Indonesian Pluralities—a collaborative multimedia project on the religious, ethnic, and gender diversity of Indonesia—has produced a series of documentaries about the challenges and promise of the pluralist democratic nation. The three films have been widely viewed in Indonesia and are now freely available to watch in English online.

The films are the product of collaboration between the Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS), Graduate School, Gadjah Mada University; the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University; and the WatchdoC Documentary.

Indonesian Pluralities is a film, print, and multimedia project for educators, journalists, NGOs, and policy analysts on cultural and religious diversity, democracy, and civic co-existence in contemporary Indonesia. It explores Indonesia’s religious and ethnic plurality in both its rich promise and ongoing challenges.

This film series looks at the everyday relations between Muslim and Christian communities in a post-conflict area of Ambon; the struggle for equality among indigenous communities whose beliefs and rituals are not fully recognized but slowly secures better legal recognition; the turmoil created by a variety of political Islamic groups; the achievements and controversies surrounding the place of Muslim women in modern Indonesian society; and the public space of religious education on which the future of pluralist democratic Indonesia will depend.

The series portrays Indonesia as a dynamic site of great promise and disputes about what Indonesia is, and what it should best become. This film series is, in short, the story of unfinished but hopeful Indonesia.

Watch the films