EAFFI Founders: ‘What we really want to achieve is doing something different that isn’t available otherwise’
(for English version see below)

愛爾蘭東亞電影節（East Asia Film Festival Ireland）小而美。雖然每屆影展只維持大約十部電影的規模，卻已經請到台灣電影的大師級人物如侯孝賢與李屏賓。現場觀察，今年的聚焦影人李屏賓的電影幾乎每場都售完，觀眾映後也熱衷提問。對的場地、對的觀眾、對的節目......除了這些，一個成功的影展背後有更多需要花心思著墨之處。舉行影展的這幾天都柏林持續地下著小雨，但是觀眾們還是一群一群地來看電影。我們的蠟燭都還沒有熄滅，我們都還在向前走。

請先談一下各自在這次影展中扮演的角色及影展的緣起？

Maria：與我的同事 Marie-Pierre 一起，我是主辦人之一，我們在2017年創辦了這個影展。去年跟我們一起的還有 Yvonne Kennedy，但她今年因為家庭因素比較退居幕後。我的角色應該是主辦人兼處理影展重要行政事務的人員。Marie-Pierre 則是策展人與節目總監。我猜也可以談談為什麼我們有分工：影展要處理的事情太多，一個人不可能做得完，所以必須分工，才能使影展順利進行。

這裡補充說一下我的背景：我之前從事法律事務多年，後來我在倫敦金匠學院（Goldsmiths, University of London）拿了碩士，在這期間修過一門中國電影的課程。那大概是14年前的事了。但我之前就一直對亞洲電影很感興趣。事實上，倫敦國王學院的裴開瑞（Chirs Berry），同時也是我們影展的顧問之一，是我當年上那門中國電影的講師。我另外又在都柏林的三一學院（Trinity College）拿了一個研究型碩士（research masters），主要研究李安的電影。所以，我對台灣電影和亞洲電影都很感興趣，但同時也關注這些電影如何被西方觀眾「接受」。我想這是我們想成立這個影展最強烈的動機之一。

Marie-Pierre：對，我們一開始只是想做一些有關亞洲電影的東西。過去二十年來我一直以獨立策展人的身份工作，2010年開始我也擔任都柏林法國影展的影展總監......這是我的背景。我、Maria 跟 Yvonne 一直都對亞洲電影很感興趣，而 Yvonne 又剛好是台籍美裔，所以我們後來決定做有關台灣電影的東西，而侯孝賢這個名字很自然地浮上來。萬事起頭難，所以我們開始規劃片單、集思廣益，這個影展就是這麼開始的。

Maria：我知道我們想做亞洲電影的片單，而我們的影展是以來賓為中心展開的。所以當我們去年邀請到了侯孝賢，這簡直是......

無與倫比！

Marie-Pierre：那次的經驗非常愉快。他第一次來都柏林，去年的開幕片是聶隱娘，我們還有映後座談、大師講堂等等......去年的影展完全是以侯孝賢為中心而展開的。

能不能談談是如何邀到侯導的？過程如何？

Marie-Pierre：通常你必須跟他的個人助理聯絡。你邀請他，然後他同意來，跟朱天文一起。我想他們當時在歐洲有個巡迴，他們好像也去了海德堡和布拉格（註1）。

Marie-Pierre，當妳剛開始為這個影展策劃片單的時候，有沒有某種特定的台灣電影的「面向」是妳想呈現給觀眾的？如果有，第二年有改變嗎？

Marie-Pierre：第一年跟第二年有很大的差別。第一年主要是讓觀眾「看見」亞洲電影。所以我們決定策劃在愛爾蘭極少放映的片子：《童年往事》、《悲情城市》、《風櫃來的人》…...我們也跟侯孝賢的個人助理合作，她不僅協助侯的來訪，放映素材的部分也幫了不少忙。

