#FilmShortFridays is a series of Jon’s experimental video, film, and shadow puppet theater Nang Thotlong New Albany – หนังทดลอง นิว อัลบานี!

‘”Mentkjak”; een schijngevecht, begeleid door angklongmuziek.’ is an intertitle for a short segment in a Dutch colonial documentary of Indonesia (then known as the Dutch East Indies). The intertitle translates as ‘”Mancak”; a mock battle, accompanied by angklung music.’

Mancak is the name of one of many regional variants of martial arts in Indonesia, what is now referred to as Pencak silat after the 1948 formation of the Indonesian Pencak Silat Association (IPSI) which brought all variants under one nationalized umbrella. Pencak silat is also closely tied to Randai, a type of folk theater of the Minangkabau in Sumatra.

The Angklung originated in the Sundanese region of Indonesia but has become popular throughout Southeast Asia and often used in large ensembles in community groups and school music instruction.

The score is an excerpt from Jon Silpayamanant’s “Homrong Angklung” (2023)

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