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• Jurors of International Festivals
• Tunisia
• UNICA Committee Meeting in Albufeira - Max Hänsli
• UNICA Committee Meeting in Warsaw - Max Hänsli
• UNICA Slovakia - a gathering of friends - Max Hänsli

UNICA Slovakia - a gathering of friends

UNICA 2007 in Slovakia (Mikulas) belongs to the past. It was an occasion, that was marked by the coming together of many friends. Despite the many different arrival times of participants, the organisers solved this problem. Particularly, our thanks go to the president, Zuzana Skoludova, who had to do so much with her co-workers to fulfill every wish. Unfortunately the weather didn't play along. But a positive aspec of that is that the hall was full for almost all presentations. However, we are grateful that the rains were kept at bay for the two half-day trips. Both occasions will go down in the history of the UNICA as big successes. There is something new every time at UNICA. For example this year one bus suddenly had to stop during a trip, because a bear wanted to cross the road.

The general meeting followed the published agenda and all reports were adopted "nem con" and the writers were thanked. Since there was no election year this year, the entire agenda could be completed in time.

There were two undoubted high points:

Tunisia delivered the necessary written explanations in the last moment for the staging of UNICA 2008 in Tunisia (Hammamet) in the form of confirmations from the culture ministry, the regional association and Les Orangiers hotel group where all events will take place. So all participants at UNICA were 2007 appreciated there would be no further problems. The UNICA committee will travel again to Tunisia in October to discuss about all questions on the spot. A report will be delivered about it. Moreover, it was unanimously agreed that UNICA 2009 will take place in DANZIG (Poland) and the UNICA 2010 in St. Galen (Switzerland). For the future of the UNICA is worried...

In the last part of the meeting and for the first time,  a certificate of appreciation for special services was awarded to Mr. Chang (Korea)  in recognition of the organisation of UNICA in Korea and the participation of his association in connection with it. He opened the doors toAsia for UNICA with possible opportunities for the future. We owed Mr. Chang a great debt for that occasion and for everything he achieved for UNICA in Korea. Not least because since the admission of Korea into UNICA and thanks to the help of Mr. Chang, the annual UNICA medals can be made at a favourable price. Mr. Chang thanked us for the document and the medal connected with it and invited all present to an apperatif. Cordial thanks.

Approximately 300 UNICA participants were able to experience a well organised occasion in Slovakia and I am sure that again many new friends were made on that occasion.

UNICA 2008 takes place in Tunisia.

Max Hänsli (CHE), UNICA president

UNICA Committee Meeting, November 30th to 2nd December 2007 in Warsaw

Dear film friends

The latest UNICA Committee meeting took place in Warsaw at the invitation of the Polish Federation. Almost all Committee members attended. Here are some of the important items that were considered :

• concerning the attribution of UNICA patronages, it was decided to prepare a new diploma to be awarded together with a gold medal to patronage festivals. Moreover, the Secretary-General, Jan Essing, will ask all federations to indicate before a deadline when and where the contest under patronage is to take place. Only on these conditions may a medal be awarded.
  
• concerning the UNICA 2007 Congress in Liptovský Mikuláš, we had lively discussions about how the Congress ran and dealt with the few difficulties that arose, though those did not mar the excellent service provided during the event. We all paid tribute to the efforts displayed by the president of the Congress and all members of the organising committee. The event can be summarised by saying that almost everything worked perfectly even if, once again, language problems were not negligible.
  
• It was decided that, in the future, the special prizes awarded during the UNICA Congress would be paired with a diploma since some of the 2007 winners complained about the lack of them so far.
  
• We were very pleased to see that the president of the organizing committee for the UNICA 2008 in Hammamet (Tunisia) was able to attend the meeting in Warsaw. He provided information about the programme for the Congress and answered questions raised by the Committee. We had a confirmation that Tunisia is working hard on preparations and arrangements for the UNICA 2008 Congress. Considering that the whole process for hotel booking is managed by UNICA (headquarters in Switzerland - Zurich), we believe that the workload will be lighter for the Tunisian Federation. All the participants from previous years have been informed either by standard or electronic mail. The first registrations have already arrived and we expect to have large participation.
  
