A Chat With Paolo Bertolin

So what sort of work do you do with the festivals?
I do different things really as I am involved with various institutions and different film festivals. This will be the 9th time that I will be involved with the Venice Film Festival. I was originally hired as a member of the selection committee of Venice, and now I am one of the regional consultants. I cover diverse regions like South and South East Asia, and Oceania. I'm here in Dhaka representing an initiative by the Locarno Film Festival called “Open Doors”, a platform designed to develop and support independent cinemas in places where such creative works are not necessarily supported by the local industry. So this trip is the first official visit to promote this initiative.

What would be the criteria for a film being selected for “Open Doors”?
The main purpose for “Open Doors” is not to select films, but projects that can be made to films or films possibly to be made in the future and to pick out the producers or filmmakers who would attend a 5 day lab that would allow them to acquire more knowledge and awareness about working in the international scene. The directors and producers of the selected projects will be invited to Locarno where we will have meetings and networking sessions with potential institutions that can either support or help their projects. We will select films for the screenings at the festival, not necessarily new films, as we will focus more on films relevant or important with respect to the industry.

Are the projects limited to Locarno or can they aspire for other festivals and recognition as well?
The projects we select are those we believe have potential, and this potential is within the international scene. This potential can manifest in other international film festivals as well. The film “Winter Vacation” by Li Hongqi was at “Open Doors” and after completion, it won the Golden Leopard at Locarno. This is an example of a success story within Locarno. But there were films, like the Kazakh film “Harmony Lessons”, which was also in “Open Doors” and won a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for Best Cinematography. So we look to finding projects that have an international standing on the basis of their quality, theme and creativity, which is why we ask to see previous works of the filmmakers. We take into consideration new makers as well as established filmmakers in the local industry who have talent, but went unrecognized in the international circuit.

Is it possible to submit films and documentaries made for an event of ours, called Celebrating Life, to the Locarno Festival?
It has to be specified whether it is for the festival itself, which is screening at the festival, or whether it is for the “Open Doors” project. There are specific regulations and eligibility criteria for the two programs, so the submissions have to be specific. I'm pretty sure that if we receive something interesting and brand new through “Open Doors”, there will be no issues from the festival as it is a very open platform. For the festival screening, the selection rules and criteria have to be met and of course for both cases there has to be subtitles for the submissions as we and most of the audience do not understand Bengali.

For more details about Locarno, please visit http://pardolive.ch

Interviewed by Rafi Hossian 
Narrated by Mohaiminul Islam