Maria：說到極少放映的片子，我們從台灣的國家電影中心得到的幫助也不少。（按：愛爾蘭東亞電影節第一年片單包括胡金銓《俠女》，由國家電影中心負責修復）

通過對亞洲電影的「展示」（presentation），妳們是否有遭遇任何困難？

Maria：我這邊來說的話，很明顯地，贊助頗難取得。今年我們非常幸運能拿到藝術協會（Arts Council）和都柏林城市協會（Dublin City Council）的公共資金。當然，台灣文化部去年和今年都有贊助我們。我們同時也嘗試向私人機構申請贊助———有些申請成功了，這當然很棒———但有時真的很難去說服一個私人機構或公司，透過他們對影展的贊助能獲得什麼對自身有利的價值。因為他們必須要在你的影展發生之前就投注信任，而今年只是我們的第二年。

所以，我們對目前的情況頗滿意，我覺得我們已經盡我們所能做的，並且希望之後能拿到更多贊助。因為，就影展來說，我們的預算相對會比其他影展高一點，因為來賓必須要從亞洲飛過來，再加上放映素材、運費等等。

觀眾方面，我想我們並沒有遭遇任何困難。Marie-Pierre 去年和今年所策劃的片單都非常棒，而我們也有非常多元的觀眾群，即使愛爾蘭有大量華人/東亞/東南亞人口，而他們很多都集中在都柏林和鄰近區域。但同時，我們也非常努力地想要吸引不只是愛爾蘭觀眾，還有華語觀眾，而我想我們做得相當成功。從今年開幕片的情況就可以看出來，我們的觀眾群真的非常多元，不分種族、國籍、年齡。

今年我們特別策劃了一部親子電影（按：指《捉妖記2》），所以希望也能吸引到小小孩觀眾進電影院。應該會很棒。

你覺得能吸引到如此多元觀眾群的原因？

Maria：兩個原因，第一個是精心策劃的片單，第二個是來賓。我們一開始就決定好這個影展會以來賓為主，因為 Marie-Pierre 已經擔任法國影展的策展人多年，那個影展同樣有好的片單和來賓。來賓為影展所帶來的「附加價值」，包括映後座談、特別是大師講堂等等，都為影展增添了一層額外的面向與深度。這個「附加價值」其實是無比寶貴、不能以金錢來衡量的。

我們可以從去年的影展和今年開幕片的票券銷售情況來看，更多人會傾向買設有映後座談的電影。我想，這是因為愛爾蘭觀眾———我的意思是住在愛爾蘭的人———了解到能夠親耳聽到電影工作者談他們的創作過程是一件無可取代的事、一個千載難逢的經驗。這是我們影展擁有的一個很棒的面向，而我們之後也打算持續這樣的做法。

Marie-Pierre：對，當你在辦一個影展時，「聚焦」這件事是很重要的。比如說你可以聚焦在經典電影。當你有像侯孝賢這樣的來賓，已經拍電影拍了超過三十年，你可以把他的一些早期電影跟比較近期的電影一起放映，這樣你就會有一個碰撞點、一個對話在那裡。

能談談放映素材的搜集過程嗎？

Marie-Pierre：去年我們放了修復版DCP（註2）的《俠女》，非常棒。在搜集過程中，你必須確認這部電影有DCP或35釐米拷貝、有無英文字幕、戲院放映權等等......就是要做足功課。如果某部電影無法拿到放映素材，你必須要想替代方案。

Maria：我想另一個困難的點還在於片單的平衡。如果你已經計劃好一個片單，但某部電影拿不到放映素材，也許這會影響另一部在片單中的片......這是一個非常複雜的過程。

Marie-Pierre：對，而且還要注意電影類型的平衡。你不會想要全部是動作電影或全部是喜劇。今年我們決定把電影節擴大為「東亞電影節」，選了比如說來自新加坡的家庭片《拉麵店》。或者像我們也有選冒險類的片《七十七天》，它是愛爾蘭首映而且是李屏賓最新的作品。這也是我們為什麼堅持有來賓的另外一個原因，它某種程度上可以幫你建立一個更好的片單。另一個有來賓的優點是邀片會更容易，因為發行商知道某個在這部電影中工作過的人會來電影節。

