Building the Industry

Vivacious, Jakarta-born film producer Shanty Harmayn is perhaps best known as the

co-founder of the Jakarta International Film Festival (JIFFest), now in its ninth year. She is also the producer of a variety of documentaries and films, including the award-winning Pasir Berbisik in 2001 and The Photograph, her latest film.

More recently, Shanty founded a documentary film program called In-Docs (www.in-docs.com), which aims to support the development of Indonesian documentary filmmaking.

She holds a master's in documentary film from Stanford University. Married to a Dutch national, she currently lives in Beijing.

How would you describe the Indonesian film scene at present?

Indonesian films, in terms of numbers, are growing rapidly. Currently there are about 40 to 50 feature films released in Indonesia [annually]. But the majority of these films are still in the horror and teenage romance genres.

Where do you see the Indonesian film scene going?

I would like to see Indonesian film develop into a strong body of work, and also the industry. But because there hasn’t been a comprehensive study of cinema in Indonesia, we don’t have enough information about our audience: why only teens go to see Indonesian films in the cinema, what people in general want to see in Indonesian film. Unless this study is done, we will continue to just expand these two genres [horror and teen romance], as the investors and producers will only invest in these two genres.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of Indonesian film - where can it improve most?

We need variety and dynamics. Most important of all, we are all still very weak in storytelling skills, in script writing. The second concern would be there are not enough skilled and well trained filmmakers. There is a need to produce more technicians, provide good infrastructure for lab, digital lab and sound.

Right now most Indonesian films have to go overseas [Bangkok, India or Hong Kong] to do their final mix and Dolby mastering.

And thirdly, there is a need to have a good government policy in building the industry. I keep using Korea for my example of a success story in how the filmmakers and the government were able to collaborate to build the industry. In 10 years, they built infrastructure, film festivals, a market, film schools and an industry incentive system.

Regionally how does the Indonesian film industry compare?

Southeast Asia is a growing and exciting market right now. In Southeast Asia, Thailand has been the leading country in production, quality and exporting their films in the past. In the past three to five years there has been an emerging and exciting independent filmmaking movement in Malaysia. And now the Philippines is also showing their independent films in leading film festivals.

The government right now wants to promote Indonesian films in international markets. I think before going all out on these plans…we need to have a good objective of what we want Indonesian films, cinema, the industry to be, and how we want our films to function internationally. 

Indonesian filmmakers and the government should start thinking strategically on how to grow the market and build the industry for the long term.

What advice do you have for filmmakers?

Let me start by pointing out my concerns: there are many students who instead of focusing and finishing their schooling or training enter the market too early and maybe too easily.

I hope aspiring filmmakers will strive to perfect their skills, instead of being complacent and saying this is good enough. So that we can produce films that can compete in this very global world; film is a very global product.

If there is any chance to learn more, take it, read more, watch more films and learn more about Indonesia, about our needs. There are many Indonesian stories to tell, and they need to be told.

What would you like to see happening in the Indonesian film scene?

I believe Indonesian cinema can flourish to reach its peak, provided that we are serious in building, thinking long term, having a political will and the comprehension of what we want to build and project.

I would like Indonesian audiences to go to the movies and be entertained, and also learn about themselves through Indonesian films. And also for the world to see who we are from our images and stories.

+ Harumi Supit

Home