Reform Era (1998-present)

Gerakan Reformasi (The Reform Movement) created huge changes in politics and democracy. It was a people power that gave rise to an enormous change in the political situation of Indonesia: the downfall of President Soeharto’s regime (1966-1998) in May 1998[24]. Following the deposing of Soeharto and the falling of his dictatorship known as the New Order Regime in 1998, the democracy movement in Indonesia has been experiencing a wind of change (Budiman 1999: 56). Back in Soeharto’s regime (1966-1998), nobody dared to voice their differences, or criticize the government, without having a fear of being silenced or disappeared without a cause. Nowadays, Indonesian people have more freedom to openly express their opinion although it may be different from or even against that of the government (Imanjaya 2006: 10). So, how did the wind of change affect Indonesian Cinema after the downfall of the New Order regime? .

Kuldesakdistributed in 1998 right after the event, is the most influential film from young filmmakers. I will elaborate Kuldesak, along with the I-Sinema movement, in a particular sub-section below.

The first films from the idealistic group of filmmaking made in this era are Petualangan Sherina (Sherina’s Adventure, Riri Riza, 1999) and Puisi Tak Terkuburkan (The Poet, Garin Nugroho, 1999). Sherina is a children musical that gained commercial and critical success and, again, unite both groups of filmmaking. Sherina is one of the first films which released merchandise and original soundtrack album. Since then, there are so many films with various merchandises such as script book, comic book, shirt, mug, hat, adaptation novel, behind the scenes, director’s journal, etc. Puisi was made in digital betacam and transferred to 35mm in Cineric Inc., New York (Kristanto 2007: 403-404). However, besides Kuldesak as the main factor, the passion to make films among young filmmakers was triggered by the successful screening of a horror movie Jelangkung (The Uninvited/ Ouja Board Ghosts, Jose Purnomo and Rizal Mantovani) and a high-school love story Ada Apa dengan Cinta? (What’s Up with Love?, Rudi Soedjarwo) in 2001. Except for Puisi, the films mentioned above were made by young filmmakers with the ambition to combine the commercial and idealistic groups of filmmaking. All the films were commercially successful without abandoning their idealism.

The commercial group of filmmakers then follows the formula of the two films and dominates the film industry with horror and teenage love stories. Among the box office films is Eiffel I’m in Love (Nasry Cheppy, 2003) (Kristanto 2007: xxv). On the other hand, the idealistic group of filmmaking rarely make films to carry Usmar Ismail’s legacy because they are still trying to find the right formula to combine the commercial and idealistic groups of filmmaking and, as director Riri Riza illuminates, most of them prefer exploring the technological aspects and filmmaking skills to the stories (quoted in Indonesian Cinema (Italy: Maurizio Borriello, 2007)). Still, there are some filmmakers who try to make films idealistically, including the two important movements that I will elaborate later: Kuldesak and I-Sinema.

There are some films related to realism and representation of social issues and/or Jakarta. Nia Dinata’s Berbagi Suami (Love for Share, 2006) is a film about polygamous life of three women in Jakarta who come from different religions, social classes and races, while Arisan! (The Gathering, 2003) represents the lifestyle of modern upper-class wives and the gay phenomenon. Riri Riza’s Untuk Rena (Dear Rena, 2005) tells of the life in an orphanage in Puncak (an area near Jakarta). Nan Achnas directed Bendera (The Flag, 2002), a story about some kids who pursue a flag through the slum alleys in kampungs. Hanung Bramantyo’s Catatan Akhir Sekolah (The School’s Last Notes, 2004) tells a story of three looser students while Get Married (2007) focuses on a girl from a slum kampung trying to search for her soul-mate. Rudi Soedjarwo’s Mendadak Dangdut (Suddenly Dangdut, 2006) depicts the daily activities in a slum kampung to which the two main characters run away as fugitives and become a dangdut singer and the manager. Nanang Istiabudi’s Detik Terakhir (The Last Second, 2005) follows the characters dealing with lesbian life and narcotics. Viva Indonesia is an omnibus project (Ravi L. Bharwani,Aryo Danusiri,Asep Kusdinar,Lianto Lusenoand Nana Mulyana, 2001) and tells the story of four children from different regions sending letters to God.

