KAZAKHSTANIS BREAK DOWN DOORS TO GET INTO U.S. FILM

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ALMATY 000264

SIPDIS

STATE FOR ECA/PE/C/CU DSCHUMAN AND SCOHEN, EUR/PPD
JBASEDOW, EUR/CACEN JMUDGE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OIIP KPAO SCUL OEXC KZ POLITICAL
SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTANIS BREAK DOWN DOORS TO GET INTO U.S. FILM
FESTIVAL


1. Summary: Embassy Almaty's first American film festival
in November, featuring five films from U.S. producer Michael
Fitzgerald, was widely viewed as the cultural event of the
season, with audience attendance exceeding expectations.
Combining the film screenings with a program of master
classes and meetings with local filmmakers produced some
tangible benefits as well, including the likely production
this year in Kazakhstan of Fitzgerald's next film. This
program, advancing the MPP goal of mutual understanding,
showed once again how film can serve as a powerful tool of
public diplomacy, changing perceptions of people and
countries. End summary.


2. Eager to see non-commercial American films, throngs of
Kazakhstani filmgoers last fall broke the hinge of an
auditorium door while cramming to get into one of the five
films shown during the November 2005 "Herald Fitzgerald!"
film festival organized by the U.S. embassy Public Affairs
Section. The week-long festival-offering a retrospective of
the films of American producer Michael Fitzgerald and a
series of master classes led by the producer himself-was the
Almaty cultural event of the season. Whether they were
students in jeans or VIPs bedecked in jewels and furs, many
of the filmgoers expressed their deep appreciation of the
event; some said it was "the best thing the American embassy
has ever done here."

America Seen Anew


3. The program was exceptional because through the
personality of producer Michael Fitzgerald and his
representation of the contemporary American film world,
Kazakhstani audiences developed a new respect for and
interest in not only American film but also American culture
in general. This program showed once again that film can
serve as a powerful tool of public diplomacy, changing
perceptions of people and countries.


4. The festival, giving Kazakhstani audiences a view of
films not widely seen in the commercial market, began with a
sneak preview of Fitzgerald's "The Three Burials of
Melquiades Estrada," a Cannes award-winning film that had
not yet been shown in the United States. After the
screening of each of the five films, Fitzgerald chatted with
the audience, often discussing themes universal to both
Americans and Kazakhstanis. During one of these
discussions, an audience member said, "I had no idea that
America produced serious films." With respect to "The Three
Burials," Kazakhstanis easily grasped the film's themes of
atomization and self-involvement in American society, seeing
these as aspects of a culture striving to be free-and
perhaps too free if that striving includes being free of
family and community ties and a sense of obligation to
others. One person during the discussion noted that
although some of the portrayals of American society were
negative, only an open society willing to take a critical
look at itself could make such a film.


5. While Fitzgerald conducted master classes during the
day, the students with whom he met spread the word about the
festival, as did those who were coming to the screenings, so
the size of the audiences grew successively throughout the
event. Based on the Flannery O'Connor novel, Fitzgerald's
film "Wiseblood" evoked words like "amazing" and
"wonderful." "Under the Volcano," "Mr. Johnson," and the
festival's final film, "The Pledge" all were departures from
blockbuster movies, and fine examples of how the medium can
be used to make us think about the world we have created.
It was at the showing of the festival's last film, "The
Pledge," that a crush of patrons gathered outside the doors
leading into the auditorium. Although a theater manager was
valiantly attempting to control the numbers of persons who
got through, the crowd actually took the hinges off one of
the doors. An embassy officer counting seats at the front
of the house ran back and forth between the door and the
seating to tell the manager that there was still room for 50
more persons. In the end, almost everyone got a seat.

Fitzgerald's Visit Boosts Kazakhstani Filmmaking


6. Fitzgerald was a charming person who, during master
classes at the Academy of Arts, regaled both film students
and the big players in Kazakhstani independent film with
tales of serious filmmaking in a commerce-driven world.
Word traveled quickly in Kazakhstan's artistic community,
and, just as the film audiences grew, so, too, did
Fitzgerald's three-hour master classes, each one drawing
more and more local film experts. (When Fitzgerald left
Kazakhstan, he took scripts of many Kazakhstani film
students and promised to read them and provide comments.)


7. An important part of the program was devoted also to
informal meetings with Kazakhstani film specialists. As
Kazakhstan is currently experiencing a rebirth of
independent, small-budget films, this showcase of American
independent films and discussions provided an excellent
opportunity to support the revitalization of the Kazakhstani
film industry.


8. A further, serendipitous result of Fitzgerald's presence
was his desire to enhance a grant from the Ambassador's Fund
for Cultural Preservation to Kazakhstan's Central State
Archive for Film Preservation. In addition to the funds,
the grant is providing to the archive, Fitzgerald offered
to put the archive director in touch with philanthropist
David Packard to assist in the director's pursuit of a $1
million TeleCinema machine to preserve film for all of
Central Asia.


9. Fitzgerald was assisted ably during the master classes
and other meetings by local film director and producer Ermek
Shirnabayev, who translated, interpreted, and escorted
Fitzgerald everywhere, including to meetings with potential
film backers. Shirnabayev, with his boundless energy,
turned out to be a great match for our cultural envoy. We
understand that Fitzgerald has been offered financial
support from Kazakhstani sources and, therefore, plans to
make his next film in Kazakhstan. Based on the novel,
"Waiting for the Barbarians" by South African writer J.M.
Coetzee, the film venture will engender U.S.-Kazakhstani
cooperation, and no doubt Shirnabayev will play a role in
making this project come about.

Security - A Little Bubbly Took the Edge Off


10. Due to concerns about possible pirating of our sneak
preview film, "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada," the
screening was planned as a by-invitation-only event replete
with bag searches and magnetomer. Being prepared for the
usual 40-50 percent of the guests to show up, we were taken
aback as we ferried invitations around town: almost everyone
presented with an invitation expressed a firm intention of
coming. We were worried for a time that our guests would
outnumber the seats. (Fortunately, they did not.) Prepared
also for unhappiness on the part of our VIPs due to the
necessity of putting them through security procedures, we
ushered them from the magnetometer into the lobby for
champagne and chocolate before the film.


11. In the name of security, we also made our guests give
up their prized cell phones. Even though we advised them
well in advance that cell phones would not be permitted in
the auditorium, about 340 of 350 guests brought them anyway.
We had anticipated this and engaged GSO to build cubbyhole
shelving that we numbered, giving guests a correspondingly
numbered ticket for their phones. The only blemish on the
evening, therefore, was when one guest lost her numbered
ticket, someone else found it, and then claimed the owner's
phone.


12. There were assorted glitches and lessons learned in
spite of myriad count down meetings, creation of individual
festival schedules for the entire PAS staff, and sedulous
planning with the RSO. "Wise Blood," for example, suddenly
turned into "Mister Johnson" about a third of the way
through. Theater staff mixed up the reels, so we had to
show "Wise Blood" in its entirety the next morning. A delay
in showing "The Pledge" occurred because the projectionists
had put the film on the platters upside down. The problem
was remedied pretty quickly. Nonetheless, we and the
Kazakhstanis were enormously pleased, our guests asking when
the next film festival would take place. . . .


13. GPRA Reporting Information

--Date, Fiscal Year, and Quarter: October 29-November 5,
2005 (1st quarter, FY 06).

--Justification and Objective: to introduce Kazakhstani
audiences to independent American films. Kazakhstani
audiences have almost no exposure to high-quality
contemporary American films. The only U.S films shown in
Kazakhstan are blockbuster and "B" films. The Fitzgerald
film festival thus filled a gap for Kazakhstani artists and
citizens at large.

--MPP Strategic Goal and Audience Reached: this program
addressed the MPP goal of "Mutual Understanding" with
respect to U.S. society and values. One of the film viewers
noted that it was very "American" for the U.S. government to
sponsor a festival that included films that did not always
show U.S. government officials in a positive light.

--The target audience for the program was diverse-young
filmmakers, film critics, faculty, independent filmmakers,
producers, students of the Academy of Arts, alumni of USG
programs, and the general public.

--Results: see paras 1-12.

--Non-USG sources of in-country funding/in-kind support:
space at the Academy of Arts to hold master classes.

--Quality of U.S. Support and IIP Offices Involved:
Outstanding. This was a very complicated event with the
handling of the "The Three Burials" film. We express our
gratitude to ECA/PE/C/CU Susan Cohen for her efforts in
finding Michael Fitzgerald and for her administrative and
moral support, without which the festival would not have
been possible.
ASQUINO