Covid-19 has severely affected the national film industry and destroyed the lives of film workers. Ironically, it has become the hot topic discussed during the celebration of National Film Day.
By
KOMPAS EDITOR
·3 minutes read
Kompas/Priyombodo
Rahmadia (right) practices self-defense for an action film at the Piranha Stunt Indonesia Studio, in Depok, West Java, Friday (26/3/2021). Rahmadia is a stunt man in the film.
Indonesian film production indicated a significant improvement in the years before the pandemic began to hit the country in early 2020. According to data from filmindonesia.or.id, which was compiled by Kompas’ Research and Development, the number of films produced in the country rose sharply from 118 in 2017 to 146 in 2018. However, it sharply declined to 130 films in 2019, lower than the figure recorded in 2017.
Film production further declined last year due to the pandemic. In 2020 only 53 films were produced. During January to March, 26 films were produced. After that during April to July 2020 or in the first four months of the pandemic, no films were produced. Film production began again in the following months. During August-December 2020, a total of 27 films were produced.
The drop in domestic film production has severely destroyed the livelihoods of the film workers, which, given the pandemic, is rubbing salt into the wound.
Inevitably, the film workers have to work odd jobs to make a living. A number of film workers that Kompas met said their lives were so hard due to the pandemic as most of them had been unemployed for up to 10 months. For comparison, during the 1998 economic crisis, they were only unemployed for about four months. (Kompas, 29/3/2021)
Number of Indonesian Films in 2011-2021 (above) and Number of Indonesian Films in 2020 (below).
On the other hand, government social assistance for those affected by the pandemic has not reached film workers due to the lack of data on the number of people who work in the film industry. It shows how fragile the condition of film workers is, especially in the midst of the pandemic. In fact, it is important that this sector gets attention, considering that that films can become the identity of the nation. (Kompas, 31/3)
What we can be grateful for is that there are still several opportunities that can be taken by the national film industry to rise again. First, people still prefer domestic films to foreign films. A survey conducted by Kompas R & D on March 16-18, 2021, with 518 respondents in 34 provinces indicated that 60.5 percent of the respondents liked domestic films. This is social capital for Indonesian film industry players.
Second, we have witnessed that a number of our filmmakers have tried to revive their business such as by distributing films on both free and paid digital platforms. In 2020, there were hundreds of online film distribution platforms in the country. According to Kompas R&D data, 56.3 percent of the respondents in the poll, who watched Indonesian films in the last six months, watched through free digital platforms. The other 36.5 percent watched through paid digital platforms.
The efforts to revive the national film industry should be supported by the government. The commemoration of National Film Day on Tuesday (30/3) should mark the starting point for the revival of Indonesian films as hosts in their own country, as well as to make the film industry a production sector that can provide a livelihood for its workers.
This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi.
