BCN Sports Film Festival/ 3
The Barcelona Sports Film festival is part of the FICTS, Fédération Internationale Cinema et Télévision Sporttifs. This organisation includes festivals all over the world, has its office in Milano, and has set up rules for the festivals that operate with a no-criticism of the Olympic idea and its implementation – the Games themselves. From what I saw as a jury member, a strong impact is put on the social power of sports, as activities that can change the life situation of for instance disabled people.
In a workshop arranged by the Nikita Distribution, the leading force behind the festival, the filmmaker Sergi Agusti told about his experience making the film ”One Goal” about one-legged football players in Sierra Leone. He made a one-hour version for Catalan TV3, and after that a 24 mins. film that has travelled the world, winning several awards. He is now in the process of enlarging his filming to other parts of Africa raising funding for this campaign outside the traditional sources of public television.
Sport festivals… Bruno Delaye, French, one of the speakers at the workshop, organises two of them in Biarritz. One in December devoted to films about skiing, and one in July for surfing. The latter, with outdoor screenings, ”sur grand écran”, could gather from 300 to 8/10.000 spectators (!), with a general audience that loves to watch talented people ”faire des images”, as Delaye said. 15 films are selected for each festival, 50 are submitted for selection.
But, films about sport are as films not different from films about nature, historical films, personal films etc. They have to be made from a strong motivation and a commitment, the filmmakers must know and show their storytelling skills, they have to inform and surprise and be emotional, was the banal content of my intervention t the workshop.
http://www.bcnsportsfilm.org/en/index.php
