PUBLIC LECTURE

A NOTE ON PUBLIC LECTURE

Fluidity, the theme brought forward by JAFF this year, can be interpreted as the flexibility of cinema and its surroundings, including the development of scientific researches on film itself. Thus, in the current edition of Public Lecture, JAFF attempts to connect the ideas circling around films by presenting six seminar sessions and ten research abstracts in the corridor of film discourses.

This year, Public Lecture is presented by the collaboration between JAFF and Pusat Studi Sosial Asia Tenggara Universitas Gadjah Mada (Centre for Southeast Asian Social Studies Gadjah Mada University). We strive to look closely on the issues of identity contained within short films under the theme ASEAN Identity in Short Film. All this time, ASEAN is more frequently understood as a merely economic region, while putting aside its cultural aspects. As a region possessing a high cultural diversity, it is a challenge to build a certain identity of ASEAN. Beforehand, it is important for us to be in the same frequency concerning what the meaning of ASEAN identity exactly is. And how does such identity emerge in the form of short film?

Last year, in Public Lecture, we presented a number of themes regarding Asia Pacific. We realized that a lot of things were left undiscussed. Hence, this year we come up with a theme about Asia Pacific Film in Digital World. We expect that it will be the theme through which the curiosity left by the discussion a year ago can be satisfied. At once, it aims at examining how the Asia Pacific films adapt and take the opportunities offered in the digital era for the sake of their advancement.

Not merely discussing the other regions, this year we take a look at a particular phenomenon occurring in Indonesian cinema. In Indonesian Film Audience, we are going to discuss how Indonesian film audience keeps the country’s film industry going. In addition to occupying screening spaces, Indonesian film audience are getting more active in responding to the works via social media. Consequently, the interaction between filmmakers and the audience may pop out just anywhere.

Other than discussing the audience, we give a space as well for the filmmakers through the discussion themed Distribution and Film Funding. Through the discussion, we expect that the filmmakers, both novices and professionals, will be aware of the importance of distribution and capable of arranging distribution and funding strategies for the film projects they are working on. Hence, the films may have a certain sustainability.

Interaction between film and other forms of art is inevitable.  Under the theme Film and Performance Art, we are about to look at the intersections of the two forms of art. The collaboration of the two may even create a new form of art as presented in Nyai by Garin Nugroho. Such a new form opens up to the opportunity of idea development both of film and of performance art. It does not rule out the possibility of another interaction between film and other forms of art in the future.

Public Lecture consistently creates a space of interaction between film and literacy through book discussions. This time, we facilitate such space by organizing the Book Discussion: New Indonesian Cinema & Film, Ideologi dan Militer. These two books are relevant since they discuss Indonesian cinema in certain periods. Film, Ideologi, dan Militer (Film, Ideology, and Military) talks about how films were utilized as propaganda tools back then. While New Indonesian Cinema reviews the condition of Indonesian cinema in the more contemporary era.

Other than six seminar sessions, JAFF in collaboration with PSSAT UGM organized Call for Research Poster that invited the researchers focusing on cinema studies. They are going to present their researches during the implementation of Public Lecture activities. By these presentations, we really hope that JAFF’s audience may enjoy an outright festival.