“Il Cinema Ritrovato”, now in its seventh year of constant growth, has, with this edition, reached an especially high level, as can easily be seen by taking a glance at the festival program or, even better, following the festival itself. It will be lighting up the screens of Cinema Lamière and whe Teatro delle Celebrazioni for an entire week.
But this time I’m not going to comment on the visible part of the event, the illuminated side that the spectators can judge for themselves. Rather, I must mention the dark side of the affair, some of the problems that our festival must absolutely place before its institutional supporters as well as bring to the awareness of those who wail now have followed it with attentive participation and constructive criticism. It is not only matter of the difficult situation in which our country finds itself and of the serious consequences for the cultural activities that depend on public financing, but that the situation threatens our festival at a time when it is passing through a critical phase of growth, and it is well known that growth can be deadly. Not only this, but this year Il Cinema Ritrovato has had to organize not only the seventh edition of the festival, but the eighth as well, which will be held in the last week of April. Moving the festival up to the springtime was necessary in order to coincide with the FIAF (International Federation of Film Archives) Congress, which the Cineteca of Bologna has the honour and the burden of organizing.
Obviously, a festival of this kind, dealing with history and archives, couldn’t miss the occasion of the meeting of representatives from the most important film archives of the world here in Bologna, but the financial risks are great, especially considering the system used for assigning public contributions (normally in the second half of the year). Considering that due to this system festivals are crowded into the last few months of the year, Il Cinema Ritrovato would like to keep the festival in the springtime in future years as well and especially in 1995, the year of the centenary of the cinema, which should be celebrated in a suitable manner.
Without dwelling on the uncertainty of the future and the consequent preoccupation it entails, and granting that the financing of the festival has not only not been reduced, but that consideration has been taken – at least on the part of the Emilia-Romagna Region, to whom we’d like to offer our thanks for the circumstances in anticipation of the 1994 edition, we must be fully aware of the problems that have to be solved in order to hope to overcome this critical phase.
First of all, the natural growth of the festival must continue. If not, it risks the regression that living organisms undergo when growth stops. Growth here implies increasing the quality, and the relative increase in investment as well, which means not only an increase that conforms to a statistical index, but that follows the real growth of the festival, both in its quantitative and, even more importantly, in its qualitative aspects. We all know that quality costs.
On the other hand, as things stand and there are no hints of changes for the better, government contributions increase a maximum of five percent in the best of cases, as was ours this year. We have to be thankful, because it could just as easily be reduced in the future. One should know that not only are contributions assigned late in the year, but are paid only long after the event. This means that in anticipating the financing the bank earns a not inconsiderable portion of this contribution. The same goes for the regions, which receive money from the state and repeat the tiring procedure, even though trying to attenuate the more cruelly punishing aspects.
Therefore next year, at the time of presenting Il Cinema Ritrovato in grand style, we still won’t know how much our contribution will amount to, nor will we be able to borrow the amount from the bank without the official communication of its having been assigned. It promises to be the same for 1995.
What will be the future of our festival? Frankly, it’s difficult to say, but one cannot exclude the worst, the end of an enterprise that has successfully claimed international attention.
In these times we are comforted by the increasing attention that the City of Bologna and the Emilia-Romagna Region have paid to our initiative. This attention gives us hope in spite of all the difficulties. We are also comforted by the number of people who follow Il Cinema Ritrovato with authentic passion, coming to Bologna from all over the world, helping us with advice and generously collaborating in its production.
To them and to the members of the press, who have always had a role of fundamental importance in the festival’s success, we offer our profound thanks and our promise our total dedication to insuring our festival the future that it deserves.