Abstract
The International Feature Conference (IFC) is an annual noncompetitive event for radio creators and radio enthusiasts that provides a discussion platform as well as an opportunity to establish international cooperation. Founded in 1974 by Peter Leonhard Braun, Åke Blomström and Andries Poppe, the first edition of the IFC took place in 1975 in Berlin. The aim is not to compare the programmes and announce a winner but rather to enrich one another and create an atmosphere of support. The history of the IFC is inseparable from European history and, to some extent, even the world history of radio documentary production. This chapter addresses the conference in a great detail—in addition to the subchapter about the origins of the IFC and its changes over time, the reader can find also detailed descriptions of several ground-breaking editions of the conference. This chapter offers a unique testimony of Peter Leonhard Braun, the founder of the IFC, who describes the very beginnings of feature making in Europe. Even though the conference celebrated 50 years of its existence in 2024, this book is the first ever to describe it in such great detail.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The number keeps increasing each year, e.g., in 2000, the IFC was attended by 61 makers from 23 countries—including China, South Korea, and the USA. In 2001, the 27th IFC held in Sydney welcomed 77 makers from all over the world and in 2013 in Bergen, Norway, the conference was visited by 108 creators (the numbers are taken from the personal archive of Peter Leonhard Braun). In 2019, the IFC held in the Irish city of Cork saw 217 visitors, but that was most likely because the HearSay Audio Arts Festival was held in Ireland that same year. According to the IFC website, during the online event held in 2020, the organisers registered up to 653 unique streams from all over the world. The amount of people interested in the conference had tripled—it was probably caused by the accessibility of the programmes online. In 2022, according to the IFC organisers, the numbers fell as only 140 people registered to attend and, in the end, mere 120 did arrive.
- 2.
Åke Gustaf Olof Thorvald Blomström (1931–1985, Sweden) was the head of the documentary section of the Swedish Radio for many years. Andries Amaat Lodewijk Poppe (1921–1992, Belgium) was a Flemish poet, writer and an author of many stage plays and radio dramas. The more detailed biographies of both men are included in the Appendix of this book.
- 3.
In Czech, they would be labelled “dramaturg”, as I deal with the term in a section “The Authorial Approach and the Dramatic Structure” in Chap. 6.
- 4.
OIRT stands for the Organisation Internationale de Radiodiffusion et de Télévision.
- 5.
Overall, the conference cost 7,537.68 German marks or 3,853.95 euros (Braun 1999).
- 6.
Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Yugoslavia, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, USA, Germany (Braun 1999).
- 7.
In Japan, radio was established in 1925. The most significant development of the radio production occurred in the 1950s and at the beginning of the 1960s. In 1964, most Japanese people watched the Olympic Games on television, and radio started losing its listeners. In 1982, very few Japanese people would listen to radio. All radio documentaries in Japan at the time were created by makers who worked for television as well (Mowatt 1982).
- 8.
Upon agreement, at the beginning, the conference would take place in Berlin at least every other year; in the meantime, it was supposed to travel around other countries (a list of the countries, in which all the IFC conferences took place, can be found in the Appendix of this book).
- 9.
RBB = stands for the German radio station Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg.
- 10.
VRT = stands for the Belgian public broadcast organisation Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie.
- 11.
RVU = stands for the Radio Volksuniversiteit (People’s University Radio)—one of the longest existing educational broadcast organisations in the Netherlands (it existed in the years 1930 to 2010).
- 12.
RTÉ = stands for Raidió Teilifís Éireann. It is a public broadcaster of the Republic of Ireland.
- 13.
ORF = stands for the Austrian public radio station Österreichischer Rundfunk.
- 14.
The topics of the individual editions are selected by the hosting organisation.
- 15.
A questionnaire filled out by 101 out of 217 delegates shows that in 2019, the IFC was attended by approximately the same number of the independent documentary makers (51.5%) as of the employees of radio stations (48.5%).
- 16.
Gabriela Hermer works as the producer-in-chief at the Berlin branch of the RBB radio station. Before working at the RBB, she worked as an independent film documentary maker and a radio feature creator.
- 17.
I deal with the Åke Blomström Award in the subchapter of the same name.
- 18.
Braun introduced the principle of the group discussions, which were held at the IFC until 1996, also to the Prix Europa festival where they are still held even today—all the participants of each category of the competition gather after the listening sessions in one room and discuss. I deal with the topic in the Chap. 9.
- 19.
