'It's hard to attach a price to culture'

The seventh Jakarta International Film Festival, or JiFFest (www.jiffest.org) runs from Dec. 9 through Dec. 18. The Jakarta Post contributor Daniel Ziv caught up with festival director Orlow Seunke and the cofounder/chairperson, film producer Shanty Harmayn.

They talked about JiFFest's humble beginnings and the festival's current challenges.

JP: How do you see JiFFest today, seven years on, compared with the original vision?

Shanty Harmayn: JiFFest has come a very long way. When we started out we had no idea we'd even be around as a festival seven years later. It was difficult to start up, it was difficult to survive, and it is difficult even today: Unfortunately, in terms of fundraising obstacles, not much has changed since the early days.

Orlow Seunke: When Shanty founded JiFFest, the idea was simply to have a film festival for Jakarta, in the same way that nearly every major country has a film festival in one of its big cities -- New York, Rio, Venice, Tokyo. Indonesia had none. I think people have no idea how hard it is to start up a festival, to manage it, to secure films for it. So when they started they just ran on enthusiasm and determination, and grew rapidly through trial and error.

SH: Absolutely. Many other film festivals had the time and funds to actually research their market and concept first, like in Pusan (Korea, arguably Asia's most influential film festival). For us it was simply, "Let's do it, let's have a film festival, let's learn as we go." Even something as basic as explaining to distributors what we were and why they should give us films to screen was an enormous challenge at first.

OS: Pusan started their first year with a budget of US$3 million. JiFFest was started with petty cash from the organizers' own pockets, and eventually managed to run on $80,000 in donations and sponsorship.

Most local film observers agree that even five years into its supposed "revival", Indonesia's film industry isn't really at the level it could or should be at. What's the problem?

OS: There's only one real problem -- scripts! A film is based on a story. Eighty per cent of the film is in the story! That's what people come to see.

But there is a lack of awareness for the importance of script, partly because even weak scripts can work, in the market sense, as long as their films break even or make some money, so why should anyone work harder? Let's not forget, this is a business. So I'm not even saying this as a criticism. It's just the way things work.

SH: There's still only a very small base of industry people here who truly know what they are doing, usually because they went to a good film school or took their craft very seriously.

There's hardly any professional training infrastructure in Indonesia. So the growth in skills and production quality doesn't begin to match the rapid increase in market demand for film and TV products.

Meanwhile, the hungry market absorbs whatever is available out there, so existing filmmakers have neither time nor incentive to seriously improve their skills, because the market makes due with the existing quality.

Orlow, you just announced your resignation as JiFFest director after this year's festival due to frustrations in securing funding. Why is it so hard to raise money for what everyone agrees is a very successful, positive film festival that contributes so much to this city? Why are you stuck at $400,000 when Pusan started with $3 million?

OS: I'm a film producer so I instinctively understand the realistic costs involved in something like this. When I came in two years ago I immediately told Shanty that this festival needs $600,000 to function properly. Yet we barely raised $400,000.

It's hell. It's difficult. It's so hard to attach a price to culture, yet culture is so valuable to any society -- it really is the cement that holds bricks together, or the roots of a tree.

We need to understand that anything relating to quality of human life -- education, health care, culture -- it all costs money! But perhaps because it's still a young democracy here, people don't yet see the inherent value of culture, and are busy seizing business opportunities and less interested in contributing to society through culture.

So really, in terms of formula, festivals shouldn't have to generate 100 percent of the budget themselves?

OS: Well, that goes back to how a government views culture as part of the bigger picture. I call it cultural industry. For example, the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam could never support itself through ticket sales alone.

But as a major tourist attraction it is assumed that it indirectly generates tourist dollars in other forms, like meals, transportation, hotel stays, and so on. So it receives funding from the state and the municipality.

Similarly, if Jakarta created better attractions for visitors, like properly restoring Old Kota, tourists who normally fly straight out to Bali or Yogya would have more incentive to spend extra time -- and money -- in Jakarta.

But that requires total synergy between the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the Economic Ministries. If the government doesn't see this link, of course you can't blame them for not supporting a film festival.