Seeing, Not Looking

Over the past ten years, my first decade of performing the role of the Festival Director, I’ve learnt many things, including how to ‘read’, ‘feel’, ‘observe’ and ‘listen.’ Why the quotation marks? The four qualities are associated with ordinary human perception only as far as performing the role of a sensory stimulus. In programming each annual festival I seek to read the minds of cinemagoers and envision their expectations, feel the pulse of contemporary aesthetic trends, make every endeavour to promote public appreciation of the esoteric subjects. In short, foster film culture at a time when cinema is regarded by some as a dying breed. Which is nothing new; film was pronounced dead already in the early 1950s with the advent of television, and then in the 1970s with the emergence of the video spot, and so forth, all until the turn of the millennium and the digital area. As if someone wanted to say that one centennial is quite enough, now cinema should step aside with dignity. To where? And to be replaced by what? The small screen, tablets and mobile devices? These audiovisual content carriers have doubtlessly proven relevant to instant consumption, we all use them, however, the experience is all the more pleasurable and intense when provided by the ‘archaic’ media. And these have been making a comeback; although not dramatically so they are still sought by appreciative audiences. Is there such a thing as a gallery or a museum that has been closed and the oil paintings scanned and now digitally available online? The reaffirmation of vinyl records and printed books with reference to digital carriers has been happening for a while now. The matter is different when it comes to film: at a time of digital cinematography one can no longer talk about an improper treatment of the digital content. Filmmaking has become digital in the twenty-first century and it will remain such, with some minor exceptions. Which is not problematic; I do not wish to worship the 35mm film but the cinematographic experience, or – quoting the “get your money's worth” commercial logic –, the consumers’ right “to get what they’ve paid for.” I am talking about the customer’s right to fully experience the content created by the artist. Which can only happen in a movie theatre. Accordingly, the logic is simple: it requires seeing, not merely looking.

Simon Popek, programme director