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Achim Stampehl
Portrait of Hansjoachim Stampehl.UNICA Treasurer, died on 14th October 2004

We could hardly believe it, when this sad message reached us, only a few weeks after UNICA 2004 in Veitshoechheim, which was led by Achim. It is incomprehensible that he is no longer with us.

With the death of Achim Stampehl UNICA loses not only a colleague, but a genuine friend, who was always open to change and always acted in the best interests of UNICA friends. Thanks to him the financial situation of UNICA improved. Achim understood how to balance things and how to solve problems with charm and his warm, sympathetic personality. His death leaves a large gap in the structure of UNICA. We can only hope that this can be closed again as quickly as possible.

Dear Rosemarie, in the name of all film friends, we offer you our sincere condolences for your suffering at the loss of your husband. We will always keep Achim in our hearts.

Max Hänsli (CHE), President of UNICA


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Letter from the President

Portrait of Max Hansli.TO THE NATIONAL FEDERATIONS AFFILIATED TO UNICA

UNICA 2004 was a great success. Over 300 participants came to Veitshöchheim and some 120 videos were screened.

The UNICA General meeting took place on Thursday. All the reports submitted were approved unanimously. The proposal made by Poland for a change of name for UNICA was passed with the minimum number of votes, making it a kind of "American election". Upon request by the German Federation, it was decided that the proposal should be re-examined. France will redraft the version submitted to the General Meeting as a new proposal to be taken as a reference and we will forward it to you in due course so that you have the opportunity to give an opinion.

Unfortunately, only 10 federations have filled out and returned the questionnaire submitted by Serge Michel/UNESCO as part of the project "Lists of major works in the Film library of your Federation". This action carried out in co-operation with UNESCO has great significance for UNICA and I urge you to return this questionnaire as soon as possible to Serge Michel. Thank you in advance.

  • The UNICA 2007 Congress will not take place in Saint-Petersburg (RUS). The Committee has been empowered to make contacts with other would-be organisers. Isn't there some one in your federation interested in the challenge of organising the 2007 Congress?
  • The organisers of the UNICA 2005 Festival which will take place in Blankenberge (BEL), gave a video presentation that aroused attention and interest. At the start of 2005, the organisers will send to all potential participants detailed information and documentation. The preparations are already in full swing and we wish all the best to the organisers. Please draw the attention of your members to this forthcoming event.
  • The organisers of the UNICA 2006 Festival in Korea also gave a presentation in Veitshöchheim. Since it will be necessary to make hotel reservations as early as the end of 2004, a provisional registration form has been circulated. This document - in three languages - is appended. Please publish this information as soon as possible via your federation magazine. Only thus will we be in a position to tell the Korean team the number of rooms to be pre-booked.

Use the UNICA Internet site to stay informed! Arie de Jong - our webmaster - spares no effort to keep all the information published up to date. The address of this site is www.unica.to

Please do not hesitate to make contact if you have further questions.

All information concerning UNICA - this one and the those to come in the future - is dispatched to federations using the e-mail addresses, fax numbers and postal addresses known to us.

Sincerely yours

Max Hansli (CHE), President of UNICA


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Report to all National Federations and UNICA Friends

Ladies and gentlemen, dear film friends

The UNICA committee met in the Netherlands (Lelystad) from November 04 to 07 2004 following an invitation from our Secretary-general Jan Essing. Only two members did not attend the meeting: Rolf Mandolesi, currently recovering from a minor operation in hospital, and our treasurer, Achim Stampehl, who died shortly after the end of the UNICA 2004 Festival..

The death of Achim Stampehl is a great loss for UNICA: he has taken care of the UNICA finances in a masterly way and was undoubtedly one of the most active members of our Committee. We know that all film friends will all keep him in best memory.

Treasurer

One of the major topics during this meeting was therefore the question of identifying a possible successor to Achim, as required by the UNICA Statutes. Preliminary discussions with various persons had not provided a solution. However, the meeting expressed the opinion that the successor should be a member of the present committee because only such a member who has been involved in UNICA work for many years could be in charge of this office and perform the tasks successfully. We also thought that (s)he should be a young person likely to be in office for a longer period of time.

