Today marks JAFF’s twentieth year as a film festival, a considerable length of time to witness how an ecosystem grew, while remaining a relatively limited in reminding us how fragile memory serves us.
Two decades ago, we opened our festival with the same film, Opera Jawa for JAFF’s inaugurual celebration. In spite of our maturity as a film festival, we lacked access to the original film materials in Indonesia. Just to screen this film for our opening today, we had to request for access from France, a country with a robust archival system which has been consistent in respecting cinema’s footsteps. The irony is not lost on us that the film’s country of origins is the first to lose its memories.
To our friends, audience, and even policymakers attending our opening event today, we must be reminded that our collective memory is integral to earning the respect we desire.
We take pride in the achievements of Indonesian cinema: we boast millions of audiences, organize large film festivals, embark on a new film market, as more and more young talents sprout. But this is rendered meaningless if our own efforts vanished into the dust of time, unable to be watched by our own grandchildren.
What use does a film that is watched widely with 5 million audience, but would disappear within a decade? Once again, I am reminded by the bitter truth that we are losing our memories.
Indonesia is a nation blessed with cultural and historical artefacts. In fact, many eyes have been turning to our historical archives lately. But it benefits none to neglect that film is also an important historical artefact. It is a medium documenting how a nation perceives itself; storing sounds, languages, anxieties, and hope of a generation. It is compelling for its strength in drawing out emotions we may not even be aware of, but fragile enough to be lost to time.
As JAFF steps into our twentieth year, we would like to declare our moral manifesto; it is imperative that the Indonesian government made our Film Archives as a cultural priority.
Without an overarching national strategy to archive films, there would be parts of our history swallowed by time. Not from theft nor destruction, but from our own apathy to recognize the necessity of its archival.
A film archive extends beyond regulations, it acts as a long-term investment borne out of systems, infrastructure, preservation, restoration, and digitisation laboratories. At the heart of it, it symbolises a commitment to retain our collective memories as a nation.
At JAFF, we are committed to become part of the ongoing archival efforts. However, we recognize that it can be futile without concrete regulations, leadership, and the political will of policymakers with tangible decision-making power.
Indeed, a nation with no film archive to speak of is one that does not believe in its future generations; enough that they refuse to mould its next generation with a collective memory.
Yogyakarta, 29 November 2025.
Thank you.
