“There isn’t a single discourse that could explain women’s position in Indonesia because, so far, most films are made with male perspective. All my films refuse to contain moral message as it has only one message: equality!”

Nurkurniati Aisyah Dewi, more widely known as Nia Dinata, fiercely explained her views on women’s position in Indonesian films. In her opinion, films should give room to equality in seeing society’s divergence. A director born in March 1970, she chooses film as her way to deliver story-driven tales to people.

She studied journalism in Elizabethtown College, Pennsylvania and continued to study film production in New York University, United States. This talkative lady chooses against-the-current themes for her films. “I represent films, characters, stories that are outside status quo environment or circle,” she explains.

In April 17, 2010, Jurnal Footage had the opportunity to squeeze an interview with her in her super tight schedule. We met her in Pacific Place when she, under Kalyana Shira Foundation, was organizing KidFest 2010—an international children’s film festival held in Jakarta. In this interview, representing Jurnal Footage are Hafiz (Editor-in-Chief), Akbar Yumni (Editor) and Syaiful Anwar who recorded our conversation with a video. Interview took place in Blitz Megaplex smoking lounge, Pacific Place, Jakarta.

In absence of clear cultural policies, Indonesians cultural activists often protest. After more than 60 years since our independence, debate on the directions of Indonesia’s modern culture continues to roll. But to date, nothing has come out satisfactorily for all parties involved. “What if the absence of directions on cultural policies in our country turns out to be necessary? Because of that absence, all of us move toward to finding our identity,” is Riri Riza’s remark regarding our current development in the industry. We need to be “grateful” for the fact that, in our film industry, there are filmmakers who produce sex, horror, and other market-responsive genres. With their presence, we can assess and balance out the good from the bad. “We’ll be dead when all we have is religious films. Or when all films are meant to be normative like Laskar Pelangi (The Rainbow Troops), we’re doomed! At least we’re not a puritan country,” he criticized Indonesian films, including his own works.

Muhammad Rivai Riza, widely known as Riri Riza, is a phenomenon in Indonesian film history. As a director, he’s undeniably one of the movers and shakers of the industry’s resurrection. Together with Mira Lesmana, Nan Achnas, and Rizal Mantovani, he ventured to make the film Kuldesak (Cul-de-sac, 1998)—a collaborative film project made with independent production—which was screened in Studio 21 Cinema to proportionate the domination of Hollywood films during the time. According to Riri, they had only one dream, “For Indonesian films to be screened in cinemas, competing openly with Western films.”

Born in October 1970, he grew up choosing the film industry to feed “inspirations” to society. He proved this with the making of Petualangan Sherina (Sherina’s Adventure), which turned to be the initial boom in Indonesian film industry during the post-reformation era.  An ex-drummer of a cover version band famous during the 1990s, he later directed several films with exceptional themes not commonly found in our film industry. One of them is Gie, which depicted the dark history of the 1965 coupe. His huge success was achieved when he made Laskar Pelangi and its sequel, Sang Pemimpi (The Dreamer). Both films are viewed by more than 4.5 million audience—a figure never before attained by his predecessors in the industry. However, with such tremendous market success, how does one Riri Riza see and conceptualize the function of film as a cultural undertaking that doesn’t stop at commercial areas?

Jurnal Footage is pleased to take an opportunity to interview this friendly figure in his office at Miles Production. During this encounter we try to see the other side of Riri Riza on: his ideological views, his thoughts on culture, his choice of film “language”, and his notion on Indonesia film industry. The interview took place on March 8, 2010 and is represented by Hafiz (Editor-in-Chief), Akbar Yumni (Editor), Otty Widasari (Forum Lenteng Akumassa Program Coordinator) and Bagasworo Aryaningtyas (Forum Lenteng Research and Development Assistant Coordinator) who recorded the discussion with a video camera.

^{(Temporarily available only in Bahasa Indonesia)}

Ada banyak hal yang bisa didiskusikan saat kita bicara tentang komunitas filem dan filem komunitas. Dari persoalan pilihan untuk berkumpul sebagai sebuah kelompok, apa itu penonton, tema-tema, hingga persoalan pengertian-pengertian tentang filem itu sendiri. Pertanyaan-pertanyaan ini telah menjadi dugaan-dugaan yang tak terjawab bagi Jurnal Footage dalam melihat komunitas filem. Karena dari banyaknya tumbuh komunitas filem sejak Reformasi 1998, hingga saat ini hanya sedikit komunitas filem yang bisa bertahan dan tetap konsisten bekerja di wilayah komunitas. Dari yang sedikit itu, ada beberapa komunitas yang memunculkan ‘orang filem’ baru di industri filem kita saat ini.

Tentu kita tidak bisa mengabaikan peran besar kawan-kawan komunitas ini dalam perkembangan perfileman nasional sekarang. Mereka adalah orang-orang yang menghadirkan filem Indonesia di komunitas dan membentuk penonton filem Indonesia di tingkat paling bawah. Industri filem kita mengambil buah yang sangat manis dari energi yang telah terbangun dari kalangan komunitas. Peran Konfiden, sebagai salah satu pelopor dan penggerak produksi filem-filem indie di berbagai daerah adalah kenyataan sejarah yang tidak bisa begitu saja kita lupakan. Jurnal Footage melihat, seharusnya para penggerak industri filem sekarang berterimakasih kepada komunitas ini.

