Hello dear all,


First of all, I take my hat off for the Dutch entrepeneurship of Vincent and Willem. We talked a lot about the possibilities of these electronic pigeons flapping through the universe and connecting the international featuresmaniacs, but they cleared the tracks and opened the highway. To our friends from Amsterdam to Zagreb, from Helsinki to Seoul.


I only managed to open the site a few seconds ago, and was upset


I couldn't adress to you all a warm welcome earlier. Here are now the first cries of a new born baby. May it be like a bridge over troubled waters, a turbotunnel between continents, the last bar still open when all is closed. A shoulder, an ear, a teaser.




Let this site also be an instrument for a closer and more efficient communication among us all. The IFC is a dense, stressing event, with a tight shedule. We meet so many friends in a too short period and we often regret not having talked enough to those persons who perhaps we wanted to share ideas and opinions with.


For this type of exchanges you need time, or, to say in better words, you must have the opportunity to say it when you have time,


or when the right moment is there to exchange ideas.




I have some experience with a forum about photography. I think one of the best on the whole web. It became like a family. An open family. Not self-indulgent, but warm, inspiring, sometimes rude or hectic, or explosif, but very vivid. And with a basic sense of curiosity and brotherhood. And open to everyone. No club-spirit at the start. No veterans, no newcomers.


In the best perspectives, a forum like this, shapes itself in a organic way and gets its own dynamics. This is in fact very much in the style of Leo, for eventual newcomers on this list, the founder-father of the IFC, Peter Leonhard Braun, also the brain and the heart of the Prix Europa.




But there is more. This forum can be and must be - we have no other choice - the ideal vehicle for the survival of the nexts Features Conferences.




With the friends and colleagues of the EBU Radiodocumantary Project Group and WITH the help of all those who want to join us,


we have to assure a inspiring confrontation in Sidney in 2000.


The time that we just could make a list of offered entries and give carte blanche to any station to present whatever programme they want, is over now. If at the IFC you hear mostly the same types of documentaries as those you are producing yourself, and, if you get the same feedback as you can get in your own featuresdepartment, there is no need to travel and no need to spend money. For the future of the IFC, we all have to stress on a added value. We have to move from confirmation to exploration and confrontation. But someone has to push the train. Not at the last moment. But from now. I, and I believe the other members of the Project Group, wouldn't aks more than that this site may be the pond to fish in.


So, soon, all the members on this list, will get an invitation to send proposals and DATS. I hope that we will be able to present next year in Sidney a rich, versatile, inspiring "corbeille" of programmes. And, don't misunderstand me. This is not an appeal on


just new formats. I even don't know exactly what this means. And so called tradional and classic features are highly appreciated when produced with sensibility and skill. In fact, I don't believe in a battle between "anciens" et "modernes". But the IFC shouldn't be the forum for too many "middle of the road" entries.




So, here we are now, at a kind of crossroad. With new choices. Willem and David offer us an handy instrument. I thank them again, for their time, energy and engagement. This site has still to find its final shape and comfort. But please, join us, join the others, join yourself. We are the last bar open, 24 hours. More to come.




Warm regards, Edwin.




project manager EBU Radiodocumentary Project Group.




edwin.brys@vrt.be


edwin.brys@pandora.be








PS : Thaught of the day :


" A bad day fishing is still better than a good day at work."