| Pardon My French
France hosts the most important international wildlife film festival which
welcomes amateurs. The town of Albert mid way between Paris and Lille is
taken over each March by FIFA - the Festival International du Film Animalier.
And what a festival!
It is much more than a glorified film competition. Lasting a whole week the
venue is packed with photographs, paintings and carvings of animals. There
are stands selling books, DVDs and videos about all aspects of nature and
conservation. There are even some stuffed animals on view. The huge cinema
is packed through the weekdays with school children seeing films and having
talks. In late afternoon and evening the general public takes over the seats
for screenings and special events. There are organised nature rambles - see
the list below. |
The festival poster based on a picture by Werner
Van Steen was in almost every shop window in town. |
 |
 |
 |
Part of the bookshop selling books
pictures, DVDs, calendars etc. |
Hundreds of school students
attend, here some inspect
the exhibits in the display area. |
The Théâtre du Jeu de Paume -
the multi-purpose building which is the
festival cinema and exhibition space. |
This year the specials included Québécoise singer Michel
McLean. Catherine Laborde, a presenter from France’s TF1
television channel introducing a slide-tape sequence and interviewing British
film maker Victoria Stone about her work on The Queen of
Trees. Masuru Ikeo, the head of the science unit at NHK
(Japan’s equivalent of the BBC) talking about the wildlife programmes
with both extracts and complete programmes in English.
 |
 |
The fifa festival awards,
sculpted golden giraffes. |
The festival "clubhouse" - the only building in
Albert to survive the 1914-18 war. |
But here’s the rub. This is a French festival and the majority of the
audience are French. So all the films on public view are shown with a carefully
translated, pre-recorded commentary in French which is blended as far as
possible with the original music and commentary. You can usually make out
most of the English words with some effort, but it does help to have a little
French. What I learned in school had almost vanished over the decades but
an amazing amount returned. I could understand a lot. The volunteers who
organise the festival managed to interpret my halting speech patiently …
often answering in perfect English.
Taking my share of the award announcements I talked to the audience in my
halting version of their lovely language, even at one point encouraging a
mass chant of the nonsense rhyme: "Am stam gram piqué piqué
colégram, bourre bourre ram tam tam, ou gram pouf" which is roughly
equivalent to "Eeeny meeny miny mo ...". because one excellent amateur
entry used "Colégram" as its title. Luckily since I knew the audience
included Guernsey underwater cinematographer, Jo Mahy, and English-speaking
Belgian film maker Florent Van Opstal I had an excuse to drop into English
occasionally. At the end I tried to remember to ask the generous audience
to pardon my French.
The team behind the festival are all volunteers and most work in normal jobs
for the bulk of the year. Yet for 16 years they have run this wonderful festival
and a week after the 2006 one ended they had their first meeting to plan
for 2007.
Selected for Screening
From the mountain of films entered the festival pre-selection team chose:
| The Professional Film Selection |
|
The Amateur Film selection |
| Amazon Claws |
Kea: the Smartest Parrot |
Témoin d'un Comportement |
| The Boy Who Adored The Wilderness |
Killers in Eden |
Je Voudrais être des Leurs |
| Cachalots, les secrets du Grand Noir |
Madagascar, La Foire aux Espèces Rares |
Jawfish Nursery |
| Caribou and Wolves: the Endless Dance |
Mississippi: Tales of the Last River Rat |
Le Long Chemin |
| Comme un Manchot sans Aile |
The Queen of Trees |
See Guernsey and Dive |
| Cuba, Jewel of the Carribean |
The Perfect Reef |
Les Ours de la Forêt Humide |
| La Danse des Hippos |
Quallen: Schreckliche Schönheit |
Bad to the Bone |
| Equator: Power of the Ocean |
Slender Loris: Phantom of the Forest |
Dreamtime |
| Equator: Rivers of the Sun |
Sous la Menace des Griffes |
Kakadu |
| Fourmis Carnivore |
Spider Sex aka Deadly Love |
Colegram |
| Gypsy Moths - Worms from Hell |
|
|
Many of the film makers, amateur and professional, were there.
