Zai Kuning’s 2003 film documents life in the Riau Archipelago. Extending from Singapore to Indonesia and consisting of more than three thousand islands, the archipelago is home to seafaring populations who make their living through fishing and who are thought to live nomadically on boats, rarely touching land. From 1999 to 2003, Zai undertook intermittent trips to the region in search of the Orang Laut—or ‘sea people’, in Malay—considered by some to be the first peoples of Singapore. RIAU chronicles his interactions with the communities of the archipelago as they go about their daily activities. Scenes of the indigenous people working, eating, fishing, and singing are interspersed with long periods of silence, and the artist’s diaristic texts. The film draws attention to the struggles of the rapidly diminishing Orang Laut, who face ongoing discrimination and financial hardship as a result of modern developments.