Yuki Aditya and the Dream of Collective Cinema (1980-2026)

Yuki Aditya Husandy is dead. From 2013-2023, he was the director of ARKIPEL International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival in Indonesia. He was also a keynote member of Forum Lenteng, a cine collective determined to reimagine cinema by living together, cooking and cleaning together, and inviting others to join them in the small cinema downstairs. The co-op is located at the very end of the world’s second largest city, Jakarta. Only the periphery, the margins, are home.

The Asian Film Archive marked his passing with this comment in a Facebook post: “A vital force in Southeast Asian cinema, Yuki was a steadfast champion of egalitarian and decolonial film practices.”¹ 

Yuki held a degree in Fiscal Administration from the University of Indonesia and worked as a tax auditor. Happily, it was close to the co-op so he could attend weekly film screenings. He signed up for a film criticism workshop where he interviewed Hafiz Rancajale, who founded the co-op with his partner Otty Widasari. It wasn’t the first time a conversation would change Yuki’s life.

In keeping with the co-op’s spirit, what follows is a choir of voices, including Yuki himself. Many of these voices come from those who knew him best like esteemed media artists Hafiz Rancajale and Otty Widasari. Every morning, they sat at the same breakfast table at the co-op. They were joined there by Luthfan Nur Rochman, who eventually succeeded Yuki as the director of the ARKIPEL Festival. Van Luber Parenson was part of the co-op’s radical film school, he and Yuki became close and had planned to make a long movie about Indonesian social movements. And his Canadian pal Scott Miller Berry also weighs in, the former Images Festival director and part of many screening groups in Toronto, Canada.

– M.H.

Yuki painting by Shelvira Alyya, MN Fiqri, Riyan Kelana, Rafael Marius, Milisifilem Collective, Kayla Miska, Kholif Mundzira, Hafiz Rancajale, Helmi Yusron, Otty Rancajale, Kezia Rantung, Yonri Revolt, Zahra Zulya – January 20, 2026

Cinephile

Hafiz Rancajale: Yuki had his own cinephile scene. When I was in art school, I became part of a group of film lovers. We even made a magazine but didn’t know cinephiles. Meeting Yuki was the first time I found out there was a group like this, I was surprised. He introduced me to his cinephile friends and we started to exchange films. I invited him to come to Forum Lenteng for our weekly screenings and we became very close.²

Luthfan Nur Rochman: When I was in high school, I aspired to become a cinephile and hoped to acquire obscure films. I found an online community, a famous discussion forum called Kaskus. One thread was a shop that sold obscure pirated films: films from the 1920s, John Waters, neo-realists. The owner of the online shop was Yuki, he was a film dealer. 

Van Luber Parenson: Friends told me about his habit of downloading films when he was still in college. I cannot share the details, but his actions in downloading films from the internet were truly extreme and militant. At that time, we had to go to internet cafés to download films. You can imagine how much intention and time investment was needed to download thousands of films. I have never met anyone with such dedication and such a deep love for cinema as Yuki.³

Luthfan: Yuki was the don of cinephiles in the 2010s, one of the giants of the Indonesian cinephile scene. A lot of people got their start in their cinephile journey through Yuki who started a thread where obscure film lovers could find work. This translated into his activism at Forum Lenteng. For instance, Yuki became one of the founders of Friends of Sinematek Indonesia that tried to salvage the cinematheque from its poor condition.

Forum Lenteng

Otty Widasari: Hafiz and I started Forum Lenteng in 2003 as a discussion group. It was a way to criticise film production in Indonesia that continues to focus on production instead of knowledge. We started in our house. In the same year we had a baby who is the same age as Forum Lenteng. We screened films outside in the yard and after we discussed. 

Hafiz: When Otty and I started Forum Lenteng we hosted a weekly discussion group in our living room. There were many journalists and communication students but no art students. Otty had studied journalism and I studied art. We gave spontaneous lectures about the films in our collection. It was based on the idea of sharing. The discussions became very intense, more people came and we began making projects with the students.

