CANCELLED: Documenting the Energy Transition and Structural Violence in Indonesia 2025.03.17

Monday, March 17, 5-7 pm
Eaton Humanities Building, room 250

As one of the fastest growing economies in Asia, Indonesia is facing serious challenges with its dependence on fossil fuels for its energy source. Yet with climate change and the global environmental concerns around energy transition, President Jokowi pledged that Indonesia would reach net-zero emissions by 2060 or sooner and began to shift away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy. Filmmaker Dandhy Laksono will speak about Indonesia’s problematic moves towards green energy through his experience in making documentary films. Since 2019, he and his co-directors have created a series of films addressing the Indonesian government’s initiatives for green transition and its impacts on social, political, and cultural rights of Indonesian citizens. He will show clips and discuss his films Sexy Killers (2019, co-directed with Ucok Suparta), a documentary on Indonesian coal mining industry and its relations with the Indonesian political establishment, and Hot Stuff (2023), a film depicting social and environmental issues related to geothermal projects in the country. He will also speak about his most recent film, Bloody Nickel (2024) which examines Indonesia’s massive rush for nickel, a metal that is vital to the green economy.

Dandhy Dwi Laksono is an award-winning Indonesian activist, investigative journalist, and filmmaker. In 2009, he co-founded the documentary production studio WatchDoc which promotes social change in Indonesia through videos and digital media. Watchdoc has produced more than 400 documentary episodes, 1000 television features, and at least 100 commercial videos & works on topics such as corruption, democratic transition, environmental issues, and human rights. In 2021, Watchdoc received the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights Award and the Ramon Magsaysay Award for the Emergent Leadership for its activism.  His 2019 documentary film Sexy Killers  documented the collusion between the political establishment and the coal mining industry which is responsible for the environmental destruction. 

Co-Sponsored by the Center for Asian Studies, Geography, Anthropology, and Institute of Behavioral Science.