Editorial

Imagination does notknow the crisis

The Film Directors' Guild does not only exist through the individuals it gathers. It lives in a practice of collegiality, discussion, the sharing and passing down of ideas ; in the reunion, the diversity and the uniqueness of our lives as filmmakers.

We start our cameras in a world that keeps changing. In a crisis period ? Or in a moment of mutation and choices in which we want to be involved in, instead of being subjected to ! Think today in order to invent tomorrow, to imagine and build with no nostalgia for golden ages, but without neglecting our past and history.

Let's be watchful, but fearless, as we work in a prototype industry, in an art constantly beginning again and changing, an everlasting creation factory.

French cinema is based on an economy which is today both regulated by the State, the CNC – the public entity devoted to cinema and the audiovisual sector, and led by powerful market forces, in a complex waltz in which creation's supports are always changeable.

Just as cultural exception made in France, author's right, digitalization, dematerialization, universal access to our films through the internet, from cinema theaters to television channels models destabilized by a multi-screen society... Each and every topic crosses or collide with our professional and civic daily life.

The filmmaker, center of the cinematographic creation as an author and as a technician, finds himself at the heart of every discussion rising in cinema. We refuse to believe in the illusions of progress or economy's seaming sense. But as everything is going faster and faster, let's take time to get together to understand better, to discuss and to convince.

In this state of mind, we went through long negotiations between authors and producers to get to an agreement on the income that is our due, we are pursuing those about distribution, about cinema collective labour agreement, and those about intermittent workers' status.

To acquire strong tools, we're finalizing a study about the state of documentary in France, and we keep on working on many other important aspects of our profession, like the impact of some of our more important selective subsidies, the transition between short and long features for directors, the part of television in financing cinema in all its shapes, the part of local authorities in supporting creation...

In order to discuss and gather around those topics, we propose for 2011 a regular meeting of authors' organizations, an international forum, and states general of cinema.

This is the spirit in which we built this website, that you will discover as browsing in the files summing up current discussions and actions, tools and documents, archives, our members' news and our organization's agenda.

You are welcome to get hold of it and contribute to it, of course. And we are inviting you to meet us at the European Medium-lenth Film Meetings in Brive next April, to the 2011 edition of the Directors' Fortnight in Cannes, as well as at all the events that we're organizing all year round.

Fabrice Genestal Chantal Richard Christophe Ruggia
January 2011