Entrance to the main venue of Goelali Children’s Film Festival being held in Plaza Indonesia, Jakarta. JP/Nauval Yazid

For the past week, children visiting the plush shopping mall of Plaza Indonesia, who are usually forced to accompany their parents to shop and dine, were able to learn, play and see films brought in especially for them.

The second installment of the Goelali Children’s Film Festival was held from June 12 to June 20 at Plaza Indonesia and Taman Ismail Marzuki Arts Center (TIM). While TIM holds only screenings of the film, Plaza Indonesia host the rest of the events, with film shows included.

Concentrated on Miniapolis, the playground for children, and in the mall’s multifunction hall, the festival stands in contrast to the array exclusive shops in the other parts of the mall. Along the Miniapolis corridor, there is a colorful children’s artwork exhibition, made by children under the guidance of the Bengkel Langlang art community, displayed to give us smile and marvel at the children’s imagination.

In the function hall, the festive atmosphere is even more apparent. Visitors are greeted by the festival’s icon of a neat-looking boy, and by paintings by budding young artists displayed along the corridors of the hall.

Once we enter the main hall, on the right we see a white screen for film screenings. Children can see the films while they sit on a carpet, complete with cushions and toys scattered on the floor for them to play with. On the other side, children’s book illustrations are displayed on the walls that form a narrow alley leading to a hideout corner where storytelling sessions are held.

There are several booths, some of which have unique displays, like a light bulb company exhibiting its bright and colorful lanterns.

It was quite a departure from the first festival, which was held in Bank Mandiri Museum in the Kota district last year.

“What do you think?” teased Dinna Jasanti, the festival’s co-founder, when asked about the significant move of having the festival in a mall.

“The choice of venue gives it a tremendous impact. As much as I loved having it in a museum, I couldn’t ignore the complaints about the distance, the lack of parking spaces, and basically, all the extra effort needed to reach the museum.

“Yet it’s not that we immediately thought of a mall. In fact, Plaza Indonesia was not my choice of venue at first. As I researched, I saw that different malls had different concepts in putting on events. It took me several meetings with Miniapolis, who was very interested in the festival concept right from the start, and, through Miniapolis, we connected with Plaza Indonesia. Only then did I realize that visitors to the Plaza had a great interest in art, which helped the festival get noticed.”

The research and preparation leading up to the festival took around six months, in which pre-event activities, that included school visits, were held. In February, 120 elementary school teachers were brought in to Plaza Indonesia for a storytelling workshop, and to familiarize themselves with the future host of the festival.

From March to June, 12 kindergarten and elementary schools in Greater Jakarta area (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi) took part in a special program of film screenings, games, and workshops on storytelling and animation from the Goelali organizers. In addition, another 30 elementary schools visited to see the films.

Activities are the keys to grabbing the festival’s core audience, all of which are at the stage where they can be easily distracted.

Dinna said, “Our target audience is those from 3 to 16 years old. Since it’s such a wide age range, we divided it into three groups. For the first group, from 3 to 6, we have storytelling sessions, live bird shows, games and short films; the next group, of 7- to 12-year-olds, where we conduct workshops on set design, animation, script writing, and acting; and the last batch of 13- to16-year-olds are given the same workshops with a different approach.”

The division is made to ensure that each age group, which may not be comfortable sitting in the same session as the younger ones, is given undivided attention for them to express themselves.

“Usually, children do not hang around waiting for a film to start. They like to walk around to see the paintings, play with their friends. But once a film starts, or in a case of the short film compilations when the first film ends, kids will gather on the carpet to sit and see the film.”

As of the middle of the week, the festival has managed to gather audiences of around 400 to watch the films, excluding those coming to the workshops and other activities, which Dinna said, “it is still on track with our target of 8,000 visitors.”

Bimo Dewanto, one of the visitors, who brought in the Jakarta Eye Centre (JEC) to serve as one of the sponsors, said that, “the festival is in line with our program as it provides a platform for children to be creative from an early age. Since we have a dedicated eye-care center for children, we see that raising the issue of healthy kids is important through our support of the festival.”

Being a father himself, he brought his son in to watch the live bird show and to attend the storytelling workshop and a film screening, of which he said, “it’s hard to find good children’s films nowadays, let alone an event to gather them into a single program.”

Also going to the film screening was Rani, a mother of two, although her choice of film, the 1980 film Nakalnya Anak-Anak (Naughty Children), screened as part of the festival’s Tribute to the Past section, was one riddled with nostalgia for her own childhood. Still, she expressed her admiration that, “the festival is daring enough to provide a place to show films that tolerates the impulsiveness of children.

During screenings, I can see children running and playing freely, something of a rarity.”
The only other thing she would like to see at the festival is an outdoor activity, as she felt “it’s a little too exclusive if everything is done indoors.”

While not promising anything about the concept for next year, Dinna hopes future festivals “will go a bit crazier than this. After all, we are not just a film festival, but simply a platform for children to discover their talents, and to exhibit them.”


Goelali Children’s Film Festival is organized by The Goelali Foundation (www.goelali.org)

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