Leveraging the Art of Underexposure:
Intensified Visual Darkness in Contemporary Indonesian Film Lighting
Ari Purnama
Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies
University of Oregon
In this talk, I discuss the development of contemporary Indonesian cinematography, particularly on lighting as one of the key devices that play a role in transforming the visual aesthetic features of Indonesian film. I propose that, by exploring single source lighting and available light shooting techniques, contemporary filmmakers in Indonesia have augmented the form and function of low–key lighting as a genre/scene convention by leveraging a particular variant of the low–key lighting technique that valorizes intensified visual darkness. By analyzing scenes from Sang Pencerah/The Enlightener (Hanung Bramantyo, D.P. Faozan Rizal, 2010) and Cerita Cibinong (‘Story from a Village’, Nia Dinata, D.P. Ical Tanjung, 2007), I will show that the application of intensified visual darkness as a stylistic strategy can perform multiple functions—beyond merely serving narrational imperatives.
Ari Purnama is an Assistant Professor of Cinema Studies at the University of Oregon. His interdisciplinary research profile includes film and media aesthetics, production studies, film and production cultures in the Global South (Southeast Asia and East Africa in particular), race and ethnic representation onscreen and offscreen, and topics concerning DEI in the film, television, and creative industries (particularly within behind–the–camera, below–the–line creative roles). His most recent scholarly works include the monograph Film Style in Indonesian Cinema, 1998–
2018: Lighting, Production Design and Camera Movement (Edinburgh University Press, September 2023), an article on the grassroots film communities in post–authoritarian Indonesia (published in Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, March 2023), and an article on interracial–interfaith relationships in the films of the Malaysian filmmaker Yasmin Ahmad (published in the Short Film Studies Journal, Vol. 12, Number 2, 2022). He is currently developing his 2nd book, which examines interracial romance, relationships, and sexuality in
transnational film and audio–visual media. In 2023, he received a grant from the Baden–Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research, and Art in Germany to initiate his research project on the possible ways that the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be integrated into film and media studies education in the EU, US, and Asia. He is also a filmmaker and an advocate for the scholar–practitioner hybridity in film and media studies. His latest work, Demystifying the North: A Micro–documentary Reflecting on Migration, Happiness, and Meaningfulness in the 21 st Century (2021), is a short documentary film that focuses on the affective liminal experiences of people migrating from the Global South to the Global North (specifically, Northern Europe). The documentary demonstrates the Creative Practice as Research (CPaR) methodology of which he is a fan and proponent
Co-sponsored by the Center for Visual Cultures, Asian Languages and Cultures, and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies.