Yuki: Collectives in Indonesia are very different from international film collectives like Godard’s Dziga Vertov Group in the 1970s or Chris Marker and the Medvedkin Group (1967-71). They spoke about fighting against a common enemy – the government, mainstream cinema, the war in Vietnam. In the western hemisphere collectives don’t endure; when the enemies step down they disperse. But here we are just hanging out together. This is a region where you can meet friends 365 days per year. Being in a collective is in our blood. This is farmer’s land. It’s not only about fighting against something, it’s making something with friends (also helping your friends without expecting something in return just because they are your friends). Being together.⁴

Yuki painting by Shelvira Alyya, MN Fiqri, Riyan Kelana, Rafael Marius, Milisifilem Collective, Kayla Miska, Kholif Mundzira, Hafiz Rancajale, Helmi Yusron, Otty Rancajale, Kezia Rantung, Yonri Revolt, Zahra Zulya – January 20, 2026

Luber: I made a film with Yuki as an actor. His friendliness and warmth were important elements in building relationships with the other actors – my three children. Yuki was very easy to work with, but also very critical of my directions during the shooting process. He would ask why a scene needed to be done, and he would happily do it if I could explain the vision and rationale behind it. I could not be more grateful to have such a partner in my film. We had also planned to make another film together about the history of mass movements in Indonesia, but unfortunately that plan will never realised.

Mike: Forum Lenteng is the only media co-op where artists live together, doing what Italian feminist Sylvia Federici named “the work of reproduction.” The way this group lives together, organises itself around questions of cinema, is also a way of modelling how a society might be organised. His invitation was to explore other ways of “being together.” As if the cinema was primarily about communities large and small. 

Myriad Faces

Olek Młyński: Segudang Wajah Para Penantang Masa Depan (The Myriad of Faces of the Future Challengers, 2022) by Yuki Aditya and I Gde Mika is a fascinating insight into the ways in which cultural history and memory are malleable. Modern Indonesia is in the eyes of the filmmakers a construct, a by-product of years of ideological education whose main tool were the films themselves. Also, Myriad showcases the great variety and depth of Indonesian cinema of the 20th century.”⁵ 

re:assemblage collective: During the leadership of President Soeharto (1966-1998) under the New Order government, Indonesian Cinema brought forth important names that are still being discussed. It was a period in which censorship operated firmly toward regulating and maintaining national narratives… This was an era when the opposition could only be represented through the perspectives of the New Order regime itself… Can cinema speak about what should not be expressed or has not been expressed? This film… offers new contexts and interpretations of these films whose qualities are now increasingly blurry and faded, affected by the algorithm of inter-device migration, in which their condition and impact continues to be degraded by time and ultimately increasingly difficult to trace.⁶ 

Yuki painting by Shelvira Alyya, MN Fiqri, Riyan Kelana, Rafael Marius, Milisifilem Collective, Kayla Miska, Kholif Mundzira, Hafiz Rancajale, Helmi Yusron, Otty Rancajale, Kezia Rantung, Yonri Revolt, Zahra Zulya – January 20, 2026

ARKIPEL Festival

Otty: Before Yuki met us, he wanted to interview Hafiz. When he found out about our weekly film series World Cinema Monday he came every week. He was working as a tax auditor and always arrived in crisp blue clothes with leather shoes and a laptop bag, a young executive. After office hours he stayed to discuss until very late, sometimes until 2am. Suddenly one day he just stayed in Forum Lenteng. He was wearing shorts and an ugly t-shirt and sandals. I asked him, “What are you doing?” He said, “I want to stay and work here because this is my world.”

Hafiz: One day Yuki said, “Hafiz I’ve decided to quit my job and dedicate all my time to Forum Lenteng.” Otty and I told him that we didn’t have money to pay him but he said he would find the money himself. For me it was amazing to find a new friend who loves film so much that he decided to leave his job and live here, working together to amplify activism in film. 