李屏賓大師講堂（Photo credit: Joshua Mulholland 2018）

剛才提到贊助取得不易，能談談是如何拿到藝術協會與都柏林城市協會的公共資金嗎？你如何說服他們？

Marie-Pierre：注意申請截止日期！

Maria：藝術協會是愛爾蘭藝術相關贊助的公家單位。他們的審核過程非常嚴格，但同時他們也非常樂於幫忙。我負責處理藝術協會的贊助申請，那邊的工作人員都非常樂於幫助你。我給同樣在申請資金的人的建議會是，清楚表達你影展的目標及重心，保持誠懇也非常重要。如果你有一個很棒的影展計畫、你投資你的時間與精力在裡面，你就越有可能會成功拿到資金，因為那種誠懇是看得到的。實際層面上來說，像 Marie-Pierre 說的，注意截止日期，填表格......他們明年贊助的截止日期是六天後（按：普遍來說，公共資金的贊助機構都需提前一年申請），所以為了2019年的影展我們已經在準備申請的前置作業。這對我們來說有點不幸，但同時也可以說幸運，因為我們現在正在舉行2018年的影展，所以發生的這一切我們都記得非常清楚，同時我們腦海中也充斥著影展的目標宣言之類的。

我認為電影在愛爾蘭被視為一項重要藝術，它被看作不僅僅是一種產業，還是一種文化和藝術形式。所以大眾認為辦影展是一件非常重要的事。我們非常幸運能拿到贊助辦影展，並且希望以後能持續拿到贊助。

Marie-Pierre：另外一個對我們來說幸運的點是我們能夠跟愛爾蘭電影中心合作。這是一個極適合我們的場地，能得到他們的支持與信任真的很棒。即使你有一個好計畫、贊助商等等，但沒有對的場地，你的影展就有可能遭遇困難。

透過這個影展想達到什麼樣的目標？

Marie-Pierre：我想應該是嘗試為亞洲電影開一扇窗，用聚焦在特定一位電影工作者的方式，放映經典電影和當代電影。與此同時，嘗試保持規模的平衡。因為你不想把規模弄的太大，結果沒有太多觀眾來看電影。

Maria：對。同時我們的目標也是想做點不一樣的事，除了我們，你在別的地方看不到。除了我們放映的電影之外，包括映後座談、大師講堂、來賓......這些都是如果我們不做，它就不會在愛爾蘭發生的事情。我們片單中也許有一兩片會去別的電影節放映，但我們還蠻努力去爭取新電影、新導演。不知道妳是否有注意到，我們也有動畫短片的單元，我覺得能夠做這件事真的很棒。這些短片是來自北藝大。我們的動畫短片單元同樣也是精心策劃，非常非常棒。

Marie-Pierre：所以我們一共放映六部短片。去年開始我們就跟北藝大合作，以後也打算繼續合作下去。能夠跟王綺穗合作動畫短片真的非常愉快。她是北藝大動畫學系的副教授，同時也是關渡國際動畫節的策展人。王綺穗負責動畫短片的初選，我會再從中挑出六到七部短片，再把它們跟片單中的長片做搭配，會在配對好的長片前放映。除了主要長片外，這些短片是一次令人振奮的機會，除了能夠跟學校合作之外，也藉由放映支持新秀、讓觀眾接觸到不一樣的動畫技巧。

在愛爾蘭這個「外國」（foreign）環境推廣亞洲電影，你遭遇到的最大困難是什麼？

Maria：我本身來說的話，語言真的是一個很大的問題。我不會講中文，Marie-Pierre 和我都有遠大的計劃未來會學中文。去年我們有 Yvonne，她中文說的很好，這很棒。今年我們有口譯的幫忙，但仍然，這整件事對我們來說依舊有點困難，因為當我們接待來賓的時候，所有事情都需要翻譯。李屏賓的英文很好，但比起我們，情況對他來說可能會困難一點點。必須要申明的是，這並不是就不去做這個影展的原因。

Marie-Pierre：對我來說，是要去找具有普世價值的電影。觀眾不會覺得內容過於「外國」（foreign）或無法引起共鳴。這也是我選片時的一個標準。

但是一部好電影通常都具有普世價值，對吧？

Maria：沒錯。

Marie-Pierre：這總是能幫助我選片。

你們把電影節從「漢語」擴大為「東亞」，能談談這個決定嗎？

Maria：之所以想要擴大電影節的容納性有兩個原因，第一個是我們以來賓為主。例如，當你有像李屏賓這樣的來賓時，雖然他本身是台灣人，他所合作過的電影並不都一定是台灣片。第二個原因很簡單，市場上有太多好電影可供選擇。我想，如果我們每年都持續聚焦在台灣電影，我們的觀眾很可能會一點點地縮水，因為這個主題特定、具有針對性。目前在愛爾蘭並沒有另一個「東亞」影展，我們有日本影展、還有一些其他很棒的電影節，但沒有一個影展是針對「東亞」。所以我們想，好吧，如果我們壟斷這個市場的話，我們大概可以持續走三十年，因為這裡面可以發掘太多可能性。

