Chichester International Film Festival returns this August

SussexWorld

Chichester International Film Festival returns this August under new artistic director Walter Francisco who is promising to bring “a fresh and dynamic vision” to the annual event.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Griep Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Now, really

00:06exciting times for the Chichester International Film Festival, because after years and years

00:11and years, Roger Gibson has stepped down, and stepping in is someone we all know already,

00:16who's been at the cinema for 21 years, the new Artistic Director for the Chichester

00:21International Film Festival, Walter Francisco. Now, exciting times because you have the history

00:27here, don't you? But the chance to do new things. Hello, Phil. Yes, nice to be here. Nice to see

00:32you. Yeah, so it's very exciting. As you say, I've been here 21 years, so I've watched, I've

00:38picked one or two things that Roger done very well, and stolen them, obviously, and then I've

00:44recorded my ideas. Yeah, so hopefully we can create, you know, us, the whole team here at

00:50Chichester Cinema at New Park, we can create an amazing festival that, you know, do the South

00:55of England proud. And do you think this year we will sense it's a different festival, or will we

01:00have a kind of reassuring continuation? I feel it will be mainly reassuring, but people

01:08who know where to look, who will look, they'll say, oh yeah, that's definitely Walter, that's

01:12definitely Walter. We'll see your taste coming in, won't we? Absolutely, absolutely. So, I've

01:19kept the structure of the festival pretty much the same. And by that I mean, we're a festival

01:26that shows about 50% of brand new films, like some, well, maybe half of those. So, 25% of the

01:34festival will never be shown in the UK. So, you know, take your chance while you get it. And the

01:39other 50% are retrospectives. So, I'll choose something, well, as an example, we've got the

01:45Brando centenary. He would have been 100 years this year, Marlon Brando. So, we've got, I think,

01:51seven or eight films, plus a talk. And we've also got a retrospective on MGM and Columbia,

02:00who also turn 100. So, we've got some real classics there. We got a retrospective on

02:07Greta Gerwig, yeah. So, five of her films and a talk as well. I mean, she's

02:13very talented, very new, something, bringing something new to cinema. So, we want to champion

02:19her. I mean, Cannes Film Festival put her as the president of the jury this year. So, everyone's

02:25noticing what she's doing. And you've got a start in great style with the open air screenings,

02:31haven't you? Oh, yes. We're always excited about the open air screenings. So, slight change this

02:36year where instead of just the three late screenings, we've got the three late screenings,

02:41which are Barbie, Dirty Dancing, and Stop Making Sense. I mean, that's a Talking Heads film. I'm

02:46so excited for that. See, that's a real Walter touch. But we've also added earlier screenings

02:56in the late afternoon, mainly for the families. And we've got Lego Movie, which turns 10 years,

03:02would you believe? And Wonka. And Wonka, we're doing in aid of Stonepillow. We're

03:07working with Stonepillow to put that on. And Wonka's been one of the best films of the past

03:12year, hasn't it? Wonderful film. Sorry, what was that? Wonka has been one of the best films of the

03:16past year, hasn't it? Fantastic film. I remember it was like sort of 20 weeks in a row, it was in

03:21the top 20. I mean, that's unheard of nowadays. I mean, that's like the olden days when a film

03:27would stay around for much longer, less films released. Nowadays, you know, a film stays four,

03:32five weeks, and it's gone. So yeah, a lot of longevity there.

03:36Absolutely. And the other really exciting thing you're doing for the festival this year is you

03:40are moving out a little bit, aren't you? While still doing as much as ever at the Chichester

03:44Cinema at New Park, you're bringing in other venues.

03:47Yeah, so we're using our three venues that we have here at the New Park Centre,

03:52which is the main auditorium, the studio and the Picture Palace. So we're doing what we normally

03:56do. And then, well, I've mentioned Priory Park, but we've also always used St John's Chapel for

04:03silent film with live music. But we're moving out and going to new venues. We're using St

04:09Paul's Church for a concert, a 100 Years of Film Music concert. We're going to Littlehampton and

04:17using the Windmill Cinema for five screenings. We're going the other way to Havant, where at

04:21the Spring Centre, we're doing Buster Plays Buster, which is a jazz quartet, and they play

04:28to Buster Keaton silent film. They're doing Sherlock Junior this year. Yeah, so we're

04:34trying to spread our wings. Fantastic. With the thinking that you spread that

04:39love of cinema. Absolutely. I mean, I'm going to steal that.

04:43We're spreading the love of cinema. My gift to you.

04:47Thank you, Bill. Yeah, honestly, we are trying to spread that love of cinema, because

04:52if we can spread that love, then people will enjoy going to the cinema more. And that'll be

04:57better for Chichester cinema throughout the year, and for every other cinema and just the whole

05:02industry. I mean, I absolutely love this art. And I keep telling everybody, it's the most

05:06collaborative of all art forms. So why not put that into practice and collaborate?

05:11Absolutely. Well, the Film Festival is always a fabulous thing, always a truly exciting thing.

05:16And all good wishes for your takeover as the new Artistic Director.

05:21Hope it grows brilliantly. It's been great to speak to you. Thanks.

05:24Thank you, Bill. Bye-bye.

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