ΕΝΩΣΗ ΕΛΛΗΝΩΝ ΔΙΕΥΘΥΝΤΩΝ ΦΩΤΟΓΡΑΦΙΑΣ

Άποψεις

NATIONAL FILM ACADEMY OF GREECE

Δευτέρα, 26 Μαρ 2007

Από τον Ανδρέα Φίσσερ - Χάνσεν

Πρόεδρο της IMAGO/Ευρωπαικής Συνομοσπονδίας Διευθυντών Φωτογραφίας.
Καθηγητή και Κοσμήτωρα του Τμήματος Φωτογραφίας της "Ανωτάτης Σχολής
Κινηματογράφου & Μαζικών Μέσων Επικοινωνίας της Βαλτικής" στο Ταλλίν
της Εσθονίας.
Τέως  Κοσμήτωρα του Τμήματος Φωτογραφίας της Εθνικής Σχολής Κινηματογράφου της Δανίας.

 

Dear GSC Members

You have asked IMAGO to write some thoughts on the importance of establishing a national film school in Greece. A national film school which, of course, should educate at a high professional level.

Looking at European film history, there are illustrious film schools to take as inspiration for such an initiative, and even more important, these early film schools can clearly document the importance they have had on the development of a national film heritage.

Let me name just a few:

• VGIK (All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography founded in Moscow in 1919,
• Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, founded ca. 1936,
• The Czech Republic National Film School (FAMU) in Prague, founded 1946,
• L'IDHEC – (L'Institut des hautes études cinématographiques) in Paris was founded 1943, to be reconstructured in 1986 – as La fémis.
• The National Film School of Poland was founded in Łódź 1948,
• The Netherlands Film and Television Academy (NFTA), founded in 1958.
• The National Film School of Denmark, and The Swedish Film School (now Dramatiska Instititutet) were founded in 1966.
• The National Film and Television School, Beaconsfield, UK, founded 1971.
• And a more recent example is the establishing of The Norwegian Film School in 1997.

The importance for a national film production, founded on the education of young film makers, at a high creative and technical level cannot be stressed enough. In fact it’s the basis and pre-requisite for the continuous development at a creative and inspirational level, and also very important as development of a varied production milieu – with the establishing of many smaller producing companies that show initiative, have creative ideas as to financing at a national and international level.

This of course entails political support – i.e. an understanding and will at a political level to prioritize the cultural diversity necessary for having an important national film production.

Studying the important European film schools exemplified above (there are more), one could look at the filmmakers having graduated from these film educational establishments and here by demonstrate the profound importance these filmmakers have had on the national film production (indeed also internationally), be it as directors, cinematographers, producers, editors, - etc.

 I will as example – because this is very close to me, taking as point of departure the importance of The National Film School of Denmark.
By initiative of The Ministry of Culture and The Danish Film Foundation (now Danish Film Institute) the National Film School was founded in 1966. The decision was taken on a political level as a means of rejuvenating and developing the Danish film industry. It was a visionary plan for the future, the importance of which cannot be under estimated, looking at the scope of Danish film production today, be it fiction-, documentary-production, manuscript-development and producing.

It was a long term plan, things didn’t change over night. In the beginning there was certain scepticism within the industry. However as the first graduates in the late sixties and start seventies set their mark, working within the old guard industry, the respect grew for the work of The Film School, giving inspirational input and good technical knowledge for Danish film production. During the eighties things moved really fast. Many talented film makers graduated, within all specialisations – directing, producing, cinematography, sound designing and editing.

Many small production companies grew up, often working with their former fellow students from the film school. These production companies grew up to be among the biggest in Europe – with many co-productions within Europe.

 Many tight working relationships were established, with film crews based on friendship and mutual experiences from their study period.

 Today it is generally acknowledged that part of the success of Danish film, nationally and internationally, is due to the massive support and visionary education at The National Film School of Denmark. It is also important to stress the importance of the structure for financing Danish film by The Danish Film Institute, - but this consideration I shall not elaborate upon here.

The political support has been very important, but this is not entirely “philanthropic” because the economics of Danish film is good since revenues are coming in from good statistics on ticket revenue from national productions.

In fact Denmark has the second largest national percentage on ticket sale on national films in Europe, France has the biggest percentage.

So having a national film school is a cultural political issue, which if implemented will influence positively a national film production and cultural diversity, so important in Europe today.

 I can as the last exemplification inform of the establishment of The Baltic Film & Media School in Tallinn, Estonia, 2006. This was founded as a measure to establish and support a larger film production within the Baltic countries.

Yours sincerely
Andreas Fischer-Hansen