Where does national film reform start?

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.