Raphael Vassallo
It could be the script for a classic administrative horror flick – with just seven days to go before the opening of the two-day Kinemastik International Short Film Festival in Valletta, the organisers have been brusquely informed they no longer have access to the festival’s traditional venue.
“As you may know, for the past five years we have held an international short film festival at what has until now been referred to as Gnien il-Gardjola, in Valletta,” Kinemastik spokesman Slavko Vukanovic told MaltaToday. “The official name of the garden, we have since been told, is St Peter and St Paul’s counterguard, and it now ‘falls under the guardianship’ of Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna...”
Also an NGO, Heritage watchdog FWA is entrusted with the maintenance and management of numerous historical sites across Malta. But when transferring stewardship of the St Peter and St Paul counterguard to its care, it seems no one gave any thought to the fact that an amateur film festival, attracting anywhere up to 700 aficionados each year, would be evicted at the eleventh hour as a result.
Talking to MaltaToday, Vukanovic described the angst and frustration upon discovering that the gates to the garden had been padlocked overnight, and permission to use the venue emphatically denied.
“The Valletta Local Council was not aware of this change of hands, and all along we thought that they were responsible for issuing permits,” Vukanovic said. “Although we applied for the permit some time in May, it was only last Friday (a week before the event) that we were informed that, as much as they want to help us, the issue is no longer in their hands...”
Vukanovic also said that after hearing their complaints, FWA offered to provide Kinemastik an alternative venue... but implied that permission would only be granted in return for a donation.
“We don’t have funding for that kind of thing,” Vukanovic added. “We are a non-profit NGO. Besides, we don’t see how an NGO like FWA could help in enhancing this country’s cultural diversity by asking another NGO for donations. If anything, we should be working together to build up this country’s cultural image: each to our own abilities. We fully support preservation of all these historical sites, but it also must be clear that they belong to the people, and they can’t just be locked up because of plans for work to be done in the future...”
Contacted by this newspaper, FWA chairman Mario Farrugia confirmed that his NGO had secured EU funding for a project that proposes to integrate the counterguard with other nearby historic attractions, formibg a themed and managed heritage park.
The project is scheduled to commence in October, leaving plenty of time for next weekend’s film festival to go ahead as planned. But the venue still cannot be used for this purpose, because – according to Farrugia – it is unsafe.
“The bastions don’t have railings, and the bridge leading to the site is condemned,” Farrugia said yesterday, denying that he had asked for a donation.
“We did offer them (Kinemastik) the use of other sites we manage, so long as they covered expenses such as generators, etc, and did not charge any entrance fee. After all, if they are a non-profit organisation they shouldn’t be charging money for their events.”
Ironically, however, FWA itself – also a non-profit NGO – charges admission fees for a number of events advertised on its website: including children’s birthday parties at Fort Rinella, advertised at €12 per child.
Kinemastik is now left with the uphill struggle of finding a suitable alternative venue to salvage the festival, with only three days to go.
A glance at this year’s programme reveals an emphasis on local productions, including The Bigger Picture’s award-winning WW2 short feature, 333. For the first time in the festival’s history, one of the three separate screens had in fact been reserved exclusively for Maltese productions.
“We’d like to inform our audience that we’re trying our best to obtain all the necessary permits for another location this week, so hopefully by tomorrow, we may be able to announce through our website (www.kinemastik.org) a new home for our Short Film Festival,” Vukanovic said.
Any comments?
If you wish your comments to be published in our Letters pages please click button below. Please write a contact number and a postal address where you may be contacted.
Download front page in pdf file format
All the interviews from Reporter on MaltaToday's YouTube channel.
