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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ALMATY 000264 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR ECA/PE/C/CU DSCHUMAN AND SCOHEN, EUR/PPD 
JBASEDOW, EUR/CACEN JMUDGE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OIIP KPAO SCUL OEXC KZ POLITICAL
SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTANIS BREAK DOWN DOORS TO GET INTO U.S. FILM 
FESTIVAL 
 
¶1.  Summary: Embassy Almaty's first American film festival 
in November, featuring five films from U.S. producer Michael 
Fitzgerald, was widely viewed as the cultural event of the 
season, with audience attendance exceeding expectations. 
Combining the film screenings with a program of master 
classes and meetings with local filmmakers produced some 
tangible benefits as well, including the likely production 
this year in Kazakhstan of Fitzgerald's next film.  This 
program, advancing the MPP goal of mutual understanding, 
showed once again how film can serve as a powerful tool of 
public diplomacy, changing perceptions of people and 
countries.  End summary. 
 
¶2.  Eager to see non-commercial American films, throngs of 
Kazakhstani filmgoers last fall broke the hinge of an 
auditorium door while cramming to get into one of the five 
films shown during the November 2005 "Herald Fitzgerald!" 
film festival organized by the U.S. embassy Public Affairs 
Section.  The week-long festival-offering a retrospective of 
the films of American producer Michael Fitzgerald and a 
series of master classes led by the producer himself-was the 
Almaty cultural event of the season.  Whether they were 
students in jeans or VIPs bedecked in jewels and furs, many 
of the filmgoers expressed their deep appreciation of the 
event; some said it was "the best thing the American embassy 
has ever done here." 
 
America Seen Anew 
 
¶3.  The program was exceptional because through the 
personality of producer Michael Fitzgerald and his 
representation of the contemporary American film world, 
Kazakhstani audiences developed a new respect for and 
interest in not only American film but also American culture 
in general.  This program showed once again that film can 
serve as a powerful tool of public diplomacy, changing 
perceptions of people and countries. 
 
¶4.  The festival, giving Kazakhstani audiences a view of 
films not widely seen in the commercial market, began with a 
sneak preview of Fitzgerald's "The Three Burials of 
Melquiades Estrada," a Cannes award-winning film that had 
not yet been shown in the United States.  After the 
screening of each of the five films, Fitzgerald chatted with 
the audience, often discussing themes universal to both 
Americans and Kazakhstanis.  During one of these 
discussions, an audience member said, "I had no idea that 
America produced serious films."  With respect to "The Three 
Burials," Kazakhstanis easily grasped the film's themes of 
atomization and self-involvement in American society, seeing 
these as aspects of a culture striving to be free-and 
perhaps too free if that striving includes being free of 
family and community ties and a sense of obligation to 
others.  One person during the discussion noted that 
although some of the portrayals of American society were 
negative, only an open society willing to take a critical 
look at itself could make such a film. 
 
¶5.  While Fitzgerald conducted master classes during the 
day, the students with whom he met spread the word about the 
festival, as did those who were coming to the screenings, so 
the size of the audiences grew successively throughout the 
event.  Based on the Flannery O'Connor novel, Fitzgerald's 
film "Wiseblood" evoked words like "amazing" and 
"wonderful."  "Under the Volcano," "Mr. Johnson," and the 
festival's final film, "The Pledge" all were departures from 
blockbuster movies, and fine examples of how the medium can 
be used to make us think about the world we have created. 
It was at the showing of the festival's last film, "The 
Pledge," that a crush of patrons gathered outside the doors 
leading into the auditorium.  Although a theater manager was 
valiantly attempting to control the numbers of persons who 
got through, the crowd actually took the hinges off one of 
the doors.  An embassy officer counting seats at the front 
of the house ran back and forth between the door and the 
seating to tell the manager that there was still room for 50 
more persons.  In the end, almost everyone got a seat. 
 
Fitzgerald's Visit Boosts Kazakhstani Filmmaking 
 
¶6.  Fitzgerald was a charming person who, during master 
classes at the Academy of Arts, regaled both film students 
and the big players in Kazakhstani independent film with 
tales of serious filmmaking in a commerce-driven world. 
Word traveled quickly in Kazakhstan's artistic community, 
and, just as the film audiences grew, so, too, did 
Fitzgerald's three-hour master classes, each one drawing 
more and more local film experts.  (When Fitzgerald left 
Kazakhstan, he took scripts of many Kazakhstani film 
students and promised to read them and provide comments.) 
 
¶7.  An important part of the program was devoted also to 
informal meetings with Kazakhstani film specialists.  As 
Kazakhstan is currently experiencing a rebirth of 
independent, small-budget films, this showcase of American 
independent films and discussions provided an excellent 
opportunity to support the revitalization of the Kazakhstani 
film industry. 
 
