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Dans la Corde

Here is a sample of the French film that won Best European Short at the European Independent Film Fe (...)

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Agnieszka 2039

Here is a sample of the film that won both Best Experimental and Best Editing at the European Indepe (...)

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Indie filmakers in the digital age

By Rhiannon Hobbins

So after years of dreaming about being a filmmaker you decided to finally go for it. You begged, borrowed and maxed out your credit cards. The house had to be remortgaged and you even had to bail on the Christmas skiing holiday. You’ve seriously never been so bloody broke.

But you’ve got no regrets, you’ve made your film and the rest will be easy. But the fact is that it can be just as difficult to land a distribution deal. And after all the sacrifices and hard work, there is nothing more frustrating than the feeling that nobody will see your film.

Over the next few months in the lead up ECU 2008, I will go on an investigative mission to find out what the distribution options are for indie filmmakers today.

The Big Boys

I’m always struck by the giant-sized film posters pasted on the walls of the Paris metro stations. Harry Potter and his friends seemed to be everywhere a few months ago. While kids were busy tugging on their mum’s shirts and begging to see the movie, indie filmmakers throughout the city stared up at these posters and dreamt of the day they’d see their film publicized up there.

But the reality for many is like a bucket of cold water in the face. The big boys – with dollar signs in their eyes – are always on the hunt for the next blockbuster smash hit. So unless your film has a top script, brand name director and high profile cast – you don’t stand much of a chance.

So I was thrilled when indie filmmaker Steven Mills told me he managed to secure a distribution deal. His film Cigar at the Beach played at 160 festivals in 31 countries winning the Best Non-European Dramatic Short at ECU 2007 along the way. He admits that he was “very aggressive” in submitting his film to festivals but in the end it was the attention he paid to the markets which proved to be the most valuable.

At the short film festival Clermont-Ferrand, Mills met Ouat Media Inc, a distribution company who are based in Toronto. After he sent them a DVD they decided to represent Cigar at the Beach exclusively worldwide. “But if I hadn't already been selected into a lot of festivals I may not have looked as good,” said Mills. “So all festivals have their importance, but to end the story – markets are a must!”

Digital Diversity

But a solution is emerging. An increasing number of creative yet cash strapped and frustrated filmmakers are looking to the Internet where they’re finding an abundance of opportunities.

I decided to Google “movie downloads” and was astounded by the huge number of websites offering top quality films over the Internet. There’s loads of new companies that have popped up in the last few years such as Movielink, MovieFlix, IndieFlix, Netflix, GreenCine and CinemaNow. The one that caught my eye – perhaps because it sounds a little different to the rest of the mob – was Azureus.

Azureus offers filmmakers free video hosting on their websitewww.vuze.com and the opportunity to sell their films on a pay-per-view basis. Their business is booming with peer-to-peer technology which has made it possible for users even with an ordinary internet connection to download films with the click of a mouse. “The advantage of peer-to-peer is that the more people who download a file, the more bandwidth those individuals are contributing and the faster that file is downloaded,” said Peter Bradley, Vice President of Business Development at Azureus.

The (...)

Sooner or Later, Interview with a young Hungarian director

By Anita Falusi

In my quest, to collect more information about the situation of Hungarian Cinema today, I came across a talented independent filmmaker, Madarász István. He was brought to my attention because even though he never went to film school his movies win award after award from the U.S. throughout Hungary to Spain. Recently, he even got a grant for pitching a new project to a 15 producer panel at the Central European Pitch Forum. I decided to ask him; what is the secret to be a successful independent filmmaker in Hungary today?! His unique insight to the country’s changing film industry gives a new perspective that is sometimes hard to hear but certainly very true. He belongs to a new generation of filmmakers who are eager and ready to take on the film world only with their talent and hard work…

Download this article in Hungarian

Hungary has gone through major political changes… How did this shape the Hungarian Film? Is there a new style formulating?

