In five years, IndieLisboe has become one of the most important portuguese film festival thanks to a daring selection, the welcoming of imporant authors, and the missions to open the portuguese screens to different films and to promote the most important directors of the country, from Joao Pedro Rodrigues (O Fantasma, Odete) to Miguel Gomes (A cara que mereces). Miguel Valverde, co-creator of the festival with with Rui Pereira, explained us, in Berlin, the birth, the evolution, and the projects of IndieLisboa. This interview is the first of a serie about independent film festivals, the way they meet their audience and overcome the economic difficulties.

How did IndieLisboa come about?
The festival was created five years ago. At the time I was working for the Portuguese Cinematheque. I needed to begin a new project. The other two cofounders of IndieLisboa, Miguel Valverde and Rui Pereira, used to schedule thematic programs and retrospectives of certain filmmakers in a movie theater that was more or less the only independent movie house in Lisbon. It was an excellent project, but they didn’t have enough money to pursue it. That’s how we came up with the idea of a new film festival, an easier project to finance: we quickly found several partners, both public and private. From the outset, the goal was to continue the work of this independent movie theater, showing new films that weren’t being shown in Portugal because no one would distribute them, and because there was only one general festival in Lisbon. So we weren’t lucky enough to see films by Hsiao-hsien Hou or Sang-soo Hong. All the important directors in contemporary film were oddly absent from Portuguese distribution. None of Johnny To’s films had been distributed in theaters, not only in Lisbon, but in the whole country. We started the festival in a single theater and began expanding as of the second edition, and we’re now in three cinemas with seven screens. It’s doing quite well, there’s unquestionably an audience interested in it, who come to the festival due to the fact that movies by certain directors are so rarely seen because they don’t have a following – it’s not because they’re difficult films in an of themselves, but because they get blocked by the distribution system in Portugal. There are only four or five distribution companies and the only one these films interested, Paulo Branco’s company, was having enormous problems distributing them.

The festival’s existed now for five years. Why have you had to change locations and dates several times?
There’s always a new problem. The partners change often. IndieLisboa is a festival that is fairly dependent on support from the City of Lisbon, and the government’s changed three times since the festival was created. We’ve had three different mayors, and three different deputies in charge of culture. The first year, we were located in the Sao Jorge, a very beautiful movie house, we then had to leave for two years because of construction work and have now returned. It’s one of the most beautiful movie theaters in Lisbon, which offers three screens: a large one and two small ones.

How are the programs organized each year?
This year there’s a Johnny To retrospective. We’ve had the project in mind since the third edition, but couldn’t manage to implement it for financial reasons, and because we were also absolutely intent on having Johnny To in person. He was always very busy, since he shoots three films a year, but he freed himself up this year. There will be 12 or 13 movies on the program. There’ll also be José Luis Guerin, who’s well-liked in Lisbon; he’s only known here for his documentaries, but I feel his work is very important. Every year we have several projects, some of them we do and others are kept on hold. We don’t have a program on Nanni Moretti, but it’s because there are already a lot of them in Lisbon, either in the theaters or on DVD. We want to show what’s not being seen in Lisbon, but also to follow up on filmmakers we’ve already received. This’ll be the case for one of our programs, on the Romanian “New Wave,” with a filmmaker like Cristi Puiu (The Death of Mister Lazarescu), who got an award here and with whom we’ve built up a relationship.

With what other filmmakers have you established ties since you created IndieLisboa?
Notably, with Shinji Aoyama, or Zhang Ke Jia two years ago; with filmmakers from the Argentinean New Wave; and with Eugene Green, whose film he made with Pedro Costa and Harun Farocki is being shown this year. We support these filmmakers, but we’re always looking for new, interesting filmmakers outside of the competitive selections of big festivals like Cannes, Venice or Berlin. We try to find original ideas; last year, we had a wonderful program on German cinema in which we gave carte blanche to Olaf Moller, who came up with links between politically involved filmmakers. We’re always looking for original ideas, and that’s why we ask certain professionals to come up with original programs. Shelly Kraicer handled the Johnny To program, showing the two faces of Johnny To: the mainstream filmmaker who’s loved in Hong Kong and the auteur who’s sought after by Westerners.

You were speaking earlier of the Jeonju Film Festival, and one of the things that sets it apart is that every year they produce films, bringing together great names in contemporary cinema. Are you interested in the same approach?
It’s something I’d like to do. For a long time we’ve had the idea of a production system like Jeonju, but we haven’t found the means yet to directly support production like Jeonju. Perhaps for the 10th anniversary of IndieLisboa. But for two years, we’ve begun organizing projections of Portuguese films in the festival to promote Portuguese cinema. We have to find new locations for screenings, outside of the festival. It’s working well, we have ties with a lot of people who schedule movies in Europe, and in Asia as well, with Pusan (South Korea), for example. The next step would be to present unfinished films, in order for them to get financing for postproduction. It’s an idea we could implement quickly. The other idea, which is more ambitious, is to produce films, and we’re trying to put that in place. It’s crucial for a festival to exist outside the ten days of the event.

Interview by Bastien Hader, in Berlin, 2008 february the 16th.