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Thursday 8.3.2001
Satwant Gill Watches Movies for a Living
A member of the International Competition jury, Satwant Gill is Festival and Events Manager at the Television and Film Department of the British Council. The department promotes British films and TV-programmes abroad.
Satwant Gill is a Festival and Event Manager
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Gill is responsible for selecting short films for the London film festival, networking with British filmmakers as well as international film festivals and organizations.
"Any day of the year you are probably dealing with about 20 different events. We work directly with film festivals or we put on British film screenings."
Gill graduated from university with a degree in antique history, which had absolutely nothing to do with film. Movies had already captured her attention from a very young age, however.
"I was one of those geeky kids who rather stay in than go out and play."
Judges have to be open-minded
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Short films are more than just short
Gill's opinion, defining short films is not straightforward. Duration isn't the only determining factor.
"It is also telling a short story in a concise way, and not wanting to be a feature film. In quite a lot of work I see where it becomes obvious that actually this person wanted to make a much bigger film but he ran out of money and ended up squeezing it into half an hour."
As Gill notes, "I am always amazed how much can be told in three minutes."
Gill wants to be amazed
A good film, she feels, should surprise even the experienced viewer, and "that does not mean that it has to be super glossy. Usually those films are less interesting because they cost more and people are playing safe."
Short film can b both art and entertainment. Gill feels that artistic films are not necessarily better.
" It just nice to have the variety."
Tough to judge
Part of her work involves rating films, which is tough "because you are so conscious how much time and effort and hard work, probably blood sweat and tears, it has taken to get the thing made. It is very brave, I think, to put themselves out there. It does not mean that everything that is made is wonderful. There is that part of you who thinks: who am I to judge the work of this person?"
Even the little ones make it into festivals
Gill sees the role of film festivals as important in distributing the films of smaller countries. However, many festivals, particularly those showing full-length films, have become quite lazy in their programming politics. They settle for films that they know will be widely distributed a few weeks later.
Gill's job is finding a wider audience for the little-known films. At festivals, she sees a lot of movies that she would want to recommend to friends, but the films are never heard of again, which is a real pity.
An unbiased judge
"The best short films come from the United Kingdom, naturally," Gill says with a twinkle in her eye. She is particularly interested in U.S., Japanese, and South American films. Of course, Gill notes, as a judge she has to be open to all the films.
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