Art on a shoe-string: budget movies feted in Paris
Shot on a shoe-string from Mexico to the sink estates of south London, budget movies from 27 European countries went on show this weekend at an up-and-coming indie film festival in Paris.
Launched three years ago by a Paris-based Australian filmmaker, Scott Hillier, the European Independent Film Festival, ECU, which wrapped up Sunday, aims to provide budding film talent with a showcase-cum-networking forum.
"Twenty years ago, Sundance was like this. You could just walk up with a film under your arm," said Hillier, a TV producer and documentary maker. "I'm giving a break to people who don't get a chance at the bigger festivals."
ECU took place at the Francois Mitterrand national library on the banks of the River Seine, with three days of free public screenings of 113 films, with budgets running from 250 to a million euros.
Former first lady Danielle Mitterrand hosted the European premiere of "Blue Gold -- World Water Wars," a US film on the looming global struggle for water resources that won a special environmental award.
Run in partnership with the French library, with a small EU subsidy, ECU has a cottage industry feel compared to established independent festivals, from Sundance in California to its British counterpart, Raindance.
But for the 80 young directors who attended the screenings and workshops with industry professionals, such festivals are the way into the business.
"As a young filmmaker you are heavily dependent on festivals," said Ari Allansson, a 29-year-old Icelandic filmmaker based in Paris, who sees events like ECU as a "stepping stone" towards the premier league of Cannes or Berlin.
"It's a huge step forward," said Sam Holland, whose first film "Zebra Crossings," a portrait of a young man caught up in gang culture in a bleak, drug- and crime-ridden south London, won ECU's Best Film award on Sunday.
Working without any outside funding, the 30-year-old set up a decorator firm to raise money to shoot the film, while his wife gave up a job in investment finance to home-produce it.
"We put every penny we had into it," said Holland, whose film, written and shot over a seven-year period, has also picked up indie awards in the United States and Britain.
"Now it's fingers crossed," said the British director, who hopes his festival success will help secure the Holy Grail of a distribution deal -- and financing for his next project.
Sam Bozzo, who made "Blue Gold", also tells of having to remortgage his house to make the film, shot in half a dozen countries from Mexico to Kenya, after his financier pulled out the day before shooting began.
For Belgian director Silvia Defrance, who won the Experimental Film award for "Candy Darling", a wildly original animated work cast as a "Freudian Alice in Wonderland," the festival was a key chance to make contacts.
"Where else are you going to meet all these people?" she said, fresh from a workshop with producers and distributors on how to pitch a film idea.
While in the US, independent filmmaking typically refers to projects made outside the major studio circuit, there is no internationally-agreed definition.
As a rule of thumb, ECU defines an independent movie as having no more than 50 percent funding from a major studio or film institution -- but in practice is willing to bend the rules for any work with "soul", Hillier says.
"For a small filmmaker, these festivals are heaven," said Los Angeles-based director Stephen Mills, 62, whose short film "Liminal", a battle for survival between a woman and her alter-ego, was named Best Non-European Dramatic Short.
"They realise there is still an audience for people who want to push back the boundaries," he said. "And it it means someone gets to see your film other than your wife!"
