Pesaro, Sacile

[Bodo Schönfelder]

Dear friends,

another clone of me was in Bologna after Pesaro. Hiroshi told me,
that the film list for Sacile is not definite. To clear something 
about this event. For a retrospective like the one about Japanese 
silents there will be a maximum of ca. 15 to 20 programme hours, 
maybe some more for the video screenings. A kind of a general principle 
is the idea, that all films cn be seen by all, at least for celluloid.
I am sure, that there are many experts on thhis list, but there 
will be only one or two panels about Japan and the organizers prefer 
members of archives or authors of recent publications. They don't 
provide much free lodgings, and are not able by the budget. They 
encourage visitors to become donors and deposit some money. I think 
the phrase of an aging audience is a little exaggerated and misleading.
When the Giornate were founded, they were something like a partizan 
enterprise. The people who fought for it, form something a like a 
family. So they meet every year at 'Christmas'. That there are no 
stars, directors and actors who talk shit helps a lot with the atmosphere.
Since it is established, young students and scholars form a steady 
flow of audience. And there are seminars for students too. They are 
securing the continuity. Bologna tried to compete. Now there is a 
kind of mutual agreement to work side by side.

Pordenone/Sacile and Bolgna are both important for film history, 
Pesaro for 'Young (Asian) Cinema', even if it has lost some of it's 
importance. So I am a regular in this places (I work as a journalist).
I don't agree that FarEast is wilder, it's just different.

About this years Pesaro event. At least Olafs text was published 
in different versions in different, eg in the retrospective book 
of the Berlin film festival in 2000. There was some organizational 
disorder this year in Pesaro, possibly caused by the exchange of 
many persons of the staff. The panel discussion had to suffer too.
It began too late and was badly staged. Roberta's andStephen's contributions 
were necessary. And there were problems with the translation. The 
severe cuts in budget caused additional problems. I guess Guillermo 
and Michele have not much experience in organizing such an event.
Every festival has screenings aiming at an general audience not 
especially experts in film and national film cultures. Unagi was 
screened as an avant premiere before the general release in Italy.
The organizers had lots of discussions, what could be screened in 
the Piazza. After Face there were new discussion, I was told (I saw 
the film last year), due to the fact of the raping in the film and 
little children in the audience. In my opinion, it was the wrong 
choice, because the sound track is especially designed for indoor 
screenings with a real good technical equippment.

Of course one can miss the one or other film and director. But for 
a small festival like Pesaro there are many difficulties in programming,
not only budgetary. Availibilty of prints, timetables, friendliness 
and politics of producers and distributors. At least some of the 
prints and directors which were on the list of wishes of the organizers 
were not let out/in by the peoples and companies who could make them 
available. Even Distance came to late to make the Italian electronic 
subtitling possible. This goes for every film of every country with 
comparable events. I wonder how Italian films are presented in Japan.


By the way, Mario Monicelli is more than a director of comedies. 
One of his important films deals with the battle at the Isonzo, one 
of the bloodiest battles in WW I.

My next clone will be in San Sebastian in Spain with the Frank Borzage 
retrospective.

Bodo Schoenfelder



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