José Luis Rebordinos: “We made a mistake by not letting them ask Jennifer Lawrence questions about Gaza”

BarcelonaWhen José Luis Rebordinos (Errenteria, 1961) began directing the San Sebastian Film Festival in 2010, the event had a budget of 6.5 million, which this year has reached 11 million. The festival, which kicks off a new edition this Friday with stars like Brad Pitt, Naomi Watts, and Marion Cotillard, has expanded and consolidated its central position in the Spanish film ecosystem during Rebordinos' tenure, who this year will put an end to his time as director.

First of all, why are you leaving?

— For two reasons. First, I will soon be 65 years old and I no longer have the energy I had when I arrived, at 49 years old. And because what my team and I wanted to do at the festival we have fundamentally already done. Now I could continue managing the festival more or less well, but I will not contribute new ideas for the next ten years. It is good to leave places so that new people can arrive, and in the same way that Mikel Olaciregui left and I arrived, now Maialen Beloki will arrive, a younger person with new ideas for the future.

Is it harmful for a festival to have the same director for many years?

— It depends on the person. Although he has been discussed a lot, Thierry Frémaux is an excellent director of the Cannes Festival, and he has been there for almost twenty years. I understand that he wants to continue and that those in charge want him to stay. I wouldn't dare to say that people should leave, but alternation and renewal are usually good, because otherwise you end up reproducing methodologies out of habit. But one cannot generalize, every festival is different and in some it can be problematic for the director to leave. That is not the case in San Sebastian, where the last directors come from the outgoing director's team. But the leap into the abyss is difficult, and if not, look at Carlo Chatrian at the Berlinale, who is a 10 as a programmer but who did not quite work out as a director.

One of the former directors of San Sebastian, Diego Galán, wrote a memoir about his years at the festival titled Jack Lemmon never dined here. If you were to write your memoirs at the festival, what would the title be?

— I will not write a memoir, because the interesting and fun things are the ones you cannot explain. In fact, Diego's book is hilarious but contains quite a lot of fabrication, and some of the things he says do not coincide with reality. But just as he would have liked to bring Jack Lemmon to the festival, I would have loved to bring Clint Eastwood, who will never be able to have dinner in San Sebastian again because he is very old and does not travel. I would also have liked to have Julianne Moore, whom I admire a lot and whom we have been about to bring several times, even this year.

Beloki is the first woman to direct San Sebastian. High-ranking positions at film festivals used to be held exclusively by men, but the landscape is changing.

— Yes, changes are starting to happen. At the Seminci in Valladolid there is now a director duo [Mariona Viader and Javier H. Estrada], and a smaller festival like the one in Santander is directed by Julia Olmo. But if you stop to think, rather than celebrating that after 73 years a woman will direct the festival for the first time, what we should do is think about how it is that there hasn't been a single female director for 73 years. And it is difficult to understand, because, of course, there were capable women.

A few months ago the Oscar Academy announced that the winning films from the Cannes, Venice and Berlin festivals would automatically qualify for the international Oscar, but not those from San Sebastian. Were you surprised?

— No, because if you look closely, on the Academy's list there is an Asian festival [Busan], a Canadian one [Toronto], a North American one [Sundance], and the three European ones you mention. It is logical that if there are only three, they would be these three. Obviously, the fourth would be San Sebastian. The matter is not closed and we are working to change it. I will no longer be the director, but I am optimistic and I believe that next year San Sebastian will be among these festivals.

It seems that when it comes to competing with the three major European festivals, San Sebastian is at a disadvantage and the big titles slip away from it. How can one fight against these giants?

— To begin with, Cannes is the great festival and it is above everything else. But it is not about fighting. I am friends with Frémaux and I have a good relationship with Alberto Barbera [director of the Venice Film Festival]. We call each other and consult things. Films increasingly want to do more festivals, and of world premiere festivals, only Cannes will remain. Berlin is already programming Sundance titles in competition, and we play with those from Telluride and Toronto. This year we have The debut, which has previously been to Toronto and Telluride, and which for me is one of the films of the year. But we also have Les Misérables, which is a world premiere. Luckily, we don't always agree on tastes, and sometimes there are films that they are not interested in and we are, or vice versa. Obviously, those that are very big and have a lot of promotion tend to go to Venice, which is the most important event of the last quarter.

In recent years, San Sebastián has distinguished itself by programming controversial authors and polemical films. Is this a way to mark its own profile with respect to other festivals?

