Premieres, big names and retrospectives at Chichester International Film Festival

SussexWorld

The arrival of the brochure always crystallises the excitement – the moment the small team realise just what a great programme they have got ahead at the Chichester International Film Festival.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon. My name is Phil Hewitt, group arts editor at Sussex Newspapers. Always exciting

00:06this moment, the reveal of the Chichester International Film Festival at the New Park

00:12Cinema. How exciting. Walter, this is your second one as director of the festival. How's it gone?

00:18Did you learn a lot last year? Have you put a lot of that into practice for this year?

00:22Yeah, I can't help but learning. I mean, last year was a big festival for me. It was my first

00:27one as festival director, as you say, after 22 years, whatever it was before that, working with

00:33Roger on the festival. So I felt comfortable. Once it's over, you sort of can come up for breath and

00:40great. But then straight after, preparing this one. And not even straight after, probably during and

00:48before. Seriously, you start, ideas come, you're jotting notes, you start putting films under those

00:53strands. Yeah, like we're doing a Kate Winslet strand this year. And those films I was already

00:59thinking of last year. So absolutely, you start and it doesn't stop. And presumably it doesn't get

01:06easier, does it? There's so much, so many pieces in your jigsaw puzzle that you put together.

01:10Yeah, that's true. It didn't feel easier. You're right. Yeah, you're dealing with a lot of

01:18distributors, a lot of sales agents from overseas trying to give you films. Like I asked,

01:24what have you got that will be good for us? I've got these sort of strands. I'm looking for

01:29films from this part of the world or maybe this genre. And they'll send me four or five different

01:34screeners so I can watch them. And then some of them are rubbish. And some of them are brilliant,

01:40you know, some of them not released in the country and we pick them up. That's what makes it exciting.

01:44I mean, we've got a handful of films that you're not going to be able to see in the UK.

01:49And we've got others which may be released later on. Yeah, lots of previews, premieres.

01:55And that's what makes it worth a huge amount of work. But you have reached this point where

02:00you're just about to get the brochure and you can genuinely say it's a truly exciting

02:04programme that you've put together.

02:06Phil, I'm talking to you. And for those watching this, I'm about to get the brochure like in minutes.

02:11It's like the time that they've said, I think it was like five minutes ago. So the guy's

02:17probably outside knocking on the door. And whenever it comes in, it's so exciting. You've

02:21got people like wrestling each other to get them out of the boxes. And as soon as we send

02:25the brochure out, we see it, you know, we can see movement online and it peaks. It really

02:31just peaks.

02:32And when you flick through that brochure, you can really appreciate the breadth of the festival,

02:37can't you?

02:37Yeah, I think so. Because otherwise, it's just where you've got country music on film

02:43strand, we've got, you know, Jane Austen adaptation strand, got David Lynch strand. But once you're

02:48flicking through it, and you say, Oh, I remember that film, I remember that image, you know,

02:52blue velvet or whatever, or sense and sensibility, you start putting these together, you think,

02:57wow, that's interesting. Definitely going to watch that.

02:59Yeah. And the thing is that you can really genuinely promise that your cinema is atmosphere,

03:05can't you?

03:06Yeah, absolutely. Actually, at Alstom and all our other venues, we're quite lucky, the

03:12venues we've chosen, lots of atmosphere in all of them. I mean, at Alstom, for example,

03:17here at Chichester Cinema, it's capacity of 115. And so most screenings get a good number

03:24of people in there, if not sold out. So you're always in there with like minded people who love

03:30cinema, love the film festival, love the whole idea of it. I mean, if you think about it,

03:35at this time of year, the weather's not the best for cinema, because it's very sunny. So there are

03:39other things, other reasons not to come to cinema, but people come. And it's because of the films and

03:44the atmosphere.

03:45And one of your trademarks so far, your hallmarks so far is expanding the venues. And you've got a

03:50particularly interesting one for this year, haven't you?

03:53We do.

03:53The Lumiere.

03:54The Lumiere.

03:55That's right.

03:56I can't picture it yet, but you're going to send some pictures.

03:58As I promised, as I've promised you in the past, Phil, I'm going to send you a photo of

04:02this place and you're going to see it. But obviously you can come and see it.

04:04So what is it? How does it work?

04:06So it's a mobile cinema. It's 80 seater mobile cinema. Now you've got to think to yourself,

04:12how can 80 seats be mobile? It's amazing. So it's an articulated lorry, basically, which

04:18travels. It used to travel in the armed forces in Scotland to go from one barracks to another

04:23to show new films. That's what they did. And with the Ministry of Defence budget, I guess

04:28it was very good because it is amazing. So the people over at the windmill in Littlehampton,

04:35they purchased us. We spoke to them. And we're working with them to bring it here for the

04:41festival. They drive it in. It opens up to reveal the 80 seats. It's a fully specced, modern

04:48cinema compliant.

04:49And fully enclosed as well.

04:51Well, fully enclosed. Yeah. Fully enclosed. Yeah. Some people might be hearing you think,

04:56oh, it's like a little open air, 80 seat. No, no. Fully enclosed. Air conditions, great

05:01sounds. I've literally just come before this interview. I was there now. We were just learning

05:06how to use some of the equipment, some of the new equipment. Yeah. So we're really excited.

05:10There'll be like 50 films in there, both from the retrospective strands and from the new section.

05:17Fantastic. Well, it all sounds brilliant. You must be so proud of what you've achieved.

05:22Congratulations. This is a great programme.

05:24I mean, we're not a big team. And the stuff that we put on year on year with this film festival

05:29is, yeah, some people, other festivals sort of.

05:33Well, the fact it's not a big team is part of what makes it so special, isn't it?

05:37That's right. That's right. Yeah. We're very proud of that. Yeah. It helps that we've got

05:40a lot of volunteers too, I should say, that couldn't do it without them, as most of organisations

05:45like us are.

05:47Brilliant. Well, Walter, congratulations on it all. Lovely to speak to you. And I hope

05:51those brochures arrive soon.

05:53Thank you, Phil.

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