Can you introduce yourself in a few lines?
Jean-Marc Thérouanne : I am the General Delegate, co-founder and co-artistic director of the Festival International des Cinémas d'Asie de Vesoul. I have a degree in law, a master's degree in history and the CAPES diploma in teaching information.
I was president of the jury of the Silk Road International Film Festival Of Xi'an 2014 (China), of the Art Film Festival Of Kosice 2017 (Slovakia) and of the Festival Fenêtre sur Courts of Dijon 2010 (France), member of international juries in France and abroad: Chungmuro International Film Festival Of Seoul 2009 (Korea), Osian'Cinefan Of New-Delhi 2009 (India), Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival Of Manila 2011 (Philippines), Golden Tulip Film Festival Of Dushanbe 2019 (Tajikistan), Tashkent International Film Festival 2022 (Uzbekistan), . ..
My commitment to culture, especially to cinema, has earned me several awards such as: Korean Cinema Award (2018), Officier des Palmes académiques (2018), Chevalier des Arts et Lettres (2003), as well as the Oriental Languages Medal (2005), the Francophonie Medal (2009), the France-Korea Cultural Prize (2011), the Medal of Honor of the City of Vesoul (2014), the France-Korea Trophy (2016), the Medal of Cinematographic Art of the Republic of Mongolia (2018).
I was the producer of the film If God sent his angel by K.M. Lo 2005 (Cambodia) from the Open Doors project of the Locarno Festival in 2004, and co-producer with the Bophana Center of the film Where I Go by Kavich Neang in 2013 (Cambodia).
I am a correspondent for several magazines: Cinealliance, InterCDI… and member of NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) since 2003.
Can you tell us a word about the Festival and its history?
The Festival International des Cinémas d'Asie de Vesoul was created in 1995 to celebrate the centenary of cinema. We felt concerned in two ways:
– as Hauts-Saônois, the father of the Lumière brothers, a pioneer of photography, was born in Ormoy in Haute-Saône,
– as Francs-Comtois, the Lumière brothers were born in Besançon, and used to come to Haute-Saône in their childhood in the family house.
Why did you create the Festival in Vesoul?
Because after having moved twenty-two times following the career of my father, a magistrate, I fell in love, forty years ago, with a lifelong Vesoul woman whom I met in Thailand on the beach of Lamaï Beach on the island of Koh Samui in the Gulf of Siam. This meeting changed my life from top to bottom and rooted me in Haute-Saône, the department of Destiny.
This festival is the story of a Love Story between two people who are passionate about Asia.
Have you ever thought of exporting it to other cities and/or abroad?
Creating an international film festival is not an easy task. I put all my energy, my time, my life into it. I did it voluntarily, sincerely, to fight against the prejudices of which the Hauts-Saônois are victims. I take exception to the contemptuous looks of some people who have had the misfortune of being born in a big city, thinking that they are more intelligent for this simple reason than those born in a small town, or even a village.
We are in Balzac's Comédie humaine. I feel close to Beaumarchais' cry of revolt.
My reasons make you understand that I never thought of exporting this festival. Moreover, one does not uproot a tree.
What place does the Festival occupy in Haute-Saône today?
It puts Haute-Saône on the world map of cinema. Come to the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea, the Cannes of Asia. You will see the full extent of what the Vesoul International Festival of Asian Cinema represents for the Asian film industry. From France it knows only Cannes and Vesoul. At the opening and closing ceremonies of the Busan International Film Festival the name of Vesoul is acclaimed by 4400 spectators. The hall, where these two ceremonies take place, contains twice as many spectators as the Grand Théâtre Lumière of the Cannes Festival.
During the opening ceremony of the 23rd Busan International Film Festival, on October 4, 2018, my wife and I were presented with the prestigious Korean Cinema Award. My wife and I had a thought for all the Hauts-Saônois. In a moment like this one feels like an ambassador of his country, of his land. I thought of my mother who used to tell me “when you go abroad, behave yourself. Your hosts judge your country by your behavior”.
Can you tell us about the 29th edition in more detail?
85 films, including 38 new ones, from 31 countries, make up the 29th Festival International des Cinémas d'Asie de Vesoul.
Mr Lee Young-kwan (Korea), president of the prestigious Busan festival, the Cannes of Asia, will be the president of the international Jury.
Tribute will be paid to the Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu, in his presence. The entirety of his work will be presented, from his first film Away From Home, in competition at Vesoul 2002, to his latest opus Hasan's Promises, Cannes 2021, including Honey, Golden Bear Berlin 2010.
They will be awarded an honorary Golden Cyclo at the opening ceremony.
20 films in competition, in French, European, international or world premiere, will be judged by 7 juries (International, Critic, Netpac, Inalco, Marc Haaz, High School, Youth).
The competitive sections are composed of films from rare cinematographies (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Singapore, Syria, Vietnam), and films from major cinematographies (China, Korea, India, Iran, Philippines).
Some of the award-winning films will be shown again at the auditorium of the Guimet Museum of Asian Arts in Paris on April 21, 22, 23, 2023, as well as at the Inalco (Institut National des Langues et Civilisation Orientales) in Paris.
The Festival joins the celebration of the 75th anniversary of France-Philippines diplomatic relations with a retrospective “A Look at Philippine Cinema” with the support of the FDCP (Film Development Council of the Philippines), the equivalent of the CNC (Centre National du Cinéma et de l'image animée). Philippine cinema is a major cinematography with strong personalities such as Lino Brocka, Brillante Mendoza or Lav Diaz. This look intends to highlight the works of filmmakers such as veterans Lamberto Avellana, Mario O'Hara, Ishmael Bernal, Mike de Leon or the singular personality of Kidlat Tahimik and young talents Sheron Dayoc, Mikhail Red, Zig Dulay, the latter will be in Vesoul for the occasion.
