Hefner’s Documentary Film Series, Indonesian Pluralities, Released
Robert Hefner, Professor of Anthropology and of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, recently returned from Indonesia where his co-produced documentary film series has had 85 showings of the first of the six films entitled, “Indonesian Pluralities.”
During the week of January 13, 2020, Professor Hefner traveled to Indonesia for a workshop on the documentary film series he is co-producing with Dr. Zainal Abidin Bagir of the Center for Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Funded by the Henry Luce Foundation of New York and administered by the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs: CURA, the documentary series highlights the challenge of religion, citizenship, and inter-religious relations in contemporary Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority country in the world. An English-language trailer for the film series can be found here.
The first film in the series was released in Indonesia to critical acclaim in December 2019 in some 85 locations. Hefner plans to release the film in the United States in mid-2020.
Robert Hefner has directed 19 research projects and organized 18 international conferences, and authored or edited nineteen books. He is former president of the Association for Asian Studies. At CURA, he directed the program on Islam and civil society since 1991; coordinated interdisciplinary research and public policy programs on religion, pluralism, and world affairs; and is currently involved in two research projects: “The New Western Plurality and Civic Coexistence: Muslims, Catholics, and Secularists in North America and Western Europe”; and “Sharia Transitions: Islamic Law and Ethical Plurality in the Contemporary World.” You can read more about him here.