Indonesia’s Monica Vanesa Tedja Explores Rebellion in Southeast Asia Film Lab Project ‘Dear Family’ – Singapore

Acclaimed Germany based Indonesian filmmaker Monica Vanesa Tedja is preparing for her feature directorial project “Dear Family,” selected at the Southeast Asia Film Lab, which is part of the Singapore Media Festival.Tedja got hooked on the medium watching her father film family vacations with his handycam when she was seven. She studied filmmaking for her bachelors degree in Indonesia and made several shorts among which “How to Make a Perfect Xmas Eve” (2012) was a Blencong Award nominee at the Jogja-netpac Asian Film Festival. She went on to do a masters in film directing in Germany and her 2021 thesis short film “Dear to Me,” won the German young talent award First Steps, for graduation films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland and also scored a special mention at Locarno.“Dear Family,” an observation of Asian family dynamics, will follow Tim, whose devout Christian parents find out about his same-sex attraction and ...