"Willy Van der Linden" wrote:
I sent my entry to Ebensee, but my film, which was announced in the programme,
seemed to be not screened at all. Reason : I could not be there and there
was no Belgian representative. Is it because Ebensee also wants to take
the opportunity to promote tourist activities in the area ? In fact they
are right. Why not ? On the other hand I am not a poor man, but I cannot
afford going to every festival in Europe. I felt a bit unhappy by that.
I may have said this elsewhere, but Erich Riess who runs the festival, thinks
of this kind of flexibility as a courtesy to those film makers who have taken
the time and trouble to attend. He therefore re-arranges schedules as necessary
if someone turns up unexpectedly. Of course if your film is poor it will
not get shown even if you do turn up!
That festival is one of several which lasts a whole week. Inevitably you
do not get 200-300 people turning up for the whole week as you can do at
BIAFF over a weekend. It does, however, allow time for more films without
the frenzied rush we associate with our shorter festivals. If the weather
is fine they can slip in an extended lunch break and drag everyone off to
the lake shore for a picnic. They head off for an evening in some attractive
locale - last year it was on a mountain overlooking the valley and town.
And they have a "bunter abend" - fun night - with talented festival team
members performing, silly games etc.
Could we ever manage such a festival in the British Isles?
At present a number of delegates to BIAFF arrive on Thursday for a screening
of local movies by the host region, do some sight-seeing on Friday and come
back for the AV show on Friday evening ... and stay on till the Monday morning
before making their way home. It's a start.
I take your point about not being able to attend every festival, Willy. We
are really glad you choose to come to our ones whenever you can. One problem
is language - you have excellent English, whereas few of us have any Flemish/Nederlands.
The Poles have lots of interesting sounding amateur events but having no
Polish I am reluctant to try them.
Although it seldom happens, because our festivals are all pre-judged it should
be possible for the winners to send a video greeting if they cannot attend.
Most other festivals I know of do the main judging live during the event
so if the winner is not present there is no chance of such a courtesy.
Dave
