Festival Report: Camerimage
Festival Location
NAHEMI visits EnergaCamerimage (November 11-18th 2022)
A Report from Jeremy Bubb Chair of NAHEMI
Camerimage festival has been in existence since the early nineties, and is located for about a week of each year in the small tourist town of Toruń, a UNESCO World Heritage site in northern Poland. This year was my first visit to the festival and on arrival I headed for the Cultural and Congress Centre Jordanki to register, as I joined the queue I got talking to a couple from Ukraine, not filmmakers but refugees who had fled the war and now living in Toruń. They told me of their dramatic journey, fleeing their bombed-out village near Kherson, and how they headed for Kyiv where they secured safe passage to Poland. It was an emotional moment listening to stories of desperation and wartime conflict, which was interrupted by the welcome at the reception desk. We said our farewells and they told me they were planning to see the programme of Ukrainian films, a selection of past winners at Camerimage, celebrating Ukrainian cinematography, a reminder of the significance of the location and the political backdrop to the event. A few days later there was another uncomfortable reminder of the war, when a representative of the Ukrainian Film Foundation introducing the screening of Salt from Bonneville, announced the ominous news that a stray missile had landed in Poland that very evening.
The festival is unique as it rewards films for their visual aesthetic and technical values, it is committed to debate and discussion on film craft, technique, technologies, and development in international moviemaking. It has an emphasis on building a community of filmmakers and includes student workshops, competitions, and runs the Homestay Programme for students to find free accommodation during the festival. There is a strong feeling of a film community at the festival, most screenings are followed by discussions with cinematographers or filmmakers, from the well-known to those making their first features. Many filmmakers are open to sharing their professional experiences with audiences, and plenty of time is allocated for discussion. As well as seminars on all aspects of visual film craft, skills, and film technique, the festival has a strong presence in the small town of Toruń, the film community spills over into the surrounding bars, restaurants, and cafes, where you can network, hang out with colleagues and meet new contacts.
Camerimage has a long history of inviting top cinematographers and filmmakers since its beginning, these have included Sven Nykvist, Vittorio Storaro, Conrad Hall, Roger Deakins, Haskell Wexler, and Robbie Muller to name a few. This year, Mandy Walker, Baz Luhrmann (Elvis), Sam Mendes (Empire of Light), Claudio Miranda (Top Gun: Maverick), Darius Khondji (The False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths), Florian Hoffmeister (Tár), and others were in attendance. The festival provides a particular context for screenings that foregrounds the importance of the visual aspects of cinema. For example, Baz Luhrmann and Mandy Walker’s talk on their film Elvis revealed how a creative team worked together on a large-budget film during COVID to create an authentic look for their movie. They were generous with their time and comprehensive in their discussion about their working process and creative practice. Stephen H. Burum’s talk on shooting Rumble Fish, also detailed experiences of working with Coppola, De Palma, and De Vitto and how each director had a different attitude towards getting what they want. His description of working on Rumble Fish was fascinating, outlining the tight shooting schedule, the approach they took filming mainly at night, and the pressures that put on the crew to bring the film in on time. He explained that it was his idea to shoot in black and white, at a time when no one else was doing it, and Coppola agreed. He also went onto say that the print screened at the festival was a digital enhancement that he supervised, and it was exactly how he wanted the film to look when he shot it, unlike the copy that was produced on celluloid when it was first distributed.
There were the usual parties and receptions promoting products and services hosted by the various production houses and facilitators. The festival is a great place for students to get involved and have access to the latest technologies available in the marketplace where all the major camera and technology manufacturers are giving demonstrations, such as ARRI, Canon, Sony, Zeiss, Hawk, Angénieux, and Panavision. It’s a good place to get your hands on the most up to date equipment and learn about future developments.
If you haven’t been to the festival, and you are looking for a place to take students then this is a great visit. It is a bit of a hassle to get to as there is no airport at Toruń and, and you need to fly to nearby Bydogosz, and take a 30-minute drive, to Toruń, but once there it’s a very friendly place that is used to having lots of visitors and English is widely spoken. The Festival is generally well run but I was missing a common space that was big enough for people to hang out and meet up, this mostly happens outside the festival venues in the nearby cafes. The focus of the festival is the image as the name suggests, which is refreshing as it gets away from the talk of budgets and financial strategies that you often get at festivals. This also means that you get less of the anecdotal stories about stars and their quirks and more about how films are created and the challenges filmmakers face working together to solve problems, whether they are on a large scale or a modest budget. The discussions are inspirational, insightful, and informative. While there is a tendency for the focus to be on the work of men, there is an increasing number of female Cinematographers speaking at the festival, and the event is reasonably well attended by young women working and studying in the industry. It is clear that there are still not enough women working in this area and it is still predominately male but things are changing. This is also true of non-white faces, which are a rare sight at the festival, both presenting work and attending screenings. The festival is building a community and it seems that these issues are being addressed, and discussed in the seminars. If you want to find out more about Camerimage for next year and contribute to these debates, the ever-developing culture of the film image, or check out this year's winners, then go to:https://camerimage.pl/en/
Baz Luhrmann receiving the Outstanding Director Award, with Mandy Walker
Also, if you have visited a film festival or a conference that you think is of interest to NAHEMI members send it to chair@nahemi.org for posting on this website.