Where does national film reform start?

By Marselli Soemarno

JAKARTA (JP): The spirit of reform is sweeping through Indonesia. National film circles are proclaiming the same. But where must national film reform start?

We could start with the empowerment of the highest film institute: the National Film Assessment Board.

Early this year, the board moved to its new office at the Usmar Ismail Film Center, Jl. HR Rasuna Said, South Jakarta. However, big buildings do not automatically offer solutions to the film-production crisis. Among the problems is the case of 20 films that are being held by a laboratory because the producers cannot pay the high price of copy printing.

From the time of President Sukarno until today, a national film institute has always been around, though under different names. The highest institute in the film industry has always been under the information ministry. It has also always been characterized by many ideas but only a few of them have been carried out. This led Asrul Sani, the assessment board chairman in the early 1980s, to say in a loud voice: "Too many speeches but too little has been done in managing Indonesian films."

The National Film Assessment Board consists of 15 bureaucrats and 10 film people. It collects funds mainly from dues on imported films and membership fees. It will terminate its duty in May.

To empower the board, more members should be recruited from film circles. The board should also create a coordination with other film institutes, especially those in the field of human resources.

The crisis in national film production indicates a crisis in the people or the filmmakers. This means that film education is of primary importance. The younger generation should take the place of their seniors or those who are not creative anymore.

Before focusing on film education in Indonesia, let us look at the condition of film education in three countries close to us with regard to film culture: India, China and the U.S.

India, one of the three strongest film industries in the world, has the Pune film school, which was established by the government in the 1940s. Its official name is the Film and Television Institute of India.

Pune is a small town 90 kilometers east of Bombay, the Indian film industry center.

Film school

The Pune film school is in one complex with a cinematheque. Both local and foreign experts, as well as film people are often invited as guest lecturers. The school's graduates enter the film industry, which currently numbers 75,000 workers. The television department is a training center for the Doordhasan crew, the Indian national television network.

The school has a direct link with the national film council in the country, known as the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), allowing students to go from filming raw material right up to the development and printing process in a laboratory. The NFDC is also active in sponsoring sidestream films which they think are necessary to balance mainstream films.

The People's Republic of China is also a giant country like India. The government has established a film school, called the Beijing Film Academy. It is located on the periphery of Beijing and is quite modern both in its building and its curriculum.

China's concern for a film school seems to reflect the general view of socialist/communist governments which are concerned about the conservation of museums and education in art and sports.

Another example is Russia, which established the first film school in the world, the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography, in 1918. One of its alumni who graduated cum laude was Sjumandjaja of Indonesia.

The Chinese government is known for its strict limitations, even in film production. However, a group of Beijing Film Academy graduates succeeded in launching an "artistic revolt" through their films. Among them are Wu Tianming, Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou and Gong Li. They were known afterwards as the fifth generation of Chinese cinema, which was capable of overcoming obstacles in production funding and the government's censorship. It means that creativity as a result of education was running supreme.

The U.S. is also a giant in film production. It has several big film schools and thousands of film colleges. The best talents are taken from these schools. Moreover, many talented foreign filmmakers working in Hollywood take a detour to gain international success. To name a few: Paul Verhoven of the Netherlands, Peter Weir of Australia and John Woo of Hong Kong.

Consequently, supported by a global network and marketing, and managed by the trade department, American films are shown everywhere. Film is the fourth-largest export commodity. There is no such thing as a national film council. But they do have a prestigious institute called the American Motion Pictures of Arts and Sciences. This institute serves as an umbrella for the American Film Institute, the Academy Awards Festival and the like.

Academy Awards

We can guess from their names what kind of institutes they are. Although American films strongly represent capitalism, they are also concerned about education, development and planning for the sake of the welfare of the industry itself. As an example, the yearly Academy Awards ceremony is seriously designed, so that most newspaper editors worldwide publish front-page reports on the Oscars.

Now about Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world. It is not clear what rank is accorded its film industry. Its only film school, the School of Film and Television, is at the Jakarta Arts Institute. Its status is neither public nor private.

To date, 289 students have graduated from the school. The majority of them now work in the audio-visual field. Some have shown achievement in their work. However, the school feels its status is isolated. The school increasingly needs the attention of many sides in order to yield human resources capable of responding to the challenges of the era.

It's isolation also shows that national film institutes have actually no close relationships and are not well coordinated. If in India, China and the U.S. human resources in films are considered strategic, it is the same in Indonesia. Here, however, concrete steps to improve human resources are still a part of the ideals of reform.

The writer is a lecturer at the School of Film and Television, Jakarta Arts Institute.