Film archives: Moving images of history and civilization
By Ami Priyono and Lisa Hadiz
JAKARTA (JP): Looking back at the pages of our history, we can find various interpretations of the country's past struggles. There was the revolutionary struggle against the Dutch, the Indonesian Communist Party's attempted coup, and efforts of unifying our nation in the past 50 years of independence. As we know, history is not only recorded in books but, like documentaries on Hiroshima, the Vietnam war and Nazi death camps, segments of Indonesia's past have also been recorded on film.
As reported by the mass media, an Indonesian documentarist, Des Alwi, has collected documentary films on Indonesia from Europe, the United States and other countries and presented them to our government as a gift on the occasion of Indonesia's 50th Independence Day. This collection will be kept in our National Archives.
You get a different impression from reading history than from observing it through film. A film has the capability of capturing various aspects of life because of its audiovisual nature. As writer and film archivist, S.M. Ardan of the Indonesian Film Archives puts it, "Film is a combination of art, literature and photography."
An example of our history recorded on film is the non-feature film Indonesia Calling (1946) by Dutch director Joris Ivens, which is kept in the Indonesian Film Archives. This film illustrates Australian-Asian solidarity against colonialism, where Sydney dock workers went on strike and stopped the shipment of weapons to the Dutch who were occupying Indonesia.
Even feature or fiction films keep our history and culture recorded for us. Because old movies are moving images of a lifetime some of us never knew, they to life the reality our ancestors once knew and lived. They reflect our origins. For example, features as way back as 1938, starring Roekiah, a famous Indonesian actress of that time, can show us the discourses of marriage, women's roles and the family of those days.
These films can be seen in the Indonesian Film Archives and will tell us more than our grandparents' photo collection could ever do. Located in Jl. Rasuna Said, South Jakarta, the Indonesian Film Archives has been keeping a part of our past on film for 20 years now.
What is a film archive?
Technically, it is an institution that functions as preserver, developer and maintainer of a collection of moving images and recorded sound, with particular emphasis of those related to the nation's origin. As a whole, a film archive's task is to preserve history and cultural heritage. It documents the evolution of our civilization.
Sinematek Indonesia (the Indonesian Film Archives) was first set up on Oct. 20, 1975 and founded by the governor of Jakarta as part of the Umar Ismail Film Center. Sinematek Indonesia was established not just to support the national film industry and as a safe keeping for old films, but also to preserve national culture.
Besides serving as a depository for film, Sinematek Indonesia also serves the community by providing services such as documentation, library, publication and information for students and researchers.
Sinematek Indonesia's existence is justified by the country's need to build, promote and strengthen its national identity and integrity. This is related to our government's propagation for securing eastern culture in the midst of globalization. In truth, the government's high acknowledgement towards Sinematek Indonesia is mostly lip-service, considering little support has been given to it since its establishment. Lack of government support is one of the reasons Sinematek Indonesia's development has had setbacks.
Sinematek Indonesia faces various problems, the lack of government support being one. First, there is the lack of government funding to support Sinematek Indonesia in order for it to develop adequately. For instance, Sinematek Indonesia's office building is far from an ideal film archives. With only one storage room, colored, black and white films and video tapes are all stored together. Ideally a film archive should have a number of storage rooms, separating black and white, colored films and video tapes, as they all need different temperature levels.
Although the Ministry of Information contributes Rp 7 million a month, this is only sufficient to cover administration costs. Sinematek Indonesia cannot afford to make copies of their master films due to the expense it would require. According to Hartono of Sinematek Indonesia's film and photo documentation section, to copy a black and white film would cost up to Rp 1.5 million and a colored film would reach up to Rp 3 million. Unable to overcome this, Sinematek Indonesia has no choice but to use the master films they store for screening purposes as well. If damage is done, there is no way to restore it.
A second problem is the absence of legislative support from government institutions. A clear legislative stand on Sinematek Indonesia's existence is required for adequate legal protection and to ensure Sinematek Indonesia's well-being. This problem is related to the political and economic realm. Indonesia's developmental approach tends to only facilitate institutions which can directly contribute large-scale profits to the economic development. So despite the government's claim that Sinematek's role is as builder of our national identity, Sinematek Indonesia's non-profit mission does not attract much government interest. But "to look at the positive side," says Ardan, "the institutionalization of Sinematek Indonesia is in itself government support."
The third problem Sinematek Indonesia faces is that of technology development. Like technology in other fields, the techniques of film and video preservation is moving at a fast pace. Therefore, financial problems also affect efforts in keeping up with the latest technology and achieving the most effective skills in film archiving.
Personnel training in advanced countries would be one solution. But Hartono warns us to keep in mind that the geographical condition of the South differs from the North, so the latter's technical know-how may not be appropriate for the former. Tropical countries, he explains, need extra efforts to fight against moisture and humidity. This fact of nature is yet another problem Sinematek Indonesia has to face.
The fifth problem which calls for our attention is the management aspect, where a professional system of organizing and collecting should be practiced. The 12-staffed Indonesian Film Archives need adequately trained personnel with a clear division of labor. This aspect is one of the various subjects that North- South dialogs on film archiving touch upon.
In Canberra, for example, from May 8 to June 3, 1995, the National Film and South Archive of Australia conducted the ASEAN Seminar on Film and Video Archive Management. This was a 30-day course on film and video archive management for the ASEAN region which tried to elaborated effective management policies and procedures for film and video preservation work, with recognition of the concerns of tropical film/video archives.
Because a film archive preserves our past for us, its existence is a significant part of a country's national heritage.
Continuous government dependency is not what Ardan is seeking. Using the Philippines as an example, Ardan reminds us of what government dependency can do. A power shift turned the country's then Imelda Marcos supported film archive into a storage facility inadequately cared for today. Sinematek Indonesia's independency, according to Hartono, allows them relative autonomy in decision making.
Film archivists in the North and South are very much aware of the gap in film archive development among them. The concerns addressed in North-South dialogs are only shared amongst film practitioners and archivists. The Indonesian public in general is unaware of the significance of a film archive. This is observed by Ardan who said that the Indonesian society watches movies only for entertainment and there is no appreciation for films as a part of culture.
As an institution that plays a great role in developing society's appreciation for culture and history, one of Sinematek Indonesia's challenges is to reach a wider audience and raise public awareness.