Where's the idea for such a festival from?



We decided to join two areas - advertising branch and film art. More and more films are created, they perfectly blend new media, the Internet and the newest technologies with the development of film. And I don't mean just 3D cinema, but for example interactive films where the spectator can influence the story and characters' decisions. We wanted to face it and create the event that would bring the newest video achievements in new media closer to all of the interested people.  



Why in Łódź? Is this city still identified as a film field? The promised land?

We live in Łódź, work, create. There's one of the best film schools, quite a big part of an artistic output of Polish cinematography and film traditions are connected with Łódź. That's why we decided that Łódź would be the best place to make a step forward and join film with new media.

Digital technologies accompany us everywhere. Don't you think that they kill traditional art?

 Probably, for the future generations "traditional art" will mean an art connected with 3D cinema, interactive films, creative activity in the Internet. I don't think technologies kill art. The fall of the cinema was foreseen when television was coming in or television and books when the Internet came in. But nothing like that happened and it won't happen. There are new possibilities for people who are open and want to discover new things. We'll show a few projects which have a chance to become a film canons.

The name Filmteractive is associated with the camera as a dominant tool used to record the view. However, the statute includes also the newest carriers - cell phones and tablets. Do you think it would bring more participants?

In the contest we organize it doesn't matter whether you have professional equipment. The most important things are the ideas, projects which will be used later. Creativity and inventiveness are the most important - those are the aspects we are going to look at really close. Ridley Scott and Kevin McDonald made a beautiful film "Life In Day", created only from what did the internauts send via YouTube, and what is probable they didn't observe using professional equipment , but thanks to cell phones or amateur cameras.
The beauty of the new media lies in the concept saying you don't need expensive equipment to carry the breakthrough ideas out.

Who is going to be there?

One of the guests will be the filst Polish author of an interactive film - Dawid Marcinkowski. Dawid works in London, he's the author of Internet clips (e.g. for Smolik). He'll show his favorite version of his film comprising of several hundred scenes and few dozen alternative endings. Today, we can say that Andrew Pillar - the director of Fremantle Media, Blake Whitman from Vimeo and Marta Gomes working with BeActive Media will be the speakers. We still talk to more people/companies and wait for final confimation.

Cooperation of young film experts and media students with older colegues from the business was the idea for the festival.

Do you believe in such multigenerational projects?

How should the young learn if not by taking from the experience of older generations or through exchange of experience with others from business?
What's more, in Dawid Marcinkowski's film, which is very modern, appeared an actress from the older generation - Beata Tyszkiewicz. This is contrary to the opinion that there is such thing as "generation gap".

It's one of participation conditions to agree to "freeze" the concept for 3 months so that sponsors could pre-empt the project. Do you think the projects will prospective buyers?

 I wish we only had brilliant ideas which can be entered and promoted. If I wasn't sure that all of the works were interesting for the buyers I would have never decided to put such condition in the statute. And the idea was consulted with prospective partners - TV stations, websites, companies and from the very beginning it gained their strong approval.

It's hard to arise on media market these days.

Do you think that the festival will help young people to "arise" and begin professional career?

I hope the festival will give the opportunity to exchange experiences and promote all of the young artists. In my head I have some ideas that may expand Filmteractive Festival and will allow to promote artists whole year round.

Beginners often have financial problems which prevent them from project realization. Will the festival attract potential sponsors?

Festival already has sponsors. It's Pepsi with PepsiCo portfolio, which is engaged in film project worldwide. We talk with the next ones. I think that our organization, a bit like Internet start-ups presentations, will be blue sky and will interest both creators and sponsors.

I guess it won't be one-time event. Do you have any ideas for the next edition?

Not only do we plan next-year's edition of Filmteractive Festival, but also additional activities which will enable our idea to live for 365 days a year. However, let's wait with the details until the festival where - I hope - we'll talk about the next actions.



Daria Domańczyk talked with Olgierd Cygan, the initiator of Filmteractive.