Some of the prominent young directors are Mira Lesmana, Riri Riza, Nia Dinata, Nan Achnas, Aria Kusumadewa, Rudi Soedjarwo, Hanny Saputra, Hanung Bramantyo, Joko Anwar and Ravi Bharwani. The role of female filmmakers, especially producers, also becomes stronger, such as Mira Lesmana, Shanty Harmayn and Nia Dinata[25]. This situation could happen because while the New Order government applied Bapakisme (Fatherism)[26] with its patriarchal system and while under the New Order Regime film industry belonged to men, in post-Soeharto era women play important roles in many fields, including in cinema.

On the other hand, there are several senior filmmakers who have been involved in the film industry since the New Order era and still make films in post-Reform time, such as Nugroho, actor-director Slamet Rahardjo Djarot and actor-director Deddy Mizwar. Slamet Djarot’s Marsinah (2000) reconstructs the killing of Marsinah from Mutiari’s point of view—Mutiari was Marsinah’s supervisor who was captured and be accused of being behind the murder—with depiction of violence done by the police, including their real names and ranks. Deddy Mizwar’s Ketika (When, 2004) focuses on an ideal time in an imaginary country where corruption no longer exists, while Naga Bonar Jadi Dua (2007) continues the story of an Independence War veteran dealing with modernity and its different values. One of Nugroho’s films is Daun di Atas Bantal (Leaf on a Pillow, 1997) which was screened right after the downfall of Soeharto in 1998.

One of the important events in this era was the initiating of the annual Jakarta International Film Festival in 1999, beside the use of the Internet and fighting cheap pirated DVDs. This festival opens young filmmakers’ mind and enriches film references so that they become well-informed generation with wider information access.

Was the so-called “New Indonesian Cinema” born as a response to the Reform Movement? Indeed, there are some young filmmakers from the idealistic group who still produce films as media of expression, or make films to present social issues of Indonesian people in the New Order Regime. Some film scholars and film critics called them “the New Indonesian Cinema”. For example, Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies (ACICIS) researcher Joanne Sharpe and Phd student Katinka van Heeren with her articles and on-progress dissertation in Leiden University[27]. I believe film scholars need to undertake further research on this topic, regarding the definition, characteristic, aesthetic values, purposes, etc., for there is no sufficient research have been done yet this interesting theme. But, indeed, there are two important terms in this generation of the early years of post-Reform era: Kuldesak(Cul-de-sac,Riri Riza, Nan T Achnas, Rizal Mantovani and Mira Lesmana, 1996) and I-Sinema. I will elaborate Kuldesak, I-Sinema, and the role and works of Riri Riza below.

There is one important thing about contemporary Indonesian film history as related to this generation. Masyarakat Film Indonesia (Indonesian Film Society), a group of young filmmakers, wanted to reform the film policies. It all began when Ekskul (Extra Curricular, Nayato Fio Nuala, 2006) won the best picture and best director awards in 2006 Indonesian Film festival. The film was reportedly illegally incorporated music from foreign films such as Gladiator, The Chronicles of Narnia, Taegukgi and Munich. And around thirty young filmmakers returned their Citra awards, the country’s highest film prizes, to the Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik in a protest over the handling of 2006 Indonesian Film Festival. Among them were prominent directors (Riri Riza, Hanung Bramantyo, Nia Dinata), producers (Mira Lesmana and Shanty Harmayn), as well as cast and crew members such as actresses Marcella Zalianty and Rachel Maryam and actor Nicholas Saputra[28]. This incident turned into a political movement by the young filmmakers with an aim to reform film regulations, especially to change the method of censorship from cutting off the celluloid to classification system.

Nan Achnas writes that the incident is merely the tip of the iceberg in terms of the many problems facing the country’s burgeoning film industry. “Outdated regulations, censorship, financial constraints on filmmakers, a shaky film infrastructure and a lack of support for film education are some of the persistent challenges”[29].

