[ecrea] Call for Papers: The Bad, The Worse, and The Worst: The Significance of Indonesian Cult, Exploitation, and B Movies

CALL FOR PAPERS

Plaridel Journal
Special Issue

The Bad, The Worse, and The Worst:
The Significance of Indonesian Cult, Exploitation, and B Movies

Guest editor: Ekky Imanjaya (University of East Anglia & Bina Nusantara 
University)

In Indonesia, popular Indonesian films, especially exploitation and 
B-movies, are overlooked and underrated by most film critics, film 
journalists, and film scholars.  Until recently, these kinds of films 
have not been commonly considered as “official” representations of 
Indonesian cinema, let alone Indonesian culture. Majority of books, 
works of journalism, and academic papers dealing with Indonesian cinema 
history, both in English and Indonesian, generally exclude the 
significance of classic “exploitation” cinema. These works only discuss 
such films if there are controversial issues associated with them, or if 
representations of social classes and gender are explored.  Only a few 
texts have discussed the phenomenon of exploitation films as such.

Interestingly, instead of art-house films directed by auteur directors, 
or films that attempt to represent “Indonesian faces on screen”—which 
are commonly considered and celebrated as the official representation of 
Indonesian culture by the Indonesian government and culture elites--“low 
art,”, “lowbrow” or “bad” movies are exported to and disseminated by the 
international film markets in Manila, Cannes, Berlin, etc. since 1982. 
Apparently, exploitation movies could well fit with the demands of 
international distributors.

In addition, many such films are still very popular among the 
working-class and lower-class spectators, with some even becoming 
box-office hits. Borrowing Barry Keith Grant’s term, these films became 
“Mass Cult” for local fans (Grant 1991, 123). The “Mass Cult” status of 
the films is important to highlight, because these films were not 
marginalized by mainstream audience in Indonesia. However, these films 
were discriminated against by the Politics of Tastes of culture elites, 
and their cult status was partly shaped by New Order policies. The films 
were circulated freely and massively through LayarTancap (mobile cinema) 
and Misbar (seasonal movie theatre) during New Order era in rural and 
suburban areas, which were out of New Order radar until 1993. These 
kinds of distribution and exhibition became channels of alternative 
distribution and exhibition for those “marginalized” films and have 
produced their own dynamics and characteristic subcultures.

This raises several questions:  How were film cultures and cinematic 
production, mediation, and consumption generated in Indonesia and 
beyond? To what extent can we consider these “bad” exploitation films 
important and significant culturally, socially, politically, and 
economically? How and why do many of these kinds of films become cult 
films abroad and celebrated by global fans? How and why do Indonesian 
films texts achieve cult status? How might they differ from so-called 
mainstream films? To what extent can we still consider these media 
‘cult,’ given global media reach? What of other exploitation films which 
were not exported, such as dangdut musicals by Rhoma Irama or comedy 
films starred by Benyamin Sueb and Warkop DKI? What of recent 
exploitation and B-movies, like the virtual discussion on Azrax (Melawan 
Sindikat Perdagangan Wanita) <Azrax (Against Women Trafficking 
Syndicate)> or discussion on works by Koya Pagayo and KK Deraj in 
“#Vividism” fan culture? Finally, what can all of these reveal about 
other critical concerns, from industry culture, to (re)distribution, 
consumption, and reception?

This edition of Plaridel: A Philippine Journal of Communication, Media, 
and Society will provide an opportunity to share research on any aspect 
of these practices and initiate dialogue on Indonesian cult, 
exploitation, and B-grade films.  Topics might include but are not 
limited to the following:

