![Sinematek Indonesia logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Sinematek_Indonesia_logo.svg)
Sinematek Indonesia, or Sinematek for short, is a film archive located in
Jakarta
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
. Established in 1975 by
Misbach Yusa Biran
Misbach Yusa Biran (11 September 1933 – 11 April 2012) was an Indonesian writer, director and columnist who pioneered the Indonesian film archives.
Personal life
Biran was born in Rangkasbitung, in the Lebak Regency, to a Minangkabau ...
and
Asrul Sani
Asrul Sani (10 June 1926 – 11 January 2004) was an Indonesian writer, poet and screenwriter.
Biography
Sani was born in Rao, West Sumatra on 10 June 1926. His father was Sultan Marah Sani Syair Alamsyah.
Together with Chairil Anwar and Riv ...
, the archive was the first in Southeast Asia, and remains the only one in Indonesia. It is home to roughly 2,700 films, mostly Indonesian, and also houses numerous reference works. Since 2001 it has been underfunded.
Description
Sinematek is located in the Hajji Usmar Ismail Center, a five-story building located on Rasuna Said Street in Kuningan,
South Jakarta
South Jakarta ( id, Jakarta Selatan; bew, Jakarte Beludik ), colloquially known as ''Jaksel'', is one of the five administrative cities which form the Special Capital Region of Jakarta, Indonesia. South Jakarta is not self-governed and does not h ...
, and managed by the Usmar Ismail Foundation; it has held this location since 1977. The Sinematek offices are on the fourth floor, while a library containing films and film history is located on the fifth floor; a storage area is found in the basement. Most of its visitors are academics or university students, although the centre also loans out some of its collections. Films can be viewed on-site in the 150-seat screening room or 500-seat theatre.
Sinematek has roughly 2,700 films in its archives, mostly Indonesian, but also some foreign
documentaries
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...
. This includes 84 negatives for black-and-white films and 548 negatives for colour films. The centre also contains over 15,000 reference works, many of which are difficult to find elsewhere; these works include newspaper clippings,
screenplay
''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993.
Background
After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, fe ...
s, books, and government regulations. Other holdings include
film poster
A film poster is a poster used to promote and advertise a film primarily to persuade paying customers into a theater to see it. Studios often print several posters that vary in size and content for various domestic and international markets. The ...
s and equipment.
History
![Film maintenance room at Sinematek Indonesia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Film_maintenance_room_at_Sinematek_Indonesia.jpg)
The archive was founded by
Misbach Yusa Biran
Misbach Yusa Biran (11 September 1933 – 11 April 2012) was an Indonesian writer, director and columnist who pioneered the Indonesian film archives.
Personal life
Biran was born in Rangkasbitung, in the Lebak Regency, to a Minangkabau ...
, a film director turned documentarian, and
Asrul Sani
Asrul Sani (10 June 1926 – 11 January 2004) was an Indonesian writer, poet and screenwriter.
Biography
Sani was born in Rao, West Sumatra on 10 June 1926. His father was Sultan Marah Sani Syair Alamsyah.
Together with Chairil Anwar and Riv ...
, a screenwriter, on 20 October 1975; Biran had previously established a documentation centre at the Jakarta Art Institute in late 1970 after noting that many Indonesian films had disappeared, and documentation of the country's cinema was lacking. He based Sinematek on archives he had seen in the Netherlands, while the name was drawn from the
Cinémathèque Française
The Cinémathèque Française (), founded in 1936, is a French non-profit film organization that holds one of the largest archives of film documents and film-related objects in the world. Based in Paris's 12th arrondissement, the archive offers ...
in Paris.
The project received the blessings of Jakarta Governor
Ali Sadikin
Ali Sadikin (7 July 1926 – 20 May 2008), better known as Bang Ali, was an Indonesian politician who served as the fourth governor of Jakarta from 1966 until 1977. Prior to becoming governor, he served as Minister of Transportation from 1963 unt ...
, who also helped the centre receive funding from the Ministry of Information. It was the first film archive in Southeast Asia, and continues to be the only such archive in Indonesia. Its collection came in part from donations, and in part from purchases – either directly from producers or second-hand from mobile theatre owners. It joined the
International Federation of Film Archives
The International Federation of Film Archives (french: Fédération internationale des archives du film, FIAF) was founded in Paris in 1938 by the Cinémathèque Française, the Reichsfilmarchiv in Berlin, the British Film Institute and the Museum ...
(, or FIAF) in 1977.
Sinematek became part of the Usmar Ismail Foundation in 1995. In 2001 the central Indonesian government prohibited all non-profit organisations, including the archives, from receiving government funds; foreign funds also stopped coming in. This led to Sinematek becoming underfunded and its FIAF membership endangered. The archive received only
Rp 17 million (US$2,000) monthly from the Film Center Foundation and the National Film Management. Work at the centre slowed to the point that Biran described it as having fallen into a coma.
, Sinematek continues to be underfunded; of the estimated Rp 320 million (US$35,000) necessary to run the archive efficiently, it only receives Rp 48 million. Its 17 workers paid under
Rp 1 million a month (roughly US$120). As a result, necessary maintenance work is not being done. The basement storage room has improper lighting, and has been covered in mould in several places. It does, however, have proper temperature and humidity control. Although the Indonesian government has allocated funds to construct a new building, the archive's workers believe that it will be fruitless unless funding is also provided for maintenance work.
Although restoration efforts on works such as
Usmar Ismail
Usmar Ismail (20 March 1921 – 2 January 1971) was an Indonesian film director, author, journalist and revolutionary of Minangkabau descent. He was widely regarded as the native Indonesian pioneer of the cinema of Indonesia.
Biography
...
's 1954 film ''
Lewat Djam Malam
''Lewat Djam Malam'' (shown internationally as ''After the Curfew'') is a 1954 Indonesian film directed and produced by Usmar Ismail and written by Asrul Sani. Widely regarded as a classic of Indonesian cinema, the film follows an ex-soldier in ...
'' (''After the Curfew'') were successful – before the restoration the film had noise and discolourations – funding and work were entirely from foreign institutions; the center has also had Ismail's 1958 film ''
Tiga Dara
''Tiga Dara'' (Indonesian for ''Three Maidens'') is a 1957 Indonesian musical comedy film starring Chitra Dewi, Mieke Wijaya, and Indriati Iskak. Directed by Usmar Ismail for Perfini, the film follows three sisters who live with their father and ...
'' (''Three Maidens'') restored in the Netherlands. In commemoration of ''Lewat Djam Malam'' theatrical rerelease in June 2012, Sinematek started the Friends of Sinematek () programme to promote the documentation and restoration of Indonesian works.
References
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{{authority control
Archives in Indonesia
Film organizations in Indonesia
Film archives in Asia
1975 establishments in Indonesia