Indonesian Politics: Development of Film Industry Indonesia
Assignment Instructions
Topic/question
Write an essay (2500 words) in response to ONE of the following six topics:
1. During the Suharto era, media and the arts were subject to government censorship. How have changes in Indonesia since 1998 transformed the situation for media and cultural practitioners? Has real freedom of expression been achieved? In your answer, refer to specific examples from a range of media.
2. A significant amount of Indonesian literature since 1998 has dealt with issues associated with gender and sexuality. How is the treatment of gender and sexuality in this literature different from literature prior to 1998? Why do you think might this be the case? In your answer, refer to detailed examples from Indonesian literature both before and after 1998.
3. Discuss some of the influences upon the development of the Indonesian film industry. How have these influences impacted upon the films viewed by Indonesian audiences? What has changed since 1998?
4. How is modernisation presented in the following four stories from Hill (1998): ‘The Factory’, ‘Matias Akankari’, ‘Jakarta’, and ‘Coming Home’? In your opinion, are the writers “constructing” tradition as a reaction against modernity?
5. Cultural expression in Indonesia often takes the form of social criticism. Describe various ways that this has occurred in Indonesian arts, using detailed examples, and analyse how this reflects developments in Indonesian society.
6. One of the notable trends in Indonesian popular culture since the fall of Suharto has been the rise of Islamic pop culture – that is, popular music, books, films, TV shows and other forms of media or popular cultural expression containing themes, messages or storylines that engage with issues of religious belief, teachings or morality. Discuss some of the themes explored in Islamic pop culture and analyse how these relate to contemporary developments, issues or debates in Indonesia. In your answer, give detailed examples from a number of different media.
Assessment criteria for this Assignment (Essay)
Your essay must:
•respond directly to the topic you choose;
•be based on wide reading (not just the required readings for relevant topics) and include complete reference and citation details;
•be well-organised (introduction, body, and conclusion, with a logical structure and argument);
•be well-presented (and free from errors of spelling, grammar and punctuation).
When you read the list of essay topics you will see that each one fairly clearly relates to material and issues discussed in one of the weekly topics. However, this does not necessarily mean that you should only draw on material from that topic to answer your essay. Some of the essay topics are relevant to only one of the weekly topics; however, others allow, or even require, you to draw together examples or ideas discussed in a number of weekly topics and you should feel free to do so where you think it is appropriate.
Begin your essay preparation early. If you need to request books or photocopies from the Dixson Library, do so early as many titles are not available in multiple copies and you need to allow plenty of time for material to reach you. Any queries about this should be made directly to the Dixson Library.
Marking Criteria
All essays will be marked using the criteria table below.
Comments
Mark
Introduction
•Did the student introduce the topic?
•Did the student describe how the topic would be discussed?
•Did the student justify his/her approach
(if necessary)?
•Did the student deal with any definitional problems
(if necessary)?
•Did the student set out a clear thesis or argument that addresses the topic directly?
Discussion
•Did the student make relevant arguments that address the topic directly?
•Were the student's arguments adequately supported by appropriate evidence?
•Did the student provide sufficient detail?
•Were the arguments structured in a logical, flowing manner?
Development of Film Industry Indonesia
Name
Institute of affiliation
Date
Development of Film industry in Indonesia
The film industry in Indonesia has been influenced by various factors. The factors have changed the film production industry either positively or negatively. Studies show that the factors range from the government's influence, the preference of citizens, influence by the colonialists and support by media. The film industry at the beginning faced many challenges that affected the development of this industry. The initiatives by the government, the filmmakers and the citizens of Indonesia have joined forces to gap this problem which at the end turned successful. The film industry has had tough times in the past as compared to the present. During President Suharto’s reign, the film industry was under strict rules and regulations. In the nineties, the film industry plummeted to almost a standstill, hardly producing films anymore. According to the research conducted, the analysts linked the fall of the Industries in the rising number of movies to the spread of private television, which was legalized in 1987. The paper explores the history of cinema, the factors that have influenced the development of Indonesian film industry, how the factors impacted upon the audiences’ choice and the changes that happened since 1998 as discussed below (Clark, 2008).
