Diversity missing in locally produced films

Diversity missing in locally produced films

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia is well-known for its rich cultural
heritage, numerous local dialects and fascinating people of all
different backgrounds.

But these riches fail to appear in locally produced films and
television soap operas (sinetron) -- even in their language,
which, in a way, is supposed to represent Indonesian culture.

Meanwhile, people line up at Studio 21 movie theaters to watch
Hollywood films and watch dubbed telenovellas -- melodramatic
Latin American soap operas -- or other foreign films. Reading
subtitles is no problem.

This issue was raised during a discussion on Wednesday at the
Taman Ismail Marzuki arts center in Central Jakarta. The event
was part of the Jakarta International Film Festival, which runs
until Nov. 28.

Film discussions will be held every day until Saturday as part
of the festival, with a workshop featuring film directors Kohei
Oguri of Japan and Erma Fatima Rahmad of Malaysia capping off the
discussions on Saturday.

One of the speakers on Wednesday, film observer Seno Gumira
Adjidarma, provoked a lively discussion with the question: "Why
doesn't language in Indonesian films reflect a clear cultural
identity."

He said a film's language was based on a script was not taken
from the language spoken outside the world of film.

When asked whether the scripts incorporated the kind of
language being spoken outside the film industry, he said: "Maybe
not at all. And if the answer is yes, it has to be measured by
comparing it with spoken language outside the films .... "

He considered spoken language outside films the first reality,
written language in the script the second reality and the spoken
language in films the third reality.

"But there's no such thing as the most correct reality; no
single truth. So clear cultural identification is unnecessary,"
Seno said.

He pointed to Marseli's Sri as an example, saying the film was
praised for portraying how the Javanese see their world.

"But with a little critical sense, we see a metamorphosis that
might be used against this opinion. Revealing the Javanese world
should certainly use the Javanese language, but Sri's script and
the film use the Indonesian language. So if it's believed that
Sri portrays the Javanese world, then it's because the use of the
Indonesian language is part of that reality," Seno said.

Convincing

Scriptwriter Jujur Prananto said a good film or sinetron
should not be judged simply by how it reflected the nation's
culture or social realities, or because it delivered certain
messages instead of simply entertaining or serving commercial
purposes.

He also refuted the idea that a film which failed to meet the
requirements to be deemed "good quality" was a bad film. "A good
film is a convincing one," he insisted.

A convincing film, he said, should not only be judged by the
language used -- although the role of language in conveying a
filmmaker's message is undeniably important -- but also by other
aspects, such as storyline, setting, dialog, special effects and
acting.

He said there was a tendency to attract as many viewers as
possible by using the language understood by most viewers, in
this case Bahasa Indonesia.

"Ideally, we should use the local dialect in a film which
represents a certain community, but it wouldn't be accessible to
the majority of viewers," Jujur said. (ste)