還有，另一個原因是我們想放《花樣年華》（笑）。

我在開幕的時候第一次看35釐米版的《花樣年華》，非常非常棒。謝謝你們把這部片帶到都柏林！我的最後一個問題是，能透露任何關於明年影展的消息嗎？

Maria：我們有一些計畫，但目前一切都不確定......

Marie-Pierre：我們還必須要去坎城選片，再看看情況如何吧。

 

註1：2017年應海德堡大學漢學系及駐捷克代表處之邀請，兩處皆舉辦「侯孝賢電影節」，放映侯導電影約七至九部。侯孝賢與朱天文皆出席映後問答或座談。

註2：DCP英文全名 Digital Cinema Package，中文可為「數位拷貝」，意即將電影原始素材（底片或數位）經過轉檔或壓縮後，存於可攜式硬碟中。DCP是現在最為普遍的電影放映素材之一。

 

 

 

 

First of all, I would like to ask about your roles in this film festival and how the idea of this film festival came about? 

Maria: Maria O’Brien is my name and I am one of the co-organisers with my colleague Marie-Pierre Richard. We founded the festival in 2017. Last year we ran it with our friend Yvonne Kennedy who has taken a back-seat role this year because of family commitments. My description is, I think, co-organiser and academic liaison officer, and Marie-Pierre is the programme director and curator. I suppose we can talk about why we have separate roles as well; there’s too much for one person to do, you can’t do everything, so we are working towards our scale I suppose. But Marie-Pierre is the film buff and the curator. 

As for my background, I worked in Law for many years, and then I did a Masters in Screen Studies in Goldsmiths, University of London, and as part of that I did a course in Chinese cinema. That was about 14 years ago. But I had an interest [ in Asian cinema] before and since then. In fact, Chris Berry from King’s College London, who is our festival advisor, was my lecturer for that course. And I also did a research masters in Trinity College Dublin on the films of Ang Lee. So I was very interested in Taiwanese cinema as well as Asian cinema, but also the reception in the West of those films as well, that really drove us. 

Marie-Pierre: Yes, we had discussions and thought about doing something related to Asian cinema. I have been working as an independent film programmer for the last 20 years and since 2010, I am the director of the French Film Festival in Dublin organised by the Irish Film Institute, so that’s a bit of my background. I have always been interested in Asian cinema, and Yvonne is Taiwanese-American, so we decided to focus on Taiwan cinema and director Hou Hsiao-Hsien quite naturally came to mind. It was pretty vague in terms of how to shape things, so we started to programme, to put ideas together……that’s how we started. 

Maria: We knew we wanted to do a programme on Asian cinema and as we were very guest-driven, we managed to secure Hou Hsiao-Hsien as a guest, which was just…

Overwhelming!

Marie-Pierre: It was wonderful, because he agreed to come to Dublin which he had never visited before. We opened with The Assassin, and there were Q&A sessions, a masterclass…so last year’s festival was all around Hou Hsiao-hsien. 

I am curious as to what kind of processes you went through to secure Hou?

Marie-Pierre: We had contact with his personal assistant, we invited him and he agreed to come. He came with Chu Tien-wen. They were doing a tour in Europe, I think they went to Heidelberg and Prague as well. 

This question is for Marie-Pierre. When you started off, was there a certain aspect of Taiwan cinema that you wanted to present to the audience, and has that changed in the second year of the festival?

Marie-Pierre: There was a big difference between the first year and the second year. The first year was really about encountering Asian cinema. We decided to show rarely screened films, like A Time to Live, A Time to Die, A City of Sadness, Boys from Fengkeui……Hou’s personal assistant helped us to coordinate his visit, as well as to secure some of the screening material for Hou’s films.

