02/11/2010

From November 1-7, the 15th Cinéma Tous Ecrans Film Festival will try to blend cinema and television, whilst adding – in the name of modernity – a touch of multimedia creation and a hint of technological innovation (interactive stories and other works for new screens such as mobile phones and computers).

This is a special edition, as it is the first headed by Claudia Durgnat. She succeeds Léo Kaneman, who was artistic director and founder of the event.

Set up in Geneva in 1995, the Cinéma Tous Ecrans Festival was initially called Cinéma Tout Ecran. This shift from singular to plural came about due to the event’s radical transformation.

The opening up of new audiovisual distribution channels – in particular the Internet – created entirely new forms of storytelling that the organisers needed to explore. Today, these forms have their own place at the heart of the festival, in selections such as WebFilms, WebSeries and Interactive Fictional.

However, cinema is not overshadowed. Indeed, it takes pride of place, whether it be in the feature film competition, which includes auteurs like Poland’s Jacek Borcuch (All that I Love [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), North America’s Eyad Zahra (The Taqwacores) and Norway’s Hakon Liu (Miss Kicki [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), or the Carte Blanche to composer Alexandre Desplat (who penned original scores for The Queen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andy Harries
interview: Stephen Frears
film profile], Lust, Caution and Syriana).

Moreover, it is a cinematic work that best encapsulates the daring combinations explored by Cinéma Tous Ecrans: Low Cost (Claude Jutra) by Swiss filmmaker Lionel Baier (Another Man [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lionel Baier
film profile]), one of the leading figures of French-speaking Swiss arthouse cinema.

This narrative film was shot over ten years between Lausanne and Ouagadoudou with one of the most low-cost pieces of filmmaking equipment available to directors: the mobile phone.

(Translated from French)