Indonesia Study Group: Abstracts

12:30-2:00pm
April 16 2009
Seminar Room B (Arndt Room)

The Anomalous Islamic Movies and other Recent Issues on Representation of Muslim World in Post-New Order Indonesian Cinema
Ekky Imanjaya (Co-founder/editor of Rumahfilm.org, an online film journal)

Do Commercialism and Islamic Law (Shariah) and Virtues become potential factors to lower the quality of so-called Indonesian “Islamic Cinema?”. Those factors seem to be embedded in most recent post- New Order Islamic films, and some film critics highlights that most of the movies in this “genre” are mediocre. In Salim Said’s point-of-view, the battle between commercial films versus idealist films is eternal. But how about the position of Islamic Law and virtues both in the content and (pre)production of idealist Islamic films: to endorse or to worsen the quality of the movie? On the other hand, there are some discourses from Dakwah activist claiming that both filmmaking process and the stories should obey fit with Fiqih and Shariah. For example, they try to find the way out the problem when there is a scene about husband and wife hugging, but in the real life they are not the real couple (thus, they are not allowed to do so). Ketika Cinta Bertasbih (When Love is praying) is another interesting case, while they create a TV show for casting the actors to be fitted with some Islamic values embodied in fiction characters.