QUESTIONING FILM CENSORSHIP: BETWEEN SELF-CENSORSHIP OR THE MASTERS OF TERROR

  • Author: Hardiwan Prayoga
  • From: College of Performing Arts and Visual Arts Studies Graduate School of Universitas Gadjah Mada Yogyakarta

Abstract:

Film became the only arts that is still required through the sensor in the post-New Order. Contained in Law No. 33 Year 2009 About the Film, Article 57 paragraph (1) Each film and films ads that will be distributed and / or displayed, mandatory need to retrieve letter passed the censorship. More clearly mentioned also in Article 24 paragraph (1) That every films and advertising films that will be distributed and / or displayed to the public, mandatory censored first by the Film Censorship Board. Film Censorship Board / (Lembaga Sensor Film/LSF) in Indonesia has a longer history than the national film industry. Officially national film, set at the March 30, 1950, whereas in functions, film censorship has been in effect since 1916 to maintain the good image the Hindia-Belanda colonial government. Until now LSF still trusted by the government as an institution which keeps public from the films containing ethnic group, religion, race, specific groups and ideologies that are considered potentially ?disturbing? the country?s stability. Interesting notes from pages http://www.lsf.go.id/publik/ content/582de17ccbb82 about the idea of self-censorship to respond the access of technologies that are not unstoppable today. Stated that public are expected to, can select on their own films that circulate in the media without a Letter Passed Censorship (Surat Tanda Lolos Sensor/STLS). Basically the film censorship is common in the countries of Southeast Asia. In the case of Indonesian films, most questionable LSF function when ?The Act of Killing? and ?The Look of Silence? was release on the alternate film screenings. Not without a problem, because almost every screening of both films was always haunted by the terror of specific community organizations. Is it true that this is meant by LSF as self-censorship? The other question, how terrifying films is? Until should be fenced in such a way by censorship. When the other arts move so aggressively voiced injustice, intolerance terror, and racial discrimination, films still lined with strictly on condition to qualify the censor, which is exhausting and convoluted. For filmmaker, LSF took first place in the list that should be eliminated in the universe of cinema. But for LSF, public still need to be guided and directed to do not get misleading spectacle mind. This paper will contain about questioning LSF position amongst public and filmmakers. From the New Order era, when so many adult films in national theaters, until now the era of technology that became heaven of freedom for circulation of film without STLS, which then led to the idea of self-censorship. The data will be collected with critical discourse analysis on the documents and archives of films that ever revised by LSF and ethnographic studies on a few alternative film screenings.

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