IMAGO News October 2016
   By Imago President Paul René Roestad FNF

IMAGO General Assembly
IMAGO had a successful Annual General Assembly in Bitola, Macedonia, arranged during the great Manaki Brothers Cinematographer´s Festival in mid-September. 47 IMAGO delegates participated, representing the international cinematographer´s Societies, from Australia, New Zealand and Japan in the east, to Canada and Mexico in the West.

The Macedonian Film Professionals Association was IMAGO´s hosts, making our stay both pleasant and our meetings effective. IMAGO´s great thanks goes to Tomi Salkovski, Zoran Risteski, Dejan Dimeski, Snezana Stojanoska and Jovana Kalica, who looked after us all in such a perfect way. Also Blagoja Kunovski and Gena Teodosievska, the festival´s managers, for letting us experience this great Balkan film festival focussing specially on the cinematographers important role in film production.
Macedonia, the city of Bitola, and the Manaki Film Festival is a place with a warm heart and a well-organized festival IMAGO´s members will keep in mind and work to promote.

        Frederic Goodich ASC 1939-2016

Not long before the IMAGO General Assembly, we got the sad message that Frederic Goodich ASC had passed away. He was the International Liaison in the ASC, and worked continuously to increase good communication between our many national Societies and across the borders. He was a true friend of IMAGO, and to many of us personally also a close friend. The loss was received with great sadness.
All our thoughts and sympathy goes to Frederic´s wife Donna and son Nikolai.

 New IMAGO members

The Chilean and Malaysian Society of Cinematographers were welcomed as new members of IMAGO during the General Assembly. IMAGO now has 50 international Societies and more than 4 000 cinematographers as members from all over the World. The need to exchange knowledge and experience between international Cinematographers and their Societies has never been bigger.

Authorship
IMAGO is not a union, but information on the authorship situation around the World is useful and important for cinematographers.
Many finds the fact that stills photographers, when taking a photograph with the exact same motive, exposure and angle as a cinematographer, has full authorship rights, but the cinematographer does not when doing the same.
The situation with authorship for our images varies greatly in between member countries.
In many countries cinematographers have full authorship rights, in many they have not.
IMAGO has therefore initiated a new Authorship Committee that will monitor the situation around the World, and will be working to spread information to our members about the World-wide facts and developments in this area. IMAGO´s Authorship Committee is chaired by Luciano Tovoli AIC ASC, and working with amongst others Nigel Walters BSC, and Jost Vacano BVK ASC and Vittorio Storaro AIC ASC as committee senior advisors.

New IMAGO Committee for Gender and diversity
The establishment of a new IMAGO Committee for Gender and Diversity was unanimously agreed at IMAGOs General Assembly. The Committee is headed by Nina Kellgren BSC and IMAGO Vice President, and Elen Lotman ESC.
It is time to look into why women, representing 50% of our population, but being only between 5 and 10% of the number of international cinematographers, and how we can work not only to inspire more females to consider staying working as cinematographers, but also looking closely into the mechanisms that may be a hindrance. More female colleagues would be a great advantage for us all.
In cooperation with Camerimage, IMAGO´s Gender and Diversity Committee will stage a whole day session with a master class and a conference on Friday November 18th, during Camerimage, where this challenge and possible obstacles for women cinematographers are looked into closer.

Working conditions and safety
Again, IMAGO is not a union, but the problematic working hours that is practised by many production companies around the World, strongly affects not only our and our family´s lives, but also affects the art of cinematography in a negative way.
Ever since the death of assistant cameraman Brent Hershman while driving home after a 19 hour long working day on a film set in 1997, and since Haskell Wexler made his famous documentary “Who needs sleep” with his suggestion of 12 hours on and 12 off in 2006, we have regularly, almost weekly, debated this massive problem.
But nothing has happened! In fact, reports come in about this problem greatly expanding around the World. The IMAGO General Assembly decided this is a problem IMAGO should monitor and report about. In the coming year, IMAGO will stage a conference on Working Conditions in Brussels, where it will be decided how to proceed further with this matter.

