The courage to be personal

We live in a time that continuously produces moving images as a pure commodity.
The knowledge and the conception of the world and the human being are delivered to us through these images. The greed of the media industry and its hunt for a big audience subject us to the threat of conformism. We are forced to see the same things on the same occasions in the world at the same time. Beside this threatening fact there are films that demand a conscious contemplative way of behaviour.

These are films that offer not only entertainment, recreation, self reflections or shadows but claim they have something to tell us - they address us in an unexpected and indescribable manner. Suddenly everything becomes present and we get the feeling of being part of something essential. Our contemporary time and the existential quests become visible. It is the distinctive individuality and the personal voice in these films that appeal to us.

The personal form of address is not a matter of trying to find something within oneself which is projected to the artistic work or an early childhood experience which is transmitted to the screen. Certainly it is important how the artist meets the world. But the self-experienced can never explain the dialogue which arises when the artist encounters the world with his whole body, soul, intellectuality and spirituality.

In this very dialogue, in which nothing escapes the film director's eye, lies the cradle of the tale. Through enthusiasm, desire and with an open mind to study the world the director is able to build up a storage of inner pictures which enables him to be genuinely creative. The personal form of address originates from the courage to meet with life in an open dialogue.

Göran du Rées
Professor and artistic mentor