In a letter, to which the Lusa agency had access, addressed to parliamentary groups and with knowledge for the Minister of Culture, the Cinema Platform considers that the use of a foreign company to outline the strategy for the sector “is in itself the ticket of a certificate of political minority inflicted by guardianship itself and the sector it regulates ”.
The structure regrets that the Secretary of State wants to “delegate to a private English company the definition of public policies for the sector, through the elaboration of the most important strategic document”.
The resignation request from the Platform is also extendable to the direction of the Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual (ICA), which in July signed a contract with the British consultant Olsberg SPI for the elaboration of the strategic plan for cinema and audiovisual, for the period 2021- 2025.
That platform, which signs the letter on behalf of a dozen entities, including associations, festivals and a union, also regrets that the sector was aware of the work of this consultant on the eve of the parliamentary vote on a law proposal that transposes a European directive , with implications for the laws of cinema and television, and which had “an unrealistic period of public discussion”.
The entities assembled on the platform call on parliamentary groups to postpone the discussion and vote on the draft law PL 44 / XIV – scheduled for next Tuesday – for “manifestly there are no conditions to carry out this task seriously”.
The presentation of the methodology and work schedule on the strategic plan should have taken place on Friday, but an ICA source explained to Lusa that it was postponed, at the request of some participants, due to the lack of simultaneous translation from English to Portuguese.
In the letter, Plataforma do Cinema explains that “a substantial part of the entities present at this meeting decided to come out in protest”, because “no document or script was previously communicated to the entities called”, and because the work plan would be presented in English.
The consultancy Olsberg SPI was founded in 1992 by producer Jonathan Olsberg and has in its curriculum consultancy work for, among others, the BBC, the Council of Europe, the European Audiovisual Observatory, the Film Commission of Barcelona, the Ministry of Culture of Czech Republic and Chile and other entities in Australia, Canada or Norway.
The consultancy’s client list also includes the acronym ICAM, from Lisbon, which refers to the former Institute of Audiovisual and Multimedia Cinema, ICA’s predecessor, which operated between 1997 and 2007.
According to the Plan’s Great Options, the next strategic plan for cinema and audiovisual should have among its objectives to promote the “regular production of audiovisual content that value and activate historical heritage” and “internationalization, dissemination and exportation Portuguese audiovisual with a view to international circulation ”.
The Platform of Cinema’s letter is signed by the Portuguese Directors Association, by the Independent Film Producers Associates, by the Apordoc association, by the Casa da Animação and by the Portugal Film and Short Film Agency.
The DocLisboa, IndieLisboa, Curtas de Vila do Conde, Queer Lisboa and Porto Post Doc festivals also sign the document, as well as the National Union of Workers, Telecommunications and Audiovisual (SINTTAV).
Outside this letter of protest are other entities representing the sector, such as the Association of Independent Television Producers and the Portuguese Association of Directors and Fiction Writers.
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