In spite of a disadvantageous period (the 1st of November official holiday on Saturday), the best ever attendance was registered: 1,941 members, up by 7.7% in numbers. The supporting-membership, launched this year, was a success and reached 7% of the total membership registered. In proportion there are less reduced-fee membership.
The cumulated attendance in both screening-rooms reached 64% of capacity during the week-end and 51% in the evenings. The 20th edition allowed festival-goers to watch or watch again a selection of award-winning short films from previous festivals and attend the exclusive screening of the first ever cinema version of the classical German masterpiece Mädchen in Uniform, directed by Leontine Sagan in 1931. 24 filmmakers and a few guests from the production teams were present this year.
The best scores were achieved with the screenings of The World Unseen (772 spectators), the short films retrospective (538), Drifting Flowers (532), the now ritual sexy screening on Saturday night (506) and the opening night (436) with a show by Véronique Pestel, a great French singer who honoured us with her magnetic presence, followed by the screening of Vivere. At the Halle Saint-Pierre, most of the screenings were overcrowded, as for example the short and medium films programmes entitled Don't Go (115), Italian-style Feminism (108) and Roads and Ways (100), as well as the second screening of the feature films The World Unseen (109) and Vivere (98). It is to be reminded that the normal capacity of the auditorium is 85 seats.
Concerning the exhibitions, the festival hosted for the third time the environmental art presentation F-SPACE, with works by artists from England, Austria, France, Italy and some northern Europe countries (Denmark / Sweden). Besides, the 20th anniversary exhibition, gathering picture lay-outs, press abstracts and other archives acknowledged the festival longevity while rousing the long-term members' memories. After Véronique Pestel's concert, two more shows animated the evenings at the Trianon: a show by Océan LeRoy, famous drag king of the Berlin transgender scene, and a burlesque performance by the Drag King Fem Show associated with a sexy lecture by Wendy Delorme during the Saturday night sexy-screening.
After the meeting with the audience on the festival's last day, we kept in mind the demand for a larger place to be left to debates and discussions, which resulted to the creation of a dedicated committee in the 2009 team. Indeed, several meetings and discussions with filmmakers did take place at the end of the screenings, but only two real debates were organized in 2008 (« Evolution of lesbian sexuality image in films, made by and for lesbians » and « Talking about homosexuality in school, is it really elementary? »).
Financial balance is secured this year once again, in spite of the reduced amount of the subvention granted by the Paris Town Hall on the credits of the Women/Men Equality Observatory (8,000 € in 2008 after 10,000 € in 2007). Savings made by all committees are to be pointed, and are reinforced by the cuttings in expenses previously related to the « Best-Of-Mixte » festival which was not held this year. Once again, the cafeteria team are to be prized for their performance in taste acknowledged by all and for the essential contribution their action brings to the festival's finance.
This year's benefit is limited (140 €) but incomes and expenses are globally on the rise, as a result of growing attendance and the organisation of a party, which was not the case in 2007. This November the 1st night at the Bus Palladium was a real success (428 guests among which 74% where festival members) in spite of a few misunderstandings with the venue team and a total cost not fully balanced by the income generated, because we decided to keep low fees.
In 2009, we confirm the option of a real four days long festival, plus the opening night and the party on Saturday night, whereas still combining rich content and cost containment at all levels. A new committee was also created to organize, beside the festival, a new series of open-to-all screenings aiming at increasing the visibility of the films we like and, in the end, reaching new potential spectators for the festival. A request for subvention was made anew in order to maintain the printed programme free distribution and low festival attendance fees.