Mira Lesmana says that “Initially, it started as a shared concern among filmmakers over the 1992 Film Law. “There are many things regulated by that legislation, which, we think, are no longer relevant with our present situation in the (film) industry. One of them is about censorship”[30].

Before establishing the Indonesian Film Society, Lesmana and other filmmakers formed the Indonesian Film Producer Network (IFPN) in 2001 and later the Indonesian Cinema Commission in 2003. Both organizations stopped halfway but Lesmana, in the interview, did not explain the reasons.

But, why do they choose political instead of aesthetic movement? Why don’t they try to express their hope and critical ideas through films? Although the Reform has opened many opportunities to make films in accordance with their idealism, only few political films were produced. While Garin Nugroho often makes clear political and cultural statements in his films, this younger generation mostly shows the opposite indication. There are no films made by this generation with political or critical thought against government’s policy or as statements concerning important events or notorious phenomena such as corruption, traffic jam, rising fuel prices, or natural disasters, to name a few. Why does the young generation choose political movement instead of aesthetic movement? I will elaborate some aspects.

I observe that the young generation of post-Reform era is still dealing with the attempt to merge both groups of filmmaking. For example, Riza’s interview shows that he still cares for the spectators. Or Mira Lesmana’s statement I mentioned at the beginning of this article: “for me, there is no such thing as art films and popular films. There are only good films and bad films”.

I have other possibilities in mind. First, the directors, producers, and scriptwriters of this generation are becoming apolitical and have no intention to participate in politics. And they were (and are) busy earning money for themselves to support their lives and families. The New Order Regime, for more than 30 years, had succeeded in spreading a brain-washing program with its Penataran P4 (a teaching of the national ideology, the Five Pillars/Pancasila) and other projects. And this New Order ideology made people either chose government political party, or being skeptical about politics and avoided it. As a result, the majority of the people became a floating mass instead of having one straight political statement or world-view. The Developmentalism-Economyapproach also made the society busy fulfilling their own basic needs without thinking about other interests. And this phenomenon has affected the filmmaking world.

Second, for many of them, such kinds of films are not so important to make because economically speaking, the films are watched by limited spectators, or even no movie-goers at all. Thus, they can not earn profit from the films.

Salim Said adds other reasons. He writes that the freedom of expression that people got from the Reform Movement in 1998 was not automatically earning films of politics[31]. This situation happened to ex-communist countries that were freed because of the dismantling of Berlin Wall. Salim says that maybe there are no urgency and importance of the recent political issues to expressin films. Second, the very limited fund—they were used to be helped by the government. In Indonesian case, there was nearly no tradition or art of protest in literature history. This tradition was tried by Sutan Takdir Alisyahbana with “Literature with Tendencies”, and also by Lekra (Lembaga Kesenian Rakyat, People Art Organization as the underbow of Indonesian Communist Party in 1950s and 1960s). But according to Said, both did not succeed.

But, indeed, there are two keywords regarding the aesthetic movement by this post-Reform generation. They are Kuldesak and I-Sinema. Riri Riza is one of the prominent figures in both.

Kuldesak, I-Sinema and Riri Riza

As I mentioned earlier, Kuldesak is one of the important films in the early years of post-Soeharto era. Researcher Joanna Sharpe writes that Kuldesak is widely hailed as the first in the recent wave of independent productions, which are self-funded and filmed on the sly ‘guerilla style’ without the necessary state permits (Sharpe 2008). Indonesianist Katinka van Heeren mentions the film as the first independent films movement, dealt with the problems of middle class Jakarta youth—drugs, homosexuality and the feeling of absolute desolation—and “… It appeared to be too revolutionary even for reformasi” because there is a kissing scene between boys that soon got censored (Heeren 2008). Since Kuldesak, many young people wanted to make film in his/her own way. It seemed that everybody can make films.

