Now I must say that, in the end, this seemingly disruptive member turned out be very helpful. Nevertheless, I am baffled by the hypocrisy of an association whose mandate is to promote independent animators and the "art of animation." Money that could have been used to maintain ASIFA's "mandate" was instead redirected to accomodate individuals from ASIFA-International and ASIFA-Canada who did absolutely nothing for the festival.

Unbelievably, one board member, who upon arrival discovered a minor problem with his hotel started screaming at festival staff and volunteers. Now this might appear to be petty gossip, but in my opinion these seemingly minor actions merely reinforce ASIFA's pettiness and stagnancy.

The State of the Rules
The second issue is the state of ASIFA festival rules. They exist in theory, but are actually rarely enforced. At Zagreb 96, for example, its organizers, apparently without the Selection Committee's consent, put a couple of dreadful local films in competition to boost the studio's morale. The rules (5E) clearly state that all "[d]ecisions . . . are final and no limitations shall be placed on them for aesthetic, ethical, or political reasons" (a naive expectation, but a rule nonetheless). To make matters worse, an ASIFA board member was on this committee. To my knowledge, nothing has been done to address this flagrant rules violation.

But Zagreb is not alone. All ASIFA festivals violate the rules. And this perhaps says more about the rules than the offenders.

The ASIFA board recently revised its rules without any festival directors being present. Given that festival directors likely know more about the structure and context of their event then the board, and that the five festivals exist on three different continents, this is simply a ridiculous course of action. You simply cannot create a uniform set of rules for events that are themselves subject to very different social, economic and political contexts. Hence, the transgression of rules.

ASIFA-Canada
Unfortunately, these problems are not limited to ASIFA-International. ASIFA-Canada, who were slightly more active in assisting Ottawa 96, nevertheless exhibited the same characteristics. Despite having being a member for the past two years, I have, with one exception, never been told when meetings occur. During my one and only meeting with the board, like children writing letters to Santa Claus, they started reciting from their wish lists (i.e., Why don't you do this? Why don't you do that?). These demands were made, without any offers to assist, by people who had no real grasp of the organizational structure behind the festival. Like children at Christmas, they don't care how they get the gift, as long as they get it. And even then they sometimes still find something to complain about. For example, at our expense, we offered ASIFA-Canada a page on our Web site. Within a week, an angry email arrived complaining about some of the errors on the page. A page they wrote.

The problems with ASIFA-Canada extend well beyond the festival. What appears to be a national association is in reality a Montreal-dominated chapter that is far too closely linked with the National Film Board of Canada to actually reflect and promote the many independent animators scattered throughout the country. (The recent creation of ASIFA-Vancouver was in part a response to this problem.) There are independent animators in Canada that don't work for the NFB and, if ASIFA mandate has any meaning, their concerns should be a priority over a government funded (albeit decreasing) studio.

Added into the mix is the routine ASIFA-Canada/International post-festival commentary, which is generally a naive response that criticizes and applauds the festival without any real context. For example, Ottawa 96 was accused by some of being too corporate. With a fuller of understanding of the difficulties facing us, accusers might have learned that without corporate support, there would have been no festival. (In fact, the success of Ottawa 96 has enabled us to create a much-needed International Student Animation Festival.) This is not to say that Ottawa 96 was perfect, it wasn't. But a more acute grasp on the contexts of each event would make for more informed opinions, positive or negative.