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

'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.