Berlin film fest, day 5

The award for Most Provocative Panel Contribution goes to British script editor David Wingate He did his best to shake up the two-hour long discussion on Storytelling and Cultural Identity. Sadly, by the time he arrived on the stage, due to snow-storms in his adopted country of Sweden, the two panelists who could have shed some light on the cultural identity bit, Indian critic Meenakshi Shedde and South African producer Cristian Mungiu had already left due to other obligations.

"The idea that scriptwriting is storytelling is sloppy thinking. Storytelling is a post-analysis thought process that is only visible in the finished product - the film. Europe wastes millions of Euros in development money every year. The filmmakers are obliged to put down their stories into scripts first, and then they have to 'translate' them into film. Life doesn't always have a plot and some films don't even have scenes. You have to be careful to seperate finished films and the creative process. There is no necessary connection. Storytelling might be useful if you're stuck, but never, ever forget that you're making a FILM."