would later collaborate on Supai no tsuma ( Wife of a Spy ) 2020 — and directed Passion 2008 as his graduation project, a film inspired by the electrifying dynamism of John Cassavetes. In the wake of the tragic events of March 2011 — when a destructive earthquake and tsunami ravaged northern Japan — Hamaguchi travelled to the Tōhoku region with fellow filmmaker Kô Sakai. Over the next two years, they spoke with residents as they dealt with the aftermath of the natural disaster and the reconstruction of their communities. Their filmed interviews became the ‘Tōhoku Trilogyʼ, a series of documentaries that delves into the lives of the local people, the folklore of the region and the healing power of storytelling. Making these documentaries transformed Hamaguchi’s practice, as he has explained: I learned how to use the camera correctly, which is to bring out the power of reality. Who the subjects are as people, as individuals . . . Now I reflect that in my [fictional] movies by trying to bring out as optimally as possible what the actors can express. 4 Shinmitsusa ( Intimacies ) 2012 reflects this shift. The film is a blend of documentary and fiction, made in collaboration with students at a Tokyo film and (above) Production still from 行者 ( Walker ) 2012 / Director: Tsai Ming‑liang / Digital, colour, stereo, 24 minutes, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mandarin (English subtitles) / Image courtesy: Homegreen Films; (below) Production still from Sekala Niskala ( The Seen and Unseen ) 2017 / Director: Kamila Andini / Digital, colour, stereo, 83 minutes, Indonesia, Netherlands, Australia, Qatar, Indonesian/Balinese (English subtitles) / Image courtesy: Cercamon CINEMA 228 — 229