Hafiz: We both thought we should do something with Yuki’s 15,000 films, and the 5,000 films we had gathered at Forum Lenteng. I discussed this with Otty and we decided to start ARKIPEL. 

Otty: For many years we had talked about running a festival but we needed someone to focus on that. At last in 2013, ten years after founding Forum Lenteng, we agreed to start the ARKIPEL Festival. 

Hafiz: I said “Yuki, you are the director and I will be the chief curator.” He said, “But I’ve never organized anything.” I reminded him that he had organised an alternative distribution of files, as Luthfan said. 

Otty: We said to Yuki: “You will be the director for ten years.” And he was.

Mike: I don’t find, I search. Yuki was forever looking for work that would “produce knowledge” for “our situation in Indonesia today,” cannily blending art and politics by stretching both terms until they came to resemble each other.⁷ 

Yuki: Indonesians pushed out two presidents with social movements, the first in 1966, the second in 1998. But the revolutions were never finished. There was no collective ready to occupy the government. On the cultural side, we don’t have decent arts funding, a decent museum, film school or art school. But Indonesia’s lack of infrastructure became a loophole for us. Forum Lenteng wanted to offer what was not available in arts and educational infrastructure. The collective is an alternative learning space.⁸ 

Yuki painting by Shelvira Alyya, MN Fiqri, Riyan Kelana, Rafael Marius, Milisifilem Collective, Kayla Miska, Kholif Mundzira, Hafiz Rancajale, Helmi Yusron, Otty Rancajale, Kezia Rantung, Yonri Revolt, Zahra Zulya – January 20, 2026

Experimental

Mike: Stepping into the gaps of what governments were unable to provide, Forum Lenteng’s updated counter-culture mission was not about cutting themselves to fit international styles or following traditional cinematheque models of canon affirmation. When we spoke Yuki questioned the term “experimental film,” arguing that every movie could be deemed experimental depending on its context. And of course the reverse was also true, that much of what is described as “experimental” today simply replays well-known genre tropes.

 Hafiz: Yuki, Otty and a friend convinced me that we should use the term “experimental” to describe the festival. No one in Indonesia uses this term. For me “experimental” means not only material processes but activism, how to bring political and social issues forward. That’s the discourse we bring to the festival.

School

Hafiz: In 2017, Otty and people who came to Forum Lenteng suggested we make a special educational program. So I said let’s start a class and call it Milisifilem Collective. Collective meant not only “collective” in an organisational sense, but learning and sharing together. Otty and Yuki and I are just facilitators. We held classes almost every day. I said: let’s start at zero. 

Otty: We started the school also as a way to criticise the way education is made by institutions. Our school is free, the students don’t pay anything, we give them books and whatever they need, even if we only get a small amount of money from the government. That’s how we criticise.

Luthfan: Milisifilem Collective is an alternative school that works at the intersection of art, politics and history in Indonesia. There is a need to create an education platform that delves deeper into the political side of how history is made, spark grass roots activism and negotiations with the government. Our school is also a critique of most art schools that make students apolitical.

Yuki painting by Shelvira Alyya, MN Fiqri, Riyan Kelana, Rafael Marius, Milisifilem Collective, Kayla Miska, Kholif Mundzira, Hafiz Rancajale, Helmi Yusron, Otty Rancajale, Kezia Rantung, Yonri Revolt, Zahra Zulya – January 20, 2026

Yuki was part of the first Milisifilem Collective. He was ARKIPEL director and part of the administrative team in Forum Lenteng but he joined the school as a student so he could learn from the beginning again, studying visual culture with Hafiz and Otty. That is the humble part of Yuki who loves to learn and share. I was in the second batch of students in 2018. The next year Yuki, Hafiz and Otty conceived a curriculum called Yukita Nonton which is a play on Yuki’s name that means “Let’s Watch.” They curated films from the Lumières to the 1970s for students to watch and discuss. 

