CONTACT LENSES FOR THE COUNTRY

For the second time the International Kansk Video Festival will take place in the Siberian city of Kansk on September 4, 2003. The venue was not chosen by chance. It's far away from the capitals and sunny beaches caressed by the sea, in Siberia, in the wilderness, in a small town with a population of 100 thousand people. There a competition program of the latest (2001-2003) alternative, low-budget, short video films will be shown and the winners will be announced, one of whom will get the "Palm Secateur D'Or" (Grand Prix). In total, 146 applications were submitted for the contest by filmmakers and video artists from 17 countries and 8 cities of Russia. The jury paid special attention to contiguous genres (between cinema and video art), new experimental forms, all stylistically fresh and totally independent visualization of reality. Participation in the festival was free, applications were accepted from both professional directors and amateurs.

In recent years, it has become fashionable for a metropolitan institutions to promote contemporary culture in the province. This is quite natural and understandable, but not always honest, since such work is often carried out for a record and at half strength: after all, any hole's a goal, as the proverb says... But in this case, managing a large-scale festival in distant Siberia (given the fact that the entire team of the festival is based in Moscow) is a hard-won principle. We deliberately move away from the trite festival routes, away from conventional rating systems and awards distribution; we just take the best from the known world experience of the independent festival movement and vaccinate there, where it is most needed.

We challenge those who condemn a young and free visual culture to vegetate in the intellectual ghettos of the world capitals. Those who think that avant-garde culture is boring "just don't know how to cook it well." The goal we are pursuing may seem utopian, but the festival is our personal war against those who rape people's brains with the most vulgar pop culture, and do not allow them to think about an alternative; against those who would like to see the new generation of Russian citizens as aesthetic slaves, who do not know how to think for themselves.

The festival does not limit itself to anything other than a constant search, and this is a thankless thing, since the "visible" result can be revealed after many years.

He who has eyes, let him see!