Mas y Mas April 2010

mรกs ymรกs

monthly newsletter of NISI MASA

APRIL10

FILMMAKERS VS FILMCRITICS conversation:

film critic and student

report:

KinoKabaret Malmรถ

portrait:

Battle Sequence from Japanese TV series: Silver Kamen (1971)

Jude Lister

16-18 april

ESP Session 2 Bucharest, Romania

20 april

agenda

Closing Applications Malmö Workshop

21-25 april

NISI MASA General Assembly Linz

Epitome of internet cinema bloggers Harry Knowles. (www.aintitcool.com)

editorial It was just a couple of weeks ago that the whole New York entertainment media world was hassling about New York Press critic Armond White having been banned from all press screenings of Greenberg - the new film from director Noah Baumbach.

Apparently White had been too rude and harsh writing about Baumbach’s former films The Squid and the Whale and Margot at the Wedding. 'Although the charges and counter-charges in this case are pretty salacious, the furor is only partly about White and Baumbach. It’s also about the uneasy symbiosis between film critics and the movie business, two organisms that feed off each other in an awkward dance of privilege, access and manipulation,“ as Andrew O’Hehir, the writer of The Film Saloon so perfectly puts it.

It’s not a mystery why we chose to put the focus of Mas y Mas April on the eternal interdependant love-hate relationship between filmmakers and filmcritics. Filmcritics, whether devestating or patting on your shoulder, it’s something that all filmmakers have to deal with at some point. Nowadays when film criticism isn‘t published only in newspapers and magazines any more, but also online in various forms from blogs and forums to Facebook comments, both the ones who write and the ones that are being

written about, might benefit from a chance to look at this from the opposite party’s point of view. That’s exactly what we are hoping Mas y Mas April will do for you.

In this issue you will find an article by Donal Foreman, an irish man who lives a double life, being both a filmmaker and a filmcritic. In his article „Of Love and Hate“ film critic Bruno Carmelo is dissecting the question why communication between filmmakers and filmcritics hardly ever becomes a constructive dialogue. On page 4 we have two directors and two film journalists sharing their views on purpose, influence and ethics of film criticism. You can read about Andrea Franco‘s discussion with her film journalism tutor on the meaning of film criticism today. On the spotlight page we welcome Kino Kabaret Malmö. The portrait of the month is about Jude Lister, the mysterious lady from NISI MASA European office who is in charge of many upcoming grand projects.

Enjoy!

by Anu Aun

Mas y Mas is a monthly newsletter published by the association NISI MASA. EDITORIAL STAFF Coordination Anu Aun Adrien Lenoir Design Maartje Alders

Contributors to this issue: Maartje Alders, Anu Aun, Bruno Carmelo, Donal Foreman, Andrea Franco, Magnus Grubb, Azed Kettani, Adrien Lenoir, Lina Sundén.

NISI MASA (European Office) 99 Rue du Faubourg Saint Denis 75010, Paris, France Tel/Fax: +33 (0)9 60 39 63 38 + 33 (0)6 32 61 70 26 Email europe@nisimasa.com Website www.nisimasa.com

credits.

3

Critics vs Filmmakers

dossier

cinema battles

« Nowadays, everybody has two jobs: their own and film critic » François Truffaut used to say (indeed, who could introduce our topic better than him?). The man is right, more than ever you could even say: so many films, so many movie blogs… Whatever happened to the fertile dialogue between film critics and film makers? Well, according to our writers, the situation is not easy nowadays; but it may also be the time to fight to make more of film criticism than just a “Go (or don’t go) see that film”, as most bloggers do.

“Tomorrow’s movie will be an act of love” (Truffaut once more). Let’s just hope critics and film makers will be there to share this love.

A double point of view

by Donal Foreman (critic/filmmaker)

M

y beginnings in cinema were thoughtless, impulsive and tactile. I started making films with my friends at age 11, initially as an arbitrary way to pass the time but soon developing into an unbeatable creative and social space for us to play in. Writing about film came a few years later, as a way to make sense of this activity that had already become so central to my life, seeking its powers and potential beyond the visceral excitement of the process that had hooked me in the first place.

The best answers I found came mostly from filmmakers, not critics. Reading the first-hand insights of auteurs like Cassavetes, Tarkovsky and Bresson bridged the gap for me between the buzz of making movies and art’s potential as a tool for changing both oneself and others. This realisation sealed my fate (and faith) in film, but it also raised my ambitions far higher than anything I was capable of achieving. Writing about film became a way of keeping the dream alive: studying and analysing the work of far more advanced filmmakers while, in my own films, I tried to catch up to them, little by little.

