For France, Henri and Mady de Tienda belong to those pioneers of Protestant film work, besides those from Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, who have founded the “International Protestant Film Centre” INTERFILM on the 22nd October 1955 in Paris. Those two were animators of the “Service Cinémathographique d’Evangélisation” (SERCINEV) and they had started to establish first contacts with the Ecumenical Council of the Churches in Geneva and other church film work organisations as early as 1949. A little time later, they changed thei organisations name into “Association Animation de Séances pour l’éducation par le cinéma et le Témoignage Spirituel” (ASPECTS). It is thanks to their initiative that there is a Protestant presence at the film festival in Cannes which was established by the setting-up of an INTERFILM Jury in 1968 that, in cooperation with OCIC, became the Ecumenical Jury in 1974 (one year after Locarno).

Pro-Fil, an organisation initiated by Jean Domon, Claudine Roshem Smith and Evelyne Fischer-Sellès in 1992, that became ASPECTS successor and has about 200 members in nine sections today, held its yearly assembly on the occasion of a seminar that took place on the weekend of the 24th/25th September in the house of the Protestant Churches in the Rue Clichy in Paris. On this occasion, INTERFILM president Hans Hodel - in the presence of vice president Denyse Muller (France), Werner Schneider-Quindeau (Germany) and the executive secretary Karsten Visarius (Germany) and other members of the leading committee from Latvia, Italy and Denmark - offered an Apéro to commemorate INTERFILM’s founders and to express his gratitude for the commitment of today’s INTERFILM members which Pro-Fil also belongs to. He used the opportunity to announce the honorary membership of Jean Domon, the main initiator and long term president of Pro-Fil. Jean-Arnold de Clermont, at the present moment president of the “Fédération des Eglises Protestantes de France” as well as president of the Conference of European Churches (KEK), used the opportunity to honour the importance of INTERFILM’s commitment. Marc Aellen, general secretary elect of SIGNIS, emphasised the importance of the ecumenical cooperation and Jean Lods, present president of Pro-Fil, expressed his gratitude for the productive cooperation between Pro-Fil and Interfilm.

One outcome of this successful cooperation – supported by the John Templeton Foundation, which was represented by Vice President for Communications Pamela P. Thompson  - was the possibility of the showing of the film “Yasmin” by Kenny Glenaan that was awarded with the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the film festival in Locarno in 2004 as well as the Templeton Film Award in the same year. The conversation between the experienced leader in the discussion Jacques Vercueil, the numerous participants and the director of the film proved itself - in connection with current events – to be extremely informative and inspiring and was acknowledged with a big applause.

From left to right: Marc Aellen, Jean-Arnold de Clermont and Pamela P. Thomson
during a dinner to celebrate the INTERFILM anniversary