New Pessimism Studio

Formed between factual and fictional, future and past, material and incorporeal, scientific and magic, Monisme reflects the intermingled relationships between people in Mount Merapi.

Modelled after Carl Sagan's classic TV series Cosmos, this film displaces the dominance of Western science and embraces pluralistic worldviews - from tropical Sufi mysticism and monorealism to theories of quantum mechanics.

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. Told in a semi-essayistic approach, Sajad Ali reflects the dynamics of nuclear technology in the future, the politics of materiality through the search for minerals such as thorium in Indonesia, as well as the complexity of nuclear issue in the Global South and its tension with ecology, energy consumption, nation-state, and productivity.

Set in a dystopian future, the film Primate Visions: Macaque Macabre (2024) opens with the fictional character Imago Organella, an experimental primatologist specializing in studying simians, apes and monkeys. Along with their companions, Xenomorphia and Madame Chauffeur, they free two yakis from captivity. Together, they embark on a surreal journey: they gather at a peculiar dinner where they eat a mysterious pudding elixir, visit an experimental biology facility, and explore each other’s subconscious as they traverse a prehistoric cave. Along the way, they celebrate the strange and unpredictable nature of evolution and knowledge, culminating in their return to Minahasa, where they face the reality of freedom.