Feats | International Film Schools Meeting
When the renowned American director Francis Ford Coppola visited the International Film & TV School (EICTV) of San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba, he said: “To be at this Film School has strengthen a hope I’ve been harboring for a while: we are walking towards a common culture. To come here has been an uplifting experience because we need to establish a dialogue, and that is impossible in the commercial or professional areas; but here, it is possible to do just that. I trust these students and their dedication is infectious. I don’t know how to teach, and I also need no followers, I’m not a guru; but I do enjoy dialoging and debating, that’s how we grow and we need to be growing at all times.” These words, said by the director of The Godfather, show one of the greatest virtues of film schools: beyond the formal teaching they offer, they are a space for dialoging and debating.
In this Second Edition of Feats | International Film Schools Meeting we’ll count with the participation of some of the most representative and emblematic schools in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula, including the EICTV, which last year received the Feats Award for Best Short Film, with Bajo el mismo techo.
The Meeting offers a space for analysis and reflection, for screening the work of young film students and promoting dialoging and debating (as Coppola said, this should be an intrinsic characteristic in all of these centers where the moving image is the object of learning) on the new narrative forms and the changes in film teaching. Very relevantly also, this is a space for getting in touch with audiovisual culture in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula. We count with the participation of 14 schools, representing Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Spain, México, and Venezuela.
In an essay written by Argentinean professor Adrián Cangi, included in the commemorative edition for the 20-year celebration of the Universidad del Cine (Film University) —this school is also participating in the Gathering, in representation of Argentina, together with the National School of Film Experimentation and Direction (ENERC)— the following quote can be read: “The essence of film teaching is emotion and thoughts. I think teaching implies command over a creative act, and not only over its knowledge.” Precisely, the Meeting seeks to promote the exchange of ideas and ways of perceiving reality through creative acts; in this case, the short films presented by the various participating schools. Students and professors will establish a dialogue and a debate during the two days of screenings.
Alfredo Joskowicz, a professor with over 35 years of teaching experience at the Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos (CUEC) and the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC), writes the following words regarding the perception of students when they begin their educative process: “Film students want to express things as soon as possible. They are open to all learning resources that allow them to learn in a short time how to use the equipment. But students are fiercely reluctant to be taught how to express their creativity, because they think this is something only the best creators can teach. Problem is that renowned filmmakers are too busy making their own films and there are just a few with the needed time and vocation for teaching such a complex subject.”
Thanks to the endeavor of teachers such as Alfredo Joskowicz in the last years film schools have consolidated significant academic spaces were is now more and more common to see renowned creators such as Coppola wanting to establish a dialogue and a debate with young film students. This time, FICUNAM will offer to Feats participants a videoconference master class by Japanese filmmaker Masao Adachi, an independent cult filmmaker. We will get to see many of his films for the first time, and we will also have a book with essays —translated directly from the Japanese into Spanish— about his unusual work. This is a CUEC edition, in collaboration with FICUNAM, the UNAM Film Archives, and the Bergman Chair in Film & Theater.
In its capacity as the UNAM Film School and the oldest film school in Latin America, CUEC is proud to establish a space for the gathering of film schools united by a same goal: forming professionals with a critical view and social commitment.
Armando Casas