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.