• Stani Puls also provided information about the UNICA 2009 Congress that will take place - as we all know - in Danzig/Gdansk. The Polish Federation will prepare documentation in good time about this event and give a presentation at the UNICA 2008 Congress. The Polish film friends and film makers are experienced people and we can rest assured that the UNICA will be a great success.
  
• The preparations for the UNICA Congress in St Gallen in 2010 have also been launched. Here again, the organizing committee will in due time supply information to all potential participants.
  
• Good news: Uzbekistan has been re-established as a full member of UNICA.
  
• The term of office of the UNICA Committee will come to an end at the time of the UNICA 2009 Congress in Danzig/Gdansk. The Committee members who will not run for re-election in 2009 should let the Secretary-General know before the next committee meeting in the Spring of 2008. The reason is that a new president will take over and other Committee members will withdraw so that the Federations should be informed in due time and then can identify candidate(s).
  
• The UNICA News issue was examined in depth but the decision to be taken by the Committee was postponed until the Spring meeting, hoping that a proposal could be put forward in the mean time concerning the format that this news bulletin might have in the future.

The Committee members were invited to take part in the award ceremony of the Grand European Off Film Awards in Warsaw. We were pleased to see that a certain number of UNICA films had been rewarded. Congratulations to all award-winners.

By the time this newsletter is published, we will be very near the advent of the New year. We hope that it will be prosperous for us all.

On behalf of the UNICA Committee - Max Hänsli (President)

UNICA Committee Meeting in Portugal (Albufeira)

The UNICA Committee held a meeting in Portugal at the invitation of Arie de Jong and Jan Essing. The main item on the agenda was questions left open concerning the UNICA 2008 Congress in Tunisia. Mrs. Mounira Mnif-Collin, as a Head of Department at the Ministry for Culture had travelled to Portugal to discuss the matter. It was therefore possible to examine all relevant issues with Mrs. Mnif- Collin and ask her to transfer all the questions still unanswered to the relevant persons in Tunisia. But let's take things in order.

Here are some of the items on the agenda that have been thoroughly examined.

• Proposals for amendments tabled by the national federations concerning the new Statutes
  All the comments that have come to us have been dealt with. There was no proposal for any essential change in the new draft statutes so that the new version should be endorsed on the occasion of the General Meeting in Tunisia.
  
• The issue of the composition of the new Committee after the 2009 elections in Gdansk (Danzig) was examined in detail and withdrawals or resignations should be announced before the 2008 General Meeting in Tunisia. We will inform the national federations about changes, if any.
  
• Stani Puls has provided information in writing about the UNICA 2009 Congress in Gdansk (Danzig). Some further questions will be clarified before the 2008 meeting in Tunisia so that the Organising Committee can update this information.
  
• UNICA News. This is an issue on the agenda of all committee meetings. The Committee is convinced that a solution should be found and applied as from 2009. The possibility of turning to an electronic bulletin was examined - in line with the latest developments of technology. We hope that we will be able to provide answers to the delegates in Tunisia about the future of UNICA News. We all agreed to consider that it is an urgent matter considering that postage costs will again rise in 2009 so that we have to find new ways to disseminate the information contained in the News.
  
• All committee meetings also have to think of possible venues for the next meetings up to the time of the next congress. It was decided that the next meeting is to be held in Saarland, Germany (BDFA). The 2009 Spring meeting (April) will take place in Gdansk /Danzig, in association with a visit to the city which will host the 2009 Congress. All relevant information about these two events will be provided in due time.

As I said earlier, the UNICA 2008 Congress in Tunisia represented a major item on the agenda. Once again, it was underlined that the contribution and support offered by the national Ministry of Culture is essential for such an event. The UNICA committee repeated that it is prepared to do its best and provide assistance should problems appear falling under the scope of its competences. The Tunisian organising committee hope that they can translate all their good ideas into good surprises for us. And good surprises are always welcome.

