Page 238 - Alternative Europe Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945

What all of these audiences share, however, is a longing for the satisfaction of appreciating an
unusually rewarding picture, a certain degree of group identification and a sense of being somehow
validated by the film(s) they are the first to discover, or, in the case of retrospectives, re-discover.
We might see the act of watching a film at the Festival as a sort of cult, as a kind of mass (i.e.
'religious' service), with its highly ritualistic conditions of presentation. In large measure, every film
is conditioned by ritual since it takes place as a communal act, partitioned from everyday life. A film
festival, as compared to a regular movie screening, is even more detached from the everyday experience:
it takes place but once a year, it presents films 'for the first time' and has extras such as the presence of
guests ('stars') and the creating of a more communal, more festive and, in many ways, more significant
context by way of animation, presentation and the stimulation of a certain 'ambience'.
The central ritual of the film cult temains this formalised showing of the film, with its requirement
of audience assistance or participation. In that context, viewers anticipate - and even help evoke
- a cettain emotional response. For, at the same time, viewers both are spectators and play at being
spectators. One particulat part of the audience, the group of subscribers (they even have their own
website), are the ones that most obviously could be related to the notion of a cult. As every cult
constitutes a community, a group that 'worships' similarly and regularly, and finds sttength in that
shared experience — it relies on a set of practices or conventions shared by the devotees. And the
demonstrated knowledge of those things (the participatory action such as the shouting being the most
evident example) cettifies the initiates, binds them in their privileged knowledge to others - and even
to another side of the self, a repressed self that longs to be known otherwise and to find expression.
Using the notion of 'cult' in regard to the Festival audience has another benefit: it effectively
collapses the categories of 'art' and 'exploitation', eliding issues of both politics and aesthetics. What
might previously have been distinguished according to the motivations of their makers is now
rendered largely equivalent by the enthusiastic and loyal responses of audiences possessing different
types of cultural capital. That leads us to the question of the film festival content, the different films
which constitute the Festival experience and how they are selected and programmed.

PROGRAMMING

Horatio Jackson: He wont get far on hot air and fantasy.
- The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, 1988

Programming is at the core of every festival. Programming is choosing. Programming is selecting. It
is the romantic, heroic part, so to speak. The quest for the best, the worst and the most unusual. But
then, of course, reality rears its ugly head. This film will not be ready for your festival, that film will
cost you a thousand dollars per screening. Or: You can have this film if you take that one too. Better:
I've just shot a medium-length horror film on DV, it would be perfect for your festival... Still: What's
the name of your festival? Never heard of it...
The organisers look at hundreds of new films every year before making their choices for the
Festival's next edition. A permanent team of about eight people operates around the year, each
of them playing a small or larger part in the programming. The organisers dwell on film markets

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