That's a picture of me (on the left) at Candi Sukuh near Surakarta on my first trip to Java some 25 years ago. But while a picture communicates "a lot," some of you may want to know more, something along the lines of "What's up with this guy making a doco about Kartika Affandi?"

Here are some basic facts as presented in the 3rd person [with 1st person annotations appended in brackets]:

Dr. Christopher Basile PhD is a filmmaker, ethnomusicologist, musician, composer, teacher, writer, photographer and painter.

He is currently working on a feature-length documentary film on the life and work of the great Indonesian artist Kartika Affandi. He has also created and is writing a 6-part documentary series ‘Music Planet’ for Australian TV.

[I loved drawing and books from the beginning. Music took over with playing solo and in bands, leading to electronic music and studio engineering - from the days of analog synthesis and tape to midi and digital. Which led to becoming an artist-in-residence in a computer lab (University of Maryland in USA) and computer graphics work. As an undergraduate in university I fell in love with Indonesian art and culture, and played gamelan which led to study in Bali. Further academic pursuit led to an MA and then a PhD for research in ethnomusicology (ie 'anthropology of music' or 'musicological anthropology' depending on your perspective) for field-research on sasandu and sasandu-accompanied song on Roti island near Timor in Eastern Indonesia, a research process which included translation, field-recording, photography and shooting and editing video. This, developing from a childhood obsession with shooting and editing 8mm film, led to working in documentary filmmaking.]

He was Director of the documentary film "A Meeting with Maharsi Pamungkas" (2013) about a meeting between an anthropologist and a spiritual teacher in Java, Indonesia, which was featured in the Aperture Film Festival in Melbourne, and he worked as cameraman, editor, composer, colour-grader and soundman for a documentary on religion in Java “The Java Spirit: Religious Diversity in Indonesia” (2012; published by Ronin Films DVD). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T-Lceu2XBo

[These were scholarly film projects based in Java, Indonesia, and they helped me to learn a lot more about being a cameraman/soundman for documentary shooting in Indonesia, editing, subtitling and creating a documentary, and so on. I am proud of these films for what I was able to achieve with limited equipment and budget. With better equipment and complete creative freedom, and with Kartika Affandi offering her total support and cooperation, I expect that the Kartika Affandi documentary will be an even more satisfying and fulfilling filmmaking experience.]

As an Ethnomusicologist working in Indonesia, he has authored scholarly reference articles on Eastern Indonesia (Timor, Roti, Savu, Flores and Sumba) for 'The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians' and 'The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music' as well as other articles. He is preparing for publication his PhD dissertation on the history, significance and poetics of traditional song on Roti island in Eastern Indonesia - https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Tradition_and_Change_in_Rotinese...

[Also, I recently contributed a chapter to an upcoming book published by the Smithsonian Institute about 'Performance in Indonesia' which I am told will be published soon.]

As a recording engineer working in Indonesia, he has published his field recordings as CDs with illustrated booklets (Troubled Grass & Crying Bamboo: The Music of Roti, and Be Not Afraid to Strike the Gong: The Music of Lombok) accompanied with several short videos he shot in Indonesia. He wrote, narrated and produced the Music of Outer Island Indonesia series for ABC national radio based on his research and musical field recordings, and was commissioned to create a soundscape composition based on his environmental recordings from Indonesia for the ABC Listening Room broadcast and archives. His environmental recordings from Indonesia have been used in sound installations around the world.

 [I have always loved recording ever since I got a little open-reel tape recorder for my 6th birthday. If you are interested in the Roti and Lombok CDs - http://www.users.on.net/~renike.basile/roti-lombok/ ]

He has contributed to Museum installations in the United States and Japan, and taught at the National Institute of Arts in Jakarta, Indonesia, inaugurating the first course in ‘Anthropology of Performing Arts’ there. An exhibition of his Eastern Indonesia photography is planned for The National Museum in Kupang, West Timor later this year. He is fluent in Indonesian, and has done translation work. As a musician he has performed on film soundtracks (such as the feature film "Goddess") and with musicians and groups such as 'Open Circle Party' (Australia), 'Talago Buni' (Indonesia), Ajak Kwai (Sudan/Australia; he produced her album 'Come Together'), and 'Farenddin' (USA; Ferdinand Maisel). He lives in Williamstown near Melbourne in Australia, with his wife Renike and their two sons.

Here's a more recent photo of me (again on the left) with my family, at the 9th-century Borobudur Temple in Java, not far from Kartika's studio...