Burning an Illusion.
5 years of Babylon pan-European film development initiative.
On Sunday the 16th of October the BFI, as part of the London Film Festival, hosted a symposium and celebration of the Babylon initiative set up by Fiona Howe and Gareth Jones 5 years ago to promote and support Diaspora film makers from Europe and latterly Africa. This was their Inaugural industry event. Gareth explained how from an initial idea of Fiona’s, the spark was ignited more fully by Gareth at the 2007 Amiens FF and subsequently received support and funding from the Goethe Film Institute, Uk Film Council, French Filmmakers and the British Film Council. It became a European venture to project cultural diversity out of a national cinema, and Babylon held workshops in Cannes and Rotterdam FF to search for film project funding. The workshops brought together film makers throughout the dispora but initially encompassed specifically German Turkish filmmakers, the Magahi in France and Bosnian/Serb /Turks in Austria.
The 2nd strand of Babylon has reached out internationally to work on projects in West Africa and links have been forged with the Nigerian Film Corporation. Gareth went on to explain that Babylon has functioned as a vehicle for bringing artists from the cultural Diaspora together to share experiences and collaborate, and functions from a deep belief that while there are definite issues of exclusion to deal with there is also great room or celebration from the point of view of Diaspora cultures and the transformation of these groups that comes from movement. He believes, as we all probably do in the industry, that the best stories are not being heard/ seen by mainstream audiences
Finally Gareth pointed out that this work is being tackled by Babylon from the outside in, as he and Fiona are filmmakers themselves having written, directed and produced Desire together in 2009 for their production company Scenario Films.
Before handing over to the panel Fiona pointed out the success of 5 years of Babylon borne out by the 70 projects that have come through the programme, with 9 films produced, 5 in distribution, 3 in post and 6 projects in development and financing at the moment. A pretty good track record, I think, considering the state of film financing in this country- a fact made clear by one of the audience who started out in development with Babylon but is now making his film in Italy, and another British/Nigerian filmmaker who spoke of the money available in that Nollyood-especially if you are prepared to take the commercial side of film making-marketing and finance/budgeting seriously.
On to the panel, which expanded on the research in this field Professor of Film at Royal Holloway, Daniela Berghahn talked about the book she edited, European film in Motion, the last chapter of which was written by Gareth Jones and looked at how the migrant and Diaspora film culture has grown, with old Europe breaking through in the 80’s , after the British Black experience coming to the fore with Pressure and Burning an Illusion in the late70’s and the Asian influx, including Gurindher Chandra, bringing up the rear at the end of the century. Added to this post colonial cinema we have for example a Turkish /German Diaspora which does not come from a colonial perspective.
Senior producer Nadine Marsh Edwards expanded on the practicalities of getting films made- a welcome relief as I was a bit worn out with financial and cultural buzzwords by now! What of the actual experiences encountered by filmmakers? She spoke of her generation being children of the 70’s riots and how money became available to Black filmmakers in the wake of unrest but rapidly that pot ran dry. She also spoke of her experiences at the BBC, and as an independent producer, and the difficulties encountered with getting both commissions and money for black projects that are not obviously commercially viable or of a more introspective nature. The days of stories about pimps and prostitutes are sadly not over. This was unfortunately borne out by a film director who has just finished her post- recent riots film about 2 British Arab /brothers set on a council estate. She claims to have avoided stereotype but the pitch didn’t fill me with hope, I’m afraid.
On the subject of riots, one French cultural commentator had no public funding or support for a documentary series she produced about the Diaspora in France called Mosaic until riots occurred in Paris then TV companies suddenly wanted to use her footage! Things are looking up in France though as the Chirac -led initiative The National for Social Cohesion has a budget of 5m available to scriptwriters and producers which is open to all Europeans.
On another positive note, in Germany the Box office success of Fatih Akim (Head on/ Edge of Heaven ) has opened the way for German/Turkish films and Barbara Mulcher of Babylon Int went on to say that they are opening the doors to African and Polish filmmakers too
Panelist Tony Dennis talked about the workshops and Script development Babylon provides and told us how film makers were brought to Africa to film scenes as a way of generating funds for their movies at home but also commented that despite the money available for filmmaking Nigeria there is still a great restriction on stories that are not considered commercially viable. Drug cartel and gangster culture lives on .
Filmmaker Sally El Hossini- the 1st success story of Babylon UK, had her script for My Brother the Devil developed by Sundance Middle East first and the common theme seemed to be that the money needs to be found elsewhere than the UK for Diaspora films as much as any others-depressing but unsurprising I suppose- although I would have thought there was a market crying out for non- white British films in this country- probably only of the Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Bhajis kind, admittedly.
But it’s not all doom and gloom- panelist Nadia Denton, formerly of Back Film Magazine, has written what sounds like a great, free downloadable guide called Black British Filmmakers Guide to Success which covers every aspect of budgeting, professional proposals to take to funding bodies, marketing strategies, distribution etc. In fact I think I might download it myself, and apply to Babylon while I’m at it. Surely my it’s time I pulled my Irish Diaspora screenplay out of my drawers, Matron? Thanks, Babylon and here’s to another five years-if you get that elusive funding…
Caroline Burns Cooke
carolinecooke@blueyonder.co.uk