The Festival has set up a Look at Singapore Cinema with the help of the Asian Film Archive. Singaporean cinema is a cinematographic terra incognita to be explored. This retrospective will allow us to discover musicals, including an astonishing remake of Saturday Night Fever, action and karate films, romances, historical dramas, … from the golden age of Singapore cinema when this city was part of the Federation of Malaysia; and films by Eric Khoo, true founding father of contemporary Singaporean cinema, and young directors such as Anthony Chen, Royston Tan, Boo Junfeng, Ken Kwek. The latter will be in Vesoul with his latest film, banned in Singapore because it deals with societal issues such as the criminalization of homosexuality. A festival like Vesoul is a forum for free expression for directors who are victims of censorship in their countries.
The thematic section “Asian Diaspora Cinema” offers a vast panorama of works by directors from Asian countries living in exile or integrated for one or more generations in the host country of their ancestors, questioning their identity linked to their dual culture. The forms of expression used range from animated films to dramatic comedies, through genre films: detective, thriller, comedy, …
Young audiences and Japanimation fans are not forgotten. The FICA of Vesoul is a Festival for all with multiple faces, functions, aspects, I quote in no particular order like a Prevert inventory: Professional day; evening of the 70 years of the magazine Positif; poetic and literary animations; meeting, dedications and reading with the writer-director Samuel Aubin (Istanbul forever); Singapore evening; day of Philippine cinema: round table, meeting, non-stop screening, Philippines evening; cinephilic meal; Orange evening; exhibitions: of Amigurumis, film posters; ephemeral tea room; workshop for children; conference “But where is Asia hiding in Haute-Saône”; afternoon for young people; awareness-raising actions (migrant literacy); school sessions; immersion day at the Festival; decentralized sessions in Haute-Saône; cultural actions (prevented public, seniors); Festival store; . ..
What is the place of young people in the International Festival of Asian Cinema?
The spectators of tomorrow are the children of today. The training of the eye participates in the opening of the mind, in the development of the critical spirit fundamental in the formation of a citizen of a democratic society inherited from the century of the Lights. It is necessary to be vigilant to the social forces calling into question the spirit of the Enlightenment.
From the very beginning of the Festival, we have been attentive to youth and have built educational projects around the films. When we created the Youth Jury in 2000, during the 6th Festival, we conceived it as a school of the eye for images from elsewhere. We were inspired by the Ten Commandments of the Reader by the writer Daniel Pennac, who explains that you should never say no to a young person, never stigmatize him or her by saying “this is not for you”. I had a father who brought me up without any cultural preconceptions. This is certainly my way of paying tribute to him by practicing cultural openness through the festival.
This Youth Jury is open to all young people between the ages of 11 and 30. It attracts more and more young people coming from colleges, high schools, IUT, IMEA, nursing school of the community of agglomeration of Vesoul, but not only. About a hundred students take part each year. It judges the films of the documentary competition, the cinéma du réel, and gives a prize offered by the Communauté d'Agglomération de Vesoul.
In 2007, we created the High School Jury in partnership with the Belin High School within the framework of the project: “from the FICA of Vesoul to the Cannes Festival”. A large number of teachers (Visual Arts, English, Chinese, Literature, Technical, …) were involved. This cultural action is part of the school project. The high school jury is composed of about forty students. It judges the films in the feature film competition and awards a trophy created by the students of the technique.
Since 1999 we have been in contact with students from the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales in Paris. A certain number of these students come to the Vesoul Festival. Since 2004, Inalco and FICA have institutionalized their relationship by creating the Inalco jury composed of teachers and students. Inalco students conduct interviews with professionals of the Asian cinema, thus constituting a documentary fund that enriches the archives of this venerable institution.
How would you like to integrate them into the Festival?
Through the youth, high school and Inalco juries, a certain number of young people join the FICA de Vesoul team. For example, the late Marc Haaz had been a youth jury and then a member of the festival team and had become the technical director of FICA. His brutal death in the aeronautical accident of July 30, 2021 was a terrible tragedy. I had 20 years of friendship with him since that day in September 2001, when he entered the CDI which I was in charge of at the Jean Macé school in Vesoul. I felt in him this flame and his interest for the cinematographic culture. I believed in him. I brought him to the baptismal font of cinema by opening my relationship book to him. He was an exceptional boy.
Since his death, we have integrated all the young people who were involved in the Osprod Studio company that he had created in Frotey-les-Vesoul.
My close collaborator Jules Gouillon also comes from the young jury. He became the digital communication manager of FICA. He is the director of the trailer of each edition of FICA since the tragic death of Marc. Other young people from the youth, high school and inalco juries join the FICA team and occupy positions according to their different levels of investment (film translation, reception of guests, reception of festival-goers, control of entrances, of the Bambouseraie (the festival's festive space, a tent next to the Majestic cinema, during the festival), the festival's technical team, interpreter, …)
What are your future projects and ambitions for the Festival?
To prepare a magnificent thirtieth festival, thirty years, few festivals have had this longevity. My wife and I are working on the theme of commitment.
Various international organizations have already contacted us to propose to build cinematographic projects for this thirtieth, including the Brussels branch of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office. A retrospective on Hong Kong cinema is coming up. It is a good thing, because as a teenager I was fascinated by Bruce Lee's cinema. This led me to practice karate for 14 years. Culture is a combat sport.
