Cinemas and Film Industry in Medan, Indonesia in the 1960s-1990s

This article aims to explain the dynamics of the growth of cinemas and the variety of films to provide entertainment for the community in Medan from the 1960s to the 1990s. This study employs a historical method consisting of four stages: heuristic, source criticism, interpretation, and historiography. This research indicates that various government policies and the prevailing regime influenced the development of cinemas and the film industry. Various policies of the New Order government sought to boost the national film industry by implementing regulations on film imports, restrictions, surveillance, and censorship of films. Medan, as one of the metropolitan cities since the 1960s, had flourished with various forms of entertainment, especially the growth of cinemas and the film industry, which attracted the interest of city residents in expressing their need for entertainment. Cinema buildings that had existed since the Dutch colonial era were managed as places for the community to watch both national and foreign films, supplemented by the emergence of People’s Entertainment Stages. Eventually, the glory of cinemas and the film industry in Medan began to decline in the 1990s due to the stagnant national film industry and the shift in urban community entertainment with the advent of television and video technology.