Right to Screen: Communication Justice and Marginalized Access to Urban Cinema in Indonesia

Abstract

Urban cinema is frequently imagined as a democratic cultural space that enables participation, visibility, and cultural exchange. However, access to cinematic infrastructure in Indonesia remains deeply unequal. Commercial cinemas are heavily concentrated in metropolitan shopping centers, leaving peripheral communities facing spatial and socio-economic exclusion, while independent and regional creators struggle for screen access. This research examines cinema access inequality as a fundamental problem of communication justice. To analyze this dynamic, the study introduces the concept of the “Right to Screen” and proposes the Screen Access Justice Framework (SAJF), structured around three interrelated dimensions: access justice, circulation justice, and representational justice. Employing a critical qualitative approach, the methodology integrates literature review, policy document analysis (including Law No. 33/2009 and cultural strategic plans), and comparative spatial cinema mapping across three major metropolitan hubs: Jakarta, Tangerang, and Surabaya (collected between January and February 2026). The findings reveal a double exclusion: spatial concentration in high-income urban spaces and structural gatekeeping within concentrated commercial networks (dominated by Cinema XXI at 61.4%). Consequently, non-mainstream, regional, and independent narratives suffer symbolic annihilation within exhibition circuits. The paper operationalizes the SAJF into actionable empirical indicators, establishing the “Right to Screen” as a key conceptual framework to advance cultural democracy and mediated citizenship in screen studies