Special program at Noordelijk Film Festival to promote films from small language areas

LEEUWARDEN Every year, the Noordelijk Film Festival (NoFF) devotes considerable attention to films and productions from small language areas. The upcoming edition will emphasize this even more with a subprogram developed in collaboration with the Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity (NPLD) and Provinsje Fryslân.

At Post-Plaza Hotel & Grand Café, one of the NoFF locations, experts and filmmakers from small language areas across Europe will gather on Thursday and Friday to attend lectures and panel discussions, among other things.

‘Unique collaboration’
,,This is a unique collaboration that will benefit the entire Northern film community,” says Hester Terpstra, Director-Manager of the Film in Friesland Foundation. “It is intended to preserve and promote small languages. We were approached by the province for this purpose and have developed a program together with them and the NPLD.”

,,We normally pay a lot of attention to films and filmmakers from small language areas, but now we are broadening our focus even further,“ she continues. ”We hope that this will expand networks and establish contacts, thereby giving a boost to filmmaking in small languages..”

Strenghtening linguistic diversity in the creative sector
Deputy Eke Folkerts of Provinsje Fryslân: ,,As a province, we believe it is important that Frisian and other minority languages are not only spoken, but also represented. With this festival, Fryslân provides a platform for stories from small language areas and shows that regional languages belong in the European film world. In doing so, we strengthen the position of linguistic diversity in the creative sector.”

Visitors and speakers come from places such as the Basque Country, Ireland, the Faroe Islands, and Wales. They share best practices, discuss the impact of regional films on tourism, and representatives from streaming services give their views on films from small language areas.

Turning point
Joris Hoebe, quartermaster of the Frysk Film Fûns and co-founder of New Noardic Wave, the largest network of filmmakers in the northern Netherlands, is one of the speakers. He sees a turning point when it comes to productions from small language areas. ,,Five to ten years ago, this was still seen as a weakness, but in recent years, the strength of languages such as Gaelic, Sámi, Limburgs, and Frisian has been discovered. By exchanging knowledge and experiences with each other, this strength is only becoming stronger.”

He continues: ,,The Noordelijk Film Festival has successfully positioned itself as the festival for films from small language areas. By choosing such a clear theme and inviting guests to attend, we here in Leeuwarden have become the center where filmmakers and producers come into contact with each other and develop new projects together. That is the goal: to see how we can strengthen each other as small language areas, because we want to make more films in our own languages.”

This year, the Noordelijk Film Festival will take place from November 5 to 9. The complete program can be found at www.noordelijkfilmfestival.nl.