Page 241 - Alternative Europe Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945

secure commercial distribution in Belgium. Independent filmmaking, however relative this idiom,
still makes up for a good two-thirds of the entire programme. While the choice is made to approach
the fantastic in its broadest possible spectrum and a critical emphasis is placed on the value of the text/
film, the resulting aesthetic practices align in opposition to a mainstream American film product. In
other words, the Festival, in advancing a heterogeneous film culture with a focus on aesthetics, while
concerned with the definition of film as a form, aims to broaden the categories of genre definition
in contrast to the studio format of the Hollywood film. However, in terms of the Festival event, it is
often the big-budget productions of major American studios that generate the most public interest.
Together with the invitation of big names the universalised culture of international commodity
inevitably flows into the Festival, while these films move out of the context of the Festival and into
the commodity flow of major distributors."

CONCLUSION

As a conclusion we might append that, in addition to marketing and evaluating film, the components
of training, education and a commitment to cultural diversity are crucial to the Festival. Our Festival
remains committed to a range of activities and purposes, trying to keep a balance between art and
commerce by way of a programming that tries to keep in line with the ever-changing evolution of
genre. In making their selection and putting together the annual programme, the Festival takes into
consideration not only the different sensibilities of the diverse programmers but, being themselves
first and foremost genre enthusiasts, and thus seen as a sort of continuance of their economy of tastes,
also the expectations of a heterogeneous, self-reflexive audience, consisting of different cult formations
and groups.

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