The cinematic history is a history of the medium born as the child of technology, constantly redefining its role, be it in economical, social, cultural, and political spaces throughout the ongoing technological revolution from 1.0–5.00.

The cinematic history sees that the era of early 20th century, when cinema first came to Indonesia, has always been filled with attempts to manage the role of this moving image. The Dutch colonial government managed cinema as a propaganda medium to introduce the center of power through documentaries, such as the short documentary of Queen Wilhelmina’s anniversary or short documentaries of events happening in Europe through the European perspective as center of civilization.

History records that when the Japanese occupation took place between 1939–1942, Japan used film as a propaganda medium for the Greater East Asia. No less than Usmar Ismail and his friends were introduced to films through the Japanese propaganda agency. It should be noted, Usmar Ismail said that the teacher of Indonesian fiction film was Dr. Huyung, a Korean film teacher brought by the Japanese occupation to Indonesia. In other words, the fathers of Indonesian films began to recognize the value of films as propaganda or entertainment and guidance from the very beginning.

History also records that the New Order was very conscious of using films as a propaganda tool by managing censorship strategies on various aspects of filmmaking, from title, worker, all the way to content. They even produced propaganda works through PFN (State Film Company), such as Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI.

The Indonesian reformation, based on various emerging studies, has been noted as a broad space of the struggles for various values to be disseminated through films in order to manage the new post-1998 generation in relation to the popular culture after 30 years of restrictions by the New Order—including values in relation to Islam. One of those successful post-1998 films is Ayat-Ayat Cinta. Thus, in the post-1998 film map, there have been diverse perspectives on Islam in relation to nationality. In other words, the Indonesian film history has always had a map of film as a propaganda medium, or in a subtle phrasing, “entertainment and guidance”.

The era of 4.0–5.0, marked by the birth of new ecosystems, such as OTT (over the top) and various new platforms for showing films on social media, of course requires its own studies in relation to the film medium and religious and national values. On the other hand, it has been noted that communication, film, and da’wah education have grown in various educational institutions, especially Islamic educational institutions. A work is underway to build a syllabus of da’wah in the midst of a world of migration and hijrah.

Therefore, the Madani International Film Festival requires the theme “Citizenship Education” in the perspective of civil society, when as many as 60 percent of Indonesia’s population is young productive age between 18–38 years, in the midst of the new media ecosystems, and ahead of the 2024 General Election.