What's with Indonesian film?

Each year when we greet the Jakarta International Film Festival we also wonder about the fate of the Indonesian film industry. With this year's JiFFest kicking off this weekend, this question has come back to haunt us once again.

Few of the 130 films being screened during this year's festival, which started last Friday and runs until Dec. 12, are locally produced. Movie buffs are certainly in for a real treat given all the carefully picked local and international films to be shown during the festival, but this does not erase the now frequently asked question: "What's with the Indonesian film industry?"

The good news this year is that there are signs that the local film industry, having lost its glitter and shine over the last 10 years or so, is making a recovery, albeit a slow one.

For example, 18 films have been released this year, up from 13 in 2003, eight in 2002, four in 2001, and one in 2000. It is still a paltry number compared to what many other Asian countries produce, and certainly well behind the 100 or so films that Indonesia used to churn out each year in the 1970s and 1980s.

There is also the fact that the Indonesian Film Festival is being held again for the first time after a lapse of 12 years. The FFI on Dec. 11 will give out the Citra awards, the local equivalent of the Academy Awards. Like most awards, the Citras should help to set standards for the film industry, and thus promote better quality films, by giving due recognition to those who truly excel.

And what gives us most hope for a recovery of the film industry is the fact that the industry today is managed mostly by people from the younger generation. We are not talking only about the actors and actresses, who by definition are almost certainly young and attractive in the first place. We are also talking about the immense pool of talent found among the young people working behind the screen today. A quick glance at some of the names behind the films almost sure to be nominated for the festival, such as Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? (What's With Love?), Arisan, Cau Ba Kan, and Elian, Eliana, reveals that most of them have only joined the film industry in the last five to 10 years.

Coincidentally but appropriately, JiFFest takes "youth" as its main theme this year. While this refers mostly to the genre of the films being screened, for the people running the Indonesian film industry, "youth" takes on a completely different meaning. It is our young people who we must look to for the revival of the film industry.

The bad news is that, sadly, nothing has changed when it comes to protecting the creativity of talented people working in the film industry, or elsewhere for that matter. If anything, film piracy has become worse in line with the rapid development of information technology. All movies, whether produced in Hollywood or in Indonesia, become available in pirated VCD or DVD format from the moment they hit the screens, sometimes even before.

Indonesia has been cited as being among the worst offenders when it comes to protecting copyright and intellectual property rights. Little did we realize at the time that it was partly, if not mostly, our failure to appreciate and respect those rights that almost killed the local film industry in the 1990s.

With almost no support emanating from the government, the industry almost collapsed in the 1990s. Even as it recovers, it expects little assistance from the government. But if there is one area where the new government can support the industry, it is in combating copyright piracy.

Other than that, the people working in the film industry have a lot going for them. There is a never-ending appetite for good quality films among the people here, as attested by the growing popularity of not just Hollywood movies, but also Chinese and Indian films dubbed into Indonesian. And finally, there is the freedom afforded by the state since 1998, giving more space for various forms of cultural expressions that the movie industry has yet to tap.