·         The Production of Indonesian Cult, Exploitation and B-movies
·         Networks, Co-productions, and/or Financing
·         Exploitation Film and Policy (censorship, etc.)
·         Indonesian B-movie cult stardom and celebrities  (Barry Prima, 
Suzanna, Bing Slamet, Benyamin, Rhoma Irama, Eva Arnaz, etc)
·         The Roles of International Star movies (Peter O’Brien, Cynthia 
Rothrock, Chris Mitchum, etc).
·         Indonesian cult Auteurs (Arizal, Sisworo Gautama, Tjut Djalil, 
etc)
·         Genres in Indonesian cult cinema
·         The Marketing of Indonesian Cult Movies and the Institutions 
of Film Markets
·         Indonesian B-movie Channels of Distribution
·         Indonesian and International politics of taste and cultural 
distinction
·         Indonesia and International cult fandoms and communities
·         Indonesian Exploitation Films and Theories of cult Internet fandom
·         Local media and global receptions
·         Emerging marginalised Indonesian  cult films


Abstracts should be submitted via email to (plarideljournal /at/ gmail.com), on 
or before 10 April 2014. The deadline for full papers by authors whose 
Abstracts have been selected is 10 June 2015.


About Plaridel Journal

Plaridel: A Philippine Journal of Communication, Media, and Society was 
first published in 2004 as a national journal of communication and has 
since been released on a regular bi-annual basis. Eventually, the 
journal expanded its scope to include regional (i.e., Asian and 
Southeast Asian) topics and began to publish papers from other Asian 
countries. Papers published in Plaridel Journal are original researches 
emanating from various disciplines that engage with media and 
communication studies. Such papers may include qualitative or 
quantitative researches concerned with media effects, industry 
practices, political economy, cultural and subcultural formations, 
reception and consumption, among others.

Current and past issues are available at www.plarideljournal.org.


Information for Authors

Plaridel: A Philippine Journal of Communication, Media, and Society is a 
refereed bi-annual journal published by the University of the 
Philippines, College of Mass Communication (UP CMC). It publishes papers 
on any aspect of Asian and Southeast Asian communication and media. 
Reviews of books, films, websites, television and radio programs, and 
other media texts are also accepted for publication.

All articles should have a high degree of scholarship. All article 
submissions are vetted by the issue and/or associate editor and then 
blind reviewed by at least two experts in the field.

All articles should be written with proper citations using the American 
Psychological Association (APA) style. Articles must not exceed a 
maximum of 10,000 words, while reviews must have at least 1,500 words. 
Articles in English or Filipino may be submitted.

Articles should be accompanied by an abstract of 100 to 150 words. 
Abstracts for contributions written in Filipino must be written in English.

Article submissions are to be e-mailed to the Editor-in-Chief at 
(plarideljournal /at/ gmail.com) in MS Word format without any identifying 
information such as author(s) name and institutional affiliations. 
Authors should submit a separate document with the manuscript title, 
author name(s), institutional affiliation and contact information.

Authors submitting articles for consideration should not simultaneously 
submit the same articles to publications or journals. Articles should 
not have been published elsewhere in substantially similar form or with 
substantially similar content. Authors are responsible for gaining 
permission for including any copyrighted material that needs permission, 
including quotations of more than 300 words and illustrations.


Plaridel Journal Refereeing Process

Plaridel Journal publishes original articles that have gone through a 
rigorous double-blind peer-review process. Papers submitted to the 
journal for publication consideration undergo an initial editorial 
review by issue and/or associate editors. At this stage, papers can be 
accepted or rejected. Papers that are favorably reviewed move forward to 
the blind peer-review process. Referees or reviewers are selected based 
on their publication history and expertise in the field where the 
article seeks to make a contribution.


CHED Accreditation

The Plaridel Journal is accorded Category A-2 status in the Philippines 
by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Journal Accreditation 
System since 2010.


For further information, call (02) 9206864 or UP trunkline 981-8500 loc. 
2668 or email Patrick F. Campos (Plaridel Journal Managing Editor) at 
<(plarideljournal /at/ gmail.com)>.

---------------
ECREA-Mailing list
---------------
This mailing list is a free service from ECREA and Nico Carpentier.
--
To subscribe, post or unsubscribe, please visit
http://www.ecrea.eu/mailinglist
--
ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association
--
Postal address:
ECREA
Chauss�de Waterloo 1151
1180 Uccle
Belgium
--
Email: (info /at/ ecrea.eu)
URL: http://www.ecrea.eu
---------------