— No, absolutely not. It is a matter of principles, above all that of the presumption of innocence. Now it seems there is a presumption of guilt. When someone is accused, it is as if they were already guilty, and that is called lynching. We are against censorship. An example: with Sparta, the film by Ulrich Seidl, it happened that a German newspaper published that children had been mistreated during filming, and the Toronto and New York festivals cancelled the film just like that. We screened it, and after a few months two investigations in Romania, one official and the other independent, concluded that there was no problem at all. But I have not seen anyone from Toronto or New York apologize or resign for having unfairly censored a film. I also do not understand that 500 people who had not seen Jordi Évole's interview with Josu Ternera signed a letter so that it would not be screened at the festival. We offered them that we would screen it for them beforehand so they could judge it, but they did not want to see it. It is a crazy country.

They also invited and awarded Johnny Depp and Woody Allen when they were banned in Hollywood.

— The case of Johnny Depp is curious, because major Spanish media outlets stated in their headlines that San Sebastian was awarding an abuser. And on what basis do they call him an abuser? He has never been accused of abuse in a court of law. Never. There are only statements from Amber Heard, who doesn't even mention him. And the ruling he lost was for defamation, not for abuse. In other words, anything goes to get headlines. But not for us. In the case of Woody Allen, you may or may not like a man sleeping with a much younger woman, but where is the crime? Where is the problem? There is a point where everything is absurd. Now everyone is super-honest and nobody has anything to hide. And when someone is crucified, everyone jumps in to criticize, because nobody has ever done anything wrong. It's not that we have been particularly belligerent about anything, we have simply defended basic principles. We are also the only festival that took a stand against the genocide in Gaza, because they are killing thousands of people before our very eyes.

Since we are talking about Gaza, at the last Berlinale Wim Wenders was asked about the festival's lack of stance against the genocide, and he argued that filmmakers shouldn't get involved in politics. His words caused outrage and the festival director, Tricia Tuttle, came to Wenders' defense and criticized the press for asking filmmakers and actors about politics. What do you think?

— Another evil of this era is that it seems everyone is obliged to make statements about everything, and I think that no one is obliged to speak, neither about politics nor about anything. You journalists have the right to ask about politics or whatever it may be, of course. How could you not have the right to ask? But we must respect those who do not want to define themselves, and not crucify them for not having an opinion on controversial topics. Any person or filmmaker has the right to speak and not to do so.

In the last edition of the festival, journalists could not ask everything we wanted to. At Jennifer Lawrence's press conference, questions were censored about the film distributor's connection to the Israeli arms industry. Why?

— Because we respect our guests, and if a guest asks us for something, we try to do it. In this case, they asked us not to ask questions of this type, although in the end one was asked and she answered it. You all thought it was the festival that was censoring, but we have never censored. It was a very strange thing, but sometimes there is a lot of disconnection between the people who manage the artists and the artists themselves.

And doesn't it seem contradictory that the festival publicly positions itself against the genocide in Palestine; that you yourself, as director, participate in a civic march against the genocide, and that later questions on this topic are censored, even though the guest requests it?

— I insist, I believe that the guest has the right to express an opinion and not to express an opinion.

And the journalist to ask the questions they consider, you were saying before.

— Yes, you are right. Look, we probably made a mistake. We made a mistake by not letting them ask her those questions, but since we had been asked to do so, we did it that way. We probably should have allowed the questions to be asked, and then let her respond or not. We were wrong, and I have no problem admitting it. We have been wrong many times, and this is one of them. And it was a mistake by the festival management, that is to say, mine, and not the press conference moderator, who only followed the instructions we gave her.

During his years as director, Catalan cinema has experienced great growth and has taken on a significant role in the context of the State, and also at the festival. This same year there are two Catalan productions in the competition, 5 minutos más and Sants. How do you assess it?

— The evolution is very good both in Catalan cinema and in that of the State as a whole, and Basque cinema is also very strong. I attribute this, first and foremost, to talent. If there is no talent, there is nothing to be done. But for talent to move forward, there must be a certain level of support from institutions and television stations. This has happened in the Basque Country, and also in Catalonia. Everyone is rowing in the same direction, and that leads to success.

Outside of the festival program, what is the last great film you have seen?

— Probably Resurrection, by Bi Gan, which I still hadn't seen. I could find many faults with it, but it is an important and different film, one of those that is a joy to watch because it is unlike anything else. Recently I also loved Pillion, which is very special and surprised me.