ASEAN film industries share common problems

By K. Basrie

YOGYAKARTA (JP): The ASEAN Film Festival, bringing together movie stars, producers, film distributors and government officials, have ended with no resolution to the problems plaguing the regional film industry.

The ASEAN members: Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam and the Philippines, did learn during the four- day meeting that they had in common the specter of growing Hollywood encroachment on their markets.

The forecast appears even more grim as the Hollywood bigwigs, in collaboration with local business communities, appear to be set on taking over local cinemas.

Audiences also appear uninterested in quality locally made films, preferring instead titillating tales laden with sex and violence.

In Malaysia, the number of imported movies, mainly from Hollywood and Hong Kong, reaches around 600 titles a year, compared to the paltry 25 local films shown in the cinemas.

"The situation is already under the control of the imported films," Malaysian film director Mahadi J. Murat told The Jakarta Post before the event ended Wednesday.

The same problem is evident in Singapore, where about 99 percent of movies screened are from Hollywood and Hong Kong.

The Philippines fares slightly better. Last year, there were 400 imported movies shown in local cinemas compared to the 180 locally produced titles.

"We all share the same problem," Filipino actress Regina Eigenmann told the meeting. "We need a big budget (to make quality films) but people don't go to see them."

As a result, the ASEAN film industry has been mired by plummeting ticket sales and steadily decreasing film production in recent years.

Indonesia, once billed as one of the largest film producing countries in this region, produced just 26 films last year. About 150 films were produced annually in the heyday of the 1970s and early 1980s.

"Why should we make films if even good films cannot sell well in the market?" Indonesian actress Ninik L. Karim told the Post.

Another factor hampering the ASEAN film industry is the rapid development of new and sophisticated cinema complexes (cinemaplex), which has led to the closing down of many older movie theaters, particularly for lower-class audiences.

These old cinemas had supported the golden era of the local film industry.

The mushrooming of private televisions stations and the prevalence of videos and laser discs in most of the ASEAN countries had also contributed to the downturn in movie theater attendance, delegates said.

Weaknesses

Participants owned up to weaknesses in their operations which had also played a role in rendering local films strangers in their homelands.

"We don't have enough technology, qualified human resources and strong cooperation among film community members in this region," complained producer Manuel M. Nuqui from the Philippines.

Religious considerations and the close ties among the governments of ASEAN had limited the creativity of producers to make vehicles which might draw regional and international audiences, Nuqui said.

Indonesian senior journalist Rosihan Anwar said quality films could not be produced in this region as long as producers still face the same dilemmas.

In their bid to survive, some film directors and producers only want to make films about good government officials and police, or the relationship among ASEAN countries, Anwar said. But most of the films center on love and passion, or humor according to prevailing tastes in the region.

"I've never watched any Indonesian film in the past four years because they're only about cheap sex and tears, or about the good guys and the rich," said Obby, a senior student at the Faculty of Economy at Gadjah Mada University here.

Indonesia's actor Roy Marten, now a leading player in sinetron television dramas, sarcastically referred to the Indonesian film industry as a mummy.

Participants made an impassioned pledge at the end of the meeting to join forces in finding effective ways to promote ASEAN films in the region and to battle Hollywood dominance.

Narto Irawan, Indonesia's director of Film and Video Recording Development, said the ASEAN film community plans to set up a computerized network system for exchanging product information and seeking possible cooperation and promotion overseas.

"We're not dreaming and we intend to realize all of the plans for the sake of the film industry in this region," Narto said.