The letter, dated March 5, went viral after numerous film personalities and filmmakers, such as Hanung Bramantyo, Mira Lesmana, Joko Anwar, Ernest Prakasa, Mawar Eva De Jong, Syakir Daulay, Zaskia Adya Mecca, Dian Sastrowardoyo and Adipati Dolken, posted it in their social media accounts.

Into the second year of the pandemic, the national film industry is still struggling. Cinemas have reopened but the public is not really enthusiastic about returning to movie theatres mostly due to concerns about possible virus transmission and restrictions imposed by the authorities, even though health protocols are in place and mass vaccination is underway.

This is unfortunate because cinema is one of the main sources of income for the film industry and keeps it running. This dependency has now turned into a double-edged sword.

This issue prompted cinema managers and a number of prominent film personalities, grouped under Insan Film Indonesia, to publish the open letter to President Jokowi. They called on the government to support cinemas, which are now on brink of collapsing.

“We really hope that coordination of the Indonesian government through ministers in the Indonesia Onward Cabinet and the COVID-19 task force can help Indonesian cinema through various stimulus packages, subsidies, legal assistance and health protection,” the letter reads.

In this regard, rampant film piracy and the large number of people watching pirated movies are detrimental to film industry players. The longer a movie is screened, the more film industry players possibly lose the income they deserve as a result of piracy, regardless of the fact that movie production creates many jobs.

In such an environment, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, posing yet another uphill battle to the nation’s filmmakers. Although movie piracy is a crime under Law No. 8/1992 on movies and Law No. 9/2002 on intellectual property rights, particularly Article 72, penalties stipulated in the laws hardly deter perpetrators.

In 2018 alone, the financial losses the national film industry had to suffer reached Rp 1.49 trillion (US$ 102.76 million) due to illegal streaming and pirated DVDs, according to a research conducted by Institute for Economic and Social Research at the University of Indonesia’s School of Economics and Business. The losses were incurred in at least four cities, namely Jakarta, Medan, Bogor and Deli Serdang.

Another study released in December 2019 by YouGov, a film research and analysis company, found that almost two thirds of internet users in Indonesia used illegal streaming or access torrent sites to watch movies. Indonesia Internet Services User Association (APJII) data shows that the number of internet users in the country reached 196.7 million in the second quarter of 2020, which means 110 million to 125 million people are involved in online piracy.

That is a huge number and could go up considering that these illegal activities are conducted through various media platforms ranging from websites to applications. In fact, 44 respondents aged 18 to 24 admitted to using these illegal services, according to the YouGov survey.

Piracy practices adapt to the content that is being hijacked and have never been properly dealt with so far. The government’s move to block 1,130 piracy sites such as IndoXXI and LK21 and their derivatives in December 2019 remains insufficient. It seems the Communications and Information Ministry and the pirates are competing in a perpetual race with no end in sight.

Pirated content used to be sold in the form of compact discs (CDs) at stalls in places like the Glodok market in West Jakarta. Now, that content is widely available through illegal streaming sites. Gambling sites have become the biggest source of advertisements as piracy’s monetizing patterns have shifted to more sophisticated online platforms that completely ignore copyright and circulation rights.

Edwin Nazir, chairman of the Indonesian Movie Producers Association (APROFI), said the film industry performed only for the first 2.5 months of last year. After the cinemas were closed, film productions stopped, resulting in the loss of about 80 percent of potential income.

Normally, 50 million people go to the cinema annually, but in 2020 the figure dropped to less than 12 million. An average of 120 movies were screened every year before the pandemic, according to APROFI data.

In an interview, movie director Joko Anwar said that when movie productions were halted and the number of moviegoers dropped, the number of movie streaming site subscribers also declined as people switch to pirated movie sites.

Joko added that for film industry players, cinemas remained unsubstituted despite information technology advancements because revenue generated from streaming platforms was still insignificant compared to the traditional revenue. Additionally, before the pandemic, the national movie industry was reaching its peak, thanks in part to increasing appreciation from the public.

Indonesia is the tenth-biggest movie market in the world, with a value of $500 million at the end of 2019, and a survey by SMRC last year found that the market share of local movies had reached a record high 35 percent. In Asia, only South Korea, Japan, India and China performed better than Indonesia.

It is heartening that the deputy tourism and creative economy minister responded positively to the open letter, saying that the ministry had formed a task force to combat piracy and was considering proposing tax incentives for the movie industry.

Due to its huge potential for supporting the country’s recovery, the film industry deserves the government’s full support. It can at least help fight the negative stigma attached to cinemas as a supposed center of COVID-19 transmission.

As mass vaccination continues, one of the expected results is the public’s willingness to return to cinemas and combat piracy. Happy National Film Day!

 ***

The writer is a part-time lecturer for the event program, Prasetiya Mulya University.

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