Sinematek Indonesia Indonesian Film Archive

History and Founding

Sinematek Indonesia is Indonesia's sole film archive and the first of its kind in Southeast Asia. It was founded on October 20, 1975, by filmmaker and film historian Misbach Yusa Biran and screenwriter Asrul Sani, with the support of Jakarta Governor Ali Sadikin and funding from the Ministry of Information. Biran had previously established a film and theater documentation center at the Jakarta Arts Education Institute in the early 1970s after observing the rapid disappearance of Indonesian film heritage. The name Sinematek was modeled on the Cinémathèque Française in Paris.

The institution is housed in the Haji Usmar Ismail Film Center on Jalan H.R. Rasuna Said in the Kuningan district of South Jakarta, named after one of Indonesia's most celebrated film directors. Sinematek became part of the Usmar Ismail Foundation in 1995. Since 2001, when Indonesian law prohibited government funds from flowing to nonprofit organizations, the archive has been chronically underfunded.

Collections and Holdings

Sinematek holds approximately 2,700 film titles, including feature films, documentaries, and short films. The collection encompasses over 630 master copies and more than 1,600 documentary films in 35mm and 16mm formats. Sinematek also maintains a research library containing approximately 2,000 Indonesian film screenplays, nearly 283,000 press clippings from newspapers and magazines related to the Indonesian film industry dating from the early 1970s onward, books, dissertations, and journals on Indonesian and world cinema.

Notable Materials and Journalism Relevance

The extensive press clippings collection is invaluable for researchers studying the history of Indonesian cinema and its coverage in the national press. The archive holds seminal works by celebrated Indonesian directors including Usmar Ismail, Sumandjaya, Teguh Karya, and Garin Nugroho. A notable restoration project is Usmar Ismail's 1954 classic Lewat Djam Malam (After the Curfew), successfully restored in 2012 with foreign funding.

Access

Researchers and filmmakers may visit Sinematek's reading room and viewing facilities. The archive's library and clippings collection are particularly useful for historical research on the Indonesian film industry. As of recent reports, approximately 300 titles have been digitized through collaborative efforts with the Indonesian Film Center.