Cinema History in Indonesia
The Cinema came into existence in Indonesia under the colonial power of the Dutch government. The industries were initiated at the beginning of the twentieth century. Despite the fact that the Dutch Indies were part of Holland, American films were the most popular in Indonesia during that time and were imported through other channels than Holland. According to the research, the majority of the 250 theaters on Java showed Hollywood films. The first local film that was produced in the Dutch Indies was the silent film ’Loetoeng Kasaroeng’, although the director was Dutch, the Indonesians too were involved in the acting process. In the early times of the year, most of the "local" filmmakers were European or Chinese; ’LoetoengKasaroeng’ or the’ Enchanted Monkey’, was based on a Sudanese folktale. The first Chinese production was Melanie Van Java by the Wong Brothers. In 1937, the Wong brothers collaborated with the Dutch director Albert Balink and created Terang Boylan or Full Moon. This movie was a great success and brought Indonesia more than just a film. "The one that gave birth to Indonesia’s first movie star: Miss Roekiah. She became a real celebrity and an idol for the ordinary people in Indonesia. The story was not original; it was an adaptation of an American film called The Jungle Princess.
During the Japanese Occupation, the Indonesian cinema underwent some necessary changes that would shape it even more. The Indonesian film was taken out of European and Chinese hands and given to the Indonesians. Indonesian filmmakers learned Japanese production styles and more attention had been paid to a proper version of the Indonesian language spoken on screen.
Furthermore, the Japanese showed the importance of using film to carry social and political messages. Heider explains that thanks to the Japanese teachings, the leaders of the Indonesian cinema emerged after the independence. One of these persons is Usmar Ismail; his film Darah Dan Do ‘an or Blood and Prayer carries the message: "Indonesian film raised the issues about events on the national scale. Furthermore, this is one of the first films produced entirely by Indonesians. It signifies Indonesia’s independence and the importance of this movie CITATION Vic05 \l 1033 (Vickers, 2005). The censorship board that was founded by the Dutch in 1925 remained active even after the declaration of independence together with the state’s role that was formed during the Japanese occupation. The censorship board, now called the Board of Film Censorship or Badan Sensor Film, BSF had its mission to keep political and sexual "excesses" out of Hollywood cinema, until their import was banned in 1964 as Krishna Sen elaborates in "Indonesia: Screening a Nation in the Post-New Order. In 1967, after Suharto had taken over, the ban was lifted, and the market was once again flooded with Hollywood pictures and other imported films. Within three years, the number of import films rose to nearly 800. The film industry had to adhere the state ideology of five principles or Pancasila, which was introduced by President Sukarno. "These principles were: belief in one and only God; just and civilized humanity; the unity of Indonesia; democracy guided by the inner wisdom of deliberations of representatives; and social justice for all Indonesian people. In the era of the New Order, the film industry expanded in the seventies as the Indonesian economy recovered rapidly. The number of feature films made in the seventies went from twenty-one in 1970 to a staggering 124 productions in 1977, also because the import of foreign films was reduced from 1974 to 1978. In that same year, 1977, the Censorship Guideline states that films that emphasize sex and violence and films deal with colonialism, imperialism, fascism as well (Hanan, 2009).
The influences upon the development of film industry in Indonesia include: Influence by Foreign Culture
The film industry in Indonesia could not develop faster due to the influence of foreign culture. Indonesia as a country at early times before 1949, when the country was still under colonialism of Dutch. The Dutch government controlled all the businesses in Indonesia. The film industry was among the companies controlled. The government of Dutch only wanted their films to be watched in the country and therefore, would not allow the people of Indonesia to produce their films .The restriction by colonial power impacted negatively to the growth of film industry in Indonesia. The government of Dutch encouraged the use of Hollywood movies that surpassed the growth of Indonesian film industries. The citizens of Indonesia were also influenced by the imported movies. An example is the American films commonly called the Hollywood films. The locally produced movies could be sold quickly hence made the local industry collapse (Heeren, 2009).
The popularity of telefilms
Another fundamental element was the popularity of telefilms, the people of Indonesia making them concentrate on soaps and television drama series. Many workers vacated from the film industry and joined other industries. For example, the majority of them went to work in the television industry according to the research conducted. The process at the end resulted in the collapse of the film industry. Hence, the production was influenced negatively. There were no developments that were witnessed in the film industry despite the effort made by the regulation film board. The board’s initiatives were to adequately balance the production of all kinds of movies so the industry of film could be all round. The target was to meet the needs of many audiences to kill the importation of foreign films (Heider, 1991).
Insecurities during early times
There were insecurity problems during early times: early 1900s that impacted not only the film industry but also many other industries. The issue of insecurity impacted negatively the film industry in Indonesia since people had divided minds and therefore could not concentrate on ...