Film appreciation needs to be improved: Salim Said
Film appreciation needs to be improved: Salim Said
By Jane Scott
JAKARTA (JP): Questions about the marketing and distribution of
Indonesian film were put to the Chairman of the Jakarta Arts
Council, author, film and cultural critic, Dr. Salim Said.
In Salim Said's view, the mandatory screening of Indonesian
films during the Indonesian Film Month in March last year was not
a great success. There were screens closed because of lack of
materials and audiences were negligible. But how else can the
production industry alert the public to the existence of
Indonesian film that should be seen?
Q: In the late 1980s cinema attendance here was rising but
growth in the number of screening opportunities for Indonesian
films was lagging behind. Is this situation still current?
Salim Said: No, it is not the same. There is little product
now, around 20 to 30 films annually. It is difficult to find time
for such films. With two exceptions, there was nothing worthwhile
in 1994 for a film observer, a cultural observer, like me.
Q: Given the experience of one of the two films to which you
have just referred, the Ucik Supra's film Badut-Badut Kota (Clown
of the City), a festival prizewinner abroad but it failed on the
local market, how can Indonesian films find audiences in the
current situation?
Salim: My theory is that the traditional audiences for
Indonesian films are the lower middle class and lower classes.
If, once in a while there is a good film, that good film cannot
be appreciated. The upper classes who patronize Hollywood movies
are not ready to appreciate good Indonesian film. They like to
participate in the "event" of popular movies and are guided by
reviews in newspapers which are synopses only. It is also a
problem of film appreciation.
Q: What of the fate of the other 'good' film of 1994, Garin
Nugroho's Surat Untuk Bidadari? It won festival prizes overseas
but has only had limited audience here.
Salim: Even more typical.
Q: To illustrate your point. A reputed director and no
audience?
Salim: Yes, and Garin is a very special director, a graduate
of Indonesian film school, an avid reader. If Garin does continue
to make films he will be the second pioneer of Indonesian film,
after the neo-realist work of Usmar Ismail. I hope he will find
his own expression.
Q: His own voice?
Salim: Yes. Let me say this. I am still waiting for the real
Garin. His Surat Untuk Bidadari was what I consider a student
film. He has not yet incorporated (synthesized) what he has
learnt, so you hear others' voices?
Q: A textbook film, a bit derivative? You are waiting for him
to integrate his experience with his knowledge?
Salim: Yes.
Q: In an article in The Jakarta Post last year you said that
the Indonesian film industry needed an "orderly circulation
system", among other things like money, talent, good management.
Would you expand on this?
Salim: You see a poster for film, you think you will see it
the next day, you go to the cinema, it is no longer there. You
see the poster, then two days later they drop the film. The
exhibition system needs to be predictable for everyone, including
the exhibitor and the audience. Otherwise people (like me) turn
to laser discs.
Q: The history of the local industry is peppered with
decisions to ban and revoke bans on foreign films, to support and
to relinquish support for local film production. Has the
government given too much attention to film production and too
little to freeing up exhibition practices, marketing and
distribution in particular?
Salim: It does not give enough attention to any sector. The
industry is all one -- production, distribution, marketing and
exhibition are all part of one package. And also film
appreciation, that is part of the package. Film appreciation here
needs to be developed.
Q: In the 1960s Umar Kayam said (and I quote from your book
Shadows of the Silver Screen), while defending a government
decision to allow large-scale importation of foreign films, that
importers perform a "mission" in restoring the health of movie
theaters in Indonesia, but that these importers must support and
assist development of national film production. What do you think
of those views?
Salim: Protectionist, and against recent new free-trade
policy. Cultural protectionism ... but they let us fight for
culture while they protect agriculture. In the movie business,
only a few countries in the world - India, Iran, America itself
-- can be boss, can dominate in their own country. Let no
Indonesian dream of having a big film industry. In the future in
Indonesia there will be the two sub-cultures: the mostly low-
class film and the quality film, the type that goes to
international festivals. These quality films do not make money
but they show people you exist.
Q: Dea Sudarman's documentary film The Asmat set in Irian Jaya
was made with the assistance of investment from the Japanese
company NHK. Could this be a way for feature production to go --
getting (at least) foreign exhibition, marketing, and
distribution guaranteed through foreign investment in local
production?
Salim: Yes, co-productions are possible ... But a recent co-
production for producer Budiati Abiyoga, the film Oeroeg, made
with European partners, has been screened overseas and has not
yet been distributed here.
Q: Commercial, non-government television companies could be
good news for filmmakers as they have been in England with
Channel 4 and with Canal Plus in France. Could that sort of
sponsorship be activated here?
Salim: Surat Untuk Bidadari was partly financed by TPI and I
hope that this culture will widen. As for programming, none of
the television stations seek advice about good films; nor do they
have specialist programmers.
(We approach the end of our talk -- and reach the bottom of
our tea cups.)
Salim: In Indonesia today there is a rising audience demand
for quality film. Slowly there is an opening for the quality
film, the art film, which is a separate entity from the low-class
product. Both co-exist as two sub-cultures here. It has always
been the case.