Rizki Lazuardi “Margin with No Center : Gotot Prakosa Retrospective and Contemporary Animations from Indonesia”
May 6, 2016@ Theater Image Forum [Terayama Shuji]
※This article is based on the transcription of live presentation held at Terayama Shuji hall of Theater Imageforum as a part of Imageforum Festival 2016 on May 6, 2016.
1975-1982: Gotot and Marginalized Cinema
First, I would like to say thank you for coming, and I didn’t expect that there would be this many people coming. For my presentation, basically I will tell not on the style of individual or a narration of the Indonesian contemporary animation, but more in the position of this kind of works in the Indonesian animation in general.
Let’s start. My presentation is called Margin with No Center. It will explain the position of the animation film in Indonesia. First, we have to go to the period of 1975 to 1982 with a movement called Marginalized Films. This movement was basically initiated by the key persons; in the top, Gotot Prakosa, Sardano Kusuma, and Marselli Sumarno.
The term ‘marginalized’ itself is not the original term, because I couldn’t find the proper term in English. The original term is Pinggiran in Indonesian language, which actually means the outskirt of a place. Usually, it refers to city or slum or outcast, but this term is very pejorative, that means, negative. But it also could be for this kind of film at a time, but then I chose to use marginalized because of the relevance of the position of the film at that time. It has no quality failure in that. It will change according to times.
Basically, what the marginalized film movement means the struggle for the screen, because the film by these persons could not enter the main screen of Indonesian cinema at that time. What belongs to the marginalized film movement was basically like short film, experimental film, documentary film, and recorded in any format as long as it is not 35 mm and was not screened or distributed in the mainstream.
Because these films were marginalized, what is actually were mainstream cinema in the same period? Mainstream at that time means the non-chain cinema, the cinema owned by private owner, not like one big group. The films had feature-linear narrative. Then Indonesian film – we did have Hollywood and Indian and Mandarin or Chinese film, but they will not compete the same big market of Indonesia film and no television. Yeah, there were market for television, but at that time television was considered as luxurious equipment for a family, so most people get their audio-visual experience from the cinema.
Let’s talk about Indonesian animation. We could not really trace the Indonesian animation back then in that period. No Indonesian animation in the cinema, and television. No animation program yet. There were kind of animation sequence made by Indonesian animator, but I will talk about it later.
This is just a side note that even though the animation was very little or no existence at that time, but the comic scene was quite big back then. In the 70s, 80s, and 90s, local comic was a big thing and it was consumed and distributed for all markets, for like middle class to working class. They were all consuming the Indonesian comic.
Also in the same period in the movement of marginalized cinema, Gotot was considered as one of the first experimental filmmakers. He worked also with the other names or the other key persons of the movement, but Gotot had awareness of the other form of cinema, so not just documentary or short narrative film, but also experimental in the free kind of audiovisual form. Animation was part of the experimental, so it’s not defined as the other discipline, but it is also part of the experimental film for Gotot Prakosa at that time.
At that time, Gotot himself didn’t think that he is an animator. He said that he is just an experimental filmmaker that tried all methods to create the motion or image, so animation was part of his experimentation. So basically no handwriting or no style of Gotot. He tried everything. In this period, he tried live action, or performance like you can see in the small picture and then direct drawing. He drew it manually directly on the celluloid of 16 mm or stop motion.
The question gets back to the first period of marginalized cinema: how to show their work? Basically since they could not enter the big cinema, which at that time was the only possibility to show a film. So they make their own cinema, which is like pop-up cinema. They turned classroom into like a cinema hall or traveled to village or to side street or football field and put screen and projected there. But the most important thing, in this period, the counter-screening also marked this movement. What does counter screening mean? Since the Indonesian film at that time was very celebrated, they followed the touring of big film distributor or the big market. For instance, Indonesian Film Festival. During the award night, at just a few blocks from the venue, they set up like popup cinema and showed their film. Or even at the parking space of the big cinema where they launched big budget movie. This is counter screening.
