THE AUDIENCE RIGHTS: THE PRESENT EFFECTIVENESS OF ‘THE CHARTER OF TABOR'. Abstract. Complete text in "The cineclub's review" Number 1

THE AUDIENCE RIGHTS: THE PRESENT EFFECTIVENESS OF ‘THE CHARTER OF TABOR‘

By Marco Asunis

It was in the last century, in 1987, when the International Federation of Film Societies (IFFS) decided, after much discussion and many pondering efforts; the ten points of the so-called 'Bill of Tabor', named after the little town in Czechoslovakia where the IFFS held its 26 th Congress.
A 'charter' consisting of a Decalogue of targets identified for the affirmation of basic rights to which the public could potentially aim at.
From that point so far, the President of IFFS in those days, the renowned filmmaker and intellectual Carlo Lizzani, one of the great promoters of this historic resolution, tells in his fascinating book "My long journey in a short century" about some of its leading promoters and the global atmosphere of the Congress: "... September 18, 1987 I left for Rome bounded for Tabor, via Prague ... My presence was necessary for my re-election as President of the IFFS General Assembly... I think it was much enlivened by Indians, Mexicans and Cubans. People who came from areas where film societies have a great function for congregation ... The Italians were ruled by Fabio Masala’s enthusiasm , by Flippo De Sanctis’s and Riccardo Napolitano’s patience , and a few others who for years had been trying to adapt the appearance of Film Societies to the radical changes that had occurred in our country. And yet, despite the entry into the IFFS of many countries from Asia, Africa, Latin America (the USSR, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, mainland China were about to enter), three out of the seventeen members of the executive committee, were Italians (I as president, Masala as a representative of the Mediterranean countries, and Filippo De Sanctis as curator of research on the public). The Assembly re-elected me for another two years and I approved the Bill of the Audiences Rights. The assembly also welcomed the news that in December, the newly founded Soviet Union Federation of Film Societies were about to join IFFS. My plans had become true . Kurt Maetzig, presented my candidacy, had officially said that this result was due to me.. " Lizzani specified later that one of its major policy objectives would be to bring in the American film associations to the IFFS.