Documentary Film Screening: Gestures of Care (2025)

Documentary Film Screening & Conversation with the Filmmaker

Aryo Danusiri, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Indonesia

Discussant: Byron Good, Professor of Medical Anthropology, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School

The ecological destruction in Central Kalimantan was once again brought to light by El Niño 2023. This film chronicles the indigenous Dayak people’s fight for survival in the face of devastation. First, Juni has been a part of a government program called a community-based fire brigade for a few years now. The program’s stated goal is to change the Indigenous people’s perception of themselves from being fire starters to fire mitigators. Meanwhile, Ipit and her family are determined to grow padi on their historic plot, which the government converted from peatland into a large food estate.

"How does it feel to live in a place where fires never cease? This enthralling film shows us. Creatively, and with grace, people continue to endure in the ruins made by earlier megaprojects. Look for the scene where firefighters, riding motorbikes through the brush, find the fire—but no water to put it out. I love this film."

—Anna Tsing, co-author, Field Guide to the Patchy Anthropocene

"Gestures was so interesting.  Comparing this scene with worldwide wildland firefighting, I was stunned by how few resources the local crews have at their disposal.  What an enormous job with tremendous obstacles!"

—Bert Nieslanik, associate of Glade Park firefighters