Cather­ine Yu-Shan Hsieh: The Inter­na­tional Fes­ti­val of Films on Art (FIFA) was cre­ated in 1981 under the patron­age of UNESCO’s (United Nations Edu­ca­tional, Sci­en­tific and Cul­tural Orga­ni­za­tion) Inter­na­tional Coun­cil for Film, Tele­vi­sion, and Audio­vi­sual Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and spon­sored by the Musée d’art con­tem­po­rain de Mon­tréal. What was it that prompted the birth of FIFA?
René Rozon: I cre­ated FIFA because I had seen many films on art world­wide in var­i­ous muse­ums, art fairs, and film fes­ti­vals. It led to my deci­sion to share these mar­vel­lous films with the Mon­tréal pub­lic.
CH: How does loca­tion, in other words, being in the City of Mon­tréal, affect FIFA?
RR: Mon­tréal being an extremely pro­lific city in the cul­tural field, namely in the visual and per­form­ing arts, it was the ideal place to launch a fes­ti­val of this kind. That is why the response from both the press and the pub­lic towards this spe­cial­ized fes­ti­val is extremely pos­i­tive.
CH: As FIFA takes place for the twenty-sixth time from March 6 to 16, what dis­tin­guishes the fes­ti­val from its past?
RR: The fes­ti­val has expanded con­sid­er­ably. We started by show­ing 50 films, while today we are pre­sent­ing almost 300 annu­ally. We used to receive about 150 films, and nowa­days it exceeds 600 for pre-selection pur­poses. We were deal­ing with about 15 coun­tries. Today we are in con­tact with over 45 coun­tries.
CH: What is involved in the selec­tion process of films for FIFA?
RR: Due to the enor­mous amount of films to be screened, the for­ma­tion of a selec­tion com­mit­tee was imper­a­tive. The mem­bers of the selec­tion com­mit­tee are respon­si­ble for spe­cific artis­tic dis­ci­plines cor­re­spond­ing to their pro­fes­sion. They must fill out an eval­u­a­tion form for each film, which is then trans­mit­ted to the direc­tor who revises with each con­sul­tant their assess­ment. The result of these meet­ings accounts for the final selec­tion.
CH: What char­ac­ter­izes films that are pre­sented at FIFA?
RR: FIFA encom­passes all the arts, of any period or style, in the fol­low­ing dis­ci­plines: paint­ing, sculp­ture, archi­tec­ture, design, crafts, fash­ion, dec­o­ra­tive arts, muse­ol­ogy, restora­tion, pho­tog­ra­phy, cin­ema (por­traits of direc­tors and actors, film shoots, spe­cial effects,) lit­er­a­ture, dance, music and the­atre, among oth­ers. Films are usu­ally doc­u­men­taries, rarely films of fic­tion. The selec­tion is dri­ven by high qual­ity stan­dards.
CH: This year the open­ing film is doc­u­men­tary “Achever l’inachevable” by Que­bec film­maker Jean Berg­eron. Why have you cho­sen this par­tic­u­lar piece to unveil FIFA? What is the clos­ing film? Why have you cho­sen it as the end­ing note?
RR: Our open­ing film, “Achiev­ing the Unachiev­able,” by Que­bec film­maker Jean Berg­eron has been selected to launch the 26th FIFA. The film is about the Dutch Mau­rits C. Escher, who defies the laws of per­spec­tive in his work reflected in the spe­cial effects that the film­maker has devised, a real tour de force. As for the clos­ing film, “The Gates,” based on the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude in New York’s Cen­tral Park, by Albert Maysles and Anto­nio Fer­rera, is being con­sid­ered. It would end the fes­ti­val on a very opti­mistic note, the art­work being very col­or­ful, enjoy­able, and spec­tac­u­lar.
CH: Diverse as the list was of coun­tries fea­tured in FIFA 2007, the Euro­pean fla­vor was rel­a­tively strong while Asia and Africa were under­rep­re­sented. Will this year be any dif­fer­ent? Do you have any plans to show­case more Asian and African films?
RR: The pro­duc­tion of Asian and African films on art is scarce and more often than not con­cen­trated on tra­di­tional crafts. The energy of the film­mak­ers of these con­ti­nents seems more invested in films of fic­tion for the moment. It is the Euro­pean coun­tries that are more con­cerned about Asian and African mod­ern art, and make more films on the sub­ject.
CH: Cel­e­bra­tion of art in the form of motion pic­tures, tele­vi­sion, and videog­ra­phy is indeed an excit­ing sub­ject. What does FIFA do to main­tain and enhance the exhil­a­ra­tion of such an event?
RR: FIFA is the equiv­a­lent of Cannes in the field of films on art. It presents the lat­est and most stim­u­lat­ing pro­duc­tions on art in the world. The stars of the fes­ti­val are the artists them­selves. Show­ing films related to them and their work cre­ates an excit­ing atmos­phere. Good press cov­er­age is an asset. Finally, par­tic­i­pa­tion of pro­duc­ers, direc­tors, and dis­trib­u­tors also adds to the exhil­a­rat­ing atmos­phere.
René Rozon is the founder and direc­tor of the Inter­na­tional Fes­ti­val of Films on Art.
Cather­ine Yu-Shan Hsieh is an asso­ciate edi­tor at NY Arts.