According to the long-term model, each time, the participants would be divided into 8 groups (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H) of approximately 10 to 20 people (depending on how many attendees were present on the given day). After the listening session, these groups would disperse into 4 rooms with 2 groups always staying together (e.g., A+B, C+D, E+F, G+H). The combination of the groups would rotate from one day to the next so that the composition of the participants changed (the following discussion would include for example the combinations of A+C, B+D, E+H, F+G). The discussion sessions were regularly attended by the number of 20 to 40 people, each time in a slightly different composition. Even though the organisers strived to let each participant have the chance to express his or her opinion, due to the higher number of people in the groups, it might not have been possible.
- 20.
In a questionnaire filled out at the IFC 2019 by 101 out of 217 delegates, 10% answered “No” to the question “Do you feel that the IFC 2019 was a place where every delegate was treated equally, and their opinion mattered?” and 90% of the respondents answered “Yes”.
- 21.
Helene Thomas is an Australian creator living in Tasmania. In 2019, she received the Story Award for the Best Story at the HearSay Audio Prize 2019. Thomas’s most significant project is the The Wayfinder Studio, a small recording studio on wheels which she takes to travel around Tasmania and collect stories of people she meets on the way.
- 22.
Damien Chalaud is an Australian creator and mentor, a member of the EBU. He lives in France.
- 23.
The chart was created by Lorelei Harris (RTÉ), Zdeněk Bouček (Czech Radio), Brigitte Kirilow (Deutschland Radio—DR), Barbro Holmberg (YLE), Helmut Kopetzky (independent creator), Edwin Brys (EBU Radiodocumentary Project Group), Thomas Haugaard (DR), Kaye Mortley (independent creator), Peter Klein (ORF), Ljubo Pauzin (HRT), Harri Huhtamäki (YLE), Janina Jankowska (Polska Radio, S.A), Wolfgang Bauernfeind (Radio Kultur / SFB / ORB), Jens Wendland (SFB), Peter Leonard Braun (SFB) (IFC 2017).
- 24.
Åke Blomström (1931–1985) was a long-term head of the documentary section at the Swedish Radio. Blomström actively supported young creators and strived to help them with their production as well as making international connections. He co-founded the IFC together with Peter Leonhard Braun and Andries Popp. Find more about Blomström in his biography in the Appendix of this book.
- 25.
Peter Leonhard Braun claims that at the beginning of the competition, there were 9 sponsors who donated finances to it. Each of them (different radio stations from various countries) used to give 500 euros for running the competition so in total the budget was 4,500 euros. All these financial means were used to cover the expenses associated with the competition. Today, the amount is higher as there are more donors.
- 26.
Brit Plieštik Jensen (*1980) is a radio creative editor and documentary maker coming originally from Denmark. She has lived and worked in the Czech Republic since 2005. Her projects include the series DokuVlna (DocuWave) or the documentary Yusra: Swim for Your Life (Yusra plave o život) (in cooperation with Magdaléna Sodomková), which was broadcasted in English at the BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service. Sodomková and Jensen are known in the Czech Republic for the podcast called Matematika zločinu (The Mathematics of Crime).
- 27.
The numbers are taken from the statistics stored at the international department of the Czech Radio by Anna Vošalíková. The survey in the form of an online questionnaire was carried out after the end of the IFC and provided feedback for the organisers of the event.
- 28.
According to a survey conducted by Anna Vošalíková, more than a half of the IFC 2018 participants attended the conference for the first time. Newcomers appear at each edition of the conference; however, the numbers increase due to the number of the independent creators and curious students for whom travelling among European cities does not constitute a logistic or a financial problem.
- 29.
Ivan Studený is a documentary maker, musician, poet, and a curious person. Besides his artistic endeavours, he takes care of horses and plays theatre for children.
- 30.
Jonathan Zenti is an independent Italian producer and creator of podcasts. His programmes were nominated for the Prix Europa Award, he also won the Skylarking Award at the Third Coast International Audio Festival and the GanBéarla Award at the Hearsay Audio Festival. Zenti is one of the co-founders of the MIRP conference—Meeting of Independent Radio Producers.
- 31.
Phillip Smith is an independent British musician and audio creator who produces programmes, e.g., for the BBC 4 and cooperates with the Falling Tree Production company. His works are often to be seen in the series Short Cuts or in the podcast of the Third Coast International Audio Festival.
- 32.
This information comes from statistics made by the RTÉ for their internal purposes.
- 33.
