INFORMATION IS THE CURRENCY OF DEMOCRACY

We are like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz who is told to "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain." Television cameras are expensive, channel space is limited, and television production is not commonly taught in school. This lack of accessibility lends an aura of mystery to the process of producing television. Yet, producing television is not so different from producing oral or written communication. All are constructed. All are used to convey the producer's viewpoint. All reflect cultural, social, and economic messages. The difference lies in our access to the medium. Crayons, pens, and paper are inexpensive and easily obtainable. Place a stamp on an envelope, mail the letter to the newspaper, wait for next morning's paper, and, if the paper chooses to print it, your message is transmitted to everyone in town. Unfortunately, most people cannot envision a similar process using television as yet the most popular and powerful art form ever developed.

Two of our more recent Northern Visions projects attempted to address this paradox. Our 'Hometown' Belfast Community Video Awards Scheme sought to give an opportunity to those wishing to explore creative documentary outside of broadcasting strictures. Hometown, the only award scheme of its kind in Northern Ireland and funded by Making Belfast Work, has been extraordinarily successful, and this despite its low budgets.

Part of that success has been the scheme's flexibility and its generous access to state of the art equipment and training which inspired confidence in first time filmmakers and led to films of a high standard. Even more important, however, was the scheme's emphasis on returning creative control to the filmmaker. Low budgets have their own frustrations but, as has been proved time and again, these can be overcome by imagination and commitment. Low budgets are far less prohibitive than not having control over one's work.

Community Visions, another of our projects, was a very ambitious scheme of four films which actively sought to involve women, young people (8-14 years), the unwaged and community artists, in all stages of film production from project conception to completion.  Again, intensive training workshops, some with accreditation and childcare, were provided. Most of the finance for this project came from agencies, which did not normally fund film making, a difficult process to engineer but one which proved to be the project's strength. It led to an innovative approach between professionals working in the film industry and over 250 local people, many of whom were involving themselves in the filmmaking process for the first time.

The films, themselves, have been widely accepted by international film festivals. One of the dramas, Saoirse, was commended at the Cork Film Festival and played the opening night at the West Belfast Film Festival. The young people's film won the European documentary award (a general audience category) at a film festival in South Africa and went on to be requested by the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, the largest festival of its kind in North America. The Community Visions series, itself, was nominated for a Belfast Arts Award. An excellent beginning and a tribute to all those who worked on the projects.

Questions remain though and one which continually crops up is how does the film making community in general sustain activity and create a genuine local film culture giving freedom of expression to the maximum number of people?
In Northern Ireland we have no statutory film production fund. Throughout the UK and the Republic of Ireland filmmakers have enjoyed major production funding. (In the ROI the Irish Film Board for example has £3.8 million and the Arts Council of Ireland £975,000 annually). Here our only source of major production funding has been, (thanks to the public who buy the tickets), the Lottery. It is a fund which has proved a lifeline for many independent filmmakers, though not without some difficulties. To be eligible for lottery funding requires matching funding and the interest of a broadcaster although the Lottery Board has proved to be flexible on this last requirement. Continued on next page

The Northern Ireland Film Commission, funded by the Department of Education and charged with supporting film development/culture has increasingly taken the economic/jobs/training route to filmmaking with its main emphasis on