To figure out how a festival works and how to put it together takes a lot of time and effort – believe me, I know what I'm talking about. Sometimes one feels as if it would be better if time could stop and we could perfect what we are doing, better yet, if we could do it all over again and hopefully do it better. In the world where I move, people don't usually get that chance. You either make it or break it. But that was what, to some extent, the Macau Film Television Production Association (MFTPA) managed to do with the Macau International Film Festival’s first edition, in a great and almost magical twist.
Like Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day”, the great 1993 comedy film by Harold Ramis, MFTPA members will wake up one day in December 2016 just like they did in April 2015 – getting ready for the first edition of the Macau International Film Festival – only this is the second first edition of the festival, in case no one noticed. Beautifully, everything is happening again to these same people and the city is again cheering for their success and their star ambassadors. Confusing? You bet.
Let's stick to the facts. MFTPA was created in January 2015 with executive director of Suncity Group, Alvin Chau, as its key person. MFTPA managed to organize a film festival only three months later (April 2015), the same month when Alvin Chau was appointed a member of the Macau Cultural Industries Council, taking the seat formerly occupied by Carlos Marreiros.
The ‘first’ 1st Macau International Film Festival was no joke. It took place in Galaxy, secretary Alexis Tam was there to cut the ribbon, international guests such as Jean-Jacques Annaud came to town, Macau Foundation sponsored the initiative with MOP 480,000 and Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) was the official organizing partner. However, something wasn't right.
I say something wasn't right because, in a step of illusionism, MFTPA kind of made that edition of the festival vanish, and one year later they were announcing the creation of the ‘second’ 1st International Film Festival & Awards Macao – you see, a completely different event with that 'Awards' thing there.
Offered a chance no one usually gets, a chance to repeat it all, it seemed like MFTPA wanted to do things right. They started going to film markets and film festivals around the world (with what money?), representing Macau, even if they didn't have a clue of what they were doing there most of the time. Sources can confirm that they at least had maps of Macau at their booths, for everybody knows when you want to talk cinema a map is essential. Well done, buddies.
To make this first edition different from the other first edition, MFTPA decided to hire a Festival Director. And, oh my god, they got fucking Marco Muller, a kind of Pep Guardiola of film festival strategy (I wanted to use Mourinho, but you can't use Mourinho for anything slightly positive these days). Muller, his name was Marco Muller. Pesaro, Torino, Rotterdam, Locarno, Rome, Beijing and more. How did they get him? How?
Suddenly the city is excited, I'm excited too. We all try to join MFTPA in believing in this first edition for the second time, we try to erase from our memories that weird ‘first’ first edition. After all, this festival isn't in partnership with MUST any longer but with the Macau Government Tourism Office. After all, its budget goes up to MOP 55 million and its public funding is at least MOP 20 million. After all, we have Marco Muller to make it happen.
Or we don't.
Just a few days ago, Muller resigned. He alleges just cause, mentioning "divergence of opinions" and not being able to go into greater detail, due to the potential legal consequences of his words. Muller is gone less than a month before the beginning of the ‘second’ first festival. For all film lovers in town, this is like someone shutting off the projector right before Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman say goodbye in “Casablanca”. We thought we would always have Paris. We were almost there and now we're not. What's going to be of the ‘second’ first edition of the festival?
Yesterday journalists had the chance to ask exactly that to the director of the Macau Government Tourism Office, Helena Senna Fernandes. And, more importantly, to ask her if the Macau Government maintains trust in MFTPA after these episodes. She said the Government does maintain confidence in its partners and she announced she's going to be the acting-director of this ‘second’ first festival, now that Muller is no longer on board. As for Alvin Chau, the man behind MFTPA, the cultural advisor now politically vouched, he didn't even bother to reply to any questions from the media, preserving a sardonic expression while refusing to make any comments.
So, to make it very clear: the Macau Government trusts an association that made a ‘first’ first edition of the festival in 2015 to abandon it right after; and a ‘second’ first edition of the festival in 2016, being incapable of handling one of the best festival directors in the world, not understanding that when you hire Guardiola you don't hire him to tell him how his team plays and with whom to play.
If the Groundhog Day Festival continues, maybe in 2017 we can have a ‘third’ first edition, this time named 1st International Film Festival & Awards & Lets Party All Night Long Macao – possibly at Sky 21, a bar with some of the worst playlists in town, where Alvin Chau's Suncity magazine can usually be seen in abundance, regularly featuring him on the cover, once and again, just like everything is about to happen one more time for the chosen ones, to the ones who’ll always have the chance to restart.
Good luck, Bill Murray. I’m afraid this is not the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
