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& Workshops/Peter Sainsbury Interventions
Interventions
Saturday October 18th | Jury's Hotel,12.30pm | Admission
Free
Dead Money and Living Movies: A Faustian Pact.
A
talk by Peter Sainsbury.
Peter Sainsbury worked in film distribution and television
before becoming Head of Production for the British Film Institute
where he ensured production of early and important films by
Peter Greenaway, Terence Davis, Sally Potter and Derek Jarman.
From 1985 he worked as a freelance producer in England and
New Zealand, joining the Australian Film Commission in 1989.
Since 1993 he has worked independently in Sydney, producing
"What I Have Written" (Berlin Festival Competition
1996) and "The Goddess of 1967" (Venice Festival
Competition 2000) as well as "Bartleby" (San Francisco
Golden Gate Award 2000) and the recently completed "Floodhouse-Cinema,
as we all believe, contains magic. A vast amount of cinema,
as we all know, is dross. Is this because talent is rare?
If so, why and from where are the untalented getting the money
so manufacture mediocrity? Can it be true that the ways in
which governments seek to support cinema do nothing to generate
good cinema?
What is good cinema? Is it possible that financing mechanisms
can, and even should operate without an answer to this question?
Can a desire to make movies that would occupy a lasting place
in peoples' hearts and minds be killed off by the very money
that should nurture it?
When we say we want an Irish, an Australian, or a French
film industry rather than a film industry merely located in
our respective countries, do we know why? And do we know how?
Is there a connection between these two questions? Is a tax
incentive to investment less or more valuable than a tax-funded
subsidy?
How do we measure that value? Is the measure to be financial,
cultural or artistic? What should filmmakers do or not do
to ensure that their work might score on all three of these
criteria? And are there kinds of money that it is better not
to have if we want our cinema to thrive?
"This address will contend with such questions, and
may raise more."
Peter Sainsbury.
'Interventions' is a series of talks presented at film
festivals with the support of The Irish Film Board.
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