I don’t see any strong direction yet. The Hungarian film is now a bit indefinable, a blend of different trends. Compared to previous times, I don’t see a unified character or language right now… maybe depressive and dragging, these are the first words come to mind. It is also selfish…l’art pour l’art. It is not made for the audiences, it doesn’t want to give them anything, it is just murmuring to himself. On the other side, a growing number of filmmakers trying to make blockbusters but they are just searching for the formula to reach a big, mediocre, mainstream audience. The sad reality is that they always end up aiming much lower than that. So, we end up with idiotic, dumb and just generally bad, bad movies. The truth lies somewhere between the two…but I’ll show them.

A lot of young people leave the country in search for money, success and acknowledgement…

It is a sort of disillusionment, disappointment…if somebody seriously wants to make movies, sooner or later they will leave and they are completely right. I will also go, I am just waiting until I get the call.

Did the 20% film budget reimbursement and the new film studios help the situation?

This, strangely, was a good idea and seems to make a lot of sense. The effect was immediate, several new foreign productions arrived that created new jobs, we could go to work, become extras and look around. And the Hungarians realized that filmmaking can be done differently, better really…

What do you think about Co-productions?

There are more and more but I am not satisfied yet. Even though, it helps to create more Hungarian movies, still movie making is not our strongest export product. I believe that it could be in fact… We have to make movies that drive the foreign filmmakers crazy, something that interests them, something that they would buy or they want to participate in…it is really not that impossible.

What is the situation of the Hungarian Independent Cinema today? Can it actually be distinguished?

Today every Hungarian film made is a little miracle. The situation is just that bad. Therefore, every film counts as independent. But the true independent filmmakers, like me, have an even harder time to succeed. You (...)

War zone filmmaking: Going into battle

By Kellie Southan

So you’re an independent filmmaker and you’ve got it pretty tough. Filmmaking is an expensive business, and you have to tell your story with a limited budget. Worse, you’ve got to fight tooth and nail to find the revenue in the first place. If you work long and hard enough, you might finish your project on schedule and then it’s up to you to promote it, get it seen, take it to festivals, find a distributor and garner support. Not exactly a walk in the park, right? Try making your film in a war zone. Now that’s tough.

The European Independent Film Festival for 2008 has received some terrific entries from all around the globe, including many from areas of political and military conflict. One such film is the stunning Anatema, directed by Agim Sopi, which tells the story of a woman who is raped and subsequently gives birth to a child in war torn Kosovo. Originally intended as a war documentary, Anatema eventually became the fictional recreation of real-life events after Sopi lost all of his early footage following an attack by Serbian military forces. The film received a small amount of funding assistance from the Kosovan Ministry of Culture, but was largely financed by Sopi himself through investments from his family and the sale of many personal possessions.

Australian director Wayne Coles-Janess knows all about the difficulties of filming in a world ‘hot spot’. The Iraq war was looming in March 2003 when he flew to Baghdad to begin filming his documentary In the Shadow of the Palms: Iraq, a film that gives an intimate insight into the lives of ordinary people during Saddam Hussein’s regime before, during and after the war. Facing all the usual hurdles of the independent filmmaker, Coles-Janess mortgaged his Melbourne apartment to help fund the project, acknowledging the difficulty of making films “on overdrafts, credit cards and lines of credit”, and revealing that “all Australian government film industry agencies” rejected his applications for funding assistance. Despite the budgetary constraints, the director remained in Iraq as the ‘shock and awe’ campaign raged, continuing to document life in Baghdad not seen in the media.

Similarly, award-winning filmmaker James Longley ventured into the hostile territory of Iraq in September 2002, ready to start filming his documentary Iraq in Fragments. With patience and persistence, Longley travelled around the country and filmed until early 2005, accruing two years of guerrilla reportage on the ground and capturing stories from the fractured lives of Sunnis, Shias and Kurds, each impacted upon so profoundly by the war and subsequent collapse of the government.

