The Pidada Intimacy
2024-2025
The Pidada Intimacy is a multispecies cinema experiment that speculates nonhumans' expressions to deliver a diverging perspective of the scarcity of fresh water due to the loss of mangrove population. Pidada (Sonneratia caseoralis) refers to the endemic mangrove plant that represents humans and nonhumans dependence towards the mangrove ecosystem.
To do so, we deconstructed filmmaking process and re-assembled it to include nonhumans as actors who significantly drive the formation of the moving image piece.
Commissioned by
Conversations with Testimony, Centre for Applied Human Rights (CAHR), University of York
Supported by
Rakarsa Foundation, West Java Conservation Trust Fund
The filming took place in Muara Gembong where Pidada symbolises interspecies proximity, intimacy, and survivability: intergenerational Pidada-based recipes, and staples or primates in the forest. However, multispecies conflicts also revolves around Pidada, and this filmmaking experiments aims explore the nonhuman expressions of the conflicts.
This testimonial work was aimed primarily at coastal environmentalists and activists. What has been happening in Muara Gembong and the mangrove forests can be solved only by the locals. Reforestation, environment rehabilitation, and economic opportunities come as a systematic and joint effort from multiple coastal stakeholders. To exchange insights, we specifically invited West Java Conservation Trust Fund who has been working on coastal ecosystem rehabilitation roughly 100 kilometers away to the east in the same coastal line.
Credits:
Producer & Director
Director & Editor
Cameraman
Researcher
Technical support
Event partners
We had never made a film with primates before, and our goal was to treat them as co-creators rather than subjects. This meant that the roles usually filled by a film crew would instead be taken up by non-humans, while our task was to provide tools and conditions. After almost a year, we were finally able to include primate participants in the making of this film.
Endira F. Julianda
Arsya Ardiansyah
Anka
Sugeng Purnomo, Daman
Clarissa Tifanny
Salahudin Al-Ayubi
Zulfikar Hasan Dimas Putra
Al Apip Wahid Zulhakim
West Java Conservation Trust Fund
Rakarsa Foundation