INPUT 2005 - San Fransisco, USA
Time for INPUT - 2005
by Nick Radlo
When the 27th International Public Television (INPUT) Conference takes place in San Francisco from May 1 through May 6, it will offer a unique opportunity for any professional involved in media to watch and discuss the most innovative television programs in the world. Hosted by ITVS, this year’s event marks the first time in six years that INPUT has been held in the United States. It will include screening and panel sessions in addition to other special events. Thousands of delegates from around the world are expected to attend.
What Is INPUT?
INPUT is not a festival, a competition or a market. Since 1978, the conference has collected some of the most challenging and provocative programs from around the world and screened them to an audience of professional peers. In INPUT’s early years, the annual event alternated between Europe and North America, then branched out to include host cities in Mexico and Africa. “The original idea for INPUT was to make Europe aware of some of the alternative programs being made in the U.S.,” says Mike Fentiman, a former president of INPUT and, for many years, the United Kingdom’s coordinator for the event. But it wasn’t long before James Day, one of INPUT’s founders and the former president of KQED in San Francisco and WNET in New York, advised doing the opposite as well—to “reverse the Gulf Stream,” as he put it, and let public television practitioners in the United States see what Europe and the rest of the world was doing. One of INPUT’s original intentions was to maximize the cross-fertilization of creativity by mixing programs not only from different countries, but also from different genres. This remains a crucial part of the conference, which now features up to six daily screening sessions—three in the morning and three in the afternoon—that mix documentaries with dramas and comedies. A unique aspect of INPUT is the opportunity to discuss every screened program with a member of the production team that made it. As Fentiman says, “It’s the community of program makers that’s important.”
Part of the philosophy of INPUT is to encourage the sharing of ideas between different cultures and countries and to encourage program makers from across the world to expand their professional contacts. Over the years, the seeds of some very fruitful collaboration have been planted at INPUT as producers get to know each other.
“I go to INPUT to see the most interesting programs and discuss them. But it’s also a great way to get your program seen around the world,” says Italian producer Stefano Tealdi, whose documentary Citizen Berlusconi, about the Italian prime minister, was shown at INPUT 2004 in Barcelona, Spain. “After INPUT, I was surprised at the invitations to show the program from countries I would never have imagined would have been interested.”
“INPUT is never billed as a professional development conference,” says Pound, the conference’s U.S. national coordinator, but “it is that and more. No other conference has the opportunities for training, where you can ask program makers how and why they did certain things. It’s one of the greatest opportunities for professional development that any conference can offer.”
The Selection Process
Each February, a selection event for INPUT programs takes place in Berlin to determine what programs will get shown at that year’s conference. The preselection event also determines how the selected programs will be scheduled in screening sessions. Programs are submitted for selection by INPUT national coordinators, the 30-odd professionals that represent INPUT in their regions. Each selected program is assigned a “shop steward,” a moderator who will introduce the program and the program makers at the conference and who facilitates the discussions that follow each screening. Shop stewards are practicing television professionals from around the world who serve as jurors in the Berlin selection, whittling more than 300 submissions down to the 80 or 90 that are chosen to show at INPUT.
Fifteen to 20 shop stewards are chosen for each INPUT. “We look for people who can be a little argumentative, have a point of view, and are experienced program makers for public TV channels,” explains Anne Roper, a producer and director who has been organizing the INPUT shop stewards for the past four years.
Prior to the Berlin selection, national coordinators organize screenings in their own countries in order to determine which programs will get sent to Berlin. SCETV’s Pound organizes the preselection for the United States, which is an “open entry” call for programs.
“We encourage producers to send in programs and join the INPUT process, whether they’re from stations or are independents,” Pound says. “We had 120 entries for this year, which 10 professionals view over three days to decide a shortlist of 17. ‘What’s there to discuss?’ is always the question after each program. [The answer to that] determines how appropriate it is for INPUT.”
Discussions can make a good INPUT a great one. At screening sessions, program makers can discuss the issues raised by certain programs, comparing and contrasting what they would do in their own countries if they were given the same subject.
