Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1181922
DO public procurement regu- lations apply to matters of intellectual property rights? OK, I'll admit it might not be the sexiest question in the world to start an article with (that would surely be 'Why don't you do right?', sung by Jessica Rabbit). Nonetheless, it's been troubling me for a few weeks now: ever since local film-maker Pierre Ellul raised questions about the funding of the film 'Storbju'… you know: the one about Sette Giugno, which will star Harvey Keitel and Malcolm McDowell (and a presum- ably a few other actors, too… strange, how they never seem to get mentioned anywhere…) More pertinently, it is a movie that is being partly funded by the Arts Council. That is, in fact, the whole point of Pierre's complaint: "Thank you, especially the Government who gave Jean Pierre Magro a lovely handout of €500,000 (that we know of) whilst the rest of us mortals have to jump through all the hoops and processes. More money than even Malta Film Finance under the CoPro Fund and the Malta Film Fund put together can give. Whilst Malta Film Commis- sion and its commissioner Johann Grech have to con- stantly battle to get more funds allocated to the Malta Film Fund, the Arts Council enters into "business" with Jean Pierre Magro, handing over a sweet gift of €500,000. Indeed, in George Orwell's words, "Some animals are more equal than others." As someone who has seen quite a lot of unfairness in the distribution of public funds over the years, I can certainly understand Pierre Ellul's frustration. Don't know if he'll remember, but we discussed this very issue when I met him at a social event a few years ago: around the time when he was still making (or had just made) his own feature film, 'Dear Dom': a biopic/docu- mentary about… erm… you'll never guess… From that, and other con- versations with other people in the film industry (includ- ing Jean Pierre Magro, whom I interviewed last August), my understanding is that the Malta Film Fund offers a number of grants to prospec- tive film-makers each year, ranging from €200,000 for a feature-length film, to… oh, I don't know: a lot less for short movies, etc. It is a structured fund, and therefore there is – or is sup- posed to be – a competitive process whereby people can enter their script ideas, to be selected by an internal board. I don't know if Jean Pierre Magro applied for fund- ing through this particular scheme for 'Storbju'; evident- ly, however, he received what looks like a one-off contribu- tion (call it what you will) from the Malta Arts Council. And I doubt Pierre Ellul would have had much cause for complaint, if Jean Pierre Magro was indeed chosen as winner of a competitive pro- cess that had been open to all applicants equally (including himself). Hence the Orwell reference at the end: in this case, one film-maker does seem to have been handpicked over others, for no apparent reason. Whether that constitutes an irregularity or not, however – and to be honest, I don't think even Pierre himself is suggesting it does – is not that straightforward. 'Making movies' is not quite the same as laying down a pipeline, or building a power station. The process naturally varies from film to film, and from country to country – but in general, it always starts with an idea. In this case, the idea was to make a film about the riots that took place in Malta on 7 June 1919. Here is where intellectual property rights come into the equation. The original idea of any film will have belonged to someone – quite literally, in the sense that it would be copyrighted. But whether the copyright owner will be the same person at the end of process… that's something else entirely. To take a classic Hollywood example of how this most of- ten happens: the screenwriter who wrote the original script and/or treatment will own the copyright at first; but – with very few exceptions – will not have the 10 or 12 million dollars necessary to actually make the film. So the screenwriter will pitch it to a studio… and the studio will (or won't, as the case may be) buy the rights off the screenwriter. Generally, the studio will then co-fund the production itself; but very often – almost always, in fact – it will seek external financing: from other studios, independent producers, rich benefactors, lobby groups, governments, etc… basically, from wherever or whatever it can. (This, incidentally, also explains why the credits at the end are sometimes longer than the actual movie itself.) Apply all that to the 'Storbju' case, and what seems to have happened (for here Pierre El- lul certainly does have a point: there is way too little official information about this) is that the copyright owner/s approached the Malta Arts Council – among God knows how many other sources – to fund the project. Now – and this is the really tricky part – if this were a classic case of public pro- curement, it would be the 24 OPINION maltatoday | SUNDAY • 3 NOVEMBER 2019 Raphael Vassallo Making movies, on location... While it's great that talented makers like Jean Pierre Magro do get assistance from the state to make a movie… well, it would be kind of nice if the rest of us were given the same opportunity every once in a while, too