CAF awarded a grant to Gavrila Dharmawan and Nadya Ajlina for their project, “Uma.”

Uma, named after the Dayak word for “home,” is a mixed-media stop motion short film tracing the journeys of individual orangutans from captivity and trauma toward rehabilitation and return to the rainforest. The project is rooted in a three-month immersive experience at the Borneo Orangutan Rescue Alliance (BORA) in East Kalimantan, where the filmmakers lived alongside orangutans. The film draws on the personal stories of orangutans who were taken from the wild, kept as pets, abused, and traded far from their origins, exposing how human notions of “home” can become sites of harm.

CAF’s grant will help complete the film, which premieres in August at the Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) in Yogyakarta, followed by a public discussion with an estimated 300 attendees, with both on-site and online attendance. It will stream on YouTube on International Orangutan Day, 19 August 2026, and is currently planned for screening at Art for Orangutan in October 2026. An accompanying Instagram account will document the creative process and serve as an ongoing educational platform.