Dear members and partners of INTERFILM,
starting with this edition the Interfilm-Info has got a new format though much of it reminds of the previous ones. It is no longer printed but copied photomechanically. We regret to diminish its quality but nevertheless took this step – firstly because the Interfilm website www.inter-film.org as a new instrument of information and communication makes up for the most part, and secondly because by this simplified production we save money we can use for other purposes. In addition, we decided to forward the Info only to members without access to the internet. Again we save money hoping you will accept this change. Users of the internet who like to see the Info on paper can download it from the website as printable PDF-document. By this solution we hope to avoid disadvantages for anybody.
The Info 1/2003 informs as usual about the ecumenical and Interfilm awards from January till July, beginning with the Swedish Church Film Prize awarded at the Gothenburg festival and ending with the Ecumenical Award in Karlovy Vary. Reports on the jury practice at the different festivals complete this chronological survey. We renounced to include the festival history we published on the website for reasons of economy, but add this information to the press release on the church film jurys of any single festival if possible. Some of the longer articles relate to last year’s events, for instance the English translation of Karsten Visarius’ report on the seminar “(Dis)Regarding the Image – The Controversy about the Image in Present Cinema” at the Mannheim-Heidelberg film festival or a speech by Astrid Messerschmidt by chance of the 30th anniversary of the TV-Workshop on developing countries in Bonn, entitled “Postcolonial Perspectives – Cinema Inspires Education”. It reflects the globalisation seen through recent films.
After a long time of preparation the Interfilm website went online during the Berlinale 2003, and I wish to express my gratitude for the many positive reactions to it. Our practice with this new forum of communication is still growing, and we frequently discover new problems which stimulate us to improve its structure and design. We are far from the end of this process. The growing number of pages alone forces us to find new solutions in order to grant the clearness of the informations we offer. A tangible advantage of the website are the periodical mailings to our members which intensify the Interfilm network during one edition of the Info and the other.
The most important change concerning the organisation of Interfilm was to alter the adress of and the responsibility for the Interfilm office from Hans Hodel and the Reformierte Medien in Zurich to Karsten Visarius and the Gemeinschaftswerk für Evangelische Publizistik (Joint Association for Protestant Media Communication, GEP) in Frankfurt/Main. This change was necessary as Hans Hodel retired. He will continue though his activities for Interfilm as jury coordinator (you got the new adresses separately). On this occasion I wish to thank cordially Hans Hodel and his woman co-workers in particular for the production of the Interfilm-Info during the last years. They succeeded in creating not only a useful but also more and more good-looking magazin for anybody who is interested to be informed about the activities of Interfilm.
My gratitude as well is meant for Markus Buss who supports the activities of the GEP Film Department for this year. Without his devoted and successful efforts neither the installation and continuous update of the Interfilm website nor the production of this Info would have been possible.
Frankfurt/Main, July 2003
Karsten Visarius
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