Perkembangan Industri Filem Nasional Malaysia (1933 – 1989)( The Development of Malaysian National Film Industry (1933-1989))

Abstract

The national film portrays issues and identity of a nation. These aspects distinguish it from the popular commercial films. The national film emerged during the Malay film era. The Malaysian national film industry developed during the Malay film era and the Malaysian film era. The Malay film era began in Singapore in 1933, while the Malaysian film era began after the formation of Malaysia. Unlike numerous previous literatures on Malay film era and Malaysian film era, documentation on Malaysian national film, especially in regard to the formation of its industry seem to be scarce. Thus, the objective of this article is to explain the formation of the Malaysian national film industry. Three aspects of the film industry by Street (1997) are examined, namely the producer, director and creative labour. Data for this article was gathered from a fundamental research, with a qualitative research design. Historical approach was applied to analise sources such as news pepper, journal articles, books, thesis and film. The findings in this article are, unlike the Britain National Film industry that began with the development of producer, director and followed by the creative team, the Malaysian national film industry formed differently and by stages. Local creative team and director emerged earlier during the Malay film era, before the emergence of local producer in the Malaysian film era in the 1970s.