One of the reasons why you are receiving an INFO only now is based on the original intention of dispatching it only to those members who have no access to the Internet and who are thus not able to download the INFO as a pdf-document and print it out. However, it soon became apparent how useful the regular dispatch of a printed and bound INFO is, especially for the continuous archiving of our work, despite the regular E-Mail-Information about our festival jury decisions and the corresponding update of the Website.
Perhaps not all of our members and partners know it, but, as an international network of church film work, INTERFILM does not have the means to maintain its own office. The office has always been located at one of our members' offices and therefore has depended on the understanding and sympathetic consideration of that member and to the personal commitment of the respective managing director. As reported already in the last INFO, after my retirement as a film representative for the Reformist Media of German-speaking Switzerland, the office could be moved to the Gemeinschaftswerk for Protestant Journalism (GEP) in Frankfurt/Main, where it is prudently and competently cared for by Karsten Visarius in the context of his film-cultural commitment. However, in connection with certain restructurations in the GEP as well as in view of the abundance of initiatives and tasks, the limits of his availability have become apparent. An experienced curate stood at his disposal in the person of Markus Buss for the production of the last INFO and the construction of the Website, whose valuable support has been noticeably missed since the conclusion of his special practical training. I am very grateful that Karsten Visarius now created the current edition, despite all the bottlenecks.
There is much to report in this INFO - much of it was marvelously summarized by Hans Werner Dannowski, our new Honorary President, in his last Presidential Review at the 39th General Meeting on 30 April, 2004 in Oberhausen. A network is a "give and take"; it lives from the exchange of information and ideas and mutual support. The Internet has thereby been of great assistance for some time, to the extent that communicative people are there who know how to use it and make their time available for such exchange. However, it has become apparent that, in view of decreasing resources, we have reached the limits of our honorary commitments and not all the dreams could be realized. All the more so are we pleased by all the small signs of progress which can be noted. I would like to highlight some points: The organizational statutes newly introduced last year, with which we have re-established the international structure existing already previously, have proved satisfactory. INTERFILM is still predominantly centered on EUROPE, but it is significant that what is meant here by this is really EUROPE (and not just Western Europe), and it is also important that active contact with the new American and Canadian members developed and that their activities are remarkable. Altogether in the last two years INTERFILM has grown by over thirty members, whereby not a few are engaged in the Universities. Probably, in the next few years these new contacts will increasingly enrich us, and it is well possible that the next INFO will focus on this. At any rate, we have a "Tesi di Laurea" (Master thesis) by Peter Ciaccio that he submitted to the Theological Waldense Faculty in Rome about "Modelli pastorali nel cinema: L'esempio di Ingmar Bergman" (Pastoral Models in Cinema: The example of Ingmar Bergman), and we also know of doctoral theses directly about us, and on which we will gladly report.
The internationalization of our association should not prevent us from continuing to think about the question concerning the "soul of Europe" and its traces in film, begun at the seminar in Bad Segeberg/Germany in 1997. In the context of the process of the so-called "extension to the East" the inhabitants of Europe see themselves confronted with the task of developing a new self-understanding. The Rumanian-Orthodox theologian responsible for the "Church in Dialogue" program at the KEK in Geneva, Viorel Ionita, recently said at a conference in Switzerland among other things: "for the Churches united in the Conference of European Churches (KEK), Europe is understood as the Continent 'between the Atlantic and the Ural, between the Northern Cap and the Mediterranean', as the Charta Oecumenica formulates it, and to this continent the European Churches commit themselves to advocating with the Gospel the dignity of the human being as an image of God, and 'to contribute together as Churches to the reconciliation of peoples and cultures.'" The seminar conducted in Autumn 2003 with the support of the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) in Iasi (Rumania) under the patronage of Metropolit Daniel about the topic of "Signs and Stories of Hope in Film" is for me a very important contribution to the dialogue about the "soul of Europe". A great installment to this dialogue took place last year with 35 participants from 12 countries in the Orthodox Academy in Kolympari on Crete in an exciting seminar about "Orthodox Iconography and Contemporary Understanding of Film". Once again we were supported in this by WACC, but also by the Protestant Church of Germany (EKD), the Reformist Media and the Catholic Media Service in Switzerland and the Hankey Foundation in England. At present we are thinking about how to continue these seminars. It is an open secret that, with respect to the question concerning the understanding of images, an inter-religious dialogue with Jews and Muslims is due to be dealt with. This dialogue is is topical not least in view of the ever more frequently discussed question concerning the establishment of an inter-religious festival jury.