1982-90s: Television and the international recognition of Gotot
Let’s move on the next period. It’s around 82 until 90s. This period marked the emergence of national television. I mean, not emergence, but TV is widespread to the society. The ownership increased, so people also watch television. Television is considered as the second screen of that period.
Let’s get closer to the Indonesian animation in the Indonesian television. Basically what we had at that time just pilots. Pilots means animation project by the television or basically government, because it’s owned by the state, but they just run for like yeah less than one season, maybe just like 2 or 3 episodes, then it’s done. Basically we only had like this two; first called Huma, I think it only runs for like five episodes and per episode runs for like 11 minutes, very short, and they didn’t continue it anymore, and then the second one was called Kancil. Basically, it’s Walter Foster tutorial rip-off. The state film company invited illustrator and gave the book of Walter Foster with the same of the sequence of animation and ask the illustrator to replace the head with the Indonesia anime, so it just ran for like maybe less than 3, maybe 2.
Yes, but we still can watch Indonesian animation in the television, but not in the cartoon show. This is the most animation sequences we as children in the 80s saw on television: public service announcement by the government program. On the left side is before the commercial break is basically to warn the society to be wise in spending their money on the product advertised and the next one is the government program on family planning.
This is also the years where Gotot Prakosa developed his work along with the movement. First, let’s look at the work of Gotot. In this period, works of Gotot tried to communicate with the situation. Not just the situation of the actual society, but also reality distributed on the television or the cinema through the film, so Gotot tried to response on few things like Absolute Zen, the very first film you saw. It’s basically his criticism on consumerism and then the second one is called Non KB: no family planning program. It’s his alternate version of the government’s ad for family planning program, because it’s very unclear for the uneducated viewers, so Gotot tried to make like clear illustration for family planning program.
On the last work, the Bagawan Chiptonin. This is very interesting because basically nowadays if you see this kind of speedup work it looks very cheesy because it’s the typical experimentation. But it was very relevant at that day, because it was very different from the live performance, the Indonesian theater performance, the traditional one. Basically, the movement of the actors of this performance is very slow. For instance, if you want to move your head on the left directed it takes like 5 to 10 seconds. There is a sense of stillness in this performance. Gotot tried to render this stillness to the media just like animation you animate the still frame. It’s also his response to the television, because television tried to preserve the cultural product of Indonesia like performance, because the television trimmed the performance, especially the essential part, so that it could be shown on television.
And also in this period, he already used animation cel and camera Oxberry, something that’s more proper to animation production. This is also the period where he got recognition.
The most important part is where he was invited to Oberhausen. It’s not specifically animation festival, but more experimental film festival and he was there to present his animation works. This is very special because basically he was invited personally by young Wim Wenders. After the recognition, he got finally access to the main cinema. He got supported by cinema owners. Now he got opportunity to show in the proper black box. But also in this time after he spent a few years in the non-proper cinema hall, he became aware on the materiality of the space. Before he got used to the non-established cinema and then he tried to develop works that related to the space, so this is why he has also sense of expanded cinema.
2000s: Digital Era
Now we go way further in the decades after the next one, so not in the 90s, but in the 2001, so it’s the emergence of the millennial and the new generation of animators. This is very interesting, because they are not from the cinema background basically. They come from the contemporary visual art. You can see their works in a gallery, not in the cinema. Not long after that, any visual artwork using video is seen as a video art, so it’s also new entity at that time. This is also a little note. This work basically distance from the main media like television or cinema, even from their native production. Most of their native productions were not in any industrial standard. For instance, like now we understand why the quality of this film is so bad for nowadays, because it was made in standard definition, not high definition.
Let’s see Indonesian animation in the digital period. Actually on television what we mean animation in Indonesia is still dominated by the foreign animation. The most popular one, of course, Japanese anime and the American animation like from Nickelodeon.
