February 2007
1 Intolerance and (self) censorship
In her annual Christmas speech Dutch queen Beatrix said that 'at the basis of each democracy lies [...] the freedom of speech as everyone's good right.' Who can oppose this? But she immediately warned not to tread on too many toes. Nowadays in The Netherlands and most other countries in the world an uncomfortable tension exists between tolerance and the freedom of speech. Is it more important to keep good peace, then to guarantee artistic, scientific and intellectual freedom? Which limits are set by governments and laws, and which standards and values do we impose on ourselves? At this moment the main threat to cinema is the selfcensorship people subject to, because they are afraid they will offend others. Art is a place of refuge, both a sanctuary and an asylum, where among others film makers should be able and enabled to tell the stories they need to, in every possible way they feel is appropriate.
2 The free market
According to new WTO-rules 'culture' is at risk to become the next free trade zone. That means the end of national arts funds and support measures that contradict with the rules of free trade. Consequence: no more state funding for film and film festivals. Hollywood, already dominating 80 percent of the European market, will become the single one player and profiteer. So far the free market has not encouraged more freedom for artists, nor more freedom of choice for the spectator. UNESCO applies counter-pressure in its Cultural Convention, but its range is limited by the way individual countries actively take measures to protect and stimulate cultural diversity.
3 The end of support measures
What happens when rich Western countries stop investing in film cultures from less developed countries? Will groundbreaking film movements from Latin America and Africa come to a standstill? How far reaches the responsibility of film festivals not only to invest in film production, but also in film distribution in the countries of origin?
4 The event society
As film festivals turn more and more into 'events', they have to compete with other events unscrupulously; in The Netherlands for example with the car expo, the North Sea Jazz festival, de house keeping expo and the naval review (see the Dutch doc pretpark nederland (amusement park the netherlands) to get a hunch). To what extent are film festivals willing to compromise? Does film become just another article of consumption, instead of a cultural phenomenon that can sometimes be strange, difficult, non-commercial or even incomprehensible?
5 The Geld-premiere
Berlin fest director Dieter Kosslick recently noticed that new film festivals, like the ones in Rome and Dubai, have the financial resources to snatch away stars and premieres from the traditional film festivals. Instead of the Welt ('world') premiere you will get the Geld ('money') premiere. This over-rated status of film festivals will turn itself against the films and their spectators. The claim on exclusivity many film festivals hold, expels films that once screened in a competion to sidebars or no screenings at all. Cannes is the only film festival that can really have it it's own way. But for how much longer?
6 Rights
According to internet lawyer Lawrence Lessig strict interpretation of copyright laws may create a situation in which more and more films become inaccessible. In the digital era films are protected with digital copy-safeguarding (digital rights management). Users will be able to play the films as long as they have the right devices, 'keys' or encoded software. A situation may arise in which these codes are no longer decipherable. For instance when the company that distributed the keys, no longer exists. Then the material is no longer available, unless one knows how to crack the code.
6.a Copyright
Less and less film makers are able to maintain their copyrights and as a consequence decide where and how their films are to be shown. It's about time creative minds reclaime their rights.
6.b Film rights
Film festivals are developing themselves into rights consuming monsters. When will they bite their own tail? More and more they claim exclusive rights of the films they helped produce by means of festival associated production funds and co-finance markets. Thus they obstruct the free distribution of films and film rights. How altruistic are film festivals these days? Or do they become an aim in itself?
7 Piracy
Piracy is about to kill the film industry, at least according to the industry itself, that at the same time is unable to come up with groundbreaking measures to limit piracy and enable 'pay per view' distribution by means of the internet. Who will suffer from this? Obviously not the big studio's, but probably the (semi-) independent film makers and production companies that are forced to pay the bills. On the other hand this situation enables the real independents to seize to power on the internet and do it their selves, like Brave New Films did with iraq for sale.
8 Lost in multitude
Film production is already enormous and still booming; the internet is infinite. Will we still be able to find our way around in this landscape of abundances? Are there still real discoveries to be made, or do we follow each others trails from hype to hype? And do small, special and specific films become more and more restricted to limited audiences? What is the final frontier of internet? Are our possibilities dictated by money, time and the love of ease?
9 Sponsors
When governments cease to see the importance of film funding and support for film festivals and the curse of the free market enters the realm of the arts, will sponsors gain more and more power on the film screen? Will they politely suggest the screening of films that tackle a certain 'awareness' with their 'customers'? And will South Korean films only get a chance when the embassy is paying the bills?
10 The film journalist and the hype
Film journalists are increasingly tied to the leading-strings of the film industry, marketing agencies and the next hype. Equally forced by the heads of the arts department and the editors and publishers of their newspapers and magazines they start to write on what the reader already is familiar with, instead of what he might like (or need) to be informed about. Journalism is the search for news, in film journalism it seems to be about what is already known.
11 Jammed mobility
The hotels in Rotterdam are overbooked, the trains are delayed and the national highways are packed with traffic jams, it is impossible to reserve tickets - and then? Do film lovers still take the trip to Rotterdam or any other film festival? And what happens when international guests are no longer able to come due to terrorist threats and towering eco-taxes?
12 The return of the film club
Forget about film festivals: in your own home cinema, with your own beamer and (import) dvd you will be able to watch the newest films with your friends. And the drinks are cheaper too. So why go out to meet this unknown Malaysian film maker, whose film you already saw half a year ago, for a futsal match?
13 Closed networks
Very well, watching films through the internet is quite an achievement. But the internet no longer works as an open source. And the situation becomes more endangered by closed channels and networks that provide films by means of exclusive licenses, preferably in package deals. In order to watch different films you have to turn to different providers and so on. Will people tend to wait a year or so until the rights are expired and the films are made available at lower cost? Isn't the old system of first and second run theatres simply removed to what once was cheered upon as a true democratic, open and liberating medium?
Dana Linssen & Karin Wolfs