As previously mentioned, the current INFO also contains our festival chronicle. With regard to this, I would like to underline a few aspects: The International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen celebrated its 50th year in 2004. INTERFILM has had a jury there since 1964; accordingly, the unceasing presence of church film work was acknowledged.
INTERFILM and SIGNIS have been present in Cannes since 1974 with an ecumenical jury supported by the national organizations Pro-Fil and Chrètiens-Medias, as well as a large circle of volunteers who are engaged in the organization of a stand at the film market, press work and other public appearances of the jury in Cannes. On the first Sunday of the festival, a confessional mass and communion took place in the presence of the respective jury representatives. On the evening before Ascension, an ecumenical service took place in the Anglican church with the participation of representatives from the Catholic, Protestant, Free Church, Anglican and Orthodox Churches. Jean Arnold de Clermont, President of the Fédération Protestante de France and current President of the Conference of European Churches (KEK), who is a prominent theologian of European format, held the sermon, to whom the dialogue between theology and (film)culture is a genuine request. INTERFILM and SIGNIS took the 30th anniversary of the ecumenical jury in Cannes as the occasion to honour the British director Ken Loach with a special prize for his complete work. Loach has been distinguished like no other director by the ecumenical jury at different festivals with numerous prizes and praising references.
At the international film festival in Locarno, where the first ecumenical jury could be arranged already in 1973 as is well known, the 2004 prize was accompanied for the first time by the unusually high sum of 20,000 Swiss Francs owing to the special commitment of the film officials at the Catholic Media Service and the Reformist Media, in turn supported by the Protestant and Catholic Churches of Switzerland. After, as it has frequently happened, the film distinguished by the ecumenical jury did not find its way into the cinema, the prize money was made to serve a purpose: to support the rental and selling of the excellent film.
A special joy for me was finally seeing Riga again last year, where we carried out the third of our Europe Seminars five years ago. Following an initiative of our Latvian members, the international film forum "Arsenal" invited us to award an INTERFILM prize with a jury consisting of three members. The fact that a special service and a church reception was offered on this occasion seems to me to be particularly hopeful.
The prize of the ecumenical jury at the Festival of Eastern European Film in Cottbus and the European Templeton Film Prize was awarded to "The Return" by Andrey Svyagintsev. After the Templeton Foundation already made possible the participation of Ibolya Fekete with her film "Chico" in the previous year at the seminar in lasi (Rumania), it then financed a special showing of "The Return" at last year's Cottbus Festival with the director present and followed by a discussion, which was introduced competently and with great energy by Dietmar Adler. Subsequently, the director traveled further to Leeds for a special screening with a following discussion in front of approximately two hundred students in Trinity and All Saints College. We are pleased that the co-operation with the Templeton Foundation is being strengthened in this way. One consequence of it is, among other things, the fact that the prize sum for the European Templeton Film prize was increased from originally 3,500 Swiss Francs to €10,000 in the meantime.
"INTERFILM is coming into its years", Hans Werner Dannowski stressed in Oberhausen. Actually we can celebrate our 50th this year. INTERFILM was founded in Paris on 25 October 1955. Naturally, we want to celebrate this birthday a little bit, whether in Paris, Locarno or wherever - our plans are not yet finalized. As soon as we know more, we will clue you in. Reason enough to remain on the receiving end and to stay in contact.
Yours sincerely,
Hans Hodel, President
(Extraits)
Dear members and partners of INTERFILM,