Editor's Note

As Winter has arrived and the Fall festival season has ended—a wrap-up of which we present herein—I again feel the need to respond to current events. No, not the US election: The terrible news has arrived that Cinema Scope contributor and long-time friend Quintín (Eduardo Antin), and his partner, Flavia de la Fuente, have been fired as the director and program manager of the Buenos Aires International Film Festival, which in the last few years has quickly become one of the world’s great cinephile events. I can’t say that I’m shocked, as I’d heard numerous stories about the incompatibility between the city government, who funds the festival, and Quintín and Flavia. But who fires a director five months before the festival, after much of the program has been set and invited? And do the bureaucrats in charge of these decisions have any idea as to the potential ramification to the festival and the reputation of Buenos Aires?

The reaction in the international film community has been swift. A massive petition protesting the firing is running in the December issue of El Amante Cine (the Argentine film magazine Quintín and Flavia founded) and will run in the January Cahiers du Cinéma. The petition, written by Claire Denis and Cahiers editor Jean-Michel Frodon, features protesting filmmakers including Olivier Assayas, Catherine Breillat, Hong Sang-soo, Lee Chang-dong, Jia Zhangke, and prominent critics and programmers, and states: “We, in charge of festivals or archives, film critics and journalists, producers and film traders, and, of course, we, filmmakers, have learned the brutal eviction of Eduardo Antin (Quintín), Director of the Buenos Aires Festival (BAFICI), he and his programming team made the capital of Argentina a major meeting point for all of us, and strongly helped the worldwide recognition of Argentinean cinema. We do need him.”

Others, such as Kent Jones and Jonathan Rosenbaum (who have protested in open letters), have eloquently testified as to the importance Quintín and Flavia have brought to both Buenos Aires and the festival world. Briefly, let me note that it was a shock when I first arrived in Buenos Aires to discover that, for example, no Michael Snow film has been shown prior to the BAFICI screening of *Corpus Callosum in 2002 (to more enthusiasm that it received in Toronto or Rotterdam). There are surely tens, if not hundreds, of comparable examples, and each year Quintín and Flavia have been running the show, that list gets shorter. The BAFICI amounts to an unparalleled contemporary survey of a specific kind of nonmainstream, alternative auteur cinema, a generally uncompromising view. Whenever I have presented directors or films in Buenos Aires, the audience reaction has been extremely impressive. The audience has come to expect a certain type of adventurous programming, and it would be a shame were that to change.

But just as important from my own, admittedly narrow point of view, is the sense of camaraderie that Quintín and Flavia have provided over the five years of Cinema Scope, in terms of moral and practical support as magazine founders, and film festival goers. By camaraderie, I refer to advice, but also the too-important quality of being able to cut through the bullshit that most critics, programmers, and the like have spew daily, instead reacting to films in a manner that is always interesting and valid (even in those cases when we might disagree). All of this may mean little to the mayor of Buenos Aires, certainly less so than any potential economic loss due to reduced audiences or cooperation from national film bodies or sales agents. I can’t testify for certain this would happen, though I can’t imagine that their successor-to-be could marshal the amount of relationships Quintín and Flavia have forged in the last decade. All I know is that I will miss Buenos Aires, as, unless the situation changes, I’m sure I’ll never attend the BAFICI again, and I’m also sure I’m not alone.

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Errata Issue 20: In last issue’s review of Old Boy by Ed Park, Park Chan-wook was mistakenly identified as the director of the section of the omnibus film If You Were Me that was actually directed by Park Kwang-su. From one Park to two others, apologies are extended.

Mark Peranson

Editor and Publisher
Mark Peranson
Art Direction and Design
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MAGAZINE PHOTO CREDITS
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