. He has since retired but still has a passion for cinema which is apparent){kind=link}
Universal Cinema Film & TV Journal’s Amir Ganjavie recently interviewed Tony Jones, who began his career in independent cinema in Birmingham, England in the late 1960s/early 1970s before settling in Cambridge, England in the 1980s where he took over management and programming of the Cambridge Film Festival (through to 2019). He has since retired but still has a passion for cinema which is apparent from the highlights of the interview that follows.
Amir Ganjavie, UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): How do you think the Cambridge Film Festival is different from other festivals?
Tony Jones (TJ): Well, we introduced retrospectives and seasons from the very early years. Francesco Rosi was the first featured director and Rosi came over to Cambridge for a complete retrospective and also later for a shorter season. Monika Treut also presented her complete work and was a regular at the Festival, with Cambridge usually presenting her UK Premieres.
There were always three or four new silent films released each year, usually via either Bologna, Pordenone, National Film Archive or San Francisco. We have a team of people, including Margaret Deriaz, (who used to work at the British Film Institute). Margaret was amazingly clued into what was being restored. We would always engage internationally known musicians: Neil Brand, Stephen Horne, and John Sweeney, who would regularly enjoy playing in Cambridge.
(UM): Can you tell me a little about the selection process for your festival?
(TJ): I would attend Berlin, Cannes, DocFest in Sheffield, Edinburgh, and keep an eye on London too. Those are the main festivals which we would attend. Margaret would tend to go to Berlin. Other programmers would also cover Cannes. Cambridge is a festival that operates with very little subsidy. It relied on covering expenses and goodwill. That’s how it had to work. If people get the satisfaction of making something happen, then I like sharing that with the team. I’ve got a colleague, Bill Lawrence, who used to run the Bradford Cinema, Pictureville and the Bradford Festival. He would also attend Berlin seeking titles and to suggest retrospectives and seasons. Ramon Lamarca has been programming New Catalan Cinema for the last 10 years, and Iris Ordonez (co-ordinator for the Human Rights Watch Festival) has a programme strand for Cambridge. Iris was also the Cambridge Festival Manager for 5 years.
(UM): Does this mean you don’t look for World Premieres?
(TJ): There’d be a few World Premieres, but we’re a small festival, with a minimal budget. When we used to be in July, we competed with Edinburgh as we opened a month before (Edinburgh in mid August), and could secure titles opening in August or September for a British Premiere in Cambridge in July. It helped that I was also programming the newly opened Curzon Soho and the key Picturehouse Cinemas cinemas in Oxford, York, Clapham and Cambridge. With Submitted Features we would have a limited number of world premieres.These were the years that proved most successful.
It should be noted that were operating in summer months with majority of the programme in a non air-conditioned venue, so it could be very, very hot – but a great city to visit in July, and an opportunity to introduce guests to the delights of punting along the River Cam.
(UM): Do you use any kinds of quotas to address gender, racial, geographic, or any other kinds of diversity?
(TJ): We have focused on the quotas probably in the last ten years or so. There is now a closer split between male and female filmmakers. We didn’t provide any sign language, but which can now be possible with the introduction of Digital cinema projection. If a film is supplied with subtitles for the hard of hearing, we will, of course play those. If people complain, we would point out that some people here do not have good hearing, but they’re here to watch the film, so we want to make it “happen for all” It’s just that you are showing English subtitles when the film’s in English, but it does show a more inclusive approach.
(UM): Do you have a stance on showing films from controversial filmmakers like Woody Allen and Roman Polanski?
(TJ): That never arose. I retired four years ago, but it’s a bit of a cop-out. Woody Allen’s last few films haven’t been too good. We always used to have the new Woody Allen film because they always used to be released through film distributors in summer time. I would then play them at the Picturehouse and generally would play very well. However, their careers seemed to have just faded away and most recent films haven’t always found UK distribution.
(UM): How does the festival engage with the community of Cambridge?
(TJ): The Film Festival used to present screenings throughout the year in the community. We would schedule screenings in community centres, a church hall or any other venue that might be of good quality (blackout, sightlines and acoustics) so we could take the festival out to the community.
(UM): I know some festivals are struggling with securing venues. Has that been a problem for Cambridge?
(TJ): Well, Cambridge was fortunate. I was also a director and co-founder of Picturehouse (my office is still in the Picturehouse Cinema). The Festival initially ran for ten days, but that has now been reduced to eight days. The Festival would pay a fixed fee. The cinema had guaranteed income, and because of the increased attendance and had much better bar and kiosk sales as well. The Festival would work from three screens to show up to 15 shows a day.
We also presented huge free screenings on Parkers Piece with a 50ft Air Screen and 35mm Projection.
(UM): But the venues you are utilizing, are they close to each other, or scattered throughout the city?
(TJ): You can walk to most of the venues. We also screened at the Arts Theatre, the ADC theatre (the university students theatre) the ABC, and occasionally the late night open air screenings.
(UM): Most festivals skew older, 40+, how are you working to bring in a younger demographic?
(TJ): These last two years, there’s been an initiative called the Cambridge Youth Lab which is partly to introduce young people into filmmaking and actively encourage them to come and experience the festival. They are receiving training in different areas of filmmaking and are encouraged to attend the festival, meet filmmakers and to experience a great range of world cinema. Anglia Ruskin University are now hosting events in the festival for their film students.
(UM): And how do you support filmmakers that come to your festival? And awards, monetary or otherwise?
(TJ): We try to support them as best we can with at least travel and accommodation, but that’s not cheap. The Festival has no cash award, but there are awards for those submitting films (Feature Length Fiction, Documentaries and Short Films.
(UM): Arthouse cinema is very niche in many countries and only shows at festivals. Is that the case in your region?
(TJ): No, the Picturehouse still shows a number of arthouse titles. It’s tough, they’ll still be doing proportionally the same lesser business as the commercial titles, but you wouldn’t want to sacrifice the arthouse titles because the numbers are lower, all the numbers are lower. You still have the core audiences coming. Cambridge also has quite a significant senior audience and they are always very supportive. But it’s getting the younger audience to come along when maybe they’ve got many other options , or they’re all still COVID-conscious, cash-
(UM): In terms of the future and the challenges right now in the age of streaming. How was your experience working with streamers?
(TJ): If you’ve got a big title and they’ve got a Netflix deal, you can get caught between, “Oh, we’d love to do it, but we’re with Netflix, but I have found both Netflix and Mubi very supportive. Now, in UK, a number of these titles are receiving a theatrical release with, admittedly a short window. I always had a good relationships, and I’m as persistent as any Festival director has to be!
In my last festival, I think we had three big Netflix titles because I kept pushing. We had the UK Premiere of The Irishman. I was very pleased to schedule it as the surprise film on closing night! To have The Irishman in there was terrific! And just down to persistence and relationships. That’s so satisfying for the audience, distributor, audience staff and myself!
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