The Jury
The jury was chaired by Harriet Nimmo :
 |
 |
 |
John Waters
(wildlife cameraman) |
Harriet Nimmo
(Director of Wildscreen
and ARKive) |
Jean-Noel Robyn
(Buyer of wildlife films
for satellite tv channel) |
 |
 |
 |
Dave Watterson
(film enthusiast and
juror) |
Isabelle Brisson
(science journalist
on Le Figaro) |
Nick Upton
(wildlife film producer) |
The Grand Prix went to Mississippi: Tales of the Last River Rat
by Andrew Brown (UK)
The Special Jury Prize went to Killers in Eden by Klaus Toft
(Australia)
The Prize for:
-
Revelations of the Animal World went to Equator: Rivers of the
Sun by Satoshi Okabe (Japan)
-
Underwater Wildlife went to Quallen: Schreckliche
Schönheit by Florien Guthknecht (Germany)
-
Relationship between Human and Animal worlds went to Fourmis
Carnivore by Thierry Berrod
-
Scientific Revelation went to Queen of Trees by Victoria Stone
& Mark Deeble (UK)
-
Best Amateur Entry went to Bad to the Bone by Leandro Blanco
(Spain)
-
Work on European Animals went to Gypsy Moths: Worms from Hell
by Szabolcs Mosonyi (Hungary)
-
Best Script went to Kea: the Smartest Parrot by Phil Chapman
& Richard Chambers (UK)
-
Best Photography went to Caribou and Wolves by Sue & Jeff
Turner (Canada)
-
Best Editing went to Comme un Manchot Sans Aile by Jérome
Maison (France)
-
Best Sound went to Cuba: Jewel of the Carribean by Paul Reddish
(Austria)
A short version of the FIFA programme of activities - in addition
to film screenings.
Most events were accompanied by local or national experts in the activity:
| Saturday 11th March |
|
|
|
a project to assist the large frog (crapauduc) in the wood by the British
war cemetery at Aveluy. Bring your own shovels, rakes and spades! Every day
of the festival between 7.30am and 8.30am in the morning and 9.30pm to 10.30pm
help collect and count the frogs in that area. |
| Saturday 18th March |
|
| Wetland Restoration |
in the Somme Valley near the town of Mericourt, in
partnership with the town and local conservation bodies. |
| Sunday 19th March |
|
|
|
in the d'Ancre Valley on the poppy trail near Thiepval. |
|
|
an expedition to ring birds near the town of Mericourt. A display board
there tells you more. |
| Wednesday 22nd March |
|
|
|
in the theatre, a workshop on building nesting boxes run by Cyrille Capron.
You will leave with your box and practically be able to choose what species
of bird you want to move in. |
| Friday 24th March |
|
|
|
(Frogs, Toads, newts ... ) 9pm to 10.30pm - with Ludivine Gabet.
It is in pools, as night falls, during Spring, that one can best observe
the batrachian. |
| Saturday 25th March |
|
|
|
5pm in the theatre, slide show and discussion on Batrachians
with Ludivine Gabet. |
|
|
9pm - 11pm in the park of Bécourt castle. There will be an exhibition
and slide show to tell you more about the life of these night birds. |
|
|
9pm - 11pm - come to discover these little mammals often misunderstood
and yet always with us. There will be a slide show and talk on their lives
and on how to spot bats - then we go off to try to find them with the help
of a batbox gadget. |
| Sunday 26th March |
|
|
|
an expedition to ring birds near Mericourt in the company of Xavier Commecy
and Frédéric Baroteaux. |
| About ARKive If you care about wildlife and the
planet, if you like seeing wonderful images of animals, if you simply
enjoy seeing stunning pictures, click
here and find out ARKive, the world’s largest digital
treasury for images of endangered species.
|
| Major Wildlife Film Festivals
Britain hosts Wildscreen, the world’s biggest wildlife film festival,
every second year in Bristol. It is aimed at professionals and the entry
fees are high. There is a chance for amateurs and independents to enter some
categories such as the “BBC Newcomer” which for 2006 had an entry
fee of £35. But note that if you are selected as a finalist you are
expected to provide two DigiBeta copies of your movie. Expect to spend around
£70-£150 to have these made from mini-DV. If you want to get into
the wildlife film business it is a great way to do so. To be a delegate at
WildScreen is expensive, but there are extensive public screenings, so if
you are in the Bristol (UK) area between 15th and 20th October 2006 take
a look.
In the years between Wildscreen festivals, the North American town of Jackson
Hole stages a similar festival which is almost as important - but so expensive
that even professionals hesitate.
If you have even a little, rusty school French you can enjoy a great time
next March at FIFA in Albert. Try combining a visit to the war memorials
with a few days at the festival. The cost of entering films or attending
the event is modest and access to the town by rail is easy (Eurostar to Lille,
short stroll to the local station and fast local train to Albert.)
Websites: Wildscreen
(www.wildscreenfestival.org)
Jackson Hole (www.jhfestival.org)
FIFA at Albert (www.fifa.com.fr) |
- Dave Watterson April 2006
| 