Portrait of Thomas Krauchi. Considering few members of the committee fulfilled these conditions, it appeared that the person in question could only be Thomas Kräuchi, who has been in charge of technical matters at UNICA for many years. He has already been a treasurer for two associations and is the manager of the company he has created. He declared himself ready to take up this office and devote much of his energy to it; the committee gave unanimous approval to the proposal and confirmed the decision with applause. Thomas will soon get in touch with Mrs. Rosemarie Stampehl to hand over the files and accounts. Appropriate changes will also be carried out in the banks so that the transfer should be done without any problem. The 2005 General assembly will have to vote about this decision by the Committee, in accordance with our Statutes. We wish all the best to the new treasurer in his office. He will at the same time carry on with his activity concerning technical matters.

Name

The second important item on the agenda was a possible change of name for UNICA, an issue which had already been examined at the 2004 General assembly 2004 and then transferred to the Committee. Rather unexpectedly, the proposal which is probably simplest and likely to be accepted by all, including the opponents to the change was eventually adopted by all members. It consists in removing the adjective "non professional" from the current denomination, so that the new name would be as follows

UNICA - UNION INTERNATIONALE DU CINÉMA
- MEMBRE DU CONSEIL INTERNATIONALE DU CINEMA ET DE LA TELEVISION A L`UNESCO.

This is not a compromise, but rather a proposal that all Committee members regarded as appropriate and adopted unanimously. This statutory modification will be submitted to the 2005 General assembly. I hope that all federations will also approve of it.

Beside various other issues on the agenda, decisions were made with a view to modifying the way to enter videos for the competition. I will specify them in the next letter sent to the national federations and also via the UNICA-News. These changes will come into force for the UNICA 2005 Festival.

UNICA Medals

It seems that the question of the annual UNICA medal is still rather fuzzy. This is why the Committee made the following decision:

Contrary to former practice when the name of the recipient of the annual UNICA medal (the person/institution to whom the national federation had awarded the medal) had to be indicated a posteriori, this information with the name of the future recipient will have to be transferred to the Secretary-general before the 30th of June of the same year.

Due to this change, the national federations are requested to indicate before March 31, 2005 to the Secretary-general the name of the future recipient of the medal for 2004, whereas the attribution of the 2005 medal should be announced before June 30, 2005.

It is only when this this information is available that the medal can be handed over to the national federation on the occasion of the UNICA 2005 Festival. In the years to come, the 30th of June will be the deadline for an indication of the recipient of the UNICA medal. Only such conditions will make it possible to make sure that the regulations for the attribution of the annual medal are met. We hope that you have understanding for this procedure.

UNICA News

Portrait of Alois Urbanek. Alois Urbanek, who is now in charge of coordination and editorial work for UNICA News, will examine with Radek Štipl, the publisher, for initiatives to re-structure this news bulletin and we can expect that the magazine in its new form will be introduced next year.

Subtitles

The problem of subtitles in videos is the cause of growing concern for the Committee. Speech and dialogue are used in an increasing number of cases; this is regrettable as film language should be given priority and replace all other languages. Consequently, the Committee has no other option than requiring all authors to provide for subtitles when the film depends to a large extent on the spoken word. Such authors have then to decide by themselves which language is best adapted for subtitles if they wish that their works be understood by the spectators speaking another language. We As a matter of principle, we think that any of the three following languages should be used for that purpose: ENGLISH / FRENCH / GERMAN.

Future UNICA Festivals

Concerning the UNICA 2005 Festival, we expect the organizer to dispatch information and registration forms in January 2005 to all the participants in previous years.

Concerning the UNICA 2006 Festival, we hope that we can send the provisional registration forms before the end of the year as arrangements based on such registrations have to be made in Korea as soon as possible. This is why I kindly request all national federations to publish this information and the provisional registration form in their magazines or publications. You will find this document as an appendix. We thank you for your co-operation.