Since then, I’ve lived a double life: part filmmaker and part film critic.

And I do find the dual disciplines rather complementary. They stimulate different parts of my brain: one is practical, social and intuitive; the other is solitary, analytical and logical. I admit my understanding of film as a critic is still miles ahead of my own abilities as a filmmaker—which explains why I have, written a lot about radical forms of cinema while my own films still plough through the myopic territory of 20-something romantic relationships… As I said, I still have some catching up to do—but writing about film reminds me why I bother trying in the first place.

Of Love and Hate

“

by Bruno Carmelo (critic)

You stupid critic, you have no idea what you are talking about, why don't you give up writing and try to make films to see how it works, little son of a ...”.

Indeed, I haven't made any film. I don't even consider myself a film critic either, just someone with a film blog as millions of others out there. However, that did not stop me from receiving about four insults a day after writing some criticism about a brazilian film. It took me a while to find out that these comments came from someone directly involved in the production of the film, which relieved me in a way, and worried me in another.

After all, this was just a person blindly protecting his own creation, and who can blame an artist for being emotionally attached to his/her work, right? If the lack of rationality or ability to take criticism was justified by this intense proximity with the object, I have to admit being surprised by the fact that a professional could attack someone who wouldn't really influence the opinion of others, and that therefore wouldn't affect the appreciation or the economical career of the film.

Which brings me to the idea that the (conflictual) relationship between film critics and filmmakers is not a mat-

ter of money (no one has ever proved that the critics alone made the success or the failure of a film, and probably no one ever will), it's maybe not just the “mother bird protecting her eggs” thing either. The whole conflict is a communication structure issue. We always suppose that art communicates something, and therefore nothing is more logical than continuing the dialogue, either with arguments of taste (I like it/I don't like it), of aesthetics, of adequacy to morals, society etc.

The big issue is that this strange king of communication is not built on the same language: artists's discourses are ambiguous and spoken out loud for anyone, in the same way that critics respond to whomever wants to read them, in a written language. Criticizing is like a dialogue between two deaf people, or better, it's a political debate on a public park, each candidate screaming his own ideas to different people passing by. The film is lost somewhere in the middle, protected by one and exposed by the other. With all the passion and the screaming, most of the people in the park will normally just hear some undistinguished noise and leave the place.

dossier

Critics vs Filmmakers

4

By asking the same questions to 2 filmmakers and 2 film critics Mas y Mas April wanted to explore how similar or different their views on film criticism are.

Nicola Mills / British Writer/Director

MARTA PARLATORE / Polish director-scriptwriter

Margit Tõnson / Estonian film journalist

Hanna Mironenko / Russian film critic

I

R

What is the purpose of film criticism?

T

he reason I read film criticism is to judge whether or not a film would be interesting to see, to see what someone else felt or thought about a film I have already seen and didn’t understand. I use film criticism to learn something.

I

t is the same purpose that should drive a good guide in a museum or gallery, to bring the public closer to the art by understanding and explaining the deeper layers and the context of the work. Make it more accessible and comprehensible to a larger audience.

How much and in which way can film criticism influence a film's future?

C

riticism can influence the response to a film, therefore the career of the filmmaker within the industry. But then critical acclaim is one thing and an audience is sometimes another. Film is much more available via the internet and on the internet there are many opinions and an abundance of film blogs, amateur film critics, Facebook, MySpace, twitter etc etc. Maybe the power of the traditional film critic is waning?

I

believe it can, but not as much as other forces such as politics or religion. Film criticism is one of the mediums through which fashions are created, it operates in the realm of pop culture, of a market and yes, it can manipulate the consumer’s choices. But I also believe film is an art, a powerful one, much stronger than any fashion or time itself. What film critics should keep in mind while writing, is to respect this.

see myself more as a film journalist – I write reviews and critics, make interviews with film-makers and actors, complain about inefficiencies in film-politics on my columns, report about festivals etc. I see my position as a mediator, middleman between auteur and audience. Not so much vice versa, even though it sometimes seems to me, that some Estonian directors, under the constant lack of feedback, have started to assume and expect, that a critics primarily goal is to teach them how to make better films.

oland Barthes said that critic was performing the film like a pianist performs a musical composition. I agree and disagree with it because for me there is a criticism of 2 types: an average and professional. An average is addressed to an audience that consists of housewives and working class who are not that interested in discovering movie implications, they just want to read short announcements. Every journalist can do that. Professional criticism needs special preparation and knowledge and is addressed to an audience that knows film history quite well.

