Film festivals giving space for different tastes

Shanty Harmayn, Contributor, Jakarta

After reading Kenneth Turan's Sundance to Sarajevo, film festivals and the world they made, it is still startling for a film festival organizer like myself to be reminded that there are more than 400 -- maybe 500 -- film festivals around the world.

There is no official count and it is still growing: New York alone has about 30 festivals, Jakarta has more than five and we are not even listed in The Variety Annual Guide of Film Festivals.

Film festivals were born out of a thirst for alternative cinema to mainstream Hollywood films, or whatever one defines as mainstream films these days. Illustrating the reality of this demand, The Pusan International Film Festival in Korea managed to attract more than 100,000 spectators in its first year, 1996. For 10 days every fall, the commercial district of Nampodong in the city looks like an ocean of young people lining up for tickets, posters and screenings.

Jakarta International Film Festival (JiFFest), since its inception in 1999, has screened more than 500 films from more than 35 countries and cumulatively attracted more than 110,000 people. Yet it is still small for the size of Jakarta's population of about 12 million.

JiFFest also receives requests from more than 10 cities outside Jakarta for its traveling package screenings, and has attracted about 18,000 viewers this year.

There are so many independent and new filmmakers all over the world, from film students to anybody who wants to make films, searching for an audience for their works. This year alone, private television station SCTV's Indonesian Independent Film Festival received more than 500 short film entries from all over the country in only its second edition. The Independent Video and Film Festival (FFVII) has had about 70 to 80 entries annually for the past five years, and one can imagine the size of their libraries accumulated over the years.

From the perspective of such filmmakers, film festivals are their "distribution channels". They provide opportunities to be picked up by local or international distributors. Some successful films can travel the festival circuit for more than two years, screened at more than 20 film festivals all over the world.

All the festivals work all year long preparing their programs.

Festival programmers travel to other festivals to find new and promising films and filmmakers. They watch films, read reviews, meet with distributors and make their selections. Big festivals, such as Cannes and Venice, compete for strong programming through competition and premieres of films by auteur filmmakers. Sundance is renowned for its great discoveries of new U.S. independent films, the next big thing.

All try to be different, creative and unique to attract audiences. And all share one thing: a celebration and distribution of "not your regular movies".

In this country, the list of "not your regular movies" actually starts with Indonesian independent films themselves, especially documentaries (Indonesian audiences are not exposed enough to documentaries about Indonesia made by Indonesian filmmakers). Then, the list is added to with new Asian cinema (with the exception of action films and Bollywood) and, of course, "world" cinema. Outside the film festival circuit, these films are simply not accessible, excluding the fast growing distribution of pirated DVDs.

But, a film festival is not only about distribution: The audience makes film festivals.

In Jakarta, the film festival audience can be divided into two groups. First, there are the filmmakers and film lovers, who are the core and driving power. They are students, activists and young professionals. They are what Seno Gumira Ajidarma defined in an article in the Nov. 12, 2000 edition of Kompas as the "Viewer's Revolution".

"We want to see the films, we know what the films are, we hunt those films throughout the world and we make our own film festival," was the description.

A screening day at FFVII would be packed with audience members who are mostly independent filmmakers and students. They are people eager to watch newly produced independent films made by their peers.

However, sustainability of a film festival in this country needs to be based on audience building. It is essential to build and nurture the curiosity of the general public. Film festival programmers need to be careful that their events are not reduced to merely a "trend" for some to latch onto, but are worthy of their name.

The writer is the co-founder of the Jakarta International Film Festival and a film director.