Ratna Asmara Project – Kelas Liarsip

Tracing Ratna Asmara and Digitizing Dr. Samsi (1952) Story

In one of the class discussions about "Women Film Directors in Indonesia," Ratna Asmara was mentioned. It was an incomplete discussion until Umi Lestari joined series of classes at Kelas Liarsip. Ratna Asmara is the first woman film director credited in post-colonial Indonesia's film industry, active as a film director from 1950 to 1954. Lestari had been conducting research on her since 2020. Unfortunately, none of Ratna Asmara’s films were yet accessible for the public. Dr. Samsi (1952) is her only "complete" film preserved by Sinematek Indonesia, including the 35mm image and sound negatives and film prints in acetate base. To support Lestari's project, the collective decided to preserve the film by transferring it through a digital scanning process; the project was supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology - Directorate of Film, Music, and Media and digitization service provider company, Render Film Post.

03. Still Shot Merangkai Ratna Asmara (1)

"Tracing Ratna Asmara and Digitizing Dr. Samsi (1952)" – the first praxis project of Kelas Liarsip, a way to learn the intertwining between the theory and practice of doing feminist film history. Dr. Samsi's digital output was screened publicly for the first time in the Eye Filmmuseum - Amsterdam under This is Film! Film Heritage in Practice program, alongside a public lecture in May 2022. In Indonesia, after 70 years, the film was screened for the first time in the Jogja Asian Netpac Film Festival (JAFF) on their JAFF Classic program. Throughout the past three years, Dr. Samsi has been screened several times within local communities and institutions, such as Institut Mosintuwu - Poso, Forum Sudut Pandang - Palu, Goethe Haus Institute - Jakarta, Studio Film UPI & Bahasinema - Bandung, Art House MASH - Denpasar, Indonesian Visual Art Archive - Yogyakarta, PSB Putri Payung & Sukasinema - Tanjung Pinang, University of Dian Nuswantoro - Semarang, Rumata Art Space - Makassar. Then, it has also been screened in global institutions and cultural events, for instance, Archival Assembly #2 in Arsenal - Berlin, Národní filmovy archvic & Academy of Fine Arts in Kino Ponrepo - Prague, The Flaherty International Seminar's Headquarter - New York. These screenings are entirely within a fair-use scheme, prioritizing the circulation of knowledge from researchers to the public. As an ethical consideration, any screening fee that we've received - we attempted to utilize it for preservation support in Sinematek Indonesia and the right heir of the film.

Ratna Asmara: Perempuan di Dua Sisi Kamera

At the same time, with the support of public funds, we created derivative works to distribute the legacy of Ratna Asmara and her work. This was done by publishing a book, Ratna Asmara: Perempuan di Dua Sisi Kamera (Ratna Asmara: Woman in Two Sides of Camera) (2022), that consists of seven monographs, which are:

Pengantar Kolektif Kelas Liarsip: Merangkai Ratna Asmara dan Kerja di Baliknya - Lisabona Rahman dan Umi Lestari
Mendalami Pelapukan: Refleksi Kerja Pelestarian dengan Film yang Terlantar dan Terpinggirkan - Lisabona Rahman
Ratna Asmara - Umi Lestari
Diari Arsiparis: Proses Reparasi Awal dan Digitisasi film Dr. Samsi - Efi Sri Handayani
Kode Pelapukan dan Bahasa Keibuan dalam Dr. Samsi - Julita Pratiwi
Ratna Asmara di Amsterdam: Pengalaman Menonton Dr. Samsi di Eye Filmmuseum - Imelda T. Mandala
Filmografi Ratna Asmara - Siti Anisah

The book was published by the support of Indonesia Visual Art Archive (IVAA), with the editor Lisistrata Lusandiana. The first release version was distributed to higher education institutions, some archive/ library institutions, film communities and colleagues. Currently, we are still working on the english translation of the monograph. Therefore, we hope we could published it the second version with dual-language Bahasa and English in the near future.

Merangkai Ratna Asmara (2023)

Apart from that, the documentary Merangkai Ratna Asmara (Devising Ratna Asmara) (2023) was released as episode fragments on the Indonesiana TV platform. The documentary shows the journey of research collective Kelas Liarsip on tracing Ratna Asmara - the actor, director, producer, with an effort to save and digitize her film, Dr. Samsi (1952). Then, it was released in a 66–minute feature format and screened in independent art houses, art galleries, cultural centers and film communities. Similar with the screening of Dr. Samsi also accompanied by public discussion. It has been screened Kineforum DKJ, PurpleCode Collective, Galeri Nasional - Jakarta, Kotabaru Heritage Film Festival - Yogyakarta, Lokananta - Surakarta.

The original soundtrack of Merangkai Ratna Asmara, "Suara Puan" written by Arief Fauzan Vibriansyah and M. Cristna Irama and sang by Nesia Ardi could be access through this link.

If you would like to screen and make a discussion surrounding the film, don't hesitate to reach us.