Helmut Groschup, for Isola Cinema

African filmmaking is too often equated with film production from Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso. It is true, of course, that these countries have produced many excellent directors, such as Djibril Diop Mambéty from Dakar, Bamako’s Souleyman Cissé and Idrissa Ouédraogo from Ouagadougou. Yet the cinema of these countries is largely influenced by the traditions of their colonial past. Besides being critical, it also reflects a conformity which is the inevitable result of economic restrictions. Being involved in filmmaking means, first and foremost, complying with the dictates of the market and with production demands.
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Stout boys and girls from the volunteering brigade and their friends from the happy dv workshop have certainly had their hands full yesterday. The festival camp - Shrimp was finally conceived! But this is not the only victory of the day for the Shrimp got company - a brand new festival Fish. To see more photos of yesterday, click here. » read more

“I wish you keep the festival simple as it is – so fragile, intimate that it is precious.” This words arrived a few days ago by e-mail from Apichatpong Weerasethakul. And, as a matter of fact, they encompass all our wishes for the next year. Let it be like it was as much as it possibly can, is our unusually conservative starting point. The first Isola Cinema festival turned out well, surprisingly for us too, and now we would like to keep it such: we will not even change its date – see you then between May 25 and May 29, 2005.

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