Hubert Bals Fund Conference on training next generation of filmmaking voices

On Sunday 29th January 2006, the International Film Festival Rotterdam will organize a Hubert Bals Fund Conference in Rotterdam entitled “Raising Voices.” Representatives from training organizations from around the world will come together to discuss the design of training programs that will stimulate the next generation of culturally distinctive and authentic filmmaking voices.

The conference will examine the question of current market demands and transformative technological advancements: will they threaten the future expression of distinctive voices? What new opportunities and alliances are being imagined for indigenous storytellers?

Furthermore, the conference examines a range of strategies adopted by training providers: some of whom encourage students to draw confidently on their own culture, history and traditions; while others propose inspiration can best be found in European models of low-budget filmmaking; and for others film-training courses are a means of re-discovering cultural roots – thereby developing new audiences for stories that reinvent traditional cultural icons.

Central to the conference will be the question of how trainers can enrich their own culture as they mediate between the demands of the international market, the creative development of each student and the realities of national employment and funding systems.

The aim of the conference is to consider the ways in which various strategies and protocols are woven into course development, student selection, teaching methods, project development and exploitation.

The conference will be structured as a series of panel sessions, case studies and screenings followed by a Visionary Session, during which a number of conference participants will articulate their hopes for the future.

Confirmed contributors:

• Mani Kaul, filmmaker, India
• Bird Runningwater, Native American Initiatives Programmer, Sundance
Institute, USA
• Merata Mita, Assistant Professor Dept of Creative Media, Hawaii
University, USA
• Pauline Clague, independent producer/filmmaker, participant of the
Dramatically Black drama series established by the Indigenous Branch, Australian Film Commission, Australia
• Americo Castilla, Fondacion Tecria y Practica de las Artes, Argentina
• Dora Bouchoucha, independent producer and director Sud Ecriture, Tunisia
• Jacques Akchoti, screenwriter and script writing tutor Sud Ecriture,
Tunisia
• Jacques Fieschi, screenwriter and script writing tutor Sud Ecriture,
Tunisia
• Gaston Kaboré, Director of Imagine, Burkina Faso
• Marten Rabarts, Head of Studies, Binger, The Netherlands
• Rod Stoneman, Huston School of Film & Digital Media, Ireland
• Dagmar Benke, Script House, Germany
• Violeta Bava, Buenos Aires Lab Coordinator, Buenos Aires Festival
Internacional de Cine Independiente, Argentina

‘Raising Voices’ takes place during the 35th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (January 25 – February, 2006) on Sunday 29th January 2006, 10.00 – 18.00 hours in the ‘Willem Burger Zaal’ of the festival’s professional’s centre ‘de Doelen’. All accreditated Rotterdam festival guests are invited to attend the conference. They may enter the auditorium on presentation of their IFFR 2006 badge.