Loaded with historical evidence about colonization in the Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia) and Dutch governmental, corporate, and missionary filmmaking in the colony between 1913 and 1930, Celluloid Colony also explores debates in film history concerning placement and archival values of colonial nonfiction films, especially those made to serve as propaganda. This complexity and the arranged marriage of two distinct disciplines—history and film history—may appear daunting at first. Luckily, author Sandeep Ray, a historian, scholar, visual artist, and creative writer, has an incredibly good command of his prose and is a systematic thinker and writer. Ray organized his data and arguments in a way that is accessible to general readers. So those interested in the project but who know very little about either the colonial history of Indonesia, film historiography, or both should fear not.
Celluloid Colony begins the introduction, “A Case for Outcasts,” lamenting the reasons why the Dutch...
