After 22 years, the Geneva International Film Festival Tous Ecrans is finally rewarding a very special category of films: the video clips aka music videos. Last time I bumped into Emmanuel Cuenod (sorry the interview was published only in French), who is the artistic director of the festival, he commented this new international competition as such: “Yeah, finally”. Personally, I am thrilled.
Should I remind you how important music was for the very first silent movies? Then in the 40s, the movie industry paid a tribute to music, first step towards the birth of the music videos. It was Fantasia by Walt Disney. Second step, the soundies one-song film made also in the 40s for the Panoram visual jukebox. Then came the protagonists such as David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd and The Rolling Stones to name only a few. 1977: the very first TV videoclip was made for Queen. Bohemian Rhapsody’s success is partly due to the accompanying video which was central to its marketing strategy.
Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine a song without a music video. So the multimedia Festival Tous Ecrans has selected 16 music videos for its very first international competition. You can watch all of them, for free, on Thursday, November 10th or Saturday, November 12th at the Pitoëff theatre. Let me share with you my favourite one: Butterflies by Michael England with the dancer Raphael Chinx Martin, hoping this music video will win the competition.
Thursday, November 10th from 9.30pm
Monokino, rue de Carouge 52, 1205 Geneva
Free entrance
Saturday, November 12th from midnight
Théâtre Pitoëff, rue de Carouge 52, 1205 Geneva
Online program