Rotterdam’s artistic director Rutger Wolfson tells Edward Lawrenson about IFFR’s new format
Rutger Wolfson is strangely grateful to his ailing appendix. Despite suffering the acute discomfort of appendicitis a couple of weeks ago, the IFFR director is relieved it happened when it did. Any earlier and he would have been out of action during the push to confirm Rotterdam’s remaining titles; any later, and he’d have missed the immediate run-up to opening night. As it is, the 39-year-old Wolfson is calm – a measure of his confidence in the 2009 line-up. Although Wolfson took over in 2008, this is his first festival since being confirmed as IFFR’s permanent director. “I was happy with last year, but this year I feel much more comfortable in the sense that it’s as much my festival as all the other people who have worked on it”.
Simplified Structure
The most noticeable aspect of Wolfson’s tenureship is the changes he’s made to the structure of the programme. The format has been simplified into three sections: Bright Future (dedicated to new film-makers); Spectrum (which features works by established directors); and Signals (IFFR’s selection of thematic strands). Although the focus is inevitably on feature work (“Rotterdam will always be a film festival”, Wolfson says), the three strands no longer distinguish between shorts, installations, live performance and art pieces.
The reason for the new format was partly to counter the impression that Rotterdam’s programme had become too complex and unmanageable. But, more importantly, the change reflects the increasingly cross-disciplinary nature of film practice today. “It’s obvious that one of the most important developments in film these past ten years is the integration between the cinema screen and other types of screens,” explains Wolfson. It’s a response to the multi-platform realities of the digital age – Wolfson calls the format more “future-proof”.
But, he continues, the inclusion of different media in the three strands also responds to emerging aesthetic practices. “Right now, we are seeing the tradition of short film being enriched by live performance; and there are lots of examples of the fading boundaries between feature film-making and installations”, he says, citing film-makers such as Lav Diaz (invited to IFFR collaborate on the Haunted House, an exhibition inspired by Asian ghost films).
“Also, the different sections represent what are the most prominent qualities of IFFR,” Wolfson says. “We have a big reputation for discovering new talent, which is celebrated in Bright Future. We have strong and good taste, which you can see from Spectrum’s focus on established talent. And the third thing we’re good at it is flagging new developments in cinema and asking provocative questions – which is what Signals does.”
Open and Adventurous
Wolfson is also keen to launch new distribution initiatives to ensure the IFFR’s stand-out Tiger titles are more widely seen. But that will have to wait till next year, not least because the preparations for 2009 presented their own challenges. Although the credit crunch has yet to make a significant impact – “there are still a lot of industry delegates coming” – Wolfson admits “we had to look carefully at our spending this year” because of pressure on the festival’s budget surplus. Plus, Wolfson has been spending much of 2008 attending the major festivals for the first time. “What was most striking about traveling to other festivals was realizing how clearly articulated Rotterdam’s position is. We have a very strong artistic profile, and our choices aren’t driven by getting high-profile premieres. It’s a very open festival, open to new talent and adventurous film-making, and that’s what makes us very special.”