Alex Fischer
Programme Manager, Brisbane International Film Festival
Written by Erin McCabe on 2009-10-05
Alex Fischer is the Programme Manager of the Brisbane International Film Festival. The Brisbane International Film Festival showcases the best and most interesting cinema from around the world. Alex has worked on several different film festivals in Queensland including the Gold Coast Film Fantastic. As social attitudes and technology evolves festivals have begun to evolve as well. As program manager Alex is responsible for obtaining and showcasing international and national films.
What has been your most memorable achievement or experience working as a part of Brisbane’s media landscape?
I think it would be actually, getting a job, with the Brisbane International Film Festival. I think it’s quite an achievement gaining that position in the only international film festival in Brisbane. It is a highly sought after position and I was some what head hunted by the artistic director and festival manager. Everything I have achieved has stemmed off that, from being in the fraternity of organisers in Brisbane.
What are the biggest challenges you and your organisation face as a member of the Brisbane media community?
Our biggest challenge is really matching the expectations of our participants. Participants don’t just mean audience members but also the expectations of sponsors and the media and generally just the community, that being government officials and so on. It is making sure that we are able to deliver to what their social or preconceived notions of what a film festival needs to deliver. That being said, often times an audiences expectations do not always match that of the sponsors, so you have to somehow find this balance and pull the chaos together. It is being the ringmaster essentially; trying to deal with the entire chaotic thing that is a festival.
What features, both positive and negative, differentiate Brisbane-based media organisations to other national and international media hubs?
Brisbane is a smaller city in comparison to Sydney and Melbourne and we do not get the recognition that those iconic cities do. We have to use a lot of strategy to get our resources in. For example if we want to get a film in from an overseas distributor, we need to align ourselves with these other cities. There is strength in our numbers and we still have the tyranny of isolation and it is a big ask for a distributor to send their films around the world and essentially lose potential profit by staying local. But if they go and hit a new territory (that being Asia Pacific) and play two festivals it starts to add more incentive to them. So one of the main challenges for BIFF is seeing how we can fit into this landscape. In terms of international, we are Australia, and everyone is fascinated by Australia and they want to come visit it. It’s not like having a film festival in Beruit. Internationally there are a lot of positives, there are more negatives on a national level. On a national level, what is challenging is how we sit in the ‘hierarchy’. These cities (Sydney, Melbourne) have a relevance to people and it has a tendency to influence film makers and distributors. The only way you can really over come that is be a really cool festival that people want to come and see it.
What changes do you see happening over the next five years in the Events and Festivals industry?
I don’t necessarily think a lot is going to change in terms of the festival scene. People will always come together like they have for a millennium or longer. Technology however, has made it a lot easier, you can face book something and you can bring people together that have never heard of each other and end up with a new community. What is going to be challenging is the physical space of Brisbane and how people are going to continue to operate inside of it. That is, is the city council still going to allow outdoor concerts? Are they going to allow people to gather is large numbers. Are people going to allow that to happen? There is a whole changing mentality about what a crowd is and unfortunately you have to look at the world’s situation which is (I think) violence escalating and people not trusting one another. It is hard to get a lot of people together is they don’t trust each other. It will be challenging dealing with that social attitude.
What steps did you take to begin your career in the Brisbane Festival scene?
I have been programming and directing film festivals for ten years. I started back in 1999 doing the first inter collegiate film festival in Minnesota and then I moved to Australia and worked on a film festival for Bond University. Last year I was the festival director for the Gold Coast Film Fantastic, which was a great experience but also one of the hardest experiences of my life. Now to be in a team of 6 and to be able to delegate and collaborate is an amazing experience. Mine has been an experience of hard knocks, that is going out and doing it and landing on my face but that is what it is sometimes. Ultimately, what has helped me is knowing that it is never going to go as planned but knowing what your environment is like and reassessing it again and again and being on the lookout for a small pocket or window of opportunity and just seizing it. I also have a masters in Film and Television in Production from Bond University and I am completing my PHD thesis on Film Festivals as open systems.
What are the most important/valuable skills that graduates can bring to your industry?
Life experience. I know everyone always gives that answer but at the end of the day you are still just doing a job. Even if you love it with all your heart you are still just doing a job. You need to be able to sit back and say yes I love it and its great and I will continue to work as hard as I can but its not going to control my life and its not going to ruin my life or anyone around me. The world is too big of a place to not have that perspective.
If you had the opportunity to work anywhere in the world, where would you work and on which festival (existing or not) and why?
A lot of different aspects popped into my mind, I think it would be really interesting to see what a film festival would be like in the middle east or in Africa, even the furtherest reaches of Russia but honestly I have to say Brisbane. It may sound strange but it is a great comfortable friendly town and it is really the perfect size to have a festival because you know what the population is and everyone in Brisbane is generally happy. I was born overseas and I live on the Gold Coast and I come here to work and I see this completely different environment which has great potential. If I was going to make a rival to BIFF, I would focus on a lot more new media and video games and a bit more performance based. Anywhere where you can really quadruple the experience that the audience can get, because going into a movie cinema and watching a movie is awesome but being able to give the audience additional experience with it, that being interactive cinema, would just be truly amazing. Could you imagine if you could get on a boat and go to several different screens on the river and choose your own adventure?