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.

CINÉ-CLUBS AU MOZAMBIQUE. Abstract. Complete text in "The cineclub's review" number 1

Ciné clubs au Mozambique : un lieu d’émancipation politique, résistance contre la dictature et lutte pour une meilleur connaissance du cinéma (1953-2010).  
By Guido Convents

Dans les années cinquante une dizaine de ciné-clubs s’installent dans quelques pays africains. Il s’agit entre autres Angola, Mozambique, le Congo belge et l’Afrique du Sud. Leur signification et raison d’existence sont probablement différentes que de celles en dehors le continent. Leur existence et fonctionnement ont été également fortement marqués par l’histoire particulièrement tumultueuse dans ces pays. Un bon exemple est l’établissement des Ciné Clubs au Mozambique. D’abord ils commencent a fonctionner dans un contexte colonial, puis dans quinze ans d’un régime marxiste et une économie guidée et finalement dans un pays avec une économie totalement libre.

PHOTOS

WE ARE THE PUBLIC!

The public is seldom remembered in cinema history, and even less in the theory of moving images. The producer – or rather, the producing company -, and later the scriptwriter or the director, were the supposed sole authors of films. And film, traditionally, is to be understood in its inner relations, as a language of signs or as a discourse from a mysterious and powerful source. Or as a physiological cognitive process, or psychoanalytic experience of an abstract spectator. This spectator is an specter never found in reality – although its main characteristics usually coincide with white, christian, occidental middle class.

Spectator, as the word reveals, is someone supposed to do not participate, but only endure and accept what is presented to him. Spectatorship, the spectator posture is the main result of a clear struggle that marked the beginning of movies and the establishment of an hegemonic model of literary, linear, and spectatorial cinema. Spectator is the abstract attitude, public is the concrete context.

EDITORIAL

We are proud to present the first issue of The Cineclub’s Review, hoping that it will have its place in a gallery of publications that, since the beginning of cineclubism, constituted a milestone and proof of our importance in the evolution of cinema – the critics press, the modern critique and film theory had their origins in the various diaries and cahiers published by cineclubs. In fact, this journal aims to gather information and ideas of film societies worldwide, provoking discussion on a planetary level. In other words, we here reclaim the cineclub’s debate and press in a 21st century’s version.

This first number, as will the following ones, has a main subject, around which several texts gravitate. On the occasion of the 3rd World Conference of Film Societies and of the International Federation of Film Societies’ General Assembly, both to be held in Brazil in December 2010, our major topic is the Charter for the Rights of the Public, and the conditions that led to its proposal and approval in the Tabor meeting of 1987.