There are four stories interweaved in the film, and all portray the youngsters’ life in Jakarta in 1990s. They all try to realize their dreams and strive for their share of happiness. The conditions in their lives sometimes force them to make radical choices. Aksan has a great dream: he wants to make a film so badly and plan to steal money to support the film. Andre is a young unhappy musician and just found out that his idol, Kurt Cobain, has committed suicide. Dina, a cinema ticket girl, can no longer distinguish delusion from reality, and for her life is a dream full of television images of a popular video-jockey. Lina works for an advertising agency and is pressed by her boss to work overtime, and raped in the office[32].

As I highlighted, in the New Order regime, the regulations on filmmaking were very difficult and hard, for example the censorship and the bureaucracy. And Kuldesak broke all these rules (Sumarno and Achnas 2002: 164). All of the directors of Kuldesak were not registered members and the shooting also took place without a permit from the Ministry of Information. Consequently, they worked quietly. They also faced financial problems, hence all cast and crew worked for free and equipment was sponsored and loaned. The breaking-the-law attitude and financial problems made them work in a guerilla way.

The other important terminology is I-Sinema, an aesthetic movement founded after May 1998 (Sumarno and Achnas 2002: 164). This movement has as it base a manifesto signed by thirteen young filmmakers: Riri Riza, Nan Achnas, Richard Buntario, Sentot Sahid, Mira Lesmana, Srikaton M, Enison Sinaro, Ipang Wahid, Teddy Soeriaatmadja, Dimas Djayadiningrat, Rizal Mantovani, Jay Subyakto and Yato Fionuala. They made a manifesto: “we trust and support each other. Synergies of creativity, spirit of explorations, aesthetical achievements, variety of themes and stories, all to give new colors to films. More importantly: to give different choices, insights, and experiences to spectators”.[33] They made exploration on film medium, including camera technology, shooting techniques, or directing treatment. For example, Eliana explores the story with few characters and short timespan story[34].

Sharpe writes that the meaning of ‘I’ in ‘I-sinema’ is ambiguous—it stands for the word ‘Indonesian’ as much as it does for ‘Independent’, as well as other terms like ‘eye’ or even the English ‘I’. I-sinema films are made in the spirit of independence and even individualism, but they are also national in character. Riza is adamant that his films should not alienate people.Sharpe made interview with Riza on I-sinema. Riza emphasizes that this movement has as its primary concern the Indonesian audience who has been starving for Indonesian film, and this is the first thing these filmmakers seek to redress (Sharpe 2008). Riza says “It seems that alternative film movements in other countries just don’t care much about their audience. For us, the audience is still very important”.

The first line of the manifesto states that ‘Stagnation in the Indonesian film industry means that we must find new ways of making feature films,’ (Sharpe 2008). The members of ‘I-sinema’ emphasize the importance of film as a form of freedom of expression and pledge to create films of artistic and personal credibility, but they remain aware of the practicalities of production (Sharpe 2008), thus continuing the struggle of the idealistic group of filmmaking. The thirteen members of the movement do not make demarcation between art-films and commercial films. “The next film I make might be commercial, it might be more art house, and it might even be a documentary. I’m not a jukebox. I’ll make whatever films I want” says Riri Riza (Sharpe 2008). These filmmakers have different background (from video music maker to commercial maker), but they share the same dreams about the awakening of Indonesian films.

There is no further information about I-Sinema following the production of four films: Sebuah Pertanyaan untuk Cinta (A Question for Love, Indonesia: Enison Sinaro: 2000), Eliana Eliana (Riri Riza, 2002), Bendera (The Flag, Indonesia: Nan Achnas: 2002) and Titik Hitam (Black Dot, Indonesia: Sentot Sahid, 2002).

Riri Riza is one of the main figures in Kuldesak and I-Sinema movement. Riza, with Mira Lesmana as his producer, made some films and try to depict social and political issues of Indonesian people under Miles Films. One of the films is Gie (2005), a biopic of Soe Hok Gie, a legendary student activist in the 1960s who led a movement against President Soekarno in 1966 which ended up in the stepping down of Soekarno. Gie won Dragons & Tigers Award nominee at Vancouver International Film Festival 2005 and three Citra awards at 2006 Indonesian Film Festival and was screened on several international festivals.

