March 12-14, Paris was occupied with independent filmmakers or at least one would think so going to the fifth European Independent Film Festival. Screenings, Q&A, workshops, awards, parties - all the attributes of a decent festival squeezed in to one weekend. Independent spirit was everywhere.

You could meet everyone, everyone looked happy and everyone was searching for funding for their next film. But the films were not so cool as the people. It seems strange to me when independent filmmakers are repeating Hollywood's fast-film clichés when they know well that they don't have the means to make a profit from it anyway. Why couldn't they loosen up a bit, choose more radical, contemporary subjects and artistic means. Then it would make sense to watch independent films - now; at least, there is a sense in making them, because no doubt it is better to do something than nothing at all.

 

Polanski's co-writer Jeff Gross ready to direct 

The highlights of the festival were the filmmaking workshops, gathering the independent crowd for a conversation with film professionals. Jeff Gross, who co-wrote Roman Polanski’s Frantic and Bitter Moon, reminded us that the writer should have responsibility to the whole of humankind and its future, not just infantile Hollywood producers. 

Gross told me he's very much into independent filmmaking, and has been involved with this festival from its second year: "It's a heroic effort to set up this festival while in France, or in all Europe, there is no independent spirit - everyone is waiting for money from someone." 

At the workshop, Gross compared the plot of Bitter Moon to Polanski's recent situation. As if with that film he’d already showed that it’s no good to judge someone before you judge yourself. "Personally, I know how many good things he's done, and I'm talking not only about his films. He's a man of incredible generosity. He made a mistake, and I think he paid for it. His victim doesn't want him to go to prison, so who does it profit? Is it a moral lesson that people are going get pleasure out of? I think before people judge him, they should look at what they’ve contributed to the planet."  

The workshop ended with good news: Jeff Gross told us he's prepared to direct his new script himself, telling a story about the ecstatic emotions in Paris of 1984.
 

Incredibly 1/3 of participants were winners



The number of awards (I counted 20) was quite unreasonable with only 66 participating films. However, all the winners were more than happy. British up-coming director Louisa Mayman, who won the award for the Best Student Film, told me she's happy people could relate with such a personal subject. Her short documentary The Highest Low captured her recovery from a difficult trauma after an auto-crash. But Mayman’s still interested in fiction: even this documentary was constructed in a narrative way. Watch the film on her website.

The jury's choice for the Best Independent Film 2010 was Das Kind, the story of 94 year-old Irma and her son’s journey across Europe. My own favourites were these short fiction films: Mio Sovversivo Amore, about the everyday life of a lesbian couple who perform in a club as well as for art performances, Amoklove, a romantic set of clips from an accidental love story, and Two-Year Guarantee, a funny feminist commentary about a violent man who changes his wife for a robot. 


Photos from top: Jeff Gross - Polanski's co-writer. Journalist Romas Zabarauskas with Director Louisa Mayman. Louisa Mayman - winner of best student film.