OPEN LETTER TO LEBANESE CINEMA PROFESSIONALS
A FEW PERSONNAL IDEAS. MY REACTION TO THE MEETING REGARDING FILM PRODUCTION IN
LEBANON, WHICH TOOK PLACE AT THE FRENCH INSTITUTE ON THE 6TH OF SEPTEMBER 2012.
Dear film professionals,
First of all, I would like to congratulate Pierre Sarraf and the French
Institute for this well organized and essential event.
For those who don’t know me, let me introduce myself briefly: I’ve been working
on Lebanese films for ten years now, mostly as an assistant director, I
directed a short film Bukra sette w noss/ Tomorrow, 6:30, and I am actually
developing a feature film.
What I am about to say is just my personal opinion, a few ideas from a fellow
film professional.
I was amazed by the keen interest sparked off by this event and by the presence
of almost all the key players working in the very peculiar world of Lebanese
cinema. The event revealed a very important element: the professionals’
undeniable will to create a viable industry and to put an end to our sector’s
“poverty”.
As Pierre Sarraf underlined it from the start, the number of films produced in
Lebanon is raising. The desire to make films as well. Today, there are new
players in the Lebanese cinema’s landscape, new tendencies, but mostly new
visions regarding cinema and the way to make it. For example, a strong will to
develop a popular and commercial cinema.
I think this is very healthy. I also think Mr Bereyziat’s intervention was
extremely necessary, and his presentation of the CNC (France’s National Cinema
Center) simple but essential. Essential because many players of the Lebanese
film industry [including me] have very little information on how the European
film financing systems really works.
Here are the few ideas I would like to share:
1-
A young director or screenwriter who has a project is often blocked early on in
the process because he seldom knows what to do with it. He doesn’t know on
which door to knock. First thing to do, of course, is to find someone who is
going to guide him through the process. But this is easier to said than done.
On the other hand, a young talent who has an interesting project rarely has
enough information regarding the steps to follow to “start things up”. This
information needs to be accessible to everyone interested in cinema, and
centralized. A Lebanese CNC? Yes, sure, why not? But before even talking about
creating a Lebanese Fund for cinema, we should think about the way to create a
center that would gather information to which every Lebanese would have access.
In short, there should be an alternative to the usual mouth to ear process (ie
some director hears that another got a writing development fund somewhere and
decides to have a go). It doesn’t cost much… it only requires will.
Having participated two years ago in the Rawi-Sundance screenwriter’s lab in
Jordan, I realized how much the Jordanian Royal Film Commission was active and
efficient. In a country where the film industry is less developed than in
Lebanon, where there are less productions and where technicians aren’t (yet) as
experienced, the RFC has succeeded where Lebanese players haven’t: it managed
to canalize the energy and talents and to centralize the information linked to
cinema.
I am also thinking about organizations such as Sundance in the USA, or
Raindance in London, that started – parallel to their exponentially popular
festivals – writing, directing and production workshops and created numerous
“matchmaking” platforms. This logic creates a priceless dynamic. It also
builds, on the long run, an industry…
2-
I realized something flagrant during Thursday’s meeting: the fact that no one
mentioned what I think is the major problem in Arab Cinema in general, and in
Lebanon in particular: screenwriting. The problem was mentioned vaguely a
couple of times, but should be, on a later stage, assiduously developed.
Most of Lebanese filmmakers have a tendency to jump into the making of their
project before reaching a solid version of their script.
Blaming international commissions, regional distributors and the Lebanese
government is unnecessary. It’s wasted energy. Learning to write a readable and
original script is, in my humble opinion, much more important. The reason why
most of the Lebanese (and foreign) projects fail is often linked to a fragile
script. If the Lebanese cinema world wants to win the bet of “producing in
Lebanon”, I think this factor should become a priority.
Screenwriting should be taught much more seriously in Universities and real and
regular screenwriting workshops should be created. By the way, I salute the
Lebanese Cinema Fondation who created, not long ago, a screenwriting workshop.
I think the Fondation should be encouraged [and maybe even other organisms] to
push this project even further, but also inform young talents more efficiently
about the existence of these initiatives.
I would also like to point out that in parallel to screenwriting, young talents
should know how to create a selling presentation file. Numerous people still
don’t know how to write a synopsis, a director statement or even a biography.
3-
I am personally tired of hearing the famous words “there is not money for
Lebanese Cinema” and “we struggle too much to make films”. I think that
filmmaking is a risky business, that everyone has to struggle to make it happen
and that everywhere in the world the risk is the same. I do not want to count
on the Lebanese State. The government is drowning enough in its own moving
sands for me to allow myself to waste time in useless hopes. Of course, I hope
that one day a National Fund would be created to develop the cinema industry,
but I would not bet on it.
I think it would be judicious for the time being to develop matchmaking
platforms so Lebanese directors, screenwriters and producers could be put in
contact with international producers and “middlemen” who would help them in
elaborating the right strategy for their projects. Because, let’s face it, one
of the most recurrent problems of Lebanese projects is that they lack strategy,
which leads filmmakers to seek improbable private sponsors.
4-
I also felt a latent tension between two groups: a group which feels it belongs
to a “quality cinema”, that advocates the virtues of an European method and
defend “auteur films”, and another which consider itself belonging to the world
of mass entertainment, American style. The debate didn’t really have the time
to start, but I think a cold war has started, without anyone admitting it yet.
It’s a debate as old as cinema itself. It takes all kinds to make a world, and
the fact that viewers now have the choice between “auteur films” and a purely
commercial cinema is, in my opinion, very healthy. I think that, on the long
run, these two cinema visions should not make war but take into consideration
that they do not fight on the same grounds. Note, by the way, that there are
several degrees of possibilities between those two extremes and that there is a
way to make intelligent films that are accessible to a mass audience.
5-
Another thing that stroke me: the aggressiveness towards Lebanese cinema
owners. Several people criticized the fact that cinema owners don’t encourage
Lebanese Cinema. Local owners – alike international cinema owners in general –
think in terms of free market economy. They want to sell as much tickets as
possible. It’s normal. And I don’t think it is worth criticizing that attitude.
I do not wish to defend this vision in general, but I don’t think they are the
bad guys. I totally understand the logic that leads a cinema owner to
priorities Transformers 2 over a Lebanese film that, four times out of five, is
not likely to reach more than 20.000 entries, even if it’s kept in the theaters
for a whole year.
I think Lebanese producers and directors should play the market’s game as the
international distributors and producers do, whether they are betting on a
“commercial film” or on an “auteur film”. Trying to deny the market reality is
useless. Players should know the market, know their target and play the game
accordingly. Producers of “auteur films” in Europe usually know that they can’t
really fight against an American blockbuster and that they can’t win the
competition in national multiplexes. However, they have alternatives,
independent theaters which promote this kind of cinema. I find that the
Metropolis theater plays that role beautifully in Lebanon. Maybe it is not
enough and maybe other alternative theaters should be created, I don’t know…
but I know it is useless to expect Planète, Empire and other circuits to play
the part of the promoters of Lebanese Cinema. This will simply not happen.
It is an extremely vast subject. I just wanted to share with you these
thoughts.
I wish you all good luck in all your projects.
Gilles Tarazi
This
program aims to encourage and support a new generation of Arab artists
and writers by funding their early projects in the various fields of
arts and culture. Culture Resource (Al Mawred Al Thaqafy) also provides
young creators with advice on managing their productions and promoting
them.
