Dian Rana

Dian Rana (born in Bandung, 2 February 1988) is an Indonesian independent documentarian known for documenting the development of the Nusantara Capital City (IKN) since its early stages. Part of his documentation is currently being processed for designation as Static Archives by the National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia (ANRI).

Born in Bandung, Dian Rana grew up in a transmigration village environment in Central Sulawesi. His childhood was marked by various hardships, including experiences with flooding and repeated displacement. These experiences later shaped his perspective on social change and the importance of documentation as a historical record.

His interest in the development of IKN began from personal curiosity about the large-scale transformation taking place in East Kalimantan. His presence in the IKN area was not connected to any institution and was carried out independently. Since 2021, he has consistently documented the development of the IKN area through field videos, photography, and other forms of visual documentation.

Dian Rana’s work not only highlights physical construction progress, but also captures the lives of local communities, social dynamics, and the human side of development surrounding the project. Through social media, he became widely known as an “IKN YouTuber” for his consistent on-site coverage during the early stages of development.

His perspective and documentation attracted international media attention, including from Rest of World, which highlighted the importance of local voices in the narrative surrounding Indonesia’s new capital city project.

In 2025, Dian Rana published a book titled Behind the Nusantara Screen: Small Steps Amid a Great History. The book combines personal experiences with documentary notes about his involvement in witnessing and recording one of the largest transformations in modern Indonesian history.

Following the publication of the book, he decided to no longer focus on routine field coverage for social media and instead shifted his work toward long-term archival preservation. As part of this transition, he privated most of his previous social media documentation, including around 1,200 videos recorded since 2021.

Part of this documentation is planned to be gradually submitted to the National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia (ANRI) for further archival processing as part of the preservation of early IKN development records.