Maria: We had a lot of help from Taiwan Film Institute as well. 

Through this presentation of Asian cinema, what kind of difficulties have you encountered?

Maria: Problems that I can see from my point of view, obviously funding is quite difficult to get. We have been really lucky this year in securing public funding from the Art Council and from Dublin City Council for the festival department which has helped a lot. We also had funding from Ministry of Culture in Taiwan last year and this year. But we also tried to get some private sponsorship. We had some success with that which has been great, but it can be difficult to tell a private company what value they can get from our festival because they have to trust you before the festival happens and this is only our second year. So we are happy with how that’s gone, it’s gone as well as it can I think, and we are hoping every year we will be able to increase the amount of funding we can get. Obviously, as film festivals go it’s relatively expensive because we have guests travelling from Asia, to secure the flights, secure the films, and the transport fee as well.

Audience wise, I think we haven’t had difficulties. Marie-Pierre has curated a really strong programme both years; and we’ve attracted a very diverse audience. There is a large Chinese/East Asian/South East Asian population in Ireland, and a lot of them are centred around Dublin. But we have been very diligent in wanting to attract not just an Irish audience but also a Chinese-language audience as well, and I think we have been really successful with that. With the numbers at our opening film last night, you could see a significantly diverse mix from all ethnicities, all countries and all ages as well. This year we have a family film as well, so we are hoping to get some kids there, which would be really good. 

What do you think are the reasons that your festival attracts such a diverse audience?

Maria: I think there are two reasons, one being a strong programme and another the guests. We made the decision before we started, that it would be guest-driven because Marie-Pierre has run the programme for French film festival for a good number of years; and that is very strong and had guests as well. The “added-value”, which is a real accounting term to use, but having a guest who can do Q&A sessions, and particularly the masterclass, adds this extra-dimension and extra level to a film festival which is invaluable. We can see in the numbers for the opening night and also last year that the films which had Q&As with them sold more than the other ones. I think the Irish audience, by which I mean the people in Ireland, recognise that getting to hear a cinematographer or a filmmaker or a director actually talk about their craft is irreplaceable, it’s once-in-a-lifetime and I think it’s absolutely fantastic. Therefore it’s a great dimension that we have and we certainly intend to continue with it. 

Marie-Pierre: Yes, I think it is important when you organise a festival, to always have a focus on something, for example like classic films. When you have a guest, especially someone like Hou Hsiao-Hsien, who has been making films for over 30 years, you can actually show his early films as well as more recent ones, and you have a meeting point there. 

What about securing screening materials? 

Marie-Pierre: Last year we screened the restored version of A Touch of Zen on DCP, which was perfect. You have to check whether it’s a DCP or print, does it have English subtitles, theatre rights etc. You just have to research. And if you cannot secure one film, you have to think of alternative. 

Maria: I think there’s also a balance required as well, which is difficult. You have a plan and then you don’t get one film and it may affect another film you’re considering having as well, so it is a very complicated process. 

Marie-Pierre: Yes and you have to keep the balance between genres as well, you don’t want it to be all comedies or all action films. So this year we decided to expand our festival to be an ‘East Asia Film Festival’ showing, for example, a family saga from Singapore, Ramen Shop. And also we are showing adventure films like Seventy-Seven Days, which is an Irish premiere and the latest work by Mark Lee. This is another reason as to why to have guests, somehow it helps you to build a stronger programme. Another benefit is that having a guest would help you secure the films more easily as the distributor knows the person who worked on this film would be coming to your festival.      

Mark Lee Ping-Bing Masterclass (Photo credit: Joshua Mulholland 2018)

Can you talk about how you secured the public funding from both Art Council and Dublin City Council? How did you persuade them?

Marie-Pierre: Watch the deadline!

Maria: The Arts Council is the public body in Ireland responsible for funding the arts. Their application process is very rigorous, but they are also very helpful. I conducted all the dealings we had with the Arts Council and they have been absolutely wonderful. I think the advice I would give to people doing it is to be clear about the aim of your festival, the focus of your festival, and also be very honest as well. If you have a strong festival and if you put time and energy into it, you are more likely to be successful as well, because the honesty shines through. On a practical level, as Marie-Pierre says, watch the deadlines, fill out the forms……the deadline for next years festival is this coming Thursday. We’ve been working on that for our 2019 festival. It is a little bit unfortunate timing for us, but at the same time quite fortunate that we are having our festival so it’s all very fresh in our minds, and we are thinking about our mission statement and stuff like that.