IMAGO and Camerimage
IMAGO will work to intensify it´s cooperation with Camerimage. This great festival celebrating Cinematography was established in 1993, and the tremendous work that has been done by it´s director Marek Zydowicz with good assistance from Kazik Suwala and their team, has for both students of cinematography and for all international cinematographers been of invaluable importance.
IMAGO will in cooperation with Camerimage arrange a major conference on Gender and Diversity during this year´s festival which will take place from November 12th to 19th, and we will cooperate with the ASC on arranging a seminar on the importance of international cooperation between cinematographers and their societies, to find ways to secure a possibility for a better and easier update in the latest artistic and technical developments for our members and colleagues.
In addition, IMAGO will cooperate with Camerimage to spread information about this important festival to Cinematographer´s Societies and our many members around the World.

The IMAGO International Cinematographer´s Awards
IMAGO is 25 years in 2017. To honour the art of Cinematography, the General Assembly voted unanimously to establish the IMAGO International Cinematographer´s Awards.
This will be the first Awards for Cinematography given entirely by cinematographers, to Cinematographers.
The first Awards Ceremony will be held in Helsinki October 28th 2017, and Awards will be given for Best Cinematography in Feature films, Best Cinematography in Tv-drama and Best Cinematography in Documentary films. In addition, Awards will be given for Lifetime Achievement in Cinematography, Lifetime contribution to the art of Cinematography, and the IMAGO Award for Technical Excellence.

ARRI has agreed to be the major sponsor for the IMAGO Awards Ceremony 2017, in cooperation with several other partners.
The Ceremony will be high profile a black tie event, with well-known hosts and presenters, with entertainment, canapes and champagne. All our major partners will be invited in addition to representatives from the film industry around the World. The IMAGO Awards Ceremony will have a broad media coverage by IMAGO´s many media partners, we trust not least our main partner the British Cinematographer´s Magazine, and through the internet sites and newsletters of our more than 50 member Societies, and in addition, the Ceremony will be streamed on internet.

IMAGO will need help from all our members Societies to nominate films for the Awards.
Up to two feature films, one documentary film and one Tv-drama can be nominated from each member Society. Our Member Societies will also be invited to vote for the IMAGO Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cinematography. It will be chosen three nominees in the main categories, by a broad international jury of cinematographers, and all the nominees will be invited to come and be celebrated by their colleagues during the Awards Ceremony in Helsinki on October 28th, 2017, where the winner finally will be presented.

The Award for Lifetime Contribution to the art of Cinematography will be voted for in the IMAGO Board, and the IMAGO Award for Technical Excellence will be decided by the IMAGO Technical Committee.
All IMAGO´s members and Member Societies will soon receive more information, and will be invited to help make this event a great international celebration of the art of cinematography.

The IMAGO General Assembly gives Awards and Tributes

The IMAGO Board and General Assembly voted unanimously and with great acclamation to bestow Nigel Walters BSC the IMAGO Honorary Member Award for his many years of intense and invaluable work for IMAGO and the exchange of knowledge and experience between international cinematographers. Nigel Walters are still one of IMAGO´s trusted major advisors and ambassadors, and is also amongst others a central member of the IMAGO Authorship Committee.

In addition, the IMAGO Board and General Assembly also bestowed the IMAGO Tribute Award to two of IMAGO´s most valuable and trusted “staff”, Kommer Kleijn SBC and Tony Costa AIP. Kommer Kleijn SBC has been heading IMAGO´s Technical Committee for more than a decade, and has been a hub for exchanging technical knowledge between international colleagues. Tony Costa has earlier been IMAGO´s Vice President, and has for soon two decades been working with great excellence the important issue of communication between IMAGO and it´s many members and partners.
We congratulate Nigel Walters, Kommer Kleijn and Tony Costa on these well-deserved Tributes and Awards.