Cultural Specificity in Indonesian Film

Diversity in Unity

David Hanan

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9783319408736
• eBook ISBN:
  9783319408743
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

This book explores ways in which diverse regional cultures in Indonesia and their histories have been expressed in film since the early 1950s. It also explores underlying cultural dominants within the new nation, established at the end of 1949 with the achievement of independence from Dutch colonialism. It sees these dominants—for example forms of group body language and forms of consultation—not simply as a product of the nation, but as related to unique and long standing formations and traditions in the numerous societies in the Indonesian archipelago, on which the nation is based. Nevertheless, the book is not concerned only with past traditions, but explores ways in which Indonesian filmmakers have addressed, critically, distinctive aspects of their traditional societies in their feature films (including at times the social position of women), linking past to the present, where relevant, in dynamic ways.

Table of contents

• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Indonesia: An Emerging Nation
• Chapter 3: Intermittent Industries: Film Production in Indonesia over Nine Decades
• Chapter 4: Regions and Regional Societies and Cultures in the Indonesian Cinema
• Chapter 5: Group Body Language in Performance Art, Films and Dance by the Indonesian Avant-Garde
• Chapter 6: Body Language: From Wall Reliefs and Painting to Popular Narrative Film
• Chapter 7: Women in a Context of Cultural Difference
• Conclusion: ‘Placing Culture’
• Glossary and Abbreviations
• Index