The cultural impacts of film festivals in multicultural cities:

the case of Barcelona Asian Film Festival

Alba Colombo

Open University of Catalonia

acolombo@uoc.edu

European Festival Research Project

Urban impact of artistic festivals

Helsinki Workshop – 11-12 April, 2008

Some preliminary ideas:

• Under the influence of/in response to a globalised world some European cities are undergoing change in their societies and their identities, and thus becoming a part of the worldwide Network Society (Castells 2001)

• Cultural dialogue is a critical issue for multicultural cities in Europe

• Cultural events such as film festivals may play a role as catalysts of cultural communication (developing intercultural dialogue and competence).

• They may have specific/unique cultural impacts on European multicultural cities

• Collect information about the cultural impacts of film festivals within the framework of a multicultural society and through the presentation of a specific case study.

• Establish a research methodology with both qualitative and quantitative dimensions that allows for the exploration and analysis of the topic.

Research objectives, to:

Focus of the study:

Film Festival

Typologies:• Festivals

– Competitive programmes – Première films

• Muestras (festival)– Generally: non competitive programmes– Recent films

• Cycles (Film weeks)– Non-competitive programmes – Thematic related films, premières, recent and old films

Content delimitation: • Genre (comedy, horror, gender, science fiction…etc.)• Culture (Arabic, Jewish, Kurdish, France, Italian…etc.)• Geographic preference (African, Asian, Latin-American..etc.)

• This research aims to analyse the cultural impacts of the cultural activity.

• The direct and indirect cultural impacts include: cultural event, press, communication …etc.

• The cultural impact of an activity includes their social impacts which should be analysed as a part of this structure.

Focus of the study:

Cultural Impact

• Sections:

– Official, Asian selection, D-Cinema, guest country; China, Animation Zone, Special screenings

• Parallel activities:– Parties - Bollywood opening party – Concerts: Japan electronic music

Case study:

Barcelona Asian Film Festival 2007

USA

Holland

France

Co-producers: 3

Hong KongChinaMalaysiaJapanSouth Korea India

TaiwanCambodia ThailandIndonesia

FilipinasTajikistan

Asian Countries: 13

4 cinemas

6 screening rooms

64 Large Films

11 short film programme

April- May1.000

Retinas

www.baff-bcn.org

22.000 Spectators9 edition (1998)

Some general information for

Barcelona 2007:

• 1,603,178 Population

• 259,760 Foreign population

(16.2% of the total population)

• 41,441 Asian population

(16% of the foreign population)

Social context:

Barcelona as a multicultural city

Source: Catalonia National Institute of Statistics (www.idesact.net)

Barcelona nationalities of foreign population 1986-2007

0

50.000

100.000

150.000

200.000

250.000

300.000

1986 1991 1996 2001 2006 2007

total population European African American Asia and oceania

• Casa Asia is the only institution that has a relationship with the Asian community/geographic origin of the films.

• The festival itself has no direct relationship with the BCN Asian communities.

• The festival has no direct contact with the Asian population in Barcelona.

• The festival is financed by the Spanish government, the Catalan government and the city council.

Some considerations

Methodological approach

Hypothesis

• Through attending the festival the audience increases its contact with/ understanding of Asian cultures.

• The audience of the festival is predominantly drawn from Catalan/Spanish people but the percentage drawn from the Asian population is relatively low.

• If the festival were to have a stronger relationship with Barcelona’s Asian communities the cultural impact would be higher.

• Whilst the festival has connecting and communicative elements it is not really developing the dialogue between the Asian cultures and the Catalan/Spanish community/culture.

Research instruments• Surveys: festival audience• Interviews: BAFF directors, film distributors, Asian communities in

Barcelona • Documental analysis, catalogues, publications, press …etc

• In order to help in the development of this cultural communication (developing intercultural dialogue and competence) it would be a good idea to include/encourage some co production programmes between Spanish and Asian producers during the festival.

• The festival should offer parallel activities that specifically link the festival with Asian cultural associations, institutions and enterprises.

• The festival should seek to link with other Asian cultural activities that take place in the city at other times in the year.

• That the festival should aim to develop its audience platform through a festival friends scheme

Preliminary recommendations

Thanks for your attention

Comments and suggestions are very welcome

Alba Colomboacolombo@uoc.edu