Tiga Hari untuk Selamanya (Three Days to Forever, 2007) is a road movie and talks about young generation’s thought on sex, morality and lifestyle. Untuk Rena (Dear Rena, 2005) deals with social issues, focusing on the life in an orphanage in the holy month of Ramadan and has link to tsunami disaster. His debut, a children musical entitled Petualangan Sherina (Sherina’s Adventure, 2002) became one of the box office films, reaching 1.6 million audiences—after 25 years of bad response by the audience to local films. The success of the film brought optimism regarding the growth of the local film industry yet at the same time some were skeptical that it was only a one-time success[35]. And his best work is Eliana, Eliana. In 2008 he made a beautiful movie adapted from a novel called Laskar Pelangi (Rainbow Troops). I believe this film is also one of few films that unite the dualistic paradigm that haunted cinema history for a long time. Perhaps, this is the application of Miles Films’ motto: “there are no such differentiation like art films and commercial films. There are only bad and good films”.

Is it possible for us, the spectators, to witness this so-called “honeymoon of two enemies” in more films? Some movies I illuminate above, such as Lewat Djam Malam, Njak Abbas Akub’s, Petualangan Sherina, Laskar Pelangi (and also: Naga Bonar, Kejarlah Daku Kau Ku Tangkap, etc) have already proved it!

[24] In political term, the Reform demanded greater democracy, honesty and accountability in public life and policies that secure people’s welfare (Budiman (eds.) 1999: 73)

[25] For this topic, please check: Sen, Krishna. “Film Revolution? Women are now on both sides of the camera” in Inside Indonesia. http://insideindonesia.org/content/view/155/29/. 16 th April 2008.

[26] According to this ideology, the fathers position is pivotal figures, as the ruler and the leader of the house. The mothers and wives are considered “ikut suami” (follow the husbands), “Ratu Rumah Tangga” (Queen of the Household). the “female nature” in New Order cinema, ultimately sanctified in reproduction (motherhood), appears to be constantly in danger of being perverted (Sen 1994, 138). The government spread the ideology of “azas kekeluargaan” (Family Principle) and Pembinaan Kesejahteraan Keluarga (PKK, Family Welfare Movement) as released by the Directorate General for Rural Development, Jakarta, in 1978. PKK contains the five obligations of women (Panca Dharma Wanita), describes Indonesian women as having the following five roles: wife, standing by the husband; household manager; mother, responsible for reproduction; educator of the children; and citizen of Indonesia (Oey-Gardiner & Bianpoen 2000:58).

[27] The title is “The re-imagining and re-imaging of community in transition: New Indonesian Cinema”. Please check: Leiden University. http://www.cnws.leidenuniv.nl/index.php3?c=18. 30 th March 2008.

[28]Jakarta Post. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2007/01/10/citras-handed-back-protest.html.. 16 th April 2008.

[29] Achnas. Nan. “Rebirth of Indonesian film industry, and the glaring lack of creativity” in Jakarta Post.http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2007/06/09/rebirth-indonesian-film-industry-and-glaring-lack-creativity.html. 16th April 2008

[30]Jakarta Post. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/02/17/mira-lesmana-living-movies.html. 16th April 2008

[31] Interview with Salim Said by email. 15 th June 2007.

[32]International Film Festival Rotterdam. http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/eng/search/film.aspx?id=cd17ee5f-72ea-4e25-b2a1-9e1a0dba7ee8. 26 th March 2008.

[33]“Kami saling percaya dan memberi dukungan. Sinergi kreativitas, semangat eksplorasi, pencapaian estetis, keragaman tema dan cerita, semuanya untuk memberi warna baru pada perfilman. Lebih penting lagi, memberi pilihan, wawasan, serta pengalaman berbeda untuk penonton”. My translation. Kompas Newspaper. http://www.kompas.com/kompas-cetak/0206/16/hiburan/isen19.htm. 9 th October 2007s

[34] Imanjaya, Ekky. “Gerakan Politik dan Gerakan Estetika” in F Magazine009 edition November-Desember 2007. Jakarta: KFT-ASI, 2008, 10-11).

[35]Miles Films Website. http://www.milesfilms.com/. 30 th March 2008

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