Namun, tentu kita perlu melihat lebih obyektif peran komunitas filem ini saat ini. Pertanyaan-pertanyaan di atas tentang pilihan berkomunitas, penonton, tema-tema yang mereka pilih dan pengertian atau pengetahuan tentang filem adalah hal yang perlu kita ketahui. Pertanyaan yang paling standar adalah pengetahuan tentang filem. Karena penggiat komunitas ini menyebut dirinya sebagai “komunitas filem”. Tentu selayaknya pengetahuan filem yang mereka miliki “cukup”. Tapi, Jurnal Footage menemukan bahwa pengetahuan inilah yang justru “terabaikan” oleh komunitas filem, yaitu pengetahuan tentang bahasa visual, teori, dan sejarah filem. Kelemahan-kelemahan ini tergambar dalam Kongres Nasional Kegiatan Perfilman Berbasis Komuntas 2010 di Taman Budaya Surakarta, Solo – Jawa Tengah, pada 17-19 Maret 2010. Maka, selayaknya pula ada sebagian kalangan menyebut komunitas filem hanya para hobbies dan keren-kerenan dalam pergaualan anak-anak muda. Jurnal Footage tidak mencoba memandang anggapan ini sebagai sesuatu yang negatif. Karena kritik sebagian kalangan ini tentu berkaca dari posisi tawar komunitas filem dalam pewacanaan dunia filem di Indonesia yang lemah. Untuk itulah, Jurnal Footage merasa perlu untuk bertemu langsung dan berdiskusi dengan komunitas-komunitas filem untuk dapat menjelaskan pertanyaan-pertanyaan yang mengemuka di atas tadi.

Jurnal Footage melakukan wawancara dengan beberapa komunitas filem yang hadir pada kongres yang berlangsung selama tiga hari itu. Mereka adalah sebagian dari 42 komunitas yang hadir pada salah satu pertemuan komunitas terbesar ini. Dalam kesempatan itu hadir; Dharmansyah Lubis (Sources of Indonesia, Medan), Weldy Indra (Wakref UIR Marpoyan, Pekanbaru), Insan Indah Pribadi (Sangkanparan, Cilacap), Damar Ardi Atmaja (komunitasfilm.org, Wonogiri), Joko Narimo (Mata Kaca, Solo), Elida Tamalagi (Kinoki, Yogyakarta), Agus Mediarta (Konfiden, Jakarta), Stefanus Andre Agung (12,9 AJ Kineklub Atmajaya, Yogyakarta). Tentu dari wawancara ini tidak mewakili semua komunitas yang hadir pada kongres ini, apalagi komunitas filem di Indonesia. Minimal, dari diskusi ini, kita dapat menemukan bagaimana beberapa komunitas filem bergerak dan mengembangkan dirinya.

Wawancara dilakukan di sekretariat panitia penyelenggara Kongres Nasional Kegiatan Perfilman Berbasis Komuntas 2010. Pewawancara Hafiz dan direkam oleh Mahardika Yudha dengan kamera video. Berikut hasil wawancara selama 100 menit itu.

How do we picture an idea of “Indonesia” upon reading history? There are many ways to describe. Abduh Azis is one of the film industry figures known to be ever so critical in interpreting history through films. Being a native Jakartan born in 1967, he spent his childhood in Pasar Minggu area. In 1986, he ventured to study History at the University of Indonesia. It was here that he encountered and decided to further study films; a decision deliberately made. As Abduh recalled it, in one of those university days, the late Ong Hok Ham played Max Havelaar to show his students a model of colonialism in Java. He later thought, this method makes it a lot easier to understand history than reading history books. To him, film may well be a reference to comprehend the social context of our history. For that reason, during the ‘90s, he started a research on film history at Sinematek in order to compose his thesis on Indonesian history. His findings gave rise to a question: “Why can’t we ever make a decent film?” During this course he met Hanny Saputra, Harmantono and other filmmakers from the Jakarta Art Institute. “Apparently, we do have decent films in Indonesia,” was his statement then.

Abduh Azis is currently a member of Film Committee in the Jakarta Art Council for the second term (since 2006). Besides actively participating in the Indonesian Film Society to strive for film industry policies, Abduh is also active in a number of nongovernmental organizations with regard to works in communities. In his recent documentary made in 2010, he collaborated with Lasja Fauzia to produce Tjidurian 19 to recount a “space” in the past history of People’s Art League (Lembaga Kesenian Rakyat, abbreviated as Lekra). This fluent man, who often speaks in various forums, often facilitates workshops organized by nongovernmental institutions. He is one of the initiators of Jakarta International Film Festival (Jiffest). In 1998, together with Shanty Harmayn, Yudi Datau and Wisnu Adi, he established Salto Production that produced films and documentaries.

Jurnal Footage had the chance to chat with this prominent figure on March 5, 2010, in his room in the office of the Jakarta Art Council, Taman Ismail Marzuki. Present during the interview were Hafiz (Editor-in-Chief), Akbar Yumni (Editor) and Syaiful Anwar who recorded the discussion through a video. We are pleased to present you an interview with Abduh Azis to see how his criticism in observing our film industry.