Committee Members Attending

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

Advisers:

Tatyana Alahverdzhieva
Mitze Chapovski
Wolfgang Freier
Franka Stas

Also Present

Eric Jaeger (President of the Congress)
Max Hänsli (Honorary President)
Tatyana Alahverdzhieva (Friends of UNICA)
Wolfgang Freier (UNICA Patronage)
Serge Michel (IFTC Liaison)
Claire Auda(Translations)
Odilon Dubost (Translations)
Romy Van Krieken (Translations)

Not Present

Zeljko Balog (adviser)
Paweł Łęski  (Adviser)
Rolf Mandolesi (Adviser)

Members

Andorra
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Czech Republic
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Italy
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Netherlands
Norway
Romania
Russia
Slovakia
South Korea
Spain
Switzerland
United Kingdom

15 Report of the Film Librarian

Thomas Kräuchi warned that technology is progressing rapidly, so he asked all the National Organisations to collect the films of their members, no matter which format they are. If they have been converted to digital formats please send them to UNICA in order to include them in the UNICA library. This offer was valid only for films which had been shown at UNICA. He asked delegates to look at the list they had received with the invitation.

He thanked Philippe Sevestre of France, who had reacted immediately and had already sent 30 films for the library.

The library catalogue had been formerly maintained by Arie de Jong, who deserved great thanks. In future Rosemarie van Krieken would take care of the catalogue including the description of the films.

16. Report of the "Friends of UNICA.

Mrs. Tatyana Alahverdzhieva  had produced a written report which had been sent to the national organisations. Since she had started there were two new members.

Click here to see the report.

17. Report Patronage (Wolfgang Freier):

Mr Wolfgang Freier had produced a written report which had been sent to the National Organisations.
Mr. Freier reported that sadly the patronage was decreasing. In Germany there was no festival left with UNICA Patronage. He would like to underline that this is one of the most important tools UNICA has. He kindly asked the National Organisations to look for festivals which might apply for a patronage. The committee would also discuss how to further develop the Patronage system. In 2017 there had been only 16 Patronages.

Romania - Viorel Ieremie asked how to do this, if UNICA was not known at all. It would be good to have at least two UNICA committee members among the jury where festivals with Patronage were run. The committee would certainly take this idea in consideration.

Click here to read the detailed report.

18. Report of Delegate to CICT/IFTC

The report had been circulated in advance. (Click here to see it.)

Serge Michel, the vice-president of CICT, which is affiliated to UNESCO, reported that Mrs Poggi-Goujon, secretary-general of CICT had visited UNICA for a few days. She had been impressed by the event, especially by the quality of the projection and the organisation of the festival.

Mr. Michel stressed how important the memory of a film could be for future generations. He gave an example: the international film festival in Le Havre, named Ciné Salé, focussed on the 500 year anniversary of the city. They had approached UNICA asking for films, which showed the city in the past. It had been very difficult to search for this kind of film. Serge himself had eventually found a film from the sixties, which showed the construction of a ship named Le Havre. In 1962 the film had been shown at UNICA and gained a prize. It was in the cinemathèque in Saint Lazaire, a town renowned for shipbuilding. The film would be shown in Le Havre.

He commented that this showed how important amateur film was today and in future. It was important and worthwhile to protect the work of film amateurs, as this kind of film often disappears. These films “argentique“ (pre-digital) had to be kept as cultural heritage. This must be one of the tasks of UNICA along with UNESCO-CICT, to protect and preserve such cultural value.

France - Philippe Sevestre noted that every year on the 27th of October there is the UNESCO international day of cinematography. It would be interesting to propose to UNESCO to show some films from the UNICA library on this day.

The President explained that our connection with CICT, and through that with UNESCO, is very important for some countries. For example that connection helped persuade their government to make it possible for Ukraine to participate in UNICA 2016

19. Admission of new members

No applications were made.

This topic had been discussed in the last committee meeting. The Secretary-General, Jacqueline Pante and Vice-President Jeanne Glass had tried to get in touch with emerging groups in Morocco and Algeria, unfortunately without success. A group in Rwanda had been in touch with the President, though we were still waiting for their formal application. Hungary seemed to be returning. It had been a passive member, but from 2018 it should return as a full member. The contact with Poland seemed to be on track again, which could not be said for Andorra.

The organisations in certain countries were reachable only online which made it difficult to understand how they are organised and if they were reachable personally.

Slovakia - Zuzana Školudová suggested we might contact FIAP (Fédération Internationale de l'Art Photographique) which was very active in Slovakia and which had, like UNICA, organised several congresses and festivals. It could be a way to approach potential new members.

Switzerland - Fred Graber had very good contacts to Morocco, as he had been invited a few years ago to their festival. At that time there was a will to create a federation. He would try to get again in touch with them.

France - Philippe Sevestre reported that he had some contacts in earlier times too with North African groups. He added that unfortunately the situation over there was difficult.

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Interval at 16:00 hrs. Food and drinks were provided by the Czech organising committee.
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