Alexandra Kumala

Alexandra Kumala is a writer and filmmaker telling stories of the untranslatable and the inexpressible. Born in Jakarta and formerly based in New York, she was a recipient of the 2024 NYSCA Artists Grant, the 2023 Queens Arts Fund, the 2022 NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music & Theatre and the 2022 George Stoney Fellowship at The Flaherty. Her films have screened at the Museum of Moving Image, Lichtblick-Kino, and at film festivals globally.

Her works have received support from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Queens Council on the Arts. Her writing has appeared in literary journals and anthology books about Southeast Asia, including “A History of Photography in Indonesia,” published by Amsterdam University Press and Afterhours Books, shortlisted for the Historical Book Award at the Book Awards of Les Rencontres d’Arles. Previously, she worked in theatre and translation, both of which influence her writing and filmmaking. Today, she makes films and writes essays about untranslatability and the constant shifting of borders, identities, and power dynamics.

Ita (The Prayer), short fiction, 2023
20 Tahun (20 Years and Other Untranslatabilities), short experimental docu, 2024
Notes from Silences, short experimental docu, 2025