The Ministry of Culture Prepares a Film Museum, Film Archives Are No Longer Just Stored

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Culture has begun preparing the establishment of the Indonesian Film Museum which not only serves as a storage place for archives, but also as a center for education, research, and public activities. This step is taken to save and revive the film archive as part of the nation's history.

The idea was discussed in a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) of the Indonesian Film Preservation Center Towards a Film Museum which was held in Jakarta, Friday (10/7).

Minister of Culture Fadli Zon said that films are cultural heritage that must be maintained because they record the history, identity, and development of the Indonesian people. Therefore, the film museum is designed as a living archive, a living archive that can be accessed and used by the public.

"Museums are not just places to store collections. Museums must be centers of education, literacy, research, and activity spaces that keep history alive," said Fadli.

According to him, the film museum will also become a documentation, catalog, script, reference center, and appreciation space for the development of Indonesian cinema.

In the forum, the Ministry of Culture invited filmmakers, academics, curators, and museum managers to develop a more comprehensive concept of film preservation. One of the ideas that emerged was the implementation of the GLAM concept, namely the integration of Gallery, Library, Archive, and Museum in one ecosystem.

Through this concept, the gallery serves as a display and curation space, the library as a center for literacy and research, the archive as a preservation, restoration, and digitization of films, while the museum is a public interaction space.

The discussion also highlighted the challenges of preserving films in Indonesia. So far, film archives are still often seen as passive documents, although they have great historical, cultural, and educational value.

Film academic Umi Lestari assessed that the involvement of the film community from various regions is the key to ensuring that the museum truly represents the diversity of Indonesian cinema.

"The film community from various regions wants their local identity to be recorded. The film museum must be inclusive and reflect the diversity of Indonesia," he said.

The FGD was attended by a number of film activists, including Riri Riza, Julita Pratiwi, Lisabona Rahman, Rizka F. Akbar, Umi Lestari, and Amalia Wirjono.

The Ministry of Culture hopes that the establishment of the Film Museum will be the first step in building a more modern, collaborative, and accessible film archive management system. In that way, Indonesian films are not only entertainment, but also a source of knowledge and collective memory that can be passed on to the next generation.