Arya Mahendra
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Short film and documentary director

Arya Mahendra

I make films about people who keep working after the city has gone to sleep: silversmiths, night bus conductors, fishermen waiting out the swell. Six films since 2018, all of them shot in Java.

Enter the tunnelSee every film

Editing my first feature. Open to collaborations from February 2027.

  • Best Short DocumentaryPekan Dokumenter Mataram2025
  • Audience AwardLayar Pesisir2024
  • Jury AwardMekong Doc Forum2024

Six films, one tunnel

Each ring is one film, tinted by the light it was shot in. Scroll, and the films come out of the tunnel one by one.

  1. The Quiet of Kotagede

    2025Short documentary24 min

    The last three silversmiths in a Kotagede alley work after evening prayers, when their hammers no longer bother the neighbours.

    Best Short Documentary, Pekan Dokumenter Mataram

    3 festivals · 1 award

    Enter the film: The Quiet of Kotagede

  4. Tobacco Smoke

    2022Short documentary19 min

    One harvest on the slopes of Mount Sumbing, when a whole village sleeps in the drying sheds with its tobacco.

    Best Documentary, Festival Film Pendek Rawa Pening

    2 festivals · 1 award

    Enter the film: Tobacco Smoke

The record, counted from the films on this site

films
6
festival screenings
16
countries
6
awards
7

About me

I was born in Wonosari in 1994 and started filming with my uncle's pocket camera. Today I work from home in Kotagede, with the same crew of four I have had since my second film.

More about me

Notes from the set

  1. Date
    Place
    Gunungkidul
    Film
    Lereng, in production

    Day 31 on the slope

    We have 41 hours of footage for my first feature. Today the only scene that worked was Bu Painem sweeping her yard, and I think it is the best scene so far.

  2. Date
    Place
    Yogyakarta

    Borrowed anamorphic lenses

    A friend from Bandung lent me two old anamorphic lenses. The picture stretches wide and streetlights turn into long blue lines. I don't know which film they are for yet, but I know the next one will be this wide.

  3. Date
    Place
    Kotagede
    Film
    The Quiet of Kotagede

    Recording a hammer at one in the morning

    We taped the contact microphone to the anvil, not the hammer. The sound came from inside the wood, the way the neighbours hear it through the wall. Pak Harjo asked us to play it back three times.

Read every note

Got a story that needs filming?

Tell me who it is about, where it happens, and when the light is best. I reply within two working days.

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