Committee Members Attending

Dave Watterson (President)
Jeanne Glass (Vice-President)
Bernhard Lindner (Vice-President)
Georg Schörner (Secretary General)
Thomas Kräuchi (Treasurer)

Advisers:

Tatyana Alahverdzhieva
Zeljko Balog
Mitze Chapovski
Wolfgang Freier
Franka Stas

Also Present

Ion Lungu (President of the Congress)
Max Hänsli (Honorary President)
Fred Graber (Friends of UNICA)
Tatyana Alahverdzhieva (Friends of UNICA)
Wolfgang Freier (UNICA Patronage)
Serge Michel (IFTC Liaison)
Jean-Claude Lejosne (Translations)
Odilon Dubost (Translations)
Delia Vagner (Translations)

Not Present

Paweł Łęski  (Adviser)
Rolf Mandolesi (Adviser)
Claire Auda (Translations)

Federations

Andorra
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Czech Republic
Estonia
Finland
Germany
Hungary
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Netherlands
Romania
Russia
Slovakia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Ukraine
United Kingdom

1. Opening address by the President of the Congress

Welcome by the Chairman of the Congress Ion Lungu. The welcoming address by the mayor took place during the break.

Jean-Claude Lejosne, Odilon Dubost and Delia Vagner translate the meeting simultaneously into French, German and English.

2. Verification of the delegates’ authorities

France
Georgia
Italy
Norway
Poland
Republic of Korea
Slovenia
Tunisia

Part 2

• Patronage Report
• Treasurer's Report
• Auditors' Report
• Film Librarian's Report
• "Friends of UNICA" Report
• Discharge of the Committee
• Election of Auditors
• Admission of new members
• Modification of the UNICA Statutes or other regulations
• Proposals by Members
• Following year's contribution
• Approval of the budget
• Selection of the place and date of Congress for the next three years
• Miscellaneous without a vote
  

Annexe

• Modification of the UNICA Statutes or other regulations - proposals submitted by the Committee.

Other Papers

• President's Report
• Committee Report by the General Secretary
• Treasurer's Report as a pdf
• Auditors' Report as pdf
  
• ICFT/CICT Liaison Report
• Report of the Friends of UNICA
• Report on the questionnaire results

3. AGM Organisation

Proposals by the Committee:

Chairman of the General Assembly - Dave Watterson
Secretary - Georg Schörner
Vote counters - Jan Kuska (Slovakia) and Peter Glatzl (Austria)

Approved unanimously.

4. Confirmation of the agenda

For: 19
Against: 0
Abstention: 3

5. Vote and discussion on the minutes of the General Assembly UNICA 2015 in St. Petersburg (RUS)

Great Britain and the Netherlands propose that Jan Essing’s Minutes of the meeting should be approved.

For: 20
Abstentions: 2

The president remarks that this was the last major work by the previous UNICA Secretary-General and led a round of applause for Jan Essing.

6 Address by the President of UNICA

At the request of the General Assembly, the address by the President is not dispatched beforehand, but presented personally by the President during the meeting. The full report is here.

7. Report of the Committee by the Secretary General

The report by Dr. Georg Schörner had been circulated in advance in three languages and in detail to the national organisations.

The full report is here.

The President thanks Franka Stas and Mitze Chapovski for their excellent work. The report is available on the UNICA website in English. There had been no committee meetings since the results were published. The results will be discussed at the Bratislava meeting in October.

There is the proposal to discuss these results more widely at the next UNICA General Assembly. The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Macedonia find this a very useful idea; Austria / Hungary especially thanks the team for the good work. It is very useful to see what other countries do.

An updated report in the three UNICA languages is now available on this website. (Click here.)

(7b) – Report ICFT (Serge Michel)

:

Various matters were dealt with, inter alia the cultural heritage of the Amateur-Film. The President of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, has confirmed for the third time (in her address) that she loves films and cinema. The ICFT has a very close relationship with UNICA and the ICFT appreciates what UNICA is doing.

We must not forget what the A of UNICA means, amateur. We are happy about that. Some have lost sight of the amateur, for example, stealing movies. In some languages the word "amateur" is applied negatively. At the 1955 Annual General Meeting, the main aims of the UNICA were defined. We follow our passion without thinking about the money. This is a noble activity. And this also corresponds to the statutes of UNICA. To protect us, we should re-define the meaning of the term “amateur” and confirm it with the national organisations. The films produced for the UNICA Festival should be passionate amateur films.

He speaks about a project he and Jeanne Glass have worked on. The ICFT and the archives of the countries represent an immaterial cultural property which must be protected and passed on to the next generations. Last year Algeria and Egypt were working together to protect and save film-heritage. Recently, we were engaged in a festival in Normandy. 2017 is a special year for the festival and the city of Le Havre and it could be films the heritage of this city. There should be a cooperation between amateurs and professional filmmakers.

Austria / Hungary: How do we separate amateurs and film schools? The president notes that this is a matter for later on the agenda.

Liechtenstein: We have been discussing this point for 30 years. Would not UNESCO be the right organisation to define the whole issue? In Switzerland one notices that the politics wants to intervene to define nonprofessional filmmaker. He asks Serge that UNESCO should devote itself to this issue at the highest level.

Serge Michel: In the ICFT, there are actually only professional filmmakers; With one exception: the UNICA. UNICA should define this.

Vice-President Glass: When we think of the greeting from the President of the UNESCO, our passion for film making is clear.

Croatia: How could the presence of Serge Michel in the ICFT be used to get support for the film archives of the countries and UNICA. Is there any help from UNESCO, e.g. for digitisation? Serge Michel: The UNICA might have ideas on how this could be done. Digitisation does not cost so much money. So, we do not have to wait for UNESCO to define a programme. In addition, UNESCO also awards a special medal at the UNICA Festival every year: the Fellini Medal / Delmiro de Caralt Prize. It made a DVD of these prize winning films.