3. FeKK
Since three is a magical number, I think no one would oppose if we treat this as an anniversary edition. In this spirit it is fitting to stop and take a look back at the path leading up until now and a look forward towards new goals. This relatively short lifetime of the festival has been turbulent but also very satisfying. In fact we dare to claim that during this time FeKK broke new grounds and found a place in the Slovenian (and regional) film landscape – among the audience, the authors and film professionals. Three years ago we were tirelessly stressing that there is an absence of a real short film platform which would be properly dedicated to the short form in all its diverse aspects. Today we can recognize that these conditions have at least normalized. Besides FeKK, diverse events dedicated to short films are now regularly occurring throughout the whole year. Shorts find their place more and more frequently also in other Slovenian film festivals, the Slovenian Cinematheque, the city cinema Kinodvor, in the Short Film Night on 21st December and in the Slovenian Art Cinema Association’s network. The screenwriting workshop Kratka scena and the Euroconnection pitch for shorts are also regularly taking place and the short form is gaining strong interest among the audience. These refreshing events have surely led to a sort of popularization of the short film, which was also one of our core objectives set at the foundation of the festival. The proof for this is also the number of visitors which is increasing every year (p.s. during the writing of this editorial the festival is already over) and has reached a new high this year: at 2.400 it is almost a third more than last year. At this point we can focus on the evaluation of other important objectives that this festival has taken as its imperative. Screening the best and most important short films in modern and historical thematic settings, searching for original auteurs, genre bending approaches and researching the vast borders of the definition of what a short film actually is – these are principles by which every short film festival should adhere. An international and excellent program that has in three years – if we focus on just a few highlights – been presented in collaboration with festivals such as Venice, Tampere or Motovun, regularly screened the best short films from the program of the European Film Academy – Short Matters!, presented retrospectives of established directors including Miguel Gomes or Yuri Ancarani and showed assortments of incredibly talented young directors such as Igor Bezinovi ć and Chema Garcia Ibarra. At the same time we also curated our own programs and tested the depth of the definition of short films with humorous and often unconventional »off« selections. The last edition of FeKK alone has showed more than 100 films. Together with popularizing the short film genre for the audience and creating a relevant film program, the trinity of our most important principles is completed with the effort to develop a strong platform for professional, educational, promotional and co-producing purposes. A platform that would bring together in Ljubljana professionals from the short film world. In these three years we have hosted around 60 guests from abroad, mostly filmmakers, but also festival directors, film selectors, lecturers, producers, students and other experts. We organized many discussions, workshops, meet-and-greets and carried out plentiful discussions with authors. One effect of these FeKK activities are international collaborations and screenings of Slovenian films abroad and we could also speculate that FeKK can take some credit for Slovenian shorts selected at important European festivals. But things are far from being perfect and mantras about the chronic financial malnutrition of FeKK and the whole film scene are too well known and also extremely real. Despite a certain amount of satisfaction the future of the festival is uncertain, since the guerrilla and amateur style of production executed on an ambitious level is simply unbearable in the long term. That the creation of the festival is more than meaningful speaks the fact that for every feature film a dozen short films are made in Slovenia and the latter directors are more and more in contact with the international production. This in turn reflects on the way of thinking, creating and also on the successes and selections at foreign festivals. Immensely rewarding are also the constant great atmosphere and feedback from the audience, the credit goes to the hard-working and wacky festival team, the volunteers’ brigade, the Slovenian Cinematheque, Kinodvor, SCCA, MSUM, Pritli čje, the teams from Skatepark ROG club Gromka and countless others. Till the next magical number!
Matevž Jerman