Guiding ideas

The FIFF, a meeting of cultures and visions

Welcome to the 26^th Festival International de Films de Fribourg! But you may be surprised by what you find here. A retrospective on the Western genre, or how filmmakers from around the world have adapted its codes to their own taste, and we don’t just mean spaghetti? The Western world’s first-ever focus on recent film in Bangladesh? A world tour of animation films? An enquiry into the way the filmmakers in the western world portray Islam? A look at the films that appeal to the Lebanese community in exile? And Swiss films, as well as midnight screenings reserved for horror films and erotic movies? Yes, all that.

None of it sounds familiar? But you have not come to the wrong place. Let’s think about it. The FIFF’s foundations are the same: the official selection, a.k.a. the International Competition and the short film programmes continue to explore the kinds of film that are not screened in the mainstream distribution market. As for the rest, welcome to a festival that has been ambitiously renovated and restructured. Partitions have been knocked down. Against a fresh coat of paint, the editorial line stands out more clearly. Furniture has been moved around or changed for your comfort as festival goers. And the lighting has been redirected to highlight certain aspects that were just starting to emerge from the shadows in previous seasons.

The FIFF is embarking on its fourth decade. The world has changed since the FIFF’s creation in 1981, when people as well as creative modes were much more compartmentalised. So the festival couldn’t continue to look just like its early editions. Today, many bridges exist that were not there forty years ago. And yet, we cannot say that diversity is a given in today’s film market. In the current Swiss distribution circuit, the films that are not American or European represent no more than 3% of what is screened, and that is in a good year.

Over recent years, the FIFF has been gradually shedding its old trappings, and now in 2012 it has undergone the most important transformation in its history. First of all, from a structural perspective, new sections have been introduced to the annual programme, each with a dedicated day over the week. The impetus is once more to offer you choices and to give the best possible exposure to the films’ creators.

But the the FIFF’s renovation is above all on a philosophical plane. Since bridges now exist, we need to shift our attention to the areas where things remain stuck, the bridges where the tolls are too high, the crossroads where people of different cultures still regard each other in a stand-off. Filmmakers need a transitional venue where their visions confront each other and enrich each other. A forum where things are put into context, and where the spectator can gain a better understanding not only of his cousin from a distant land, but also of his next-door neighbour. For this, new sections have been created: Cinéma de genre, Nouveau territoire, Diaspora, Décryptage, Sur la carte de, orPasseport suisse.

On this stimulating platform, the FIFF 2012 has been a real joy for us to produce. Soon it is your turn, we hope, to indulge in this pleasure and share it.

Thierry Jobin