But while financial concerns and painstaking, time consuming projects are standard in independent filmmaking, putting one’s life at risk is something particular to the business of filming in a war zone. Coles-Janess remembers some scary moments from his Iraq experience. “One time I was in the neighbourhood at night before the war and these guys grabbed me and thought that I was a pilot that had been shot down or a spy or whatever,” he said. “There was a bit of toing-and-froing but luckily some people that knew me in that area heard all the commotion and rescued me.” Unable to relax in the constant atmosphere of tension, anger and frustration, the director remembers feeling physically vulnerable and at risk. “You are almost expecting to hear or feel gunshot as you’re walking along. Everyone’s got guns and is emotionally enraged.”

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The Romanian Boom

By Ben Cookson

Romanian filmmaking attracted world attention in 2007 when two films were honored at the Cannes Film Festival. Cristian Mingui’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, a harrowing portrayal of illegal abortion, was awarded the prestigious Palme D’Or, and California Dreamin’, a tale about American soldiers during the Kosovo conflict, won Un Certain Regard for its director Cristian Nemescu.

Tragically, Nemescu won the award posthumously, as the young director was killed in a car accident before the film had completed editing. The jury at Cannes had initially decided not to officially judge California Dreamin’ , but they changed their minds after viewing it.

The head of the jury, Pascal Ferran, described California Dreamin’ as “by far the most vibrant and most free cinematic offer that we have seen during the past ten days." The subsequent “buzz” generated around the film has ensured that it will now receive worldwide distribution.

Before his death, Nemescu was amongst the new generation of young Romanian filmmakers who were starting to win international recognition. At Cannes 2006 Corneliu Porumbui won the Camera D’Or for 12:08 East of Bucharest; the year before Un Certain Regard was taken back to Bucharest by Crisi Puiu for The Death of Mr Lazarescu; and in 2004 the Palme D’Or for best short film went to Catalin Mitulescu for Trafic. It is not unsurprising how these collective successes have lead to talk of a Romanian New Wave.

It was not long ago that the Romanian film industry was better known as a service industry for foreign filmmakers. Notably, Anthony Minghella’s 83,000,000 dollar Cold Mountain was filmed there in 2003. “Cold Mountain,” said Minghella “was proof to Hollywood producers that shooting films in Romania is a viable option".

With its wealth of beautiful locations, skilled film technicians and financial incentives continuing today, Romania remains an attractive setting for overseas production companies. 8 major foreign productions were filmed in Romania in 2006: Pu-239; Borat; Blood and Chocolate; Pulse; Shadow Man; Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj; Second in Command and Francis Ford Coppola’s Youth Without Youth.

As well as boosting the Romanian economy, the foreign investment has helped develop local talent and has inspired homegrown young filmmakers. However, the growing body of great Romanian films and the burgeoning trophy cabinet, is a result of more than just industry growth.

The Romanian writer and director Catalin Leescu, whose film Afterimage featured at ECU 2007, explains how the new generation are united in a common cause which he believes is responsible for the recent successes: “It’s to do with the refusal of ‘old-school cinema’ which is the current unclaimed intention of all the new Romanian filmmakers.”

Up until the communist dictatorship’s downfall in 1989, the only filmmaking in Romania was state controlled propaganda. This forced earlier Romanian hopefuls, like Livui Ciulei who won the best director at Cannes in 1965, out of cinema. Now an EU member state, Romania’s young filmmakers are fight (...)

Hungarian Film on the Rise...

By Anita Falusi

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My father called me a few months ago to tell me “the big news,” the new Hungarian Studios are looking for talented and skilled film professionals. This is my time to leave the western world behind and finally go back home. Ten years ago, when I left Budapest, the only way someone could work in the film industry if they received their diploma from the College for Cinematic and Theater Arts or they had relatives in the field. The College accepted 16 people every three years for the film director track and the same was true for acting, cinematography, editing and similarly for television and theater majors. About seven hundred people applied for each major, some of them already in their forties, trying fifth or sixth time. After three rounds of elimination about 16 remained. The Hungarian film industry changed a great deal since then, as I found out.

