1 minute read
traveller, there is no road
by ECFA
The European Children’s Film Association started 35 years ago as an initiative of a handful of people from around Europe; it has grown into a lively professional body with over 160 member organisations from around the world. Was it as easy as it seems today? Seeing where we are now, we have to trust Spanish poet Antonio Machado, who once wrote “Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar” - that is “Traveller, there is no road; you make your own path as you walk”.
I was just 12 when those first brave travellers started this path. Today, people like myself and other younger members of ECFA and the Board, are building our whole professional and social lives around film culture and its connection with even younger generations. This wouldn’t be possible without all those who managed to convince, to overcome, to innovate, to build up possibilities and create a field of action that did not exist before, at this scale and structure at least (although there is a prehistory with children and cinema that would be useful to know).
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But where do we stand today? We live in a politically, financially and culturally fragile world. Cinema, audio-visual production in general, their distribution and access to audiences has changed a lot – for better or for worse. Children and youth are more informed and mature than ever. The financial situa- tion in culture and film is challenging. And we, the members of the lively ECFA community, make bigger or smaller steps towards our goals, according to country-specific circumstances which vary – but not that much.
ECFA has always been a community of active, dedicated, creative people, not a strict professional organisation with hierarchies, bureaucracy and antagonisms within it. This is the ECFA we need today: an organisation promoting mutual understanding and collaborations, a place to meet and reflect on our changing environment, a central point of reference for our broader network. And, obviously, it’s up to all of us to make our teamwork matter!
Pantelis Panteloglou ECFA President
