Film archives: Moving images of history and civilization

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.