The new studios started springing up around the same time when politicians proposed a great tax rebate to film companies shooting in Hungary. The law took effect December, 2004 and gives 20% of all production costs spent in the country back to the filmmakers. The law also takes care of the new studios with a generous 50% tax rebate for the construction of new film facilities in Hungary. All co-productions, Hungarian and foreign film companies benefit greatly from their investment. The foreign film production company, after submitting the Hungarian Film Office their Hungarian budget, has to partner up with a Hungarian company (could be several different investor, but banks receive the most advantageous tax reduction as partners). These Hungarian companies will become “sponsors” without necessarily spending any money but still getting governmental tax breaks while the foreign producers receive the 20%. “It is important to understand that this film law favors co-productions…obviously, the Hungarian film industry and its development is at the heart of it, but international cooperation is also essential,” said the Hungarian Minister of Cultural Heritage, Istvan Hiller. The increase of foreign money flow is vital to the Hungarian film industry, especially since in 2007 they suffered a 30% decrease in government support. Government funding and tax incentives are approved through a new National Film Office and allocated by the Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary. New help comes from private companies trying to take advantage of the tax break and investing into Hungarian Films.

Hungary has been the host of many major foreign productions because of its wonderful countryside, the architecture and the old world charm of the streets and buildings of Budapest (Steven Spilberg’s Munchen, Spygame, Evita). It can serve as a low cost substitute for Berlin, Paris, Buenos Aires, London or even medieval locale. The last few years, as shooting in Prague became more and m (...)

Chicks Making Flicks

By Rhinnon Hobbins

For decades the film industry has suffered from a lack of female directors. But the tide looks to be finally turning with more and more chicks sitting in the director’s chair making some exceptional flicks. These filmmakers are determined not to let anything stand in their way of telling a story - even if that means working on storyboards whilst giving birth.

ÉCU 2007 debut director Nicola Morris “I actually took my storyboard into the delivery room and worked on it as I was going into labor,” said debut director Nicola Morris whose film Out of Milk screened at ÉCU 2007.

Morris admits that she was “a little nervous” of how she would get a great team to work on Out of Milk when she “hadn’t even made a home movie on a camcorder”. Determined to succeed, she decided to go to the British Film Institute Library where she read every book on directing. “That was my film school,” she said. “It wasn’t until the wrap party that many of the crew discovered that it was the first time I’d directed.”

Samira Goetschel is another indie chick that is taking the industry by storm. Born in Iran, she fled the country after her father was executed during the 1979 Revolution and has grown up mostly in the United States. A New York University Film School graduate, Goetschel was driven to make her first film, Our Own Private Bin Laden, after the events of September 11, 2001.

“Like everyone else, I turned to the media for explanation for the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. But I soon became frustrated with what seemed to be the media’s exploitation of the attacks and the images of terror. So I decided to go out there and find out for myself why the terrorists did what they did,” she said.

Now that’s what I call independent spirit.

With her DV camera tucked under her arm, Goetschel set off on a mission to investigate the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. Her sheer determination secured an array of high-profile interviews with the ex- director of the CIA Stansfield Turner, President Jimmy Carter’s national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, Pakistani ex-president Benazir Bhutto, prominent investigative journalists and many more.

Such an impressive list left many journalists stunned. They were “reluctant to accept the facts behind the making of the film and in particular about my access to some of the interviewees,” Goetschel said adding that she was even accused of lying about her identity.

LA indie filmmaker Dawn Westlake also expresses the same defiant attitude. “I don’t think there are any obstacles for women,” said Westlake. She was driven to make the ÉCU 2007 gem God’s Good Pleasure from her disgust with the United States Administration and their lack of concern for the Geneva Conventions. “If you have a story, just tell it”.

The hard work has definitely paid off for these indie chicks. Morris’ film Out of Milk has screened at fifteen film festivals worldwide, was nominated for six awards and won two awards.

Samir (...)