Keystone-SDA
This content was published on August 15, 2024 – 12:00
(Keystone-ATS) For 21 years, the Locarno Film Festival’s Open Doors initiative has promoted little-known foreign cinema. At the conclusion of the three-year period on Latin America and the Caribbean, we discuss the future with director Zsuzsi Bánkuti in view of the cuts announced by the SDC.
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) recently announced that it will reduce its support for strategic partnerships with cultural actors in Switzerland by 45% from 2025, from 3.7 to 2 million francs per year.
The news was a cold shower for the organizers of Open Doors, as the DSC is its main partner and this decision has a strong impact on the Locarno initiative as well.
25% less funding
“Open Doors is affected by this reduction in funding in all its aspects, we will receive 25% less, which is a lot. We will have to cut everywhere, we have to see how it will be, even if we reduce the number of participants the amount of work remains the same,” explains Open Doors manager Zsuzsi Bánkuti. “It was a big surprise, we expected a cut but not on this scale,” she says.
“We face many difficulties,” she adds, bitterly. A significant part of the work done by the initiative is done throughout the year, to build what will then be shown in Locarno. “We follow and discover people throughout the year. The essence of Open Doors is based on the personalities we choose,” she says, “I think in the future this will be complicated.” The organizers are looking for new sponsors to fill this gap.
In addition to the direct cuts, Open Doors works closely with other programs in Switzerland that deal with the same type of cinema and that are also affected by the reduction in funding, such as Fonds Visions Sud Est or the “Kurzfilmtage” in Winterthur (ZH), which also sponsor awards for Open Doors. “It’s an entire sector that is affected,” he explains.
“For me, culture is the path to peace,” says Bánkuti, “if people don’t have access to culture, it creates a lot of frustration and conflict.”
Danger for cultural diversity
In a joint statement last Thursday, the festival, along with other cultural actors, denounced the impact of these cuts on artists from Africa, Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe. Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón then joined the chorus on Monday, publicly urging the Federal Council at the Locarno Film Festival to reconsider the cuts in question.
In a report on SRF’s “Tagesschau,” the Mexican director said that funding for film productions such as Visions Sud Est is essential for the careers of many young directors.
Triennium on Latin America
For the three-year period on Latin America and the Caribbean that concludes with this edition, “the basic idea was to find possible collaborations with countries and build a sustainable industry that can collaborate with other parts of the world,” explains Bánkuti. “I think we have achieved this. We have also launched a new program for filmmakers without a project,” he adds.
“We have many success stories among the participants: they managed to get funding and partners. They got the right recognition, which perhaps would not have been possible if they had not been selected here in Locarno,” he adds.
Many recurring themes in films about Latin America, from abortion to religion. “The political situation in these countries is often very similar. Although some of the films share the theme, the format and the way of filming is very different. Directors from these areas have a free artistic vision of how to talk about something” that is taboo, explains Bánkuti.
“We are looking for new talents, new stories, new genres and new voices in cinema. We are trying to break a little bit the traditional rules of the European industry,” he says. “I think that was very visible in the selection. I think we achieved what we wanted with this closing of the three-year period.”
Premi Open Doors
As first announced on Monday evening in Piazza Grande and then on Tuesday, for the next 4 years Open Doors will be dedicated to the cinema of the African continent.
“The definition of the countries and focus will be announced in the fall,” Bánkuti says. “We started planning the new regions at the beginning of last year,” he explains, “and have been actively working on them since mid-2023.”
We met Bánkuti at the end of the Open Doors award ceremony: “It’s always very emotional, I’m touched. Many people who need this award have received it.”
The most coveted prize of the co-production platform Projects Hub, the Open Doors Grant of 50,000 francs, was split between four projects: “Salvacion” by Ernesto Bautista and “El unico tiempo” by Paz Encina were awarded 20,000 francs each; “La levedad de ella” by Rosa Maria Rodriguez and “Huaco retrato” by Fernando Luis Mondoza Salazar received 5,000 francs.
Since 2003, Open Doors has been looking at and supporting the production of the seventh art in regions where independent cinema is a form of expression at risk.
