Education

Ph.D., Film Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands, 2019
M.A. (cum laude), Research Master Literary and Cultural Studies (Film and Television Concentration), University of Groningen, The Netherlands, 2011

Biography and Research Statement

I am passionate about researching and teaching subjects in film/cinema, screen, and visual culture studies. My research areas include film and audiovisual media aesthetics, cinematography, production design, the cinemas and production cultures of the Global South (Southeast Asian cinema and East African cinema particularly), race/ethnicity in transnational cinema, film & media education, screen media storytelling and sustainable development, and topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusivity in the below-the-line creative sector of the transnational screen industries. I also engage in filmmaking practice, embrace the scholar-practitioner hybridity in the film and screen media domain, and believe in the significance of theory-practice interaction in the cinematic arts.

My first book, Film Style in Indonesian Cinema, 1998-2018: Lighting, Production Design and Camera Movement (Edinburgh University Press, 2023), offers a visual aesthetic analysis of contemporary Indonesian films through the lens of cinematography and production design theories. Simultaneously, it  provides a stylistic history of Indonesian cinema by tracing the evolution of lighting, camera movement, and production design in Indonesian cinema—from the colonial era to the post-Suharto/post-Reformasi era—to examine the continuities and changes of Indonesian cinematic visual style and the aesthetic transformation that has occurred in the 2000s and 2010s. The book ultimately seeks to understand the rebirth of Indonesian cinema in the decades after the fall of  Suharto's authoritarian regime in 1998. 

I am currently developing my second book on the poetics and politics of interracial romance and sexuality in transnational film and audiovisual media.

Selected Research Publications

• "Creative Is Not Always Lucrative: How Grassroots Film Communities Defy the 'Creativisation of Culture' in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia." Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies (March 2023), co-authored with Frans Ari Prasetyo.
• “Film Style, Production Design, and the Politics of Interracial-Interfaith Relationship in Yasmin Ahmad’s Chocolate (2009).” Short Film Studies Journal, 12:2 (2022): 193-2014. 
• “The Video Compact Disc and the Digital Preservation of Indonesian Cinema.” In Exposing the Film Apparatus: The Film Archive as a Research Laboratory, ed. Giovanna Fossati & Annie van den Oever) Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2016): 141-150.
• “Syndromes of Indirect Communication: A Functional Analysis of the Static Long-take Technique in Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Feature Films.” Asian Cinema, 26: 2 (2015): 205-222.
• “Review: Workshop on Indonesian Cinema, Royal Asiatic Society, The Centre for South East Asian Studies at SOAS, University of London, 17-18 October, 2013.” Asian Cinema, 25:1 (2013): 103-108.
• “A Historical Poetics of Independent Fiction Films from Southeast Asia: Toward A Multidisciplinary, Objects-centered and Historically Sensitive Southeast Asian Film Scholarship.” Proceedings of the 8th Annual Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Hong Kong, “Transformations, Development and Culture in Asia: Multidisciplinary Perspectives,” March 8-9, 2013. Hong Kong, China: The Hong Kong Institute of Education.

Videographic/Filmic Works

"A Conversation with David Bordwell: Poetics of Cinema, Film Stylistics, and Research Valorization"

• Type: Documentary; interview; videographic film study
• Credit: Concept; interview; direction; editing
• Publication date: October 23, 2013

"It's Not a Building, It's a Smart Building"

• Type: Promotional film for Sustainable Buildings, a start-up software company specializing in making buildings more energy-efficient (www.sustainablebuildings.nl)
• Credit: Story idea; script; acting; direction
• Client: Sustainable Buildings (Groningen)
• Publication date: May 19, 2016

"H U M B L I F I E D"

• Type: Short Film
• Credit: Writer, producer & director
• Sponsor: 48 Hour Film Project Leeuwarden
• Publication date: November 2013, premiered at the 48 Hour Film Project Leeuwarden 

"Our Attachment to Rice"

• Type: Short Film
• Credit: Writer, producer & director
• Sponsor & funder: CinemAsia Film Festival Amsterdam
• Publication date: April 5, 2012, premiered at the CinemAsia Film Festival
• Amsterdam 2012 

Coursework

• CINE 260 Media Aesthetics
• CINE 399 Film Style and Technology
• CINE 410/510 Transnational Cinematography
• CINE 440/540 Introduction to the Cinemas of Southeast Asia