Ludmila Cvikova
Having worked as a programmer for the IFFR for fifteen years, Ludmila Cvikova is heading off to Qatar, to take up the position of Head of International Programming at the Doha Film Institute – a relatively new organisation at the heart of one of the regions in which Ludmila specialises: the Middle East.
Over the course of her long career with the IFFR, Ludmila often played a decisive role within the programming team, specialising in a large geographical area that included Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Balkans, Iran, Turkey, Greece and the Middle East. Her last achievement at the IFFR was the enthusiastically received Red Westerns Programme: a selection of almost forgotten ‘Socialist Westerns’ from the former Soviet Union. She is now looking forward to a new start in Doha as change, she firmly believes, is a great impulse for creativity.
You are now Head of International Programming at the Doha Film Institute. What are your most important tasks there?
The first thing will be, together with my colleagues, to put together the programme for the
Doha Tribeca Film Festival, which takes place from 25 to 29 October. Then my focus will be on programming for the institute for the rest of the year. It is fascinating to follow the developments taking place in the Arab film world through the DFI’s Fund and through educational projects. The Middle East was one of my areas of specialisation when I worked for the IFFR, so I am quite familiar with that region and I am looking forward to meeting new filmmakers and people from the industry. One of the major aims of the DFI is to support the growth of the film industry in that region, and I am proud to be a part of this.
You thought long and hard about leaving the IFFR to go to Doha. What was the decisive factor in your decision?
The fifteen years I spent as a programmer at the IFFR mean a great deal to me, both in professional and personal terms. What’s more, I am someone who is always happy, smiling and whistling on my way to work. A change can be a good stimulus; it can give a new creative impulse. When I received the invitation from executive director Amanda Palmer to work for the DFI, I was open to the challenge. The DFI is a relatively new organisation, so this will give me the chance to help build it up and get to know a lot of new people from all over the world – I find this a very attractive proposition. And the fact that, like the IFFR, the DFI has a fund and devotes a great deal of attention to education, also appeals greatly to me. I believe in the development of the organisation and the developments in film that are taking place in that region.
You have spent many years working as a programmer for a large, highly diverse geographical area. How do political and social developments influence your work as a programmer?
Culture, history, politics and economics have a great influence on the film climate of a country. My journey of discovery through the region only really started in earnest when I visited the Moscow International Film Festival in the summer of 1997. There, I met a lot of film professionals from the former Soviet Union: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan... It made a great impression on me; there was a lot of really pioneering work going on in that period. The same applied to Sarajevo, where I arrived in 1998, two years after the siege. So I witnessed the rebuilding process. I saw the Sarajevo Film Festival learning to stand on its own two feet, like a child: and look what an impressive, important festival Sarajevo has now become! This work has also brought me some very strong and unforgettable friendships. It is extremely rewarding to be in contact with the cultural elites of many different countries and to see and hear how they as artists are experiencing the developments in their countries.
Ludmila at the VPRO Late Night Talkshow, during the IFFR 2011. On the screen in the background: Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi.
Could you tell us a little about your history at the festival?
I started at the IFFR as a student in the early 1990s. At that time, the Hilton was still the heart of the festival, where everything happened. It was so busy; it was sometimes difficult just to get from the entrance to the lift. In those days, you could just walk up to the big-name directors, have a glass of wine and talk about films with them. A great learning opportunity for any film-lover, myself included. In December 1996, the festival directors at the time – Simon Field and Sandra de Hamer – asked me to support a programme, after another programmer who specialised in Eastern Europe left. This was a big challenge; Oleg Kovalov was the Filmmaker in Focus, and his entire oeuvre was to be shown to the public just one month later. Luckily, it all went well and the programme was a success – it gave me the feeling of ‘I can do anything’! During the fifteen years that followed, I met fantastic film-makers – my heroes – and had unforgettable experiences. To name just a few: Jan Svankmajer, Alexander Sokurov, Alexei Balabanov, Carlos Reygadas, Cristian Mungiu, Svetlana Proskurina, Larisa Sadilova, Viktor Sukhorukov, Harutyun Khachatryan, Lee Chang Dong, Jafar Panahi and Abbas Kiarostami, Béla Tarr, Kornèl Mundruczó, and many, many others.
If you could pick one great memory or anecdote that embodies your time at the IFFR, what would it be?
There are so many unforgettable moments. Such as in 1998, when two Czech directors were nominated in the Tiger Awards Competition and one of them, Petr Zelenka, even went on to win, with his film Knoflikarí. And it was fantastic to personally introduce Jan Svankmajer to the audience in Pathé 1 at the last festival, in 2011. Meeting the actor Gojko ‘the Indian’ Mitic was also a personal highlight for me. He was the hero in Eastern Europe during the 1960s and ‘70s, and was in Rotterdam during the last IFFR for the Red Westerns programme. I will also never forget the trips to Moscow with director Rutger Wolfson, especially when we introduced the IFFR in Moscow and were appointed honorary members of the Club Cinefantom. My successor at the IFFR, Russian film critic Evgeny Gusyatinskiy, was also there and is a great admirer of the festival. I am convinced that what I am leaving behind at the IFFR will be in good hands.
Ludmila with Jan Svankmajer
What will you miss the most?
My lovely colleagues – but hopefully these professional friendships will carry on in other areas of life.
What are you most looking forward to in your new job in Doha?
As I said, the new challenges I will face within the DFI as a new, ambitious and expanding organisation. I look forward to discovering life and culture in Qatar and the other countries in the region, including learning the language! I learned Dutch, so hopefully I will also be able to get to grips with Arabic! I would like to discover other Arab countries and their cultures, such as Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, Egypt, Syria... A bit like how my journey of discovery began at the IFFR, fifteen years ago.