At first, I thought the “sandwich” in the film’s title would refer to the sandwich generation, which is the economic backbone of themselves and their family. However, my guess was somewhat wrong. The “sandwich” referred to in Ho Bin Kim’s docuseries is more like a layered spectacle: the way reality is presented through multiple layers of gaze, screen, and device logic. Yogyakarta becomes an interface where facts are acrobatically performed and meanings are constructed. Selected as part of the Perspektif: Post-cinema, this film emphasizes the context of an era where cinema is no longer the primary medium, but a hub in a connected ecosystem of screens, from mobile phones to “real” platforms.
The experiment seems concise. The space for interpretation is vast. Four devices—an iPhone, MacBook, action cam, and camcorder—produce four politics of gaze. Through their modus operandi, each records spontaneous and random conversations in public spaces, screen-within-screen encounters, the rhythms of daily life embedded in the body of Yogyakarta, and travel footage that maintains distance from its own narrator. The screen seizes and solidifies its agency, then overlaps to present a reality that is no less mixed up. What is shown is how devices and viewing habits shape new aesthetic experiences while constructing human feelings towards what is called “reality”.
The question ultimately does not stop at what we see, but how we see it–and with what/whose power. For 21 minutes, this documentary, which begins with Wok the Rock’s shout-out, “reality sandwich,” reminds us that the audience is a layer in the sandwich itself. Our gaze determines the meaning. As an invitation, this film takes us on a journey through fragments of Yogyakarta’s collective subconscious, captured through borrowed eyes. Let’s come, sit, watch, and ask ourselves, “Who is really looking at whom?” (Hesty N. Tyas) (Ed/ Trans. Vanis)
Film Details
Ep.10 Reality Sandwich: Jogja Chronicles
Ho Bin Kim | 21 min | 2025 | Indonesia
Official Selection for Perspektif
Festival Film Dokumenter 2025
