Filmmakers consider taking law to court

Filmmakers, both independent and mainstream, say they need to unite in their fight against the newly passed film law, deemed by the film community as an instrument to restrict creativity and freedom of expression.

“It was because the film industry was not unified in monitoring its deliberation at the House of Representatives the law was passed in the first place,” filmmaker Garin Nugroho told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

“Therefore, the movie community must now be more united in fighting the law. We should learn from the group of civil organizations that stood solidly together and succeeded in preventing the controversial state secrecy bill from being passed. The anti-secrecy coalition consisted of at least 10 major civil organizations,” he added.

Filmmaker Ratna Sarumpaet said the industry realized it needed better consolidation to fight the law.

“We just need a leader or someone to organize it. If we want a strong case, we will have to wait until a problem arises as the bill’s articles are implemented,” she said.

“For example, I believe the stipulation that rules all domestic cinema owners must allocate 60 percent of their movie slots to local movies will cause problems in the film industry.”

Filmmakers said the ruling would merely trigger the production of a massive quantity of films lacking in terms of quality. (hdt)