Leadership and Influence Chevening: On Film as a universal language of progress

Leadership & Influence Question

Chevening is looking for individuals who will be future leaders or influencers in their home countries. Explain how you meet this requirement, using clear examples of your own leadership and influencing skills to support your answer.

(minimum word count: 100 words, maximum word count: 500 words)

I had love film since High School, yet my concern for Indonesian cinema first started when I volunteered for an International documentary film festival, FFD. I started to learn the potential growth of Indonesian cinema in the eye of the world. After only a year volunteering at Festival Film Dokumenter Yogyakarta (FFD) in 2011, I was offered a position as a Program Manager, in which I was demanded to create comprehensive programs and manage a team to work together to achieve the goals of the program. I decided to take this offer as I feel that I can contribute more being a manager of a program.

My general mission as a program manager in Festival Film Dokumenter is to create programs that aim to help the development of film infrastructure and discourse on documentary films. Thus, I initiated a Masterclass program focusing on developing good story materials for Indonesian filmmakers in 2015 and 2016. We always received numbers of film submission to the festival, yet only few films we deemed worthy to enter our competition. Masterclass wanted to resolve this gap between quantity and quality. This format of masterclass has never been created before, so that was a trial and error for me. I had to educate myself as well to educate my team to prepare a successful Masterclass. Together, we managed to fund this program and invited some prominent mentors in documentary filmmaking from India, the Netherlands, Thailand, and the United States. The result of this masterclass was really encouraging; two films were selected as the nominees for Festival Film Indonesia. Now, the alumni of the Masterclass are continuing to pursue their career in documentary filmmaking.

My short film "Prenjak" was awarded as the best short film at Cannes Film Festival's Critics Week. It was the first Indonesian film ever received an award from Cannes film festival. This film received positive responses from Indonesian audiences, moreover, when we presented the behind the scene story of this production. This is a film that we made based on our spirit to create a good art, despite many limitations we have. Our production house, Studio Batu is only a small collective community, even we did not own a camera back then. As a line producer and assistant director, I must find a way to get this film produced. We had to borrow almost all equipment from our friends or their parents. I negotiate with the casts and crew regarding the payments because we have limited budget. Yet, despite all those conditions, we manage to make Indonesia proud with our achievement.

I always want to encourage, educate, and inspire people with all of my works, both as a programmer in Film Festival and as filmmaker. It is my strategic move to develop the cinema environment in Indonesia. Film is a product of culture that represents the identity of a country and I want to continue to make a greater achievement for Indonesia.

Hello Henricus!

Firstly I would like to say you've done a very good job with your film industry related work.
You have also written a good essay.

A few suggestions -
Para 1 : I have (Not had since you still like movies) always enjoyed watching movies since High School yet my love for....
Para 2 : ..... Film festival documenter was ....... We always received a huge number of film submissions to the festival...... I had to educate myself as well as my team........ from India, the Netherlands, Thailand and the United States.

After this I felt like you suddenly jumped onto the information about your own film. The transition was not smooth. Start talking about how you started your film and the work involved in bringing it up. Then talk about the achievement and how all the hard work paid off.

In your conclusion paragraph you can include a sentence on how the scholarship will help you to get to your goal.

Good Luck! :)

@DoctorWho

Really appreciate the feedback!

Henricus, your essay could use more leadership and influencing information. Both the masterclasses and your participation in the Cannes film festival are notable leadership accomplishments. However, your influencing objectives and how you accomplished them need to be better represented in order to help the essay stand out more. For example, under the masterclass discussion, first establish the problem you saw with the entries, then indicate how you developed a plan to upgrade the entries using the classes. Who did you need to influence in order to get approval for your plans. How would you say your classes inspired the students to turn in improved entries? With the Cannes entry, consider how you managed to get funding for the project. Your leadership is really strong in this area of the essay so it is the influencing side you should better develop to support your leadership. Change all the "we" references to "I" because this is a personal, not group essay presentation. You have a very good start. The essay will be even better with a little more content development. N

@Holt

Really appreciate this! Thank you very much!