The man who runs the most in Ales these days, it is probably Antoine Leclerc, general delegate of the Festival for the past twenty years and to whom we owe the great thematic programming.
Between the multiple interviews, the reception of guests and presentations of films in a cinema, Antoine Leclerc never stops. Encounter between two sessions.
Can you elaborate on the genesis of this Festival, which is already 35 years old ?
– Antoine Leclerc : This Festival was created 35 years ago on the desire of movie fans, from different backgrounds that are taken by the hand to create an appointment and broaden the horizons of film on a given territory. It is, therefore, a approach associative of enthusiasts. This approach is strengthened gradually until it became the event that it is today, capable of bringing together 48 000 spectators last year. It became with the time a lot more important with complementary actions throughout the year that are put in place and important steps -which one of them was the visit ofAki Kaurismaki in 1993-, which has been the occasion to question the result of the event and was at the origin of the title “Wanderings” and this notion of discovery and travel. “Wanderings” in the plural has become the trademark of the Festival, which is not prohibited by any format.
How to choose the films (over 200) ?
– A. L. : The selection is fiercely gp as you may have noticed, and is structured around axes that are simple, are a selection of new and pre-first voluntarily non-competitive, a competition of short films with an audience is very important, tributes, and a retrospective of the thematic that rejects the idea of roaming.
How have you chosen this year is entitled “Visitors” ?
– A. L. : The starting point is that each of these themes allows us to juggle with the history of cinema and contemporary productions by going to obvious things such as connect Yojimbo from Kurosawa ‘s film of Leone’s For a fistful of dollars , which is the plagiarism. But also know how to connect the Toni of Renoir and The gospel of Pippo Delbono , or how in a few years, Italy has shifted from being a country of immigration in the south of France with a land welcoming of the refugees from the other side of the Mediterranean.
One starts with a corpus of 200-250 films and we are trying to articulate all of this and to be confronted with the availability of the course works.
One of the great films that do not have a dedicated space or even broadcast tv set, but we do not propose also films that are going to be a tv broadcaster soon. Now moreover the porosity TV-film is total, there is more resistance than there was before. As our feature films are not the subject of competition, we are very free to choose. It can be a self-production as a very big production for the cinema or TV. We are lucky enough to have a great flexibility and is. All of this creates a side hostel Spanish and a mix of public that you have been able to see.
What impact has had the budget cut on this edition ?
– A. L. : It was able to camouflage ! But this camouflage operation if this situation were to persist, could lead us to changes more drastic. It is the squaring of the circle for the field of the culture, manage the erosion that is already complicated, but to manage a significant loss it is even more hard. Reducing the supply would reduce audiences and therefore revenue. This would aggravate the evil.
Interview by Anne-laure Farges