Private Project

Last May in Theaters

Jakarta and Gwangju are two significant cities that sparked the birth of democracy in Indonesia and South Korea, toppling dictators through people's power in May 1998 and 1980. This work tells the story of the daily lives of two ticketing cinema staff during those May incidents. They never experienced it directly or went onto the streets to face the soldiers, yet the stories they heard and the voices that reached them felt like an endless war film replaying in their minds. This film is also woven from fragments of memories of people living around Jakarta and Gwangju and represented through found footage, film clips, and significant cinematic events that occurred in the same month.

  • Arief Budiman
    Director
  • Arief Budiman
    Writer
  • Rugun Sirait
    Producer
  • Eunha Lee
    Producer
  • Irwan Diansyah
    Key Cast
  • Chan Kook
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    History, documentary, experimental, fiction, narrative
  • Runtime:
    21 minutes 25 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 19, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    1,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Indonesia
  • Country of Filming:
    Indonesia, Korea, Democratic People's Republic of
  • Language:
    Indonesian, Korean
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    4:3
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Arief Budiman

Arief Budiman is an artist and filmmaker based in Yogyakarta. He often uses moving images and media art in his work. In recent years, Arief's artistic practice has been closely linked to the internet, archives, and collective memory related to the history of violence of Indonesia. According to him, archives and technology are some instruments that can open up other possibilities in reading past events. Through this instrument, Arief created an alternative history to the established narrative and created a counter-narrative through the memories of people who had been absent and taboo to talk about.

In 2023, Arief won the award for Best Short Documentary at the Indonesian Film Festival, and in 2021, he received the Julius Baer - Next Generation Art Prize in Singapore in the Moving Image category. He is currently a member of two active collectives in the art and film world, MES 56 and Piring Tirbing. Arief's works have been exhibited internationally, and he has participated in several residency programs, including Koganecho AIR (2024), Miro Center Gwangju (2024), Art Center Ongoing AIR (2024), Norient Festival (2024), Sharjah Film Platform 6 (2023), Biennale Jogja XVI Equator #6 (2021), Art Fair Philippines (2021), “Transient Museum of a Thousand Conversations” at ISCP - New York (2020), “Gerobak Cinema” at the Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh (2020), Arkipel - Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival for “Bromocorah” (2019), the 36th Kassel Film and Video Documentary Festival (2019), Documentary Film Festival “Docs Docs” (2019), V Nodo Caracas Video Festival - Barcelona (2019), Indonesia Neataudio Festival 3.0 (2018), and “The Worldwide Exhibition” at Vieniti4/Siete Galeria - Costa Rica (2017), among others.

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Director Statement

May 1980 in Gwangju and May 1998 in Jakarta illustrate how military brutality can destroy a society’s freedom. Citizens have the right to criticize government decisions, especially when their leader acts as a dictator. However, what happened instead was violence and repressive actions by the government.

I was not part of these historical events—May 1998 and May 1980 are events I never personally experienced—but their impact still lingers today. Then what about the stories of those in the same place but lacked the chance or ability to join the fight? Are they also considered part of that struggle and that historic moment?

This film is an effort to gather personal memories from those who felt the impact of these events as part of a transnational solidarity between May 1980 and May 1998. The people of Gwangju and Jakarta have proven that through collective strength and solidarity, they could overthrow a corrupt state system and transform it into a democracy. This film serves as a reminder that every person, including workers in the film industry, must take a role in protecting democracy.