Institute History
Description
Mudflow is the story of a community’s response to one of the biggest man-made environmental disasters in the world – a giant, unstoppable mudflow that was accidentally unleashed by natural gas drilling.The hot mud has fully buried 17 villages and continues, ten years later, to explode with constant ferocity. At the heart of our story are three main characters: Harwati, Hori and Budi, all of whom lost their homes and jobs to the mud, and now help operate a popular and eerie tourist destination on top of the scorching moonscape. Over the miles of hot muddy wasteland, there are art installations, food carts and fashion photography sessions, where activism, art and commerce slam into each other in a scrappy and inventive otherworld. As the fate of the mudflow survivors hang in the balance, Harwati, Hori, and Budi fight for justice – and for the fate of their children - during Indonesia’s historic presidential election in what is the largest Muslim nation and third largest democracy in the world.