No decision has been made as to a place to hold the UNICA 2007. Negotiations with various national federations are still under way. We will inform you in due time.

I thank you for your co-operation.

Sincerely yours

Max Hänsli (CHE), UNICA President


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Amateur Film Club AKF Sawa - Warsaw 36th Anniversary

Logo of the Sawa Film Club.The AKF SAWA Amateur Film Club came into being on May 16, 1968 in the Warsaw Social and Recreation Club at 12 Elektoralna Street.

During the 36 years of the Club's activity, almost 200 films have been made, their authors have earned 389 prizes, including 78 prizes won at international competitions.

In the years 1970 - 1989 club membership was pretty stable which resulted in bringing to fruition many crazy but useful ideas. Ten times in a row, around April Fools' Day (April 1), AKF SAWA organised "The Feckless Films Festival". That event was the opposite of all serious film festivals - the prizes were chosen by a draw and the jury's only task was to justify the verdict.

Club members had their own oil-painted portrait gallery created by Jan Piechura. Many film making support devices were invented and constructed by members.

Our favourite film event is the Pol-8 Festival, whose 37th edition took place in 2004 in Polanica Zdrój. In the history of this festival AKF SAWA has won more prizes than any other film club in Poland. Besides film shows, AKF SAWA organises events accompanying film festivals, such as coronations, balls, raffles, and entertainment programmes: "SAWA BY NIGHT".

The most famous of all the "Sawa by Night" programmes was shown during the Pol-8 Festival in 1977 - it was a parody of the official television news. (This programme was then shown 10 more times in different locations in Poland). One of journalists defined this show as the first audio-visual cabaret in Poland. A commentary on the programme staged during the Festival Pol-8 was broadcast by Radio Free Europe, which - under the communist rule in Poland - could easily have been used as a pretext for liquidating the Club.

Our sense of humour was witnessed at first hand by UNICA Council members who visited our club twice, in 1988 and in 1994, as well as by the public at the1981 UNICA Festival in Hungary who saw the Leszek Boguszewski's medal winning film "Fragment opowiadania" ["Fragment of a story"].

The Amateur Film Club AKF SAWA received gold UNICA medals three times. The first was awarded to Leszek Boguszewski in 1981 for the whole of his work. Then, in 1992, the gold medal was awarded to the club itself, and in 1994 AKF SAWA was honoured with the gold UNICA medal for co-organisation of the youth film festival, currently known as "Dozwolone do 21 lat" (Allowed under 21).

The most active members of AKF SAWA in the past 36 years of the Club's activity are:

  • Leszek Boguszewski (made 32 films; received 117 prizes, including 33 at international competitions);
  • Aneta Gutkowska (for 12 films completed she received 40 prizes, including gold medals in the UNICA competition in Argentina and at the Duisberg festival, and the Grand Prix at the Berlin Festival);
  • Wojciech Czarnecki (made 9 films, won 23 prizes);
  • Klaudiusz Kasprzak-Stylinski (for 10 finished films, he won 23 prizes).

With the development of video technology the profile of AKF SAWA changed, and many young people joined the Club, 23 of them became students of the Lódz School of Film, and several of the Katowice School of Film. Our members have studied in Schools of Film in New York, Nancy (France), Leeds (UK) and Berlin. Since 2002 AKF SAWA has offered Film Making Workshops to those interested in working in the club.

Our address:
Amatorski Klub Filmowy SAWA, Mazowieckie Centrum Kultury i Sztuki
Ul. Elektoralna 12
00-139 Warszawa
Poland

tel. (48 22) 620 48 36; (48 22) 620 48 38, ext. 222 (Tuesdays, Fridays 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.)
email: akfsawa@interia.pl
website: www.akfsawa.com


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Friends of UNICA - Get-Together
Portrait of Fred Graber. Dear UNICA Friends,

I begin with some sad news: two friends have left us: Achim Stampehl, our treasurer, and Inge Domes, a founder member of the friends of the UNICA. We are very sad and ask you to read the announcement in the News and to keep their memory alive.