¶8.  A further, serendipitous result of Fitzgerald's presence 
was his desire to enhance a grant from the Ambassador's Fund 
for Cultural Preservation to Kazakhstan's Central State 
Archive for Film Preservation.  In addition to the funds, 
the grant is providing to the archive, Fitzgerald  offered 
to put the archive director in touch with philanthropist 
David Packard to assist in the director's pursuit of a $1 
million TeleCinema machine to preserve film for all of 
Central Asia. 
 
¶9.  Fitzgerald was assisted ably during the master classes 
and other meetings by local film director and producer Ermek 
Shirnabayev, who translated, interpreted, and escorted 
Fitzgerald everywhere, including to meetings with potential 
film backers.  Shirnabayev, with his boundless energy, 
turned out to be a great match for our cultural envoy.  We 
understand that Fitzgerald has been offered financial 
support from Kazakhstani sources and, therefore, plans to 
make his next film in Kazakhstan.  Based on the novel, 
"Waiting for the Barbarians" by South African writer J.M. 
Coetzee, the film venture will engender U.S.-Kazakhstani 
cooperation, and no doubt Shirnabayev will play a role in 
making this project come about. 
 
Security - A Little Bubbly Took the Edge Off 
 
¶10.  Due to concerns about possible pirating of our sneak 
preview film, "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada," the 
screening was planned as a by-invitation-only event replete 
with bag searches and magnetomer.  Being prepared for the 
usual 40-50 percent of the guests to show up, we were taken 
aback as we ferried invitations around town: almost everyone 
presented with an invitation expressed a firm intention of 
coming.  We were worried for a time that our guests would 
outnumber the seats.  (Fortunately, they did not.)  Prepared 
also for unhappiness on the part of our VIPs due to the 
necessity of putting them through security procedures, we 
ushered them from the magnetometer into the lobby for 
champagne and chocolate before the film. 
 
¶11.  In the name of security, we also made our guests give 
up their prized cell phones.  Even though we advised them 
well in advance that cell phones would not be permitted in 
the auditorium, about 340 of 350 guests brought them anyway. 
We had anticipated this and engaged GSO to build cubbyhole 
shelving that we numbered, giving guests a correspondingly 
numbered ticket for their phones.  The only blemish on the 
evening, therefore, was when one guest lost her numbered 
ticket, someone else found it, and then claimed the owner's 
phone. 
 
¶12.  There were assorted glitches and lessons learned in 
spite of myriad count down meetings, creation of individual 
festival schedules for the entire PAS staff, and sedulous 
planning with the RSO.  "Wise Blood," for example, suddenly 
turned into "Mister Johnson" about a third of the way 
through.  Theater staff mixed up the reels, so we had to 
show "Wise Blood" in its entirety the next morning.  A delay 
in showing "The Pledge" occurred because the projectionists 
had put the film on the platters upside down.  The problem 
was remedied pretty quickly.  Nonetheless, we and the 
Kazakhstanis were enormously pleased, our guests asking when 
the next film festival would take place. . . . 
 
¶13.  GPRA Reporting Information 
 
--Date, Fiscal Year, and Quarter: October 29-November 5, 
2005 (1st quarter, FY 06). 
 
--Justification and Objective: to introduce Kazakhstani 
audiences to independent American films.  Kazakhstani 
audiences have almost no exposure to high-quality 
contemporary American films.  The only U.S films shown in 
Kazakhstan are blockbuster and "B" films. The Fitzgerald 
film festival thus filled a gap for Kazakhstani artists and 
citizens at large. 
 
--MPP Strategic Goal and Audience Reached: this program 
addressed the MPP goal of "Mutual Understanding" with 
respect to U.S. society and values.  One of the film viewers 
noted that it was very "American" for the U.S. government to 
sponsor a festival that included films that did not always 
show U.S. government officials in a positive light. 
 
--The target audience for the program was diverse-young 
filmmakers, film critics, faculty, independent filmmakers, 
producers, students of the Academy of Arts, alumni of USG 
programs, and the general public. 
 
--Results: see paras 1-12. 
 
--Non-USG sources of in-country funding/in-kind support: 
space at the Academy of Arts to hold master classes. 
 
--Quality of U.S. Support and IIP Offices Involved: 
Outstanding.  This was a very complicated event with the 
handling of the "The Three Burials" film.  We express our 
gratitude to ECA/PE/C/CU Susan Cohen for her efforts in 
finding Michael Fitzgerald and for her administrative and 
moral support, without which the festival would not have 
been possible. 
ASQUINO