Muchtar Suryawan

Muchtar Suryawan, M.A. is a queer, non-binary Indonesian American screenwriter, producer, and media artist creating bold, intimate stories at the intersections of race, culture, gender, and sexuality. Their work centers POC and LGBTQIA+ characters — often characters who are both — with particular attention to how their lives are shaped by their intersectionality.

Their work is interested in shaping characters that media too often flattens, overlooks, and pushes outside the frame. Instead, Muchtar's characters are given the space to be messy, strange, tender, flawed, funny, desirable, contradictory, and fully human. Across screenwriting, film, and media art, they follow stories of belonging, intimacy, identity, and the complicated spaces between who we're expected to be and who we become.

Their short-film screenplay Ibra(him) was named to Coverfly's Red List in 2024. They created and edited The Space In Between, featured at the 2025 Ann Arbor Film Festival, and have worked across independent productions including GenuKnife, Dating As a Vampire, and Heaven in Detroit. Beyond the screen, Muchtar co-founded 4words Community.