TY - JOUR
T1 - Filmmakers’ aesthetic strategy against the politics of taste of european film festivals
AU - Ihwanny, Rista
AU - Budiman, Manneke
N1 - Funding Information:
Peculiar Vacation and Other Illnesses (Noen, 2012), shows Third-World poverty issues.It received funding for post-production from the Hubert Bals Fund in 2012. The film tells the story of Ning, a married woman who worked at a second-hand clothing store before starting a new job at a furniture store. Ning and her male coworker, Mur, are assigned to deliver a sofa from Yogyakarta to a remote village in Temanggung. The film is a road movie that follows the journey of Ning and Mur for two days and depicts the stops they take along the way.
Funding Information:
The analysis of the three films highlighted here, which all received funding from the Hubert Bals Fund, affirms the compliance of these filmmakers with the dictates of film festivals’ taste and politics. The typical characteristics of festival films from the Third World can be observed in all three of these films. The filmmakers show full awareness and sufficient knowledge of what kinds of films are desired by the funding bodies. As they gain increased access to films from European film festivals, Third World filmmakers are becoming more capable of discerning the taste of funding bodies and of Europe in general. This reinforces the politics of taste that dominates film festivals.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Kasetsart University.
PY - 2021/1/1
Y1 - 2021/1/1
N2 - European film festivals today are not only exhibitors but also film producers and distributors. Festivals perform these roles by providing funding for films created by Third World filmmakers through separate bodies set up for such a purpose. Such funding programs often come with strings attached. Unequal power relations between First World film festivals, as benefactors, and Third World filmmakers, as beneficiaries, often exist. This ultimately promotes a politics of taste at film festivals. These festivals are believed to have extensive power to select the films that qualify for funding. Furthermore, the compromises and negotiation between filmmakers and film festivals are cause for concern. This article examines the aesthetic strategies of funded Indonesian filmmakers in response to the politics of taste in film festivals. Following a textual and visual approach, this study found that, although Indonesian filmmakers cannot completely break free from the dominant politics of taste of film festivals, they are capable of negotiating their positions and offering different kinds of aesthetics. This study also presents Indonesian filmmakers as active and flexible agents in the international film industry, despite their position as beneficiaries restricted by the rules of their benefactors.
AB - European film festivals today are not only exhibitors but also film producers and distributors. Festivals perform these roles by providing funding for films created by Third World filmmakers through separate bodies set up for such a purpose. Such funding programs often come with strings attached. Unequal power relations between First World film festivals, as benefactors, and Third World filmmakers, as beneficiaries, often exist. This ultimately promotes a politics of taste at film festivals. These festivals are believed to have extensive power to select the films that qualify for funding. Furthermore, the compromises and negotiation between filmmakers and film festivals are cause for concern. This article examines the aesthetic strategies of funded Indonesian filmmakers in response to the politics of taste in film festivals. Following a textual and visual approach, this study found that, although Indonesian filmmakers cannot completely break free from the dominant politics of taste of film festivals, they are capable of negotiating their positions and offering different kinds of aesthetics. This study also presents Indonesian filmmakers as active and flexible agents in the international film industry, despite their position as beneficiaries restricted by the rules of their benefactors.
KW - Aesthetic strategy
KW - European film festivals
KW - Film funding
KW - Indonesian filmmakers
KW - Politics of taste
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102753392&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.34044/j.kjss.2021.42.1.22
DO - 10.34044/j.kjss.2021.42.1.22
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85102753392
SN - 0125-8370
VL - 42
SP - 141
EP - 146
JO - Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences
JF - Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences
IS - 1
ER -