ACMI & MAV (Multicultural Arts Victoria) present
Extractivism & Ancestry: Short films by Riar Rizaldi
Tickets
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When
Mon 26 Oct 2026
Join us for a selection of short films by Riar Rizaldi, curated by MAV to foster dialogue between the contemporary realities of Indonesia and Australia.
While deeply rooted in the Indonesian archipelago, Rizaldi’s work uncovers systemic injustices that resonate profoundly with the Australian experience, specifically the compounding scars of colonisation, the violent disruptions of Indigenous ancestral lands, and the dominant frameworks of Western science and resource extraction.
From the corporate extraction of tin in Kasiterit to the quantum metaphysics of Mirage: Eigenstate, these films mirror Australia's own ongoing struggles with extractivism on First Nations Country and the enforcement of colonial worldviews.
By bringing these works together, this screening program invites viewers to look beyond geographical borders and witness a shared narrative: how state-backed technology and capital continue to exploit the earth and dictate reality, and how ancestral memory, pluralistic cosmologies, and ecological resistance remain the ultimate tools for reclamation.
– Blu Huang, Senior Creative Producer, MAV
Mirage: Eigenstate
Dir. Riar Rizaldi, 2024, Indonesian with English subtitles, 30 mins
Riar’s latest work is a dialogue between particle physics and ideas about the nature of God in tropical Sufi mysticism.
Becquerel
Dir. Riar Rizaldi, 2021, Indonesian with English subtitles, 19 mins
In an alternative future of Indonesia, when nuclear technology reaches the point of generating an artificial sun for endless energy resources, a lazy philosopher Sajad Ali wandering around seeks a place to sleep.
Notes from Gog Magog
Dir. Riar Rizaldi, 2022, Indonesian, Korean and English with English subtitles, 19 mins
An exploration of the interconnection between ghost stories, tech company culture in South Korea, and the economy of logistics in Indonesia told through a notebook/premake film and dossier of an unmade techno-horror feature-length film set in between port in Jakarta and an unnamed employee assistance programme office in Seoul.
Kasiterit
Dir. Riar Rizaldi, 2019, Indonesian with English subtitles, 16 mins
Natasha, a solar-powered AI voice, traces the story of tin mining on Bangka Island, narrates the emergence of tin in Bangka Island and their existence from the perspective of tropical anthropology of nature, value theory, philosophy of time, genetic mutation, geopolitics, and automation.
Riar Rizaldi will also be hosting Asian Futurisms & The Fluid Lens: An Essayistic Filmmaking Workshop. Learn more here.
Riar Rizaldi
Riar Rizaldi is an artist and filmmaker, based in Indonesia. His artistic practice focuses mostly on worldviews and the possibility of theoretical fiction. His works have been shown at various international film festivals (including Locarno, IFFR, FID Marseille, Viennale, BFI London, Cinema du Reel, etc.) as well as Centre Pompidou Paris, NTT InterCommunication Center Tokyo, Taipei Biennial, Istanbul Biennial, Venice Architecture Biennale, Biennale Jogja, National Gallery of Indonesia, and other venues and institutions. In addition, solo exhibitions and focus program of his works had been held at Batalha Centro de Cinema, Porto and Centre de la photographie Genève.
Multicultural Arts Victoria
Established in 1983 on Wurundjeri land, Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV) is Victoria's key not-for-profit arts organisation dedicated to supporting culturally diverse artists and communities across all art forms music, dance, theatre, film, visual arts and contemporary media technology.
For over 50 years, MAV has evolved into one of Australia's most important arts organisations as a platform for discovery, development and promotion of culturally and linguistically diverse contemporary art, heritage and cultural expression.
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