Marseille, France: Screening of film “Behind Me” cancelled
30.06.2003
Every seat was taken in the auditorium at the La Criée theatre on Friday, June 27th where the opening event for the 14th Festival International du Documentaire in Marseille, France, was about to take place. However, Swiss director Norbert Wiedmer’s film “Behind Me”, selected by festival director Jean-Pierre Rehm for this occasion, was unfortunately not screened: the freelance workers at the theatre were on strike, demanding the continuation of their unemployment insurance.
Without necessarily distancing themselves from the protests by French artists and technicians, the Swiss delegation* to the festival is taking offense from the treatment they received by the festival organizers. Apparently, the cancellation of the showing of “Behind Me” was the result of a behind-the-scenes deal between the festival officials and the strikers: the opening night was sacrificed to the strike, and in turn the continuation of work for the remainder of the festival was promised. As the opening event was transformed into a discussion forum for the protesting freelancers, the director of “Behind Me” was faced with a fait accompli. This, despite the fact that Norbert Wiedmer had temporarily accepted the use of images from his film for a slide projection of which one third of the screen was to be covered in order to symbolically represent the shortages of unemployment benefits.
The cancellation of the screening of “Behind Me” is even more lamentable given the large number of film professionals who had gathered in Marseille for the festival and as participants in its parallel event, the film market “Sunny Side of the Doc”. Those attending the opening event had been looking forward to seeing the portrait of Swiss actor Bruno Ganz.
In addition to Norbert Wiedmer, a number of individuals had been invited to the event by Alfred Gabriel, Swiss Consul in Marseille: part of the delegation were Francine Brücher and Micha Schiwow from the Swiss Film Center, Sabina Brocal from the film office of Pro Helvetia, Andreas Feurer from Swiss television DRS, Leo Kaneman from the Festival Cinéma Tout Ecran Geneva,Gaetano Stucky from the Union européenne de radiodiffusion as well as several representatives from the cultural channel ARTE and from the MEDIA program.
Zurich, June 30, 2003
The cancellation of the screening of “Behind Me” is even more lamentable given the large number of film professionals who had gathered in Marseille for the festival and as participants in its parallel event, the film market “Sunny Side of the Doc”. Those attending the opening event had been looking forward to seeing the portrait of Swiss actor Bruno Ganz.
In addition to Norbert Wiedmer, a number of individuals had been invited to the event by Alfred Gabriel, Swiss Consul in Marseille: part of the delegation were Francine Brücher and Micha Schiwow from the Swiss Film Center, Sabina Brocal from the film office of Pro Helvetia, Andreas Feurer from Swiss television DRS, Leo Kaneman from the Festival Cinéma Tout Ecran Geneva,Gaetano Stucky from the Union européenne de radiodiffusion as well as several representatives from the cultural channel ARTE and from the MEDIA program.
Zurich, June 30, 2003