25th INTERNATIONAL ISLAND FILM FESTIVAL OF GROIX (FIFIG)
Film, culture and freedom festival
THE DEPARTMENTAL COUNCIL OF MORBIHAN WITHDRAWS ITS SUPPORT FOR FIFIG FOR THE TOPICS IT CHOOSES TO ADDRESS
For twenty-five years, the International Island Film Festival of Groix has told the stories of the women and men of the islands, their cultures, their languages, their landscapes, their fragilities, their struggles and their hopes.
It is a place of openness to the world, of meetings and dialogues between cultures.
Two months before the festival, the Departmental Council of Morbihan withdraws its support for the event (€20,000), not because of its management, attendance or influence, but because it believes that FIFIG has gradually distanced itself from its cultural purpose (...) to more assertively incorporate positions relevant to political debate and that it no longer wishes to associate its image with actions that could be perceived as participating in potential national or international political controversies.
This motivation is unprecedented!
It raises a fundamental question that goes far beyond FIFIG alone: can a public authority withdraw its support for a cultural event because of the topics it chooses to address?
We cannot accept this vision.
Since when does talking about climate change, rising waters, resource scarcity, overexploitation of environments, mass tourism, biodiversity, coastal erosion, migrations, and the disappearance of island cultures no longer fall under culture?
These are the subjects of our time. They permeate cinema, literature, documentaries, research, and all forms of artistic creation. Showing them, telling their stories, and debating them is precisely the mission of a festival.
The FIFIG does not carry any partisan discourse, nor does it defend any political party.
It defends a freedom: that of artists to create, that of citizens to understand, and that of everyone to debate and build their own perspective on the world.
It is not the FIFIG that politicises culture. It is the Departmental Council that politicises its funding.
Culture belongs to no one; it is a common good.
We will continue to defend it.
Christophe DROMERY - Mathieu MARTIN, Co-Presidents
and the entire Board of Directors of the International Festival of Island Film of Groix
SUPPORT FOR FIFIG
SUPPORT FOR FIFIG
CONTACT
cdromery@via-architectes.fr : 06 84 80 37 45
mathieu@kstraat.com : 07 85 40 12 05