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Essays on InternationalCommunication
The two essays published here reflect insights and research done bymy graduate students here at Webster University (Thailand).Hopefully, the context of these papers would give other scholars andstudents doing research in International or Global Communicationssome thoughts for further research.Any comments from researchers and readers of these essays willtruly be appreciated.--
 Ed Farolan
(farolan1@aol.com)
The Future Of Indonesian Films: From DomesticOblivion To Global Recognition
 by Ralph Tampubolon
"Constipation makes us work harder to achieve freedom … An example of how oppression leads to ourcreativity." Tag line of Sex. Violence. Blood. Gore. - directed by Jeff Chen, written by Chong Tze Chien andAlfian Sa'at (1998)Three homeless kids attempting to survive in the hectic streets of the urban city Yogyakarta while sharing adeserted corner of a market with their surrogate mother who has her own means of survival by sellinghandmade batik. Through her eyes, we see the Indonesian society in her daily encounters with the streetchildren who work and live off the harsh and sleazy world of adults.In a rich and precise style that has already been compared with Japan's Shohei Imamura, director GarinNugroho combines lyricism with shocking reality, strengthened by the natural acting of all who took part. Theresult, Daun Di Atas Bantal (Leaf On A Pillow) reaped extraordinary box-office success in Indonesia upon itsrelease in 1998 and has toured the world since then while subsequently receiving good reviews from theinternational film critics and reviewers - including the jurors at Cannes. Enticed? Not quite? Try this next one.The lives and problems of young urbanites of the 90s in Jakarta rendered as a mixture of comedy, drama andaction. The dilemmas of four young people, forced by trying circumstances to make a desperate yet pragmaticchoice for a better life. Invited to festivals throughout the world this past year, Kuldesak (Cul-De-Sac/DeadEnd) deals with how one struggles to achieve one's dreams of happiness while confronting changes in values ina modern metropolis. The film, directed by four up-and-coming Indonesian directors who promise to bring us
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more exciting surprises, began pre-production in 1996 during the Suharto regime and was finally released fivemonths after his resignation from 32 years of totalitarian authority. Not yet allured? Here's another.A village girl who is married to a 70-year-old Javanese aristocrat. He falls severely ill into a deep coma, thenshe tries to nurse him back to health by bargaining with the God of Death in the process of asking for herhusband to be given more time on earth. Set in the city of Surakarta in decadent Java where men gamble andwomanize, Sri was superbly filmed in 1999 by director Marselli Sumarno, who drew his inspiration from thewayang character Savitri, a woman who struggles to wrest her husband from the claws of death. Theinspiration became a symbol, and the symbol gave birth to the screen characters in the films Kuldesak (1998)and Sri (1999) .Those three reviews above are descriptions of the latest (and scant) additions to the ever growing number of world cinema coming from Indonesia, the land of ; opulent in natural resources, butindigent in silver screen treasures for more than 10 years.
gemah ripah loh jinawi
In today's global communication age, films and its distribution channels (i.e. theaters, HBO, Cinemax, VHS,LD, CD-ROM, VCD, DVD, and the Net) have all played such profound roles in both preserving andreshaping the society's culture. In the United States, where the number of films released each year can besummed up toward infinity, it can be said that the American films are the American culture itself, and vice versa.[The most pertinent examples are the back-to-back releases of and lastyear.]
 American Pie American Beauty
However, in Indonesia, the circumstances are barely the same - if not entirely the opposite. Feature films havebeen nothing but missing in action for the past 10 years due to the government's rigorous mishandling andcensorship on the industry that fatally resulted in an ongoing stagnation in the flow of the public's creative ideasthrough the medium. Throughout the 1990s, the people's needs for a certain form of audio-visual entertainmentwere fulfilled by sinetron (a sobriquet of sinema elektronik or electronic cinema in the form of TV series) whichhave been highly productive, but hardly inventive.The ideas portrayed in general have just been nothing but uniformly 'soap' - revolving around utopian dreams,glamorous lifestyles, pseudo violence, and excessive gloom, all performed in such predictably staged and low-quality acting methods that in the end have done nothing except misguiding the viewers into the concept of inordinate materialism, disproportionate consumption, and an unattainable standard image of beauty. But in thepast three years, the new generation of hungry filmmakers has started to show its reaction to the irresistibleimpulse coming from the growing number of independent films from North America and Europe along with thecommercial success and critical acclaim they have all achieved. An effort to revive the national film industry hasbeen seen of late through the production of a number of films likeand . They were all produced and released in the past three years and instantly generatedpromising reviews from the local and international audience and critics.