I think cinema is a strong art in Ireland. It is recognised not just as an industry but as a cultural and art form as well, so running a festival is really seen as being something very important. We have been really lucky to get funding for that and hopefully will continue to get funding as well. 

Marie-Pierre: I think we are lucky to be able to work with Irish Film Institute as well, because it is a top-niche venue with great programmes, it is just great that we have the trust and support from them. You can have a big project and sponsors and all that but if you don’t have the right venue, it can be really difficult as well. 

What do you want to achieve through this film festival?

Marie-Pierre: The goal I guess would be try to open a window to Asian cinema, showing classics as well as contemporary films, focusing on one particular filmmaker. At the same time, trying to keep the scale reasonable as well, because you don’t want to make it too big as there probably won’t be too many people coming…you have to be able to judge that as well. 

Maria: Yes, I think what we really want to achieve as well is doing something different that isn’t available otherwise. I think the films we show, as well as the masterclasses, Q&As, and having guests, constitute something that would not be happening if we didn’t do it. Of the programme we’ve picked, maybe one or two might be shown in other festivals, but we are quite focused on getting new things.

We also have a small animation programme as well, I don’t know if you noticed that, which is a really nice thing to do. That’s from Taipei National University of the Arts, a really really strong animation programme as well.

Marie-Pierre: So we are showing six short animation films. We have been working with them since 2017 and we hope to continue working with them in the future. The Animation Short Film Programme is organised in collaboration with Dr Chi-Sui Wang, Associate Professor at the Animation Department, Taipei National University of the Arts, and Curator at KuanDu International Animation Festival (KDIAF). Dr Wang is responsible for the initial selection of shorts for the festival, from which I select six to seven films and pairs them best with a film to play before a feature of the main programme. This is an exciting addition to the programme and a wonderful occasion to partner with an institution, as well as to be able to support emerging talents by showcasing works of animated filmmaking and exposing audiences to innovative animation techniques.

What do you find the most difficult about promoting East Asian films in a foreign environment, Ireland, in this case?

Maria: For me, it’s the language issues. I don’t speak Mandarin, Marie-Pierre and I both have grand plans to learn Mandarin at some stage in the future. Last year we had Yvonne Kennedy, who is a fluent Chinese speaker, which was great. It’s a little bit difficult for us of course, because we need things translated for us when seeing our guests; Mark Lee speaks great English, but still, It’s a little bit more difficult for him. But that’s not the reason not to do the festival. 

Marie-Pierre: For me, it’s finding themes that are universal so that people don’t find them too foreign or don’t relate to. You need to keep in mind when selecting the films as well, how universal the film is. 

But I think a good film should be universal, right? 

Maria: Exactly.

Marie-Pierre: That always helps you to select the films.

You expanded your festival from ‘Chinese-language’ to ‘East Asia’, can you talk a bit about this decision?

Maria: We wanted to broaden the festival because firstly, it is guest-driven. When we secured Mark Lee as our guest, obviously a lot of the films he has worked on, while he is Taiwanese, are not necessarily Taiwanese; secondly there are too many good films to pick from as well. I think if we had continued with the focus on Taiwan every year, our audience might have dwindled a little bit as it is so specific and so niche. There isn’t another East Asian film festival in Ireland; there are for example Japanese festival and other very good festivals, but there isn’t one that is focusing on inside East Asia. So we thought, well, if we cornered this market, then we have so much scope we can keep going for 30 years. And also because we wanted to show In the Mood for Love. Which is from Hong Kong!

I saw it at the opening night with this absolutely beautiful 35mm print. Thank you for bringing it to Dublin!

My last question is, can you tell me anything about next year’s festival?

Maria: We have some plans, but we don’t know yet……

Marie-Pierre: We will have to go to Cannes [to do programming] as well, but we will see. 

 

 

The third edition of EAFFI will take place in April or May 2019 at the Irish Film Institute, Dublin (exact dates to be confirmed soon)