Ariel Heryanto\’s Blog

post-event notes:* some photos from the event are temporarily accessible here
* an audio recording of the public lecture is temporarily available here

Being in Melbourne has lots of bonuses, including having the rare opportunity to host Indonesians with special talents and achievements.

Next week, on behalf of Asia Institute, I will be hosting Indonesia’s top film producer Mira Lesmana and Indonesia’s most popular film star Nicholas Saputra.

Mira Lesmana, photo by Wahyu Supraba,
reproduced with permission from Sglossy.com

Mira will present a public lecture about the newly established Indonesian Film Society that she co-founded in December 2006 in an attempt to create better protection and support for the film industry in the country. Admission to the public lecture is free. It will take place on Monday 8 October 2007, 6:00-7:30 pm, at Carrillo Gantner Theatre, Sidney Myer Asia Centre, The University of Melbourne.

The evening program will be hosted by Marianne Rumantir (Meja Entertainment). Marshall Clark (Deakin University) will provide a brief introduction to the Indonesian cinema today, and Mira’s important role in it. I will offer some brief comments on the lecture before a session of open discussion with the audience. For more information, click here.

Mira and Nico will arrive this weekend and they will be hosted by Melbourne University Indonesian Students’ Association (MUISA) for a Film Festival that the Association is hosting on Saturday 6 October 2007, at RMIT Capitol Theatre. Their visit to Asia Institute is an extension of this (thanks to MUISA for arranging this). The new film produced by Mira, and starring Nico, called Three Days to Forever (Indonesian with English sub-title) will be one of several titles to be screened at the Festival.

a scene from Three Days to Forever,
image from is reproduced with permission from Miles Films.

Please join us if you can. I may write more about this after the event.