CULTURAL SURVIVAL IN THE AGE OF HOLLYWOOD

An International Symposium

Friday, October 3, 2003
9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
UBC Robson Square Theatre

Download pdf of program.

Films and cultural goods carry not just an economic value but also the memory, identity and the values of people. At a time when, in the words of Madonna, “everybody comes to Hollywood,” when a few big corporations based mainly in the United States dominate the audiovisual market, the need to assure cultural diversity in film—in its production and distribution—seems ever more urgent. But how is this done? How do we preserve the right of all people to express and communicate their own cultural identity in film?
This symposium brings together an outstanding group of filmmakers, film programmers, policy-makers, scholars and critics who have been actively wrestling with these questions in Canada, Europe and beyond.

Hosted by the Institute for European Studies at the University of British Columbia, together with the UBC Program in Canadian Studies and the Vancouver International Film Festival, this free public forum will address the critical concerns and creative practices surrounding “Cultural Survival in the Age of Hollywood.”

This event is free and open to the public

Program details at: www.ies.ubc.ca

Featured speakers include:

Coline Serreau – France
French screenwriter and director Coline Serreau has worked in theatre, television, and feature films. Her very successful 1985 film, Trois hommes et un couffin, was adapted by Hollywood in 1987 as Three Men and a Baby. A Hollywood sequel, Three Men and a Little Lady, was subsequently released in 1990. Coline Serreau’s own follow-up to her 1984 film, 18 ans après, (2003), is featured in this year’s VIFF.

Parminder Vir – United Kingdom
Parminder Vir is a film producer (Algeria, Women at War, 1992 ; Babymother, 1998), television producer and Cultural Diversity advisor at Carlton Television. She also serves as board director of the Film Council, charged with developing a strategy for the British film industry, and she is currently developing Dr. Bannerjee’s Daughters, an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, transposed to a modern class-ridden Indian community in Britain.

Rod Stoneman – Ireland
Rod Stoneman, director of the newly established Huston School of Film and Digital Media at the University of Galway, was Chief Executive of the Irish Film Board from 1993 until August 2003. Previously he served as commissioning editor of independent film and video at Channel Four and made independent programs for television (including "Between Object and Image," "Ireland: The Silent Voices," and "Italy: The Image Business"). He has written for Screen, Sight and Sound, Framework, Afterimage and Kinema.

Alain Modot – France
Alain Modot, of the Media Consultant Group (Paris), was the coordinator of the Association of Independent Producers (CEPI) and Director of Institutional Relations at Canal Plus. He has been directly involved with the MEDIA program, established by the European Commission in 2001 to strengthen the competitiveness of the European audiovisual industry. The MEDIA program is committed to promoting the production and distribution of European cinema. Recently Alain Modot produced a report for the European Commission on economic issues in European cinema compared with the American model.

Luciana Castellina – Italy
Luciana Castellina is a well-known public intellectual in Italy. She has directed political reviews and published many books and articles on social and economic issues. She was elected several times to the Italian Parliament, and from 1979 was a member of the European Parliament, where she presided over the Committee on Culture, Media and International Economic Relations. She subsequently served as president of Italia-Cinema until 2001. Luciana Castellina is on the steering committee of the International Network for Cultural Diversity.

Eduardo Antin (Quintín) –Argentina
Eduardo Antin (“Quintín” is his nickname and literary pseudonym) was born in Buenos Aires in 1951. He worked as a mathematician, soccer referee and computer programmer, among other weird jobs, before becoming a film critic (another weird job). In 1991 he founded the important Latin American film monthly El Amante/Cine and is still one of the editors. In 2000 he became the director of the Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival, the main showcase for Asian cinema in Latin America.

Colin Browne – Canada
Colin Browne is a film-maker and poet. He is also the author of Fugitive Events: A History of filmmaking in British Columbia 1899-1970 and he is currently working on a book about the documentary impulse in English-Canadian culture. His poetry collection, Ground Water, was nominated for the Governor General's Award for Poetry in 2002. His documentary films include "Father and Son" and "White Lake," which was nominated for a Canadian Film Award for Best Feature Documentary. His latest film, "Linton Garner: I Never Said Goodbye," is being premiered at this year's VIFF.