Hafiz: Yuki was always curious about context, the political issues that shaped the way a film was made. There is an underground of information in each film, how can we share this underground?

Luthfan: Yuki and Hafiz make Indonesian subtitles for the films. We also upload subtitles to OpenSubtitles Forum to make it accessible for people who want them. In 2023 we published a book called S…untuk Sinema that collected writings by students about films that were viewed and discussed together. Each week we would see three to four films from the major film movements. What do you see? How does it connect to your experience of film education here?⁹ 

Students loved Yuki, he’s very witty and his comments are funny. He moderated discussions gently, with a lot of patience. Students came from all over Indonesia, not all used to watching serious films. Because we all lived together, he became very close with them, it was easy for us to build rapport with Yuki and have our interest in film sparked by him. He loves to share. 

Otty: Everyone was living together, staying in Forum Lenteng. 

Luthfan: In Forum Lenteng we have a dormitory for the students on the third floor. 

Hafiz: Every group of students is different, they come from different islands, different cultures. Every year requires a different approach. But Otty and I always say at the beginning of the class: this school is not trying to produce artists or directors. We are here for dialogue. 

Yuki painting by Shelvira Alyya, MN Fiqri, Riyan Kelana, Rafael Marius, Milisifilem Collective, Kayla Miska, Kholif Mundzira, Hafiz Rancajale, Helmi Yusron, Otty Rancajale, Kezia Rantung, Yonri Revolt, Zahra Zulya – January 20, 2026

Cancer

Mike: Although Yuki was just 46, he was diagnosed with cancer (lymphoma) in the fall of 2025. He had surgery and underwent chemo, but it was not enough. 

Luthfan: Yuki’s illness happened really fast, the time between his diagnosis and his passing was small. Mostly he couldn’t talk because his throat was swollen. He was treated in his family’s house and eventually asked us to send his laptop and hard disks. Perhaps he wanted to find consolation in films. 

Scott Miller Berry: Absolutely heart broken and in disbelief that film comrade and cinephile Yuki Aditya left this plane today… his passion for cinema, for interrogating social issues in and through films was inspiring and invigorating… I will miss his laugh, his karaoke stylings, the gossiping and his voracious appetites for cinematic histories and herstories…¹⁰ 

Yuki painting by Shelvira Alyya, MN Fiqri, Riyan Kelana, Rafael Marius, Milisifilem Collective, Kayla Miska, Kholif Mundzira, Hafiz Rancajale, Helmi Yusron, Otty Rancajale, Kezia Rantung, Yonri Revolt, Zahra Zulya – January 20, 2026

Luthfan: The last message he sent was: Maybe I am no longer fit to be the artistic director of ARKIPEL but I want to join the committee for film selection. His last wish was to select films for this year’s festival. 

Otty: The night he passed hundreds of people came here to the house. We cried more than a week even until now. 

Hafiz: We made a lot of plans together. Yuki, Otty and I had big discussions about the New Order era when the military regime was in control of Indonesia. We collected books and films made at that time and still want to make something with that archive.

Luthfan: Yuki was always the first person who would talk with strangers at Forum Lenteng. He wanted to know other’s opinions about the films we watched together. Many were touched by Yuki, the first generation of cinephiles in Indonesia are now film directors or in charge of institutions. We stand on his shoulders in Indonesia.

Luber: Yuki’s passing is certainly a great loss for all of us here. But if we become too overwhelmed with sadness and think too deeply about this loss, I believe that if he were still alive, he would not be pleased with that. He might even mock us and think we were being excessive, and that we should behave more normally. Yuki was a complex person. He was someone who would pull us back to the surface if he felt we were going too deep, but at the same time, he could also encourage us to dive deeper if he felt we were being too shallow. For me, he was a flexible balancer. He could be arrogant to weaken arrogant people, yet also gently strengthen friends who felt weak and lacked confidence. His unique personality was a gem at Forum Lenteng and we will always miss him.

Endnotes