Alessandra Buggenig, Martha Capello, Laura Pellicciari, Andrea Magnani, Emanuele Nespeca, Igor Princic, Giovanni Pompili, Fabio Segatori and Andrea Stucovitz have been in Trieste where they spoke to Cinema & Video International about their latest projects.
They were attending the Second National Meeting of the Association of Young Independent Theatrical Producers (AGPCI) held from January 19th – 21st and are all members of the Association.
Around forty or so representatives came to Trieste from Italian production companies belonging to the Association (which has a total of 70 companies, mainly micro-businesses). They met, discussed and also debated with professionals from German speaking countries who were the guests of the third edition of When East Meets West. Networking was made possible thanks to the relationship that the AGPCI has
established with the forum dedicated to co-productions between Eastern and Western European countries organized by the Friuli Venezia Giulia “Fondo per l’Audiovisivo” (Audiovisual Fund) in collaboration with the Trieste Film Festival.
Producer Martha Capello, who the meeting confirmed as president of the AGPCI for the next three years, explains that sharing projects with international partners is a distinctive trait of the working method used by its members.
“It tends to cause delays,” she explains, “because of the research that each producer has to carry out in their own country. We do a lot of work in the development phase, but it makes for a stronger project in the end”.
Capello knows the rules of the market very well: in addition to sharing the financial risk, co-productions between several countries also multiply the opportunities for distribution. “Currently each partner holds 100% of the distribution rights in their own country. As the AGPCI, we are promoting the idea of apportioning the same percentages as the production quotas in the distribution rights of the production partners within their respective countries of origin as well”.
The workshop at the Trieste Meeting produced the Association’s objectives for the next three years.
A rich package ranging from a request to raise the internal tax credit rate for micro- businesses, to the creation of a fund for minority co-productions, to greater transparency for television contracts and the relevant criteria for attributing economic value to theatrical products during the purchasing phase.
It was also decided to set up regional groups to work alongside the existing ones in Lombardy, Friuli and Emilia (the latter was actually set up during the meeting). This would constitute a point of departure for expanding the network to the rest of Europe.
The aim is to send a representative of the Association to the European Parliament in Brussels.
During the meeting a lot of time was also dedicated to the subject of distribution, thanks to the presentation of new forms of movie circuiting by businesses such as Cineama, Distribuzione Indipendente and Movimento Film.
A lot of attention and growing appreciation is being created around the AGPCI: even not-so- young producers are beginning to like its “style”, many of whom attended the Trieste Meeting. One example is Sergio Pelone, Marco Bellocchio’s historic producer, a new member of the AGPCI.
The generational circle of the AGPCI is expanding, Martha Capello tells us, preferring to aim for independence as an identifying trait, whilst keeping the “young” label (included in the association’s name) as a “strong indication of a desire for change”.