Jon Festinger – Canada
Jon Festinger works in the Media, Entertainment & Communications Law Group at the Vancouver firm of Davis & Company. Prior to that appointment, he was Senior Vice-President, B.C. for CTV Television and was instrumental in the launching of Vancouver Television (VTV) in September 1997. From 1994 to 1995, he was a member of "The Working Group on Canadian Programming and Private Television" convened by the Minister of Canadian Heritage. This group authored "The Future of Canadian Programming and the Role of Private Television and Keeping Canada on the Information Highway". Mr. Festinger also authored "Mapping the Electronic Highway: A Survey of Domestic and Internal Law Issues" (1995 Volume 29, University of British Columbia Law Review).

Mort Ransen – Canada
Experience as a writer, actor and a director gives Mort Ransen a special feel for film making. For example, the Genie Award-winning "Margaret's Museum" was written, directed and produced by this self- proclaimed "aging hippy" who now lives on trendy Saltspring Island in British Columbia. He directed 19 films for the National Film Board before quitting in 1984 to write and direct his first feature, "Bayo."His latest film, "Bastards," is currently featured in the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Rae Hull – Canada
Rae Hull is Senior Director of Network Programming, Regional Director of Television for British Columbia.

Antonio Tibaldi – Italy
Antonio Tibaldi is an Italian screenwriter and director, born in Australia, and now based in New York. His many films include "On My Own" with Judy Davis (nominated for six AFI awards in Australia,) "Running Against"(Correre Contro) which won the 1997 "Prix Italia," "Little Boy Blue," a film-noir starring Ryan Phillippe, Nastassja Kinski, John Savage and Shirley Knight and "Claudine's Return" (aka "Kiss of Fire"). Tibaldi has been a member of the Writers Guild of America since 1987. His writing assignments include a screen adaptation of Gay Talese's bestseller "Unto The Sons," for writer-producer Nicholas Pileggi (Wiseguys, Goodfellas).

Bassek ba Kobhio – Cameroon
Bassek ba Kobhio, was born in Nindje in Cameroun. A feature film director, he is also the founder of Films Terre Africaine, a Camerounian production company that he created in 1991. In 1995 he launched Ecrans Noirs (Black Screens), an itinerant film festival that circulates in Cameroun , Gabon, and the Central African Republic. Bassek ba Kobhio is also the author of three novels, published by Editions l'Harmattan. In 2003, he co-directed "Le Silence de la Forêt" (Silence of the Forest) which was shown at the Cannes Film Festival this past May.

Niv Fichman – Canada
Niv Fichman is a founding partner of Rhombus Media, renowned as one of the world's most important producers of films on the performing arts. He has produced most of Rhombus' output that now amounts to almost a hundred films over the past 22 years. He is responsible for several highly renowned feature films such as: the Academy Award-winning "The Red Violin," " Last Night," "Long Day's Journey Into Night," Thirty-two Short Films About Glenn Gould" and "September Songs." Mr. Fichman recently produced a number of feature films including Guy Maddin's "The Saddest Music in the World" and Don McKellar's "Childstar." Away from Rhombus, Mr. Fichman serves on the boards of the Toronto International Film Festival and the IMZ (International Musiczentrum) a Vienna-based international organization whose membership consists of the world's most prominent producers of films on the performing arts. He was recently named co-chair of the Feature Film Advisory Committee with responsibility to advise the Minister of Canadian Heritage on feature film policy.

Michèle Smolkin – Canada
Michèle Smolkin has been director of French language programming for CBC television (Radio-Canada) in British Columbia since 1994. She was one of the co-producers of "24 Hours in Vancouver" which was featured worldwide on TV5 Monde. She has also produced cultural documentaries for SRC and ARTV including "Portrait d'Emily Carr" and "Portrait d'Arthur Erickson."

… and many others!

The organizers of the symposium gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the French Consulate General in Vancouver, the British Council and the German Academic Exchange Program.