Basically in the early digital period, there were not so many local animation productions, due to the markets, television prefered to show foreign animation. But the local animators at that time tried to avoid television. They established their own channel, which is festival. There was animation festivals, but throughout the years they changed their focus into cosplay, games, toys, and another cosplay and now it’s like cosplay convention, so their focus is not animation anymore. Even though it’s not on the main screen like cinema or television and they have their own outlets like festivals, but in this period television is actually seen as the main aim, because in the festival you will see more booth pitching to the television instead of animation screening program. It’s basically like the gate for young animators to enter the television.
What makes this new millennial kids struggling with the underground animation like emerged in the gallery is because of these two things basically, the reference and the technology. The reference, we got in the period film from not just like anime or Hollywood animation, but also, for instance, like this. This is like a Czech animator Jan Švankmajer. It was very popular in the 90s in the Indonesian animation scene, and the second one is the technology. In Indonesia in the early 2000, we got access to the software that actually cost very expensive, but we got very cheap in the pirated market. We got Adobe Premiere for less than maybe like now one hundred Japanese Yen. Very cheap. We got basically all this film and software, not from internet, because the internet connection was still so slow at that time, but we got it from the market, in the street, so they sell the pirated copy of CD. Maybe we were not developed country back then, but we got same tools and references as the big countries. We have seen in the digital period, it means there’s like missing link from the 80s to the digital era, so let’s go to the 90s. What happened in the 90s?
1990s: The Era of Television
I put the 90s all in the same frame, because this is where the time everything is dominated by television. Even Gotot himself also had role in the domination of television. You can see here from one television owned by the state in the 90s we had like five other TV channels owned by private. It also follows by the decline of Indonesian film. The production was down decreased compared to the previous decades, and it’s also the invasion of the Hollywood. Also the cinema monopoly. Previously cinemas were owned by many private owners, but in the 90s all were owned by one big company. But since it’s television, but still no hope for Indonesian animation. Basically what we had in the 90s, just longer and fancier pilots. What I mean by fancier: it’s made by some part three dimensional animation but still pilots. It runs less than five episodes. It is also the time that marked invasion of Japanese animation and old animation invasion like Scooby Doo or Tom and Jerry because the franchise is very cheap for television.
Let’s look closer at Gotot’s role in this movement. After the recognition of his works, Gotot established himself. In the 90s, he became the lecturer of Jakarta Art Institute. Then he also became the head of ASIFA in Indonesia. It is also very important that he published books like Film Pinggiran, Marginalized Film, so what was coined just as a term and movement now is established into academic ideas. What I mean by Gotot’s role in this industrial movement since basically he didn’t do any animation works for the television? Gotot works for the art institute and there were many art students that work for television after they studied and learned the animation or motion graphic from Gotot. He contributes to shape the generation who worked that also shaped the Indonesian media in the 90s.
What is also important is like the lost treasure, the experimental animation final works. Those who works for television and studied in the Jakarta Art Institute made experimental film as their final project but now these films are gone. It’s not well archived, but we consider them one of the most important film works, because not there are so many experimental animation in Indonesia and we believe the student made lot of experimental animation. It’s going to still consider as a lost treasure and hopefully we can find it in the future.
2010s-
Now let’s go on the very last stage of digital period, which is now in the last 5 years. I just want to focus on the Indonesian animation. What is Indonesian animation nowadays? Basically, it’s like the big niche channel that share, because we are no longer in the underground time. I mean, like we have channels to share all for everyone. In the mainstream or in the television, this is the latest formula of Indonesian animation. It’s on the air for like 1 or 2 years and I am looking for how it looked like in the future, so basically now the Indonesian animation in television is always about the daily life or everyday life of Indonesian people, just like sitcom but in the animation format.
