Your comments on the approval of the film bill by the House of Representatives that has sparked protest from film industry professionals, who fear that the bill will hamper freedom of expression and stifle creativity.
The film industry needs to be regulated. The main objection of the film-community is that 60 percent of films distributed should be locally made. This clause is a protection for our film industry against foreign made films.
But if our film producers feel that they are not capable of fulfilling such a quota, just simply change the quota into at least 30 percent in the first five years, 40 percent in the next five years and then afterwards 50 percent before the requirement is fully fulfilled.
Soebagjo Soetadji
Jakarta
Instead of consulting with and taking the advice of the experts, i.e. people in in the film industry, they just went ahead like a bull run amok and rammed through this half-baked draft.
It seems they just did this so it would meet the deadline and make our House of Representatives look good for having passed as many bills as possible.
These legislators obviously never took into the bills they pass or consideration the repercussions such controversial bills might have once they are enacted.
Is Indonesia regressing into the era of the former *New Order', where everything was dictated and creativity nipped in the bud?
V.T. Hopkins
Jakarta
Was the local film industry included in framing this bill? Were the other sectors in the local film industry consulted? Was a consensus reached between the local film industry and the government?
Or was it again just a sweeping agreement of lawmakers thinking they just came up with a brilliant idea? Pressuring the industry at this stage when there is a financial crisis won't help anyone.
Personally, I was admiring the local industry's slow but sure progress, producing quality films that receive good support from the moviegoers, even with a healthy presence of Hollywood films. But to institute a 60 percent presence of local films would just open the doors for producers that are after a quick buck indeed.
You can see that it is framed as a question, and not a statement, lest a new law has been drafted for criticizing idiotic bills.
I know whereof I speak ... primarily because the Philippine film industry - once the leading beacon of filmmaking in Southeast Asia, suffered from the infamous "pito-pito movies" (films that have to be made in seven days).
We have sacrificed quality for quantity, and exploited everyone involved in the filmmaking process. It has taken us over a decade to recover from this monstrous cycle, and to this date we are still trying to resuscitate a weakened industry. Now the same mistake has been made.
Learn from your neighbors. Indeed, it may seem that the government had good intentions in drafting the law ... but, isn't hell paved with such?
N. Mark Castro
Manila, Philippines
