OPEN DISCUSSION: POLITICAL FILM MAKING
On Wednesday, 6 April 2005, at 12: pm at the packed STAVROS TORNES cinema, an open discussion was held within the framework of the 7th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival – Images of the 21st Century. This discussion was on Political Film Making. Within the framework of the discussion, Andrei Cairola and Susan Gray’s film “Citizen Berlusconi” was screened. Present at the screening was the producer of the film Stefano Tealdi, who at the end gave a lecture about political film making and held a discussion with the audience.
The Director of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, Mr. Dimitri Eipides, introducing the film’s producer Stefano Tealdi, characteristically said: “You are looking at a man who has been given the nickname ‘Mr. Europe’ and he is here with us to present a film about the person who yesterday lost in the Italian municipal elections”. In his introduction, Mr. Eipides also stressed the difficulties that the producer of the film faced in order to find sufficient financing. Given that “Citizen Berlusconi” is a critique and perhaps a critical eye as to the character of the Prime Minister of the country, who, among other things, controls the largest part of the Italian Mass Media, it was very difficult to find financiers in Italy, and because of this reason, the film was financed exclusively with foreign capital.
Taking the floor, Stefano Tealdi said that the basic idea first came from a young director at the end of 2002, who suggested they make a film about the journalists who find themselves blacklisted in Italy. “We did not want to sketch a portrait of Mr. Berlusconi, but to demonstrate what happens when a political figure concentrates all of the power of the Mass Media. Therefore it is about the relationship of the Mass Media with politics.” The shooting took place in the summer and fall of 2003, and as Stefano Tealdi characteristically noted “what is tragic is that the film still remains more than timely, even up to today.”
As the title suggests, the film creates the portrait of the most powerful man in Italy, the Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. He is the first press magnate to govern a western democracy. With a Mass Media network costing more than 13 billion Euros, Berlusconi controls more than 90 % of Italian television, ¼ of the publishing houses, and two of the largest newspapers in the country (one belongs to his brother and the other to his wife). He also controls 60 % of the most important press and cinema distribution networks.
The documentary sheds light on all sides of his personality trying to determine the limits of political power and corruption: Berlusconi is popular in the Italian parliament, as many people’s jobs depend on him. So he has the freedom to create and revoke laws through which he can pressure and often blackmail situations and people. The charges and illegalities attributed to him have not succeeded in putting him in jail, nor of course have they managed to stop him. Above all, he tries to give a voice to all of those who wish to give a stop to Berlusconi’s imperial rule and to see a new day of democracy and equality under the law dawn in the country.
Following the screening, and after the film was enthusiastically applauded by the audience, the Director of EDN (European Documentary Network), Tue Steen Muller, in the discussion that followed with Stefano Tealdi centered on the subject of the film’s financing. The film, as Stefano Tealdi said, was 50 % financed by the American television network PBS. PBS was interested in financing the production because it considered interesting the fact that within a few months Silvio Berlusconi would take on the Presidency of the European Union. The rest of the financing came from eight television stations in Scandinavia and the Netherlands, and the European Union’s Media Distribution Program. The total production cost came to 250,000 Euros. To date, the documentary has been broadcast on 13 television stations in Europe and Australia, and the only country it has not been broadcast in is Italy. Only the Italian magazine Internazionale distributed 20,000 copies of it in DVD form, and it has also been distributed on the internet.
But what Stefano Tealdi stressed more than anything else was that the aim of the creators is for the documentary to air on Italian television. Unfortunately, as he said: “we are very much afraid that this goal will never be achieved. We want all the people who in the past have voted for Silvio Berlusconi to see it.” To an question posed by the audience as to whether they will try to screen the film in some Italian festival, Stefano Tealdi replied that an effort was made, but proved fruitless, as all the Italian festivals are financed, and are therefore controlled by, the Berlusconi “Empire”.
He was also asked if during shooting they received telephone calls or threats from Berlusconi’s people. The answer was no, though the Italian police warned them many times that if they used Berlusconi’s image at his public appearances, they would have a serious problem with the authorities. Finally, Stefano Tealdi commented on yesterday’s developments in the Italian municipal elections where Berlusconi was defeated by the Romano Pronti coalition was a very positive event, while Tue Steen Muller noted that we must all begin some serious thinking spurred on by “Citizen Berlusconi” as Italy may not be the only country troubled by the entanglement of the Mass Media with political authority.
