Back to index of Festival Previews

Second round for TOUGH EYE festival Anwers of Priit Pärn, Artistic Director Tough Eye 2003 on questions by Heikki Jokinen, ASIFA Board Member from Finland

The second biannual Tough Eye festival will take place in Turku, Finland on May 14th -18th 2003. The first festival was held two years ago. The artistic director of the festival is the Estonian animator Priit Pärn. He answered some questions about the event put to him by ASIFA board member Heikki Jokinen.

Heikki: " What is the concept of Tough Eye? "

Priit: " The concept of Tough Eye is that all best films are already done and that it has no sense to spend time and money for making new films. :-) Or to say in different way: Tough Eye wants to build a bridge between the past and the presence, even the future, because the selection jury consists of students or ex-students from Turku Art Academy. And also very important is to proove the possibility of an animation festival so far up north in Europe. "

Heikki: " What will the programme be this time? "

Priit: " - Timeless Competition; Timeless Panorama. - Tough Eye Selection - the best new animation from all over the world. - New Finnish animation. - New works from Turku Art Academy. - Animation for kids, - etc. And of course the main thing in our program is the Focus Japan. There you can see retrospectives from Kihachiro Kawamoto, Koji Yamamura, selection works from Kuri, Tezuka, Kinoshita etc. Also new independent Japanese animation. Kilian Dellers from Swizerland will show his films and artworks. And we are specially proud for having exhibition of famous French artist Roland Topor. "

Heikki: " One of the new things in the world of animation festivals was your Timeless Competition. All living directors could send there one of their films regardless of it's year of production. Did you got enough both old and new entries last time and did the competition actually work? "

Priit: " What is enough? A big number means quantity, not quality. I think, for the first edition of Tough Eye the number of entered films was OK, but the amount of films made earlier than two years before the festival wasn't very big. Animators are optimists, they believe, that they are becoming better and better. That their latest film is very good and the next will be the best. Every new thing takes time to use. Also I am an optimist. Timeless 2003 will be a big step ahead. "

Heikki: " What kind of feedback did you got about Timeless Competition? "

Priit: " 95% positive. Mainly people liked the idea of Timeless Competition and did wonder why nobody else did it before. Of course, the traditional concept of the 2-years limit is clear, new films are coming and they need space for presentation. Probably one Tough Eye is enough as a place where you can send every second year your dusty filmroll from the last century. But of course there were also a few people who did ask how you can do such a terrible thing. Put in the same competition new and old films! You have to know that old films are bad, primitive and ugly! Yes, its true, but if somebody doesn't know this, you can come and see it in Tough Eye 2003. "

Heikki: " For the Timeless Competition screenings you will only accept 35 mm film prints. Why not videos? "

Priit: " It is also question of quantity and quality. But it is possible, that in future videos will be accepted. "

Heikki: " Finland is in the northern corner of Europe and Turku, though it's the oldest town in Finland, is no major metropolis on this globe. How was the international attendance on the first festival? "

Priit: " I think we had enough very nice guests. For lot of people Finland is an exotic country. Maybe they expect to see reindeers, polar bears and Santa Claus? Anyway, we had guests from Brazil, Canada, Germany, USA, Australia, Czech Republic, UK, Hungary, Belgium, Poland, Holland etc. And of course all Estonian team. I am not sure about whether the Quay Brothers will participate again this time, maybe they are busy, but Igor Kovaliov will come also this year. "

Heikki: " Will you provide accommodation during the festival for the directors who have a film in the Timeless Competition? "

Priit: " Yes. "

Back to index of Festival Previews