PPHU Foundation Activity Series To Celebrate National Film Day 2022

Preparation for National Film Day Commemoration (Photo: IST)

JAKARTA - National Film Day (HFN) is celebrated every March 30. The date was taken from the first filming of the film Blood and Prayer, by the Indonesian film director Usmar Ismail in 1950.

HFN 2022, with the theme 'Through the Commemoration of National Film Day, We Want to Make Indonesian Films the Fence of the Nation's Culture', was enlivened with a series of film activities.

Different from the previous year, HFN 2022 was held by a film organization based in the PPHUI Building (Usmar Ismail Film Center) by forming a joint committee, carrying out a series of activities for 3 days, from 28-30 March 2022.

This joint activity or joint committee involving all film organizations based at PPHUI in commemorating National Film Day was held for the first time. Then it will be maintained for HFN activities in the following years. This was conveyed by the chief executive of HFN 2022, H. Sonny Pudjisasono at a press conference at the PPHUI Building, Monday, March 28.

"We deliberately knit all existing film organizations, so that this film center building is truly a center of activity for all national film activities, or as an epicenter of film activities in Indonesia," said Sonny.

Various film organizations, both based in the PPHUI Building, such as the PPHUI Foundation, PPFI, PWI Film and Music Section, Parfi, Sinematek, Senaki, KFT, and outside the PPHUI Building, namely LSF and PFN. All of them agreed to make the PPHUI Building a Cultural Fence for National Film.

According to Sonny, various things have influenced the development of the national film industry, in addition to the big celebration of the G 20 where Indonesia is the host. Like it or not, Indonesia will become an arena for all the cultures of the G20 member countries. So, if we don't filter, or at least there's no appeal, then our cultural identity will fade and disappear.

"Therefore, I want to make the Film Building maintain that dignity. This is in line with what we have been fighting for for 3 years for the title of the Father of Indonesian Film Usmar Ismail to become a national hero in 2021.

Complementing the title of hero, the HFN committee also initiated the construction of a National Film Day Commemoration Site where the groundbreaking ceremony in the courtyard of the PPHUI Building was held on March 30, 2022 at 13.00 WIB.

The construction of the site is intended as a reminder for the younger generation, young filmmakers and millennials, so as not to lose their identity that they are a continuation of what the previous filmmakers did.

"This monument is to remind that National Film Day is taken from the history of cinema, namely the first day of shooting the film Blood and Prayer on Jalan Braga in 1950. Coincidentally, the struggle to become a film day commemorated on March 30, 1950 also departed from this Film Building," explained Sonny. .

"Especially now that there is a change in digitization, so as not to lose the meaning or break the history of the film itself," added Sonny.

For three days, HFN 2022 will be filled with a series of activities, including film discussions, film appreciation, film screenings and much more. Sonny, for example, on March 28, 2022, there will be a screening of the film Six Hours in Djogja, directed by Usmar Ismail in 1951.

"At that time there was no political intervention from any party," said Sonny, who wanted the PPHUI building as a place for film history archives.

According to Sonny, the PPHUI Building is the only film historical site that is still standing, managed by an independent private sector, namely the Film Center Foundation and the film community.

"I, as the head of the Film Center Foundation, want to make this Film Building a film culture fence. I want to protect Indonesian cinema in the midst of cultural infiltration from outside," he concluded.