To date (9th March 2008) we have approximately 220 participants registered, which is undoubtedly a very positive result. It is interesting to observe that only 10% of the bookings in the hotel were made for only the days of the UNICA Congress itself (one week).The majority of hotel rooms were booked for 2 or even 3 weeks!!! Transporting all the participants from the places of arrival at the two possible airports represents quite an administrative challenge for the hotel and Thomas Kraeuchi who has assumed the difficult task of managing the process in cooperation with the hotel. The contacts with the managers have been excellent and the participants were very pleased to receive a confirmation of their booking immediately after registering. We are also confident that film shows will be done without the slightest hitch. Responsibility for this will be assumed by the Tunisian federation, but we know that they are experienced people as they organise two major film festivals in Tunisia.

I hope that I answered some of the questions that you had and, of course, I will do my best to answer other questions that you might still have.

- Max Hänsli (CHE), Tel. +41 44 3421066, <mhaensli@rcm.ch>

TUNISIA

Tunisia is a country in Northern Africa that has a Mediterranean Sea coastline. It lies immediately to the south of Italy and Malta. Libya borders Tunisia to the south-east, whilst Algeria lies to the west. The UNICA Congress will be in the popular tourist area on the coast near Hammamet. Planned excursions will take delegates to Tunis, Carthage, Sidi Bou Saïd, Holy city of Kairouan and Sousse.

No visa is required for Americans, Canadians, EU and some other European citizens. Tunisia's main international airport for scheduled flights is Carthage International Airport (TUN) near the capital city of Tunis. Its second airport is Monastir (MIR) which is served by low cost charter flights from all over Europe. There are ferry services from Malta, Sicily, Naples, Genoa and Marseille. Arabic is the official language of Tunisia and one of the languages of commerce, the other being French - a relic of Tunisia's former status as a French colony until 1956.

The national currency is the Tunisian Dinar (TD). In mid April 2008:
€1 = 1.82 Dinar
US$ 1 = 1.50 Dinar
GBP £1 = 2.26 Dinar.
Typical banknotes are 30, 20, 10, 5 Dinars. The Dinar is divided into 1000 Millemes, with typical coins being 5 Dinars (Silver with copper insert), 1 Dinar (large silver colour), 500 Millemes (1/2 Dinar: smaller silver colour), 100 and 50 Millemes, (large brass), 20 and 10 Millemes (smaller brass) and 5 Millemes (small aluminium). It is forbidden to bring Dinars in and out of Tunisia, so you have to change your money locally.

Prices are typically marked in Dinars and Millemes, with a decimal point like: 5.600 or 24.000 or 0.360 sometimes with TND as a label like TND85.500 . Markets typically sell items by the Kilogram. So tomatoes may have a sign "480" on them which means 480 Millemes per Kilo. Good cheese will be marked something like 12.400 or about $10 a Kilo. Most self-serve supermarkets expect you to put your purchases in supplied plastic bags and then bring them to a nearby "balance" where a worker will weigh them and apply a price sticker.

Being a progressive Muslim country, alcohol availability is restricted (but not greatly) to certain licensed restaurants, resort areas and Magasin General shops. Large department stores (Carrefour at Marsa/Carthage) and some supermarkets (e.g. Monoprix) sell beer and wine, and some local and imported hard liquors, except during Muslim holidays.

Public telephones are available in all towns and cities and in most villages under either the name of Publitel or Taxiphone - in cities simply look around - there is at least one on every street. International calls tend to be quite expensive (DT 1,000/minute to call anywhere in the EU). There are two mobile GSM operators, private Tunisiana and state-owned Tunisie Telecom, both offering wide mobile coverage (including some oases in the Sahara). Rates tend to be quite low for domestic calls, but very high for international calls (around DT 1,500/minute). Ask for a carte prépayée for a prepaid SIM card.

Jurors of International Film Festivals

	Filippo Lubiato (CHE) <clipclub@clipclub.ch> Ivo Dasek (CHE) <ivo.dasek@bluewin.ch>
	Rainer Hasselbarth (DEU) <rainer.hasselbarth@ars-cinema.de> Ctirad Stipl (CZE) <ctirad.stipl@seznam.cz>
	Wolfgang Freier (DEU) <Anna-Freier@t-online.de> Zeljko Balog (CRO) <zeljko.balog@po.t-com.hr>
	Dave Watterson (GBR) <dave.watterson@virgin.net> Zuzana Skoludova (SVK) <skoludova@nocka.sk>

Page updated on 15 May 2008

Authors' views are not necessarily those of The Institute of Amateur Cinematographers

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