N

T

o-one has ever made any statistics about how a negative or positive criticism influences ticket sales. Just as it is still unclear, how much a good or bad marketing campaign actually helps a politician or a party to gain more votes. Positive attention from critics can surely help small unknown independent arthouse feature to get noticed by distributors, but I am pretty skeptic about a direct cause and effect relation on audiences behavior.

Is there such a thing as a critic’s code of ethics?

I

have no idea. But I like the idea that there is one and a printed scroll is kept, framed above their desks. New critics have to be sworn in at a secret location to keep the code under pain of death, or broken fingers, or something.

Opinion is subjective. Either I agree with them, am illuminated by their thoughts or not. I become a critic of their criticism. However this is easy to say for someone who has not had their work chewed over by a film critic; ask me these questions again in a couple of years and you may get very different answers.

I

don’t know whether there is a such thing as critics’ code of ethics, but I definitely think there should be. There is more than one border that a good critic doesn’t cross. For example, a personal antipathy towards the director should not get entangled with the analysis of their work, just as much as ego-trips, political views, religious beliefs or sadistic tendencies. He needs to work for the art and not against it. A good critic should not judge the film or put it in a box, find a tag for it, raise it on a pedestal or bury in a gutter, but on the contrary see the uniqueness of each piece, understand what the author wants to communicate and share his professional opinion with the public.

I

t is very simple and universal, the golden rule of ethics - do not do to others what you would not like to be done to you, avoid doing what you would blame others for doing. If you yourself are ready and willing to make it personal, go ahead, but I try to remember, that the object of criticism is never the person behind the film, but film itself as an independent entity.

here is films whose future do not depend on critics’ opinion. People will always go to watch films like «Shrek» or «Harry Potter». But the fortune of so called “arthouse” movies depends on a critic’s position a lot. Many of them get to the box-office through small distribution companies that don’t spend big money on advertising. In this situation critics can help films by writing that the movie is worth to be seen. Critics' opinion can switch on a “bush telegraph”. As I write for industry media addressed to cinemas, for all my texts I remember that my word can influence a films future.

T

here are different types of borders. Firs of all, even when critic writes that the film is not really good, he should remember that he is writing not only about the film but about film’s authors too and artists deserve at list polite intonation. Secondly, sometimes it happens to see some movie stars on closed parties where they behave not really nice. It’s for me an inner type of information, that is not going to be spread. Artistic work – that’s what critic is interested in, not rumors about artists.

5

dossier

Critics vs Filmmakers

conversation with.

EULÀLIA IGLESIAS, Cahiers du Cinèma España

Here is a valuable conversation between a teacher and a pupil. The topic? What film criticism means and what it should be today, at the crossroads of two generations. Don’t expect any conflict of generations between Andrea Franco and her teacher Eulàlia Iglesias (critic at the Cahiers du cinéma Espana) though. TheIR ideas tend to depict film criticism as a kind of noble asceticism.

Andrea: Let’s talk about the mission of film criticism.

Eulàlia: I don’t like to think of the criticism as something “at the service of”.

Eric Rohmer raised it not as orientational but as a duty to set out what is important in cinema and what is not. Firstly it must be a literary exercise; then, it must contribute with a general reflection on film, even if in the end results in a reflection of the world we live in. The idea is to develop a way of personal communication without personalizing it too much; as a reader I don’t like the chronicle of the critic’s tribulations. I see criticism as a composit of voices and different points of view which form a continuous thinking flow in which you participate in a non definitive way.

In my case, I started because that way I forced myself to think about a film.

Otherwise you watch it and then just go; you forget it. Writing imposes a reflection.

That is very interesting and has to do with the role of criticism. There are those who believe that thinking means not enjoying the film but on the contrary, when a film asks you a question the joy is much bigger. I love to read reviews written by critics who I don’t usually agree with, but sometimes they open new paths of discussion that you hadn’t perceived and that’s interesting.

That also comes from a double point of view. Your two own points of view both as a critic and as a reader.

Exactly. They’re both related.

