The Film Festival Seminar held last Friday morning in the IFC. The panel was made of Francois Ballay, European Co-ordination of Film Festivals; Paddy Breathnach , filmmaker; Pat Collins, programme director of the Galway Film Fleadh; Hugh Linehan, The Irish Times and was chaired by Doireann Ni Bhriain member of the Dublin Film Festival Board. The panel represented an excellent selection of experience and all brought their unique experience to the discussion resulting in an interesting and informative Seminar.
Francois Balley outlined the background and aims of the European Co-ordination of Film Festivals which grew from an idea first discussed at the Turin Film Festival in 1994 over the fact that foreign language world cinema accounted for only 1% of world exhibition and which developed in conjunction with growing concern with in the European Commission at the crises for European Film in the exhibition sector. A support fund for promotion of European film was created and the strategy of using film festivals as a platform was decided upon and the ECFF was formerly created in 1997 and now has 140 members in 14 countries with one from Ireland and three from the UK.
Its aim was to create a common code of conduct and co-ordinate member festivals an improve exhibition and circulation of European film by facilitating the exchange of information through a news letter and website which incorporates and intranet for members to contact each other directly. The ECFF also focuses on developing skills through exchange programmes and joint projects and reporting on the socio-economic impact of film festivals on the areas they are held in. The organisation feels strongly in presenting films within their cultural context and has also embraced the emerging new media areas.
Mr Balley stressed the need for promotion of film given the huge range of leisure activities now available to people and audience development through education links with schools and organisations, the need to organise debates, seminars and partnerships throughout the year possibly touring the festival to regional areas. The need to educate audiences especially given our current growth in the economic strength with the range of leisure activities was a point which came up again and again.
Both Paddy Breathnach and Hugh Linehan took up this point as they had both come to film through the Dublin Film Festival in the early and mid-eighties when our economy was not as strong with fewer cinemas and no multiplex's, the DFF offered the opportunities to new and exciting films especially when you were broke and the range of other activities was limited. They both felt the development of a strong education programme could be used to combat this by developing new audiences.
Paddy Breathnach felt that initially for a young filmmaker having their work shown in a film festival was an endorsement of their career and allowed a person to express themselves to others as a filmmaker as this was his experience when his first short 'Stone of the Heart' was shown in the Triskel Centre in Cork. The Festival experience for a filmmaker offered the practical chance of winning some money, it allowed the closure of a project and a moment of celebration. Film Festivals can become a double edged sword it can create a film through growing of an audience and word of mouth along with the opportunity to get a distribution deal, but crucially it can also kill a film by making it stale if it becomes to well known before release and too much information is available before hand. Taking the example of 'I Went Down' the director explained that they were very conscious of over promotion so very little information was released but he felt the showing at Edinburgh was over hyped and that it was really San Sebastian that launched the film and Sundance which invented an identity for the film. According to Mr. Breathnach a filmmaker should try ensure the life of a film develops over three festivals.
Pat Collins made a point of not trying to continually grow a festival in size, but to focus on improving quality. The experience of the Galway Fleadh is spread over one week with the high point of the weekend to try and increase the size of the festival to two weekends would dilute the experience. Although the festival is linked closely to the market the film audience tends to be local as filmmakers don't generally attend the screenings. The focus is and will remain on showing new Irish premieres and mainstream Arthouse to a local audience which would not get the opportunity to see such work.
Hugh Linehan noted the importance of strong individual personalities as the driving force behind the creation of the most successful festivals in Ireland such as Michael Dwyer, Mick Hannigan and Lilia Doolan and that festivals may mature and lose energy re-enforcing the need for new blood. He pointed to two key areas that needed to be addressed; firstly, the main problem facing the Dublin Film Festival was that it had no set home and given that it is situated in a large city where it is already difficult to make an impression the situation is complicated without a focal point and secondly, the need for proper audience research given the change in the economic environment there is a clear need to ask who comes, why and what will bring them back again.
In relation to the proliferation of festivals it was agreed that this did not dilute the audience but focused on specific groups, that it is the audience itself which is fracturing and these festivals address this. The question of exclusivity of festivals, some taking films only if they are not shown somewhere else in Ireland, was a point of issue. The question of whether Dublin Film Festival can continue with this policy given the Gay & Lesbian Festival, The French Festival and The Australian Festival in Dublin alone while Edinburgh is attempting to stop films being shown in Dublin prior to a UK premier even though the republic is not part of the UK was addressed.
In her closing Doireann Ni Bhriain commented that all involved would leave with plenty to think about and expressed her surprise that no-one even mentioned funding for a change.