Invitation

After two wonderful get-togethers, organised by Serge Michel and Anna Freier, we invite you to a new, friendly and relaxed meeting here in Switzerland, between Geneva and Lausanne. It is recommended to everyone and is suitable even also for less able people. The only request is that you let us know immediately, before 1 December 2004, because there are not all that many good hotel rooms in Nyon. An individual invitation is going to all friends of UNICA. We look forward to making you welcome. Laughter will be on the agenda.

- Ursula and Fred Graber

Details

Get-Together from 19th to 21st May 2005 in Nyon at Lake Geneva lake (French Switzerland)

Programme

Thursday 19th May 2005
19.00 Hotel "16ème Siècle" - Arrival of the UNICA central committee for meeting
Friday 20th May 2005
09.00 Hotel ,,16ème Siècle" - Meeting of the UNICA committee.
11.00 Hotel ,,16ème Siècle" - Arrival of the Friends of UNICA.
12.00 Lunch in the "Croixverte" (free choice at own expense).
14.00 Departure of the Friends and the members of the committee by bus to Höhenmeter, (25 min), visit to the Mulde der Dôle and the Barillette. Bus to the mountain restaurant of the Barillette. Walk to Oberraschung - coffee- tea - wine - opportunity for a short stroll. (Suitable for handicapped people or wheelchairs.)
17.00 Departure by bus - descent to "La Bohème"- Gingins (the bus will collect the committee later.)
17.30 Departure by bus of the committee to "La Bohème".
18.00 Aperitif in ,"La Bohème" (Friends and committee united.)
19.00 Departure by bus to the Gingins Schiesstand (5 min). There we can meet, eat, drink, chat, watch old films, start projects and receive information about UNICA 2005 and 2006. If you want to show a film, let me know the format in advance! (There are no access problems for the disabled or those in wheelchairs.)
20.00 Dinner at "Raclette Royale" on one's own and also with Bernard and members of the Nyon Film and Video Club.
23.00 Depart by bus to the hotels (10 min.) - overnight in the hotels.
Saturday 21st May2005
09.00 Start off on foot for a guided history walk at the Roman Nyon Roman Museum or Maritime Museum. Possibly a tourist trip. (Suitable for those with walking difficulties.)
12.00 Set off by by Bus to Geneva (25 min): A circular tour of the "petit lac" by ship lasting about 3 hours with a picnic on board - stop in Yvoire France (bring your passport!.) (The trip is suitably for those with walking difficulties.)
16.30 Return to Nyon, relax at the hotel or make a private trip to the Nyon shops.
20.00 Aperitif and evening meal in the hotel "16ème Siècle" - spend the evening in the hotel - End.
Sunday 22nd May 2005
Return home or visit Geneva.
Costs: 100 Frs or 65€ - which includes: mountain trip, dinner on Friday at "Raclette Royale" (though not any drinks), guided tour of Nyon, boat trip and lunch on Saturday (buy your own drinks). The Friends of UNICA funds will look after the bus and the hall on Friday.
Hotel rates
"16ème Siècle" **
  • Wash-hand basin, TV, phone in the room - shower and en suite: single - 63, double - 92 Frs.
  • Wash-hand basin, TV, phone in the room - shower: single - 81, double - 108 Frs.
  • Wash-hand basin, TV, phone in the room - shower: single - 103, double - 153, triple 180 Frs.
Hotel rate
De l'Ange **
WC, wash-hand basic, shower, TV, phone in the room: single - 90, double -117 Frs
Hotel rate
Des Alpes ***
WC, wash-hand basic, shower, TV, phone in the room: single - 140, double - 170 Frs
Travel: Autobahn: Lausanne/Nyon - Train: Nyon - Fly to Geneva Airport Cointrin + Train (15 min) Nyon.
Please register immediately (indicating your choice of hotel) with
Fred Graber
24, en Pralenet - CH 1276
Gingins

email: video@triskel.ch

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