Kossakovski at the Forum at IDFA
On the second day of the pitching at the Forum at IDFA Viktor Kossakovski, one of the few stars of the international documentary scene gave the following remark after his pitch:
You know what, I remember when it started many years ago and I had a pitch. It was quite a different situation. Ten years ago the crucial person in the cinema business was the filmmaker. And commissioning editors were people who wanted to support good filmmakers, but still the filmmaker was the person who created the film… and now we have a strange situation. The filmmaker is like nobody and the commissioning editor is like a Tsar. And they decide what film I will make, what kind of film, how I must do it. They even want me to sign a contract [to say] they have the final cut. I wish to Ally, to Adriek and all the team not to forget the idea of Forum – not to support the television industry but to support the creative person who knows how to move cinema forward… They [commissioning editors] have to know that if we continue this way, then we will not have filmmakers any more. (Viktor Kossakowski, filmmaker, Russia)
Quote taken from www.idfa.nl