At the 2004 INPUT in Barcelona, several heated discussions occurred, including one involving more than 500 delegates after a screening of RTE/Power Pictures’ Chavez: Inside the Coup. The program provoked debate on how accurate a portrayal it was of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and his political opponents.
In contrast, it was INPUT co-founder and international coordinator Sergio Borelli who berated the delegates at one screening in Barcelona when they failed to offer much response afterward. “You’re not at a film festival!” he told the crowd. “Whether you love it or hate it, you’re here to talk about what you’ve been watching!”
INPUT Branches Out
INPUT is now more than an annual conference in May. Many countries also hold mini-INPUTs, which are smaller, often daylong events in which selections from the most recent INPUT are screened to local television professionals who were unable to attend the main event. The United States, Finland, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Ireland are among the countries that have held mini-INPUTs. In the United States, Pound holds four or five regional mini-INPUTs a year, as well as lunchtime sessions focused on single programs for the local media community in Columbia, South Carolina, where he works.
In Norway, television director Morten Thomte organizes a series of mini-INPUTs in locations throughout the country. “Fifty to 100 people come every time,” he says. “They long for it. My goal at INPUT is to find programs where I can say ‘This I haven’t seen before.’ Then I show them back in Norway, too.”
More and more countries are holding mini-INPUTs that are facilitated by the Goethe-Institut, which has become a major supporter in disseminating the INPUT mission. With 128 bases in different countries worldwide, the Goethe-Institut is in a unique position to host mini-INPUTs and encourage participation in INPUT itself. “For us, it’s a unique opportunity to foster an international exchange of quality television,” says Berndt Desinger, head of audiovisual media at the Goethe-Institut.
A Latin American television association was formed to increase INPUT participation after a series of mini-INPUTs took place in such cities as Buenos Aires and Bogota. There have also been mini-INPUTs in several African cities and in Hong Kong. India is the latest country to begin hosting mini-INPUTs, as Indian INPUT coordinator Abhijit Dasgupta has started organizing a series of mini-INPUTs across the nation.
“The response has been really positive,” Dasgupta says. “People are asking us, ‘Why has India never been involved in INPUT before?’” He expects to forward a number of Indian television programs to the selection in Berlin in February.
New Countries, New Delegates
Each INPUT brings new delegates from countries new to the conference. In INPUT’s first year, there were 240 delegates and 12 countries with featured programs. Recent INPUTs have included more than 1,000 delegates and up to 60 different countries with programs.
INPUT 2005 will include delegates from Iran and Nepal for the first time, as well as an increased presence from Mexico and Nigeria. A fund in Australia will help sponsor delegates from Western Pacific countries, including Indonesia, New Guinea and several Micronesian islands.
ITVS Vice President and Executive Producer of INPUT 2005 Judy Tam has been in touch with more than 50 overseas consulates to spread the word on INPUT. “We want to increase the number of delegates from underrepresented regions and connect with the public TV systems in those areas— Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America,” Tam says. Assistance is already in place to help eight delegates and two facilitators from Russia to attend INPUT, and Tam notes that she has had positive responses from consulates in the Middle East and Asia, with plans for a scholarship fund for African and Latin American delegates. INPUT always includes evening activities outside the screening sessions, and 2005 promises to have the most extensive lineup of events yet. On the schedule are several panel sessions and a leadership summit headed by PBS President and CEO Pat Mitchell and Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) President and CEO Kathleen Cox. Many public network CEOs from around the world will be in attendance at the summit. In addition, the CPB will host a half-day producer’s academy at the conference.
Other discussions planned for INPUT 2005 include one on programs made by indigenous peoples, an independent filmmaking panel, a panel on outreach activities hosted by American University, a panel organized by the U.C. Berkeley school of journalism and a panel with leading program commissioners who will discuss opportunities for co-production. And a midweek social event will be hosted at San Francisco’s City Hall.
“There have never been so many panels at INPUT as there will be this year,” says Tam. “The leadership summit is a new idea, too. We’re making a real effort to broaden the spectrum of those who come as delegates to INPUT, as well as increasing the number of countries represented. Independent producers will be just as welcome as those from public networks.”