Actually it started by Malaysian animation, but it’s very popular in Indonesia, the story about children in the village, but then we later make our own version in the Indonesian television the story about just like family life in a small town, but basically just like everyday life, so no superhero, no talking funny animals, no weird stuffs, just everyday life. Finally after they got marked with sustainable production of Indonesian animation, it’s not done by the animation studio. It’s now done by the television themselves, so they don’t want to buy it from animation studio, but instead they will hire or recruit young animators to join with the television and they produce it themselves, so there is no chance for animators to sell it for television unless they work inside the television. If you are an animator and you work for studio or independent animator, the television don’t want to buy your work, so they prefer to go in the higher business. This is what the Indonesian animator like to do, so they work for Hollywood. They prefer to go to the bigger markets, so like for instance, the main animator for like Minions is Indonesian and also for the Adventures of Tintin.
Let’s get back on that contemporary or experimental or the other form of Indonesian animation. Basically, it still continues the previous movement. It’s still distant from television, distant from the cinema. The animation in this period can be said it’s the extension of their aesthetic process. Like you see here Ariel Victor is an illustrator and he basically rarely makes any animation, and Natasha Abigail basically is a performance artist and a musician. She didn’t really draw the animation herself. Basically, it’s her fans who are willing to work in the crowd-sourced project and then she acted like the director. Wulang Sunu is a puppet artist. He works in the puppet theater, but he once did this animation, so he turned his puppet into like stop motion. He rarely do that anymore.
Then Toramarama. This is probably the weirdest one because they are media artist. They are a group. They all make graphic and media art work. This animation is specifically made by the embroidery, so like every single piece of frame made of embroidery on fabric. They are just like the previous ones, not an animator. And instead of in cinema, they show their work more in the gallery, or on the stage during musical performances. Anything, but not cinema. What is still important today with the Indonesian animation with a very handful animation works because they manage themselves to get critically and commercially acknowledged as an artist. Basically, they have already works in regular basis that they extended to animation work. They are well reviewed and able to sell work for remarkable price in the art market.
Also this period and still related to this movement, the video art is now in Indonesia seen as a media art, so before like contemporary art into like video art. Now video art into media art, because the extension of the media.
In case you wonder where Gotot Prakosa was positioned as a pioneer in this period, basically he was almost forgotten. None of this generation remember who Gotot Prakosa is and he didn’t even have position in this new movement, and last year we had a bad news that Gotot Prakosa passed away and his work is scattered all over the festivals and the libraries, and we realized that he really moved away from the movement in the 90s and established himself as a lecturer and didn’t make any work anymore, so we didn’t really feel necessary to gather all his work and now we realize that we have to collect all his work.
In the nutshell that’s all the position in Indonesian experimental animation with the Indonesian animation in general, especially related to the experimental film movement in Indonesia.
Q1.
In some films of Gotot Prakosa, I can see the influence from absolute cinema from Germany. Were there any chances to see this kind of film in Indonesia?
Rizki Lazuardi
Yes. This is also related why he got invited to come to the film festival in Oberhausen because Wim Wenders came to Indonesia in the late 70s. He was not that superstar back then. He was like an independent filmmaker that can travel invited by German cultural center and sent to Indonesia and then he influenced each other and he is inspired by Gotot Prakosa and Gotot got exposure to the German experimental film and then they built a communication and then Gotot went to Oberhausen.
Q2.
You mentioned documentary film. I was wondering what kind of topics was for this documentary film in this era.
Rizki Lazuardi
Since cinema only play the movie liked by the audience like featured drama film, of course, there was no market for documentary film. There was no chance for documentary film to show in television at that time by this young filmmakers because television was still run by the state and marketed for the rich people only, yes, television had documentary program, but it’s more like the talking head television kind of documentary, but it had nothing to do with this young filmmakers. No chance for them to go to television anyway. Of course, the topic of the documentary film done by this young generation is more about critical towards the government, which means at that time the government was very protective towards the criticism and cinema they don’t want to show works that could jeopardize their business.
