INDONESIA: Organisers and filmmakers mistified by last-minute donor pullout and censorship at the Jakarta International Film Festival

A last-minute pullout of funding by the Australian government and a ban of three films on East Timor by the Indonesian Censorship Board have raised concerns about freedom of speech and expression in the two neighbouring countries. The Australian embassy in Jakarta told organisers of the Jakarta International Film Festival (JIFFEST) that it had revoked the AUS $18,000 grant from the Australian-Indonesia Institute because of four films, which the institution said have failed in promoting "greater understanding between the people of Australia and Indonesia". The pullout of the funding was announced last Friday (December 9), the day before the nine-day festival began, but organisers decided to seek funding somewhere else and to go ahead with the screening of the films. "There is censorship in Indonesia, you know it. So this kind of thing can happen. We have an official letter where they have the reasons, so we can go into discussion with them. We'll try to get next year that we maybe not have any film pulled out. We'll try to get this created as a membership thing, so they don't have to censor anymore. So there are things to work on. With the Australian, I'm not even in the dialogue. So it's like, a letter 24 hours (before), we have bad news for you, we pulled out the money. For me it's a shock we don't have the money. I think it's much worse for Australia, because in Australia now if the government is going to control which films are going to be sent to festivals or not, which give the good image of Australia, for me it's a one time thing about money, I think for the Australian filmmakers, I think it's much worse," said JIFFEST director Orlow Seunke on Wednesday (December 14) before the screening of two of the four Australian films -- "The President versus David Hicks" and "Dhakiyarr versus the King". The Australia-Indonesia Institute, whose logo is already featured as one among many sponsors in JIFFEST posters all over town, operates under the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs. "We don't know about the reasons for it. There certainly has been a backlash back in Australia. A lot of people very upset and I would imagine that the government is now regretting their decision. But the mistake had been made and hopefully next year they'll make up for it," said Curtis Levy, director of "The President versus David Hicks", which was awarded Best Documentary by the Australian Film Institute (AFI) in 2004. Levy's documentary was about Australian Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks and the four-year struggle of his family to fight for his release. Graeme Isaac, producer of "Dhakiyarr versus the King", was more concerned about the state of democracy in his home country. "It's the mark of the maturity of a society, and the level and the depth of the democracy in a society, to be able to accept criticism and even to encourage criticism and to encourage the diversity of views. And I think that when the Australian government has been prepared to support the screening in Indonesia and in other countries of films that are maybe sometimes critical of Australia, in a way that's an advertisement for Australian democracy. I think what has happened here is precisely the reverse. It gives precisely the wrong signal. It suggests that now Australia is closing down, that it wants to control the image that's being presented. It wants to control the nature of the debate about Australian society, and we think that's very disappointing," said Isaac, whose film chronicled the plight of descendants of a murdered Aboriginal leader in seeking the truth. While the festival seemed to have been more understanding of the banning of the three films on East Timor by the Indonesian Board of Censors than the last-minute pullout of the Australian funding, makers of the films said censoring should not be Indonesia's solution to deal with its violent past. "I don't think it opens old wounds as such. I think it shows how ordinary people come to terms with a conflict five years after it happened. And rather than covering up the wound, I think you have to let it air so that people know how to deal with the past, how people going get on with their lives afterward," said James Leong, a Singaporean director whose documentary "Passabe" featured a pro-Jakarta militiaman involved in the 1999 massacre in East Timor. "I think in order for wounds to heal you need to address the issue. You need to understand why the wound was there to begin with. So you know rather than cover up things and sweep it under the carpet and say let's not address it, we should try to look at it objectively and find out what exactly happened and why it affected people, why people are still angry and hurt. I think censoring the past is not the answer," said Passabe's producer and co-director Lynn Lee. This seventh Jakarta International Film Festival runs from 10-18 December. The annual event showcases nearly 200 films, documentaries, short films, as well as animation programs from all over the world. The festival also organises workshops led by participating filmmakers and producers to help improve the film-making skills of local film enthusiasts.

ITN Source | December 21, 2005

Tags:. .filmmaking. .indonesias. .heal. .disappointing. .upset