KPI department holds public lecture on film critics and media advocacy

Rectorate, UIN News Online – Islamic Communication and Broadcasting (KPI) department of UIN Jakarta, in collaboration with Majelis Alimat Indonesia (MAI) holds virtual public lecture entitled  “Kritikus Film/Sinetron dan Adovokasi Media” on Friday (08/13/2021).

By presenting Amany Lubis, Putut Widjanarko, Yuliandre Darwis, and Helvy Tiana Rosa as speakers, this event was officially opened by the KPI department head Armawati.

Armawati in her remarks hoped that this public lecture could provide inspiration and understanding about the film industry to all participants.

“It is hoped that KPI students can conduct research, write books, articles, and undergraduate theses regarding the latest film and broadcasting industries,” she said.

Amany Lubis in her presentation told her experience when she was studying at Al Azhar University, Egypt. She said that she was often invited to talk about film. She was used to seeing historical films, because at that time they were included in the curriculum.

“In Egypt, films are also useful as a medium of education and Da’wa. That's what I feel, when the historical stories of Companions of the Prophet and tabi'in are played,” said Rector Amany.

She also hopes that the film industry in Indonesia can become a medium medium that can solve political, social and cultural problems.

Islamic novelist Helvy Tiana Rosa considers that since the era of digitalization and the pandemic period, the number of movie viewers through television and movie theater is starting to decrease.

As a result, cinema entrepreneurs have difficulty obtaining new films. Furthermore, the audience also switched to various over the top (OTT) or video on demand (VOD) platforms.

Therefore, she said, collaboration between creative industry players must be carried out. For example writers, directors, production teams, and so on. They must collaborate and synergize in order to produce substantial and potentially commercial works.

Meanwhile, according to Yuliandre Darwis, VOD platform as a streaming service has unlimited content. However, most of the content from the platform is not in accordance with Indonesian or eastern culture.

Yuliandre assessed that regulations for streaming services in Indonesia lag far behind Australia, Canada and the UK. These countries already have definite and firm regulations for such services.

“On the other hand, Indonesia can only recommend the content that should be presented. There are no legal facts that can guarantee this regulation in Indonesia,” he said. (usa/ns/ts/fn)