After the end of the conference, the organizers sent out a questionnaire which was filled out by 101 out of 217 attendees, not even 50%, unfortunately. The questionnaire is stored in the archive of the RTÉ, and I will use the information included there further in the text. The questionnaire shows that out of 101 participants, 15% of the delegates also attended the HearSay festival while 85% came only for the IFC. 9% of the delegates stated that they attended the IFC only because the conference followed right after the HearSay festival, while 6% said that the only reason that they attended HearSay was that the IFC started right after the end of the festival. The statistics that were given to me by Liam O’Brian show, however, that the bus that was dispatched from Kilfinane to Cork, carried as many as 70 attendees who went from HearSay straight to the IFC while several others used their own means of transport—that would imply that there was a much higher number of people who attended both events than suggested by the questionnaire.
- 34.
The questionnaire filled out by 101 out of 217 delegates shows that 87% of the respondents appreciated the decision to organize the event in an isolated place (as opposed to organising the conference in one of the RTÉ buildings).
- 35.
This brought the IFC closer to Prix Europa for example, where the programmes are played in their full length.
- 36.
The questionnaire filled out by 101 out of 217 participants shows that 77% of the respondents were happy with the course of the Story Showcase blocks.
- 37.
While in the previous editions of the conference, the participants would hear approximately 20 programmes altogether, at the IFC 2019, each attendee heard only 10 pieces plus 4 of those meant to be listened to at home.
- 38.
This type of subtitles was clearly inspired by the Radio Atlas website. Liam O’Brien claimed that the whole organisational team of Documentary on One took part in creating the subtitles. The makers who submitted their programmes sent the script in English with the audio. The organizers then bought software and assigned the task of inserting the subtitles into the programme to several employees. After the videos were ready, the member of the Documentary on One team Tim Desmond checked them all which took him roughly another week. The trial versions of the videos were tested together with the National Film School in Ireland. The filmmakers gave him tips on the ideal font, the size that should be used and so on. The overall expenses of the individual subtitles reached 1,200 euros. The entire process turned out to be too lengthy and overly complicated for the hosting institution (this information comes from my private correspondence with Liam O’Brien from 30th April 2019).
- 39.
The questionnaire filled out by 101 out of 217 delegates shows that 96,1% of the respondents were happy with the quality of the projections, the so-called audio cinema.
- 40.
The questionnaire shows that 63% of the respondents were happy with the wireless headphones, 7% were not satisfied and 30% of the participants did not use them at all.
- 41.
Due to the economic reforms that began in China in 1978, radio moved from being an effective instrument of mass propaganda (listened to only collectively and on loudspeakers) to focusing on intimacy and personal stories. After 1990, the Chinese started to create a big number of late-night shows, which were listened to in private. That was a big change in a country, where communism had for decades made it impossible to express true feelings in conscious life (McHugh 2022: 221).
- 42.
Loosely translates as the Great Journalist Award.
- 43.
CBC stands for The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is a public radio station which offers radio and television broadcast and, simultaneously, is the oldest station in Canada (it was established on 2nd November 1936).
- 44.
The programme was created for the CBC podcast called Love Me which deals with relationships and intimate stories from people’s lives. (Love Me, © 2019).
- 45.
In Canada, these volunteers are grouped under the organisation Samaritans.
- 46.
Daniel Kupšovský (*1977, Czech Republic) worked as the head of the documentary creative team at the Czech Radio from 2020 to 2023. Besides that, he works as a creative editor and cooperates with the Czech Television as a freelancer.
- 47.
For example, Umřít a přežít to (To Die and Survive It) by Dan Moravec and Brit Jensen, Peklíčko (Little Hell) by Brit Jensen or Pavilon M (Pavilion M) by Andrea Hanáčková.
- 48.
In the questionnaire filled out by 101 out of 217 delegates, 33% of the respondents stated that they do not want to pay any fee. 66% of the respondents agreed to pay, but only if the payment ensured some improvement of the conference, or if it was done in the form of an advance of 100 euros, which would be given back to those participants who actually came to the IFC and not cancel their participation at the last moment.
- 49.
This information comes from the beginning of 2022.
- 50.
According to the IFC website, the organizers registered up to 653 unique streams from all over the world—including Australia, the USA, Argentina, Africa, Saudi Arabia or Madagascar. The representatives of these countries do not usually attend the IFC which means that their participation in 2020 was due to the online access.
- 51.
SYNOPSIS: Moje kamarádka Zuzka is a programme about a woman who never gave up: On Friday the 13th, Zuzka got an unexpected gift for her 13th birthday. She was diagnosed with a tumour on her spine. She returned to her regular life after a year of difficult treatment. When the disease came back 11 years later, Zuzka’s friend, the documentary maker Tereza Reková, started recording with her (Czech Radio, © 2020).
- 52.
This information comes from 2023.
- 53.
SYNOPSIS: Is drinking bleach going to protect you from catching COVID-19