Fatahillah, Daun ……, Kuldesak,Telegram Sri
Then in late November 1999, as a response to the revival of the ailing South East Asian film industries whichhad seen Bangkok launching its first international film festival in September 1998 and Manila following suit inJuly 1999, the Jakartans felt it was their time to join the race. The 1999 Jakarta International Film Festival(JIFFest) was launched and proved itself to be a huge success. All the other South East Asian regional festivalshad effectively contributed to the success of JIFFest and in the end were highly commended for theircollaboration. In addition, Jakarta's Cine Club (film society) has been rejuvenating itself effectively since June1998 after a two-year hiatus due to the nation's monetary crisis.What are prospects of rebuilding the platform for Indonesian films for the sake of putting them back in the
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scenery, both nationally and internationally? The great Marshall McLuhan's visionary concept of 'the changingglobal village in the 21st century' has become a reality with the coming of the new media along with all thelucrative confines they can possibly offer.Meanwhile, as Indonesia is currently in a massive rebuilding process following a devastating crisis that hasdilapidated the nation's vital sectors, the new government has promised gradual reforms toward democracy innumerous aspects that can open up many possibilities of ingenious achievements.Therefore, with the coming of more and more Indonesian filmmaker-wannabes, fresh with innovative ideas andhungry for opportunities to express artistic visions, now is unquestionably the right time for them to rise and facethe tempting challenge of demonstrating how a long-time life oppression can effectively burst into undauntedcreativity.In the end, this writing shall hopefully produce a beneficial cause in invigorating the Indonesian film society whilesimultaneously revitalizing the public's interest in appreciating their own culture through the quality of their ownfilms amidst the rapid growth of the independent system in both filmmaking and film screening.The efforts in reviving the Indonesian film industry have so far been done individually instead of collectively. Asthe result, every single film production can not be regarded as the total solution to all the evident problemsbeing faced; instead, they are just sporadic attempts to survive coming from various small groups of individuals.The essence of the Indonesian films' existence still does not possess a strong foundation such that reviving thewhole industry seems like a distant possibility since there is still no consistency in the number of qualityproductions coming out in a certain period of time. Moreover, the public's hopes have often been voiced out atrandom but have almost never been taken into serious consideration by the incumbents. Even worse, thoseaspirations and concerns have sometimes - if not all the time - been regarded as emotional, subjective,irresponsible and intrusive fanfares of the common man.Innumerable policies have also been made in regards to protect, encourage and develop the national filmindustry throughout the years, but to no avail thus far. The fact that the relevant organizations and agencies havealways been entangled in a 50-50 zone (50% bureaucrats, 50% democrats) has made them into freight carsdriven by the right people but carrying excess load thus drifting on the wrong track.The government's interference on the industry's growth has been so overwhelming (if not completelydominating) that the creative outpour of its own people has been left stagnant. For so many years, both film andthe film world have been treated as commercial commodities as well as the suitable media for encompassing thegovernment's propaganda. This kind of treatment has made film to be perceived as a sacred object that all theactions and visions related to it must always be oriented toward the regulations made by the government; theeffect of which gave birth to monopolistic practices on their existence and growth.From licensing to distribution, all single-handedly controlled by the bureaucratic authorities, or in short, ownedby the incumbencies. Above all, the biggest quandaries have resulted from censorship, production, distribution,and exhibition.Last year, the EU (European Union) Film Festival at Jakarta's Cine Club had to be cancelled just becauseseveral films failed to get the approval from the government's board of censorship. The participating countries(in this case, the cultural attaches at the respective embassies) would clearly object the unauthorized cutting andediting of their filmmakers' works. Better take them and show them as they are or simply leave them be.
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