I must confess that sometimes I don’t understand some of the reviews I read in Cahiers du Cinema. They’re usually rhetorical exercises –and I don’t mean that hurts the content-. It’s just that I have the impression that there’s a kind of writing school in the magazine.

Yeah… I’ve always disagreed with the idea that if something is not understandable it is because of the reader. I’m a big fan of the Anglo-Saxon schools of criticism. Their books are absolutely clear. I think in Europe there’s this trend of associating some high-level thinking with hermetecism. Intelligent people know how to transmit their thought.

On which crossroads you think the criticism stands?

Apart from the “Movie Mutations” phenomenon, the way of accessing films has also changed the perception of film criticism; a series of canons that had been in place for 50 years began to be questioned. Today there’s a big concern on a critical level like never before, there are certainly more and better critics but they also seem to belong to a quite closed world.

Especially since the traditional press is reducing more and more it's space dedicated to film.

What about the cinephilia?

Today this is much more specialized, compared to a more holistic and generic form which has now almost disappeared.

The temple has disappeared, the cineclub as the gathering place of the film buff community.

Yes, but these communities are now created on the Internet. Also film festivals have become unifying agents for these groups. What really surprises me is a certain 'young' cinephilia that hasn’t seen classic cinema as something popular; the classics, today, are related to a form of cinephilia.

Yes, but we should blame the television that no longer schedules classic cinema. Now you have to look for those movies in other places.

Yes. Curiously, despite that, today there are more people watching bizarre and exotic movies like never before. There’s also a great influence of the very popularized Anglo-Saxon imagery which comes through music and literature. When I was young my house was full of French and Italian references that today are almost missed. I find that way of accessing culture through a daily routine more interesting. It bothers me that the concepts of Culture and Popularization are separated.

by Andrea Franco

news & screeni Fest_Training Ground Call for entries

The Fest_ Training Ground 2010 will take place from the 21st to the 26t of June 2010 in Espinho, Portugal. FEST – Training Ground is a place where young film enthusiast and film makers from all over the world gather in one week, to attend a deluxe training from workshops to master classes, lectured by industry top experts with recognized achievements. Participants will be provided with high standards of speakers and lecturers, recognized worldwide for their work and achievements. The event will program a diverse number of film experts, and participants will be able to interact with them in debates, small group sessions or even informally meeting. Every film maker or film enthusiast is eligible for registering.

Talent Campus Sarajevo Call for entries

The fourth edition of the Sarajevo Talent Campus takes place from July 25-31, 2010. The call for entries will be open from March 16 until May 16, 2010. Sarajevo Talent Campus is a seven-day networking platform for emerging filmmakers from

All registrations must be made through the training ground website www.trainingground.fest.pt

DEADLINE: May 30th 2010, or when all places are full

EsoDoc India Call for entries

ESoDoc INDIA wants to create a common platform for Indian and European documentary filmmakers and develop documentary projects that have a potential for the Indian and European market.

ESoDoc INDIA – an important workshop for independent documentary filmmakers, professionals in the communication area of NGO and international agencies, community workers in local cable channels and social network holders.

The workshop is structured around a set of online conferences and a 1-week residential workshop based in India. 12 participants, 6 from India and 6 from Europe will be selected.

Further information: www.esodoc-india.org or write to info@esodoc-india.org

Deadline: June 15th, 2010

Southeast Europe. During the 16th Sarajevo Film Festival, selected young film professionals will have the opportunity to learn from renowned film experts willing to share their knowledge and experience. The application for the Sarajevo Talent Campus is open to young screenwriters, directors, actors and producers (young film professionals and advanced film students in final years of their study) from the following countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey and UNMI Kosovo.

More information will be announced soon at: www.sff.ba/news/show/id/288/culture/ba?sf_ culture=en

Deadline: May 16th, 2010

ings BELGIUM

23.04.10 - 21:15

Short Screens #3 : Taboo For the third screening of short films, Format Court and Artatouille have joined their activities into 'Short Screens'. Screening of short films on the theme Taboo will be held on Friday, April 23 at the Actor's Studio in Brussels www.formatcourt.com/2010/03/short-screens-3-tabou-vous-avez-dit-tabou

FILMMAKING WORKSHOP MALMÖ CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS

Portraying National Identity – Documentary Film Workshop Malmö (Sweden) 4-12 June 2010 Nisi Masa Sweden is organising a documentary workshop on the theme Nationalities & Identities. The concept of the workshop is to invite filmmakers from 8 different countries to each make a documentary portrait of a Swedish person with whom they share their national heritage. All films will be made in each respective language.

