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FESTIVALS France

Villette cancelled

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The 14th edition of Paris’s Villette Film Festival has been cancelled as a result of the entertainment workers’ protest.
Past editions of Villette allowed Parisians to enjoy classic films on a giant outdoor screen set up in the eponymous park. The 14th edition was scheduled to run from 8 July to 14 August. It is the latest in a long list of French film and cultural events that are falling by the wayside this year because of entertainment workers’ determination to hold on to their exceptionally generous unemployment benefits that the government is set on cutting drastically starting early in 2004.
Meanwhile, ARP, the writers-directors and producers’ guild and a number of filmmakers including Patrice Chéreau asked the protestors to be a little more low-key and accept the process that is underway, given that determination to hold on to a specific statute means accessing unemployment benefits will become even more difficult – a point of view that is not shared by the artists (who managed to “down tools” on 21 film sets during their general strike of 9 July). Indeed, they are planning a second strike for the end of the summer.

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(Translated from French)

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