Behind the Scenes at the the International Features Conference in Sinaia, Romania
Reported by Julie Shapiro
I'm always in a bit of a daze when I get back from the International Features
Conference, where I've just spent almost a week listening, discussing,
debating, even arguing about the finer (and broader) points of radio with
producers from all over Europe, and beyond. What do I mean by "all over Europe
and beyond?" Well ... this year's meeting attracted folks from Norway (an
invasion, practically—there were something like ten Norwegians in the house!),
Germany, the Netherlands, France, Russia, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Sweden,
Switzerland, UK, Finland, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, China, Poland,
Croatia, and of course, Romania. Hope I didn't leave anyone out....
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The IFC'san intense experience, to say the least. We listen, we discuss,
we listen, we learn, we listen, we teach, and we listen some more. (And then we
drink and smoke, and drink and smoke, and drink and smoke. There's a little bit
of sleep in there too, somewhere.) The point of the week, the object of our
focus is the celebration, dissection and nurturing of the Radio Feature—a term
that has a different meaning on the other side of the ocean. Here in America,
we think of features as extended news stories, or sort of mini-docs, usually
ranging from 5–8 minutes, but the European Feature is a different creature in
itself. Usually running closer to 45 or 50 minutes, these radio programs are
part documentary, part sonic films for the mind and part meditations on the
striking ability of sound to tell stories.
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The Feature's an enigmatic entity, a form about as easy to pin down as the
notion of "documentary" (which we're still working out ourselves, here at the
TCF). Features employ narration ... or don't. They might include dramatized
re-enactments ... or not. Drama? Archival recordings? Field recordings?
Interview? Reportage? All of it. Some of it. None of it. I repeat—it's an
enigma, and in some ways, that line of reasoning so popular these days holds
true—you just know a Feature when you hear one.
Over the years at these conferences I've laughed, I've cried, I've fumed and
I've dozed through Features, but regardless of how rigorous (and it can be
rigorous) all of this listening is, I never fail to leave the IFC without a
huge assemblage of sounds ringing in my ears, burned into my memory, and still
dancing around my brain. At this moment, I'm still hearing bouncy Japanese pop
music, which you'll find in one of the Features we've posted on this site.
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TOPICS
Like documentaries, features are made about everything ... and anything. Have a
look at a handful from the batch we listened to in Sinaia:
- Repossession of homes, told from the points of view of both a repossessor and
a couple whose house is taken away
- A family about to expand (new baby) and shrink (chronically ill husband) in
the space of a few months
- Blood revenge in Albania—through both a historical and contemporary lens
- Seven sailors who have been camping on an abandoned, docked ship for seven
years
- A portrait of a drugs and prostitution scene in Berlin (including the sound
of a blowjob)
- How the Americans taught the Austrians about democracy through the radio
(including records of yodeling cowboys and directions on how to shop in a
supermarket)
- A famous scientist/doctor attempts to move into a small Polish town ... to
set up shop doing research on corpses ... and is not exactly welcomed by the
villagers
- A young, self-ascribed "asshole viennese reporter" attempts to uncover deep
dark secrets behind a famous country doctor ... but fails miserably ... because
there are none
Something for everyone, no?
THE DISCUSSIONS
Programs are listened to all week in blocks of two or three, twice a day. Up to
25 minutes of each program is played, and producers are required to provide
English transcripts for others to read along to while their programs are on.
(Remember all of those countries represented at the IFC? Well, the radio we
hear is in all of those languages. But English is the official language of the
conference—the lowest common denominator, you might say—and so all the
transcripts follow suit.)
Then we break into smaller groups of about 15-18 people, to discuss what we've
just listened to. The key to these discussions is honesty, and to think beyond
simple decisions like "yes I liked it" or "no, I didn't," and everyone is
encouraged to offer their observations and opinions freely. It's true that once
in awhile these conversations can turn, well ... a bit ruthless, but for the
most part, a pervading respect is maintained for all pieces presented
throughout the week, and toward the producers who made them. The following
criteria are considered in the discussions, based on judging guidelines from
the Prix Europa, a prestigious radio competition held in Berlin each year:
- Quality of story idea
- Development of story idea
- Technical production
- Use of radio as a medium
- Overall impression
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Sometimes people get quite worked up about their opinions, which I think is
appropriate enough—I mean, we're all there because we've pretty much devoted
ourselves to making radio programs ... we're entitled to feeling passionate
about what we think.... The discussions I've attended over the past years at
the IFC have taught me more about radio than any other single learning
opportunity. Critiquing radio constructively is a real skill, a talent even,
and hearing what other people have to say about pieces I've just heard myself
has offered so many new perspectives to think about, and has helped me
understand myself what and why I like or don't in work that i hear. It's been
priceless!!
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OTHER
Besides the listening and critiquing that takes place all week, a few workshops
are offered (ranging from practical to theoretical in nature) and each year one
producer who is well known and respected in the IFC community is asked to pick
programs to play at the end of each day.
One of the workshops this year, meticulously researched and presented by
Romanian Radio's Mihaela Helmis (our hostess extraordinaire throughout the
weekend), explored how journalists dealt with censorship and restrictions
during Ceausescu's rule, and managed to subvert the airwaves in different ways,
despite the risks they took in doing so.
Kaye Mortley was this year's tour guide of "classics" played at the end of each
day. She presented examples from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's
archives and other found sounds, and a piece of her own called "Exile," which
featured the voices of many different featuremakers from different countries
(some of who were sitting in the room). One day she played an old NPR piece
made by Deborah Amos and Noah Adams, about the Jonestown Massacre, which left
many listeners squirming in their seats, and then very much in need of an Ursus
(popular local beer) afterward, to shake off the creepiness of Jim Jones's
unforgettable giggle, heard in the archival tape in the program.
OTHER OTHER
Besides all the radio, the IFC is very much about the connections and
friendships made between producers from so many different hometowns, and this
is accomplished of course between sessions during the many many smoke and
coffee breaks, during meals and into the early hours of each morning, at local
watering holes around the city.
Every year one bar is chosen as "home base" where everyone is welcome and
you're sure to find an IFC crew hanging out. In Sinaia the "Casa Noastra"
served this purpose well ... much to the dismay of the verging-on-elderly,
grimacing women who were serving our tables. They were obviously not amused by
the radio-inspired enthusiasm flooding through their establishment each night,
nor by the occasional standing on the tables, nor by our breaking loudly into
song in so many different languages (and keys). Still, 50,000 lei is 50,000 lei
(about the cost of one drink), and so as the week progressed the Casa Noastra
earned literally millions from our exuberant, late-night crowd.
And i wonder what the wild dogs of Sinaia thought of the influx of radioheads
into their beautiful mountain city. The dogs were everywhere—hanging around
outside the castles we toured, lounging in the sun in the hotel courtyard,
chasing each other down the sidewalks without giving a thought to passing cars
and pedestrians. I woke every morning to a chorus of crowing roosters (they
really sound like they're saying "cock-a-doodle-dooooo!") and barking dogs, and
I'd bet anyone that more than a couple of the eighty radio producers in town
for the IFC captured these sounds on tape. Perhaps we'll hear a Feature about
them next year...
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