So, if you are for instance from Poland you will be making a documentary about a Swedish person (living in Malmö) who was either born in Poland or who's parents were. And in the film you will be speaking Polish.

The aim for this workshop is to find new perspectives on what it means to identify with a nationality. We hope to find new perspectives on Sweden and Swedishness as well as on general concepts as that of belonging. But most of all we hope to get eight interesting and personal portraits of people.

Apart from the eight portraits there will also be three teams making films that focus more on the city of Malmö. How does a city manifest it's national identity? What does the architecture, the fashion trends, the public meeting places, the traffic, say about a city and it's nationality? Could Malmö be anywhere in the world?

The call for documentary portraits is open to participants aged 18-30 from: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Chile, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iran, Peru, Poland and Turkey.

Application deadline 20 April!

For application forms, please click on the following link: http://sites.google.com/a/nisimasa.se/malmodocworkshop/home

KINOKABARET MALMö

spotlight

8

For a second time Nisi Masa Sweden teamed up with the BUFF film festival to organise a KinoKabaret in Malmö. There were 25 participants from 11 countries and during 48 hours 9 short films were made.

participant 1 : Stefan Neuberger

BUFF, the Swedish Children and Young People's Film Festival takes place in Malmö each year. It's six days dedicated to films for young people and through the years the festival has become an important international meeting place for industry people working in the genre. In addition to focusing on films for young people the festival also aims to encourage films made by young people and in 2008 BUFF launched SCREEN, a three day activity programme packed with workshops, screenings and seminars for young filmmakers.

Why did you decide to participate in Kino Kabaret Malmö? I`ve never been to Sweden and I wanted to meet new people from all over Europe with their ideas and thoughts about life.

Where are you from and what do you do ?

I am from Germany, living in Berlin and studying Directing in Ludwigsburg at the Flimakademie Baden-Württemberg.

What was most interesting and exiting for you about taking part of Kino Kabaret? Following a process for 48 hours that started with a little interest and grew up As part of SCREEN Nisi Masa Sweden were asked to organise an international workshop, to something we didn`t have a clear stance on at that moment. So there was a question after the filmmakingand following last year's success it was decided on another KinoKabaret. process and we and the audience had to search within ourselves while seeing the film to find an answer.

The KinoKabaret concept is borrowed from the Kino movement which has it's roots in Montreal but was introduced to NISI MASA by Austrian Kino5. The Kino motto is ”Do well What was the most difficult about making films in such with nothing, do better with little but do it now!” During a Kabaret directors, DOPs, actors, a short time? You want to try something but everything musicians, make up artists, film enthusiasts etc will get together and make short films. Ev- you "just try" will be part of the film you`re creating. erybody brings the equipment they have and then you work from that. There are no rules except the films have to be produced entirely within the workshop.

This time the clock was set to 48 hours. But entering the small dim lit Weimar theatre (kindly lent to shelter the kinolab) one could feel no stress. Whether you entered in time to witness a frantic throwing of traffic cones, two girls in full concentration playing with a plastic horse or just someone having a rest under one of the bright, warm, stage spotlights, the atmosphere would seem full of the kind of calm that comes with creativity at work. And the results were not bad. Nine films ranging from Russian poetry through cute stop motion to thought provoking documentary were made. Not to mention the number of really good friends.

by Lina Sundén

You can watch the KinoKabaret Malmö films on http://vimeo.com/user3486108/videos photos: Magnus Grubb

www.buff.se participant 2: Hrvoslava Brkušić Where are you from and what do you do ?

I am from Croatia and just about to graduate at Drama Art Academy, Department of Film and TV Editing. I work as a freelance editor, which really makes me extremely happy and gives me the freedom to explore, to learn, to work with different people within different fields of creativity. At the moment I edit a long featured documentary film about the Croatian educational system. I hope, in fact I believe that the truth shown in this film will make changes within education here. I generally believe that expression through Art, especially through the Visual Art can move people to make things happen.

Why did you decide to participate in Kino Kabaret Malmö? I like to work on different projects as well as working with new people. I liked the idea of this workshop the moment I read about it. I like to be in constant interaction. That is the way I see my professional and individual improvement in any way. And now, after participation in such a workshop, I know it was the right decision because I gained so much in everything. It is quite inspirational to exchange visions, views, believes, knowledge with people who have a common interest and all with adifferent cultural, language, national background. That is priceless.

What was most interesting and exiting for you about taking part of Kino Kabaret? The first thing was how to create, organize and realize a good and interesting project in a very short time but in the most professional way. And, the second, the variety of the people who gathered to make that happened. We made

it indeed. Of course, thanks to the lovely people, the amazing and inspirational atmosphere. I believe that the finished films/projects are proof of that.

What was the most difficult about making films in such a short time?

I truly believe that when you realize that you cannot make a masterpiece within 48 hours, it's not an issue. As a person who is in love with film, the creation and every obstacle is the challenge itself, one step forward made. Thanks to the girls who made such an incredible organization, half of the work had been done. We could only make something good, cause there was nothing else to be worried about. So, we couldn't find any obstacle to make some nice interaction sand a final product. And that is exactly what made me extremely satisfied and enchanted about the concept of Kino Kabaret.

portrait

9

JUDE LISTER.. is one of NISI MASA’s key people, who has been working in the European Office for ages.

But what do we really know about her?

We asked Azed Kettani, a dear friend of Jude’s, to enlighten us about the hidden sides

photo: Maartje Alders

of this modest young lady, who has been like a godmother to so many Nisimazines and played a remarkable role in so many NM projects. It’s time for Jude to leave the backstage and step into the spotlight…

I

remember my first meeting as member of the newly-appointed board of NISI MASA in Autumn 2007, Budapest. Jude, a young European Volunteer from Leeds, U.K., who had begun working at the European Office in Paris 6 months or so prior, was asked by the staff to come in for a moment.

She had been entrusted the coordination of the Budapest Squares filmmaking workshop. This was I believe the first project where she had to be parachuted alone into a different country to “handle things on the spot.” Even if she hadn’t had time to learn all the ropes, word was on the Nisimasian streets that she was doing a bangup job. Why wasn’t I surprised? Everybody who knew her in Paris and worked with her since the start of her EVS thought of her as a discreet yet professional hard-worker, devoted to her job, completely reliable.

The European Office recommended that she join their ranks as full staff member, and we as board members were asked to vote. Now usually it’s so hard to be 100% certain that what or whom you are voting for is something or somebody “worth a damn” (and take it from me, I live in France!), so I remember feeling moved when I sensed that the general sentiment was unanimous. Everyone present was sure that Jude

Lister WAS worth a damn. She was confirmed that day as a precious member of the NISI MASA family - and has remained it to this day. Pardon my getting a little carried away here, but it’s because Jude is one of my closest friends, and I was very happy for her.

I had already gotten to know her in NISI MASA France meetings. The first impression I had was the one people usually get from her I think: discreet, gentle, quite serious, and with a typical British reserve (if I may - I know Nisimasians should be beyond stereotyping).

But what was this girl like outside NISI MASA? She seemed too good to be true; I had to investigate. That’s when I discovered the Jude beneath the surface: her reserve also hid an adorable sense of humour, a passion for film and foreign cultures, the genuine love and devotion she bestowed on her friends… I found out how obsessive she was about music, constantly combing the Internet and shows for new sounds. Despite what they say about British people, she was actually a very good cook! And not that much of a drinker… When she felt comfortable, she would lose a bit of her seriousness and really start to have fun. Which probably explains the photo here - those who don’t know her that well probably think it was Photoshopped or something.

Well, that’s the kind of girl Lady Lister is: two layers. And the second is my favourite.

I guess I don’t have enough room to go into all the different stuff she’s worked on as Project Manager. But in short, last year’s Matter of Taste, a hell of a lot of editorial work on different Nisimazine workshops, plus a big upcoming initiative about multilingualism, named Polyglot: on the way to Turku. Polyglot will be a filmmaking event in two stages: a video contest and then a CineBoat documentary workshop wherein the contest winners will travel in the archipelago of Turku (Finland) whilst making short films. Very exciting indeed.

In her free time, you may sometimes find Jude at NM France meetings or Cinepudding screenings, planning, helping out, or cooking away.

For the future she is expanding her horizons and dreams in different directions, doing translation, stop-motion and programming short films. Who knows, one day her speedy legs may take her back to her own shores to join the buzz of creativity. But for the moment we will embrace our luck at having her contagious laugh and endless silliness under the light of the Eiffel Tower.

by Azed Kettani