18/03/2003 - Belgian webzine, Cinérgie interviews the Fund's director who explains the work he does and how he does it

Set up two years ago in Mons, and based on an idea of the regional authorities, the role of the regional Wallimage Fund consists in supporting productions made in Walloon. Belgian webzine “"Cinergie" interviewed the Fund’s DG, Philippe Reynaert. Here is an excerpt of what he had to say.

Please explain what you mean by regional support for cinema?
"The recent involvement of the regions in the film production field. Twelve years ago, local authorities thought of cinema from just the national point of view. Taking stock of the financial context of the film industry changed all that. Germany was the first country to come up with the idea for regional funds in its “Landers”. We in Europe really need to think long and hard about the support we extend to our culture and to finance in both economic and infrastructure terms. The Wallimage is a recent Belgian creation. It is still an isolated example: if the Flemish Region is involved in its film industry through its management of the Flemish Community, the Brussels Region is completely out of the picture. A few months ago I was invited to Italy to explain and illustrate the Wallimage project and the Italian region of Puglia decided to create something similar. That is a novelty. Until recently, Europe was divided into two in terms of regional subsidies: in the South, the tradition of offering locations and logistic support prevailed, with, as a consequence, a return in terms of tourism while the north made a purely financial contribution.”

Even if the artistic guarantor of films continues to be the Minister for Culture, do you think it is possible to create regional alliances?
"On becoming head of the Walon Regional Fund, I set myself the task of outsourcing and coordinating other regional funds in Europe. In order to maintain its equilibrium, the world really needs a true Europe. That is something that does not exist yet. No single country can stand up to the pressures put upon it by American industries. Our cultural industries need pan-European strategies. In real terms, five regional funds joined forces to present just such a project to the FEDER authorities (European Regional Funds). We asked for the opportunity to share our experiences and learn about the relative procedures, without however surrendering our distinguishing characteristics. The participating funds are from Holland, Walloon, Germany, Austria and, for Italy, Puglia. These five created the “Interreg” plan (inter-regional) whose function lies in organising meetings between the various regional funds. I think that this is the way to go for the future of film funding.”

Inteviewed by Jean-Michel Vlaeminvckx