Finally: Thank you! (Acknowledgements)

Every journey has an end. And so is my PhD journey.
What an experience! Therefore, I need to say thanks to everybody, particularly the following individuals and institutions:
(taken from my PhD thesis)

Acknowledgements

It has been a long and winding PhD journey to me for the last four years, and alhamdulillah, all praise be to God, eventually it reaches an end. I would like to express my special appreciation and thanks to some people.

First and foremost,  I would like to thank Prof. Mark Jancovich as my primary supervisor,  for giving me  very useful and sharp feedback and suggestions on many things, and  encouraging my research so I can develop as a better film researcher. Secondly, thanks to Dr. Rayna Denison, my secondary supervisor who helped me a lot during these four years.

I would like to thank   my external and internal examiners, Dr. Iain Robert Smith and Dr. Emma Pett, respectively.

I also want to express my gratitude to my sponsor, DIKTI Scholarship from Higher Education Directorate, Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education, Republic of Indonesia.  Also to Bina Nusantara University, my home-university in Jakarta, for the support and family allowances, particularly The Rector of Binus University (Prof. Harjanto Prabowo), Executive Dean of BINUS INTERNATIONAL (Firdaus Alamsjah, PhD), Dean of Faculty of Computing and Media (Minaldi Loeis, M.Sc., MM), Head of Film Program (Adilla Amelia, MFA), as well as Career Scholarship Department (Icha, Ignatia, etc.).

My sincere thanks also goes to people at UEA’s FTM Department and PGR Office (particularly Clare Thornett and Ann Nichols), thank you for the PPD modules and Conference Grant.  And thank you, UEA, for giving me two awards in 2015, Student Award (UEA Engagement Awards), and Public Engagement Prizes (UEA Graduate School Prizes), and hiring me as an associate tutor for a semester in 2014 (thank you to the module conveners: Dr. Christine Cornea, Dr. Rayna Denison,  and Peter Kramer).

Also many thanks to UEA’s Graduate Student Association for Graduate conference fund, so I could attend and present papers at the Global Exploitation Cinemas Conference (Lincoln 27-29 May 2015) and the Cine-Excess Conference (Brighton, 14-16 November, 2014).

I did my successful archive visits in Jakarta in 2014 for two months.  For this, I thank Sinematek Indonesia (particularly Mbak Nia Sulaeman) and the National Library of Indonesia, as well as   UEA’s Employability and Engagement Fund for the travel grant.

To Jack Jensen and all the global fans (bloggers, members of AVManiacs), thank you for the discussions in the forums (which I passively participated) and online reviews.

The PhD journey is not only about writing a thesis, but also networking, conferences, and journals, as well as developing myself as a better person.  I learned a lot about organizing scholarly events in the UK from Dr. Ben Murtagh from SOAS University of London who asked me to become co-organizer for the Workshop on Indonesian Cinema and London Indonesia Film Screenings in 2013 and 2015.  I also thank the fellow 2015 co-organizers who are also my UK-based PhD student buddies in Indonesian Cinema studies, Tito Imanda and Eric Sasono.  Thank you the participants of the events,   Ari Purnama, Dr. Dag Yngvesson, Dr. Yvonne Michalik, Dr. Novi Kurnia, Dr. Alicia Izharuddin, Dr. Dafna Ruppin, Dr. Adam Knee, Viola Lasmana, and Katie Whitcombe.

During my PhD study I was honored that I was invited  by Patrick Campos as guest editor of the Plaridel Special Issue, Volume 11 Issue 02, Theme: The Bad, The Worse, and The Worst: The Significance of Indonesian Cult, Exploitation, and B Movies. Thank you, Patric and the Plaridel team, and also the writers: Dag, Eric, Dr. Thomas Barker, Prof.  Xavier Mendik, Bastian Mereisonne, Andrew Leavold, Dr. Maymunah Munir, and Makbul Mubarak.

My Supervisor told me to aim for the main conferences to present my papers, such as SCMS and MECCSA. And I did both. Thank you SCMS 2015 and MECCSA 2014 for my fee waiver and travel bursary and made it possible for me to attend and present my papers. Also SPRET Educational Trust that made it possible for me to fly to Montreal. And to Veronika Kusuma and Prof. Mary Steedly who invited me to Harvard University for a talk (30 March 2015) organized by  Politics and Culture in Indonesia Working Group and the Department of Anthropology, right after the SCMS conference.

At ASEASUK 2016, I had great experiences as the co-organizer of a successful panel with Tito Imanda, and met great panelists:  Wikanda Promkhuntong, Dr. Adil Johan, Dr. Muria Endah, and Shadia Prasmadji. Thank you, all!

I co-organized at least two public engagement events related to my PhD research, and got good feedback from the audience. In Jakarta, I co-organized a two-week film screenings and discussion at Kineforum, June 2014, and double bill screenings as part of Scalarama Bristol at The Cube Microplex. Thank you, Alexander Matius and Kineforum people, Matt D, and Toby Reynolds.

For good friends while I was in Norwich as well as Bristol, thank you PPI Norwich, UEA Indonesian Society, Ihsan Mosque,  PPI Bristol, Al-Hijrah Muslim Indonesian Society in Bristol, and Bristol Indonesian Society. Also, my fellow Binus colleague in the UK: Indra Kusumawardhana.

Of course, I should thank to fellow PhD UEA students, particularly Linda “Ky” McCarthy, Gopalan Mullik, Ruchika Gurung, Miriam Bros, Jeremy Qian, Toby Reynolds, Ed Vollans, Irene Cuder, Martin Tease, Adam and Patrick Bingham-Scales, Filipa Antunes, Alexander Plowman, Phil Smith, Ellen Wright, and Robert Manning. I also want to thank all of UEA’s lecturers.

I was inspired by some people to research the topic of classic Indonesian exploitation cinema: Pete Tombs, Joko Anwar Thomas Barker. Thank you.  Also my fellow Indonesian and Southeast Asian Film scholars and critics who I have not mentioned yet: Hikmat Darmawan, Veronika Kusuma, Dr. Intan Paramaditha, Prof. Andrew Weintraub, Dr. Philippa Lovatt, Dr. Gaik Cheng Khoo, Dr. Mariam Lam, Prof. Ariel Heryanto, Asmayani Kusrini, Ifan Ismail, and Krisnadi Kurniawan.

Moreover, thanks to the circles of exploitation and cult film and aca-fandom scholars: Dr. Iain Robert Smith, Dr. Austin Fisher, Dr. Johnny Walker, Dr. Kate Egan, and Prof. Henry Jenkins.

Thanks to Amir Muhammad who took me to Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur, and experienced the alternative VCD shop in 2009.

And, I am very grateful that I have a big family with big support for my study: my father H. Eko Winarto, SE,  my mother Hj. Etty Herawati, my sisters, my brother and their families,  my parents-in-law, sisters-in-law, brother-in-law and their big family. Thank you very much.

And finally, I should thank Rossy Syaukat and Medina Azzahra, my wife and little daughter, who accompanied me while I am in the UK who helped me keep my “sanity” and my life joyful during my PhD studies. This accomplishment would not have been possible without them. Thank you. Both of them mean the world to me.

Part of the Introduction and Chapter 1 were published by Plaridel (Vol 11 no. 2, 2014), namely “A Note from the Editor/And Introduction: The Significance of Indonesian Cult, Exploitation, and B Movies”.

A modified version of Chapter 2 is in the process of publication in the forthcoming Cine-Excess Journal, 2017, titled “Entertaining the Villagers: Rural Audiences, Traveling Cinema, and Exploitation Movies in Indonesia”.   

A modified version of Chapter 5 will be published  in the forthcoming Plaridel journal on Film and Archive in Southeast Asian Cinema (edited by Adam Knee)

  

Post Scriptum:
In addition, I also need to say thanks to everybody who supported me during my master studies in University of Indonesia (Philosophy, 1998-2003) and Universiteit van Amsterdam (Film Studies, 2007-2008), particularly:
Prof. Pamela Pattynama (my UvA supervisor),  Dr. Agus Nugroho (my UI supervisor),  my lecturers at UvA (Dr. Michael Wedel, Prof. Patricia Pisters, Prof. Dr. Thomas Elsaessers, Dr. Marie Lous Baronian, Dr. Tarja Laine), my lecturers and academic leaders  at UI (Prof. Dr. Toety Heraty, Prof. Dr. Soerjanto Poespowardojo; Dr. Achyar Lubis, Dr. Harsyawibawa, Prof. Dr. Mulyadi Kertanegara), my fellow master students at UI and UvA (particularly Sarah Levitt, Amir Vodka, Raluca Iacob), Koestraat gang, ESQ Europan Alumnae, and people who gave me reference letters (Dr. Haryatmoko, Riri Riza, Nia Dinata, Dr. Minal Aidin).
Also, thanks to Amsterdam Merit Scholarship (UvA) and Putra Jethmal Foundation and Orlow Seunke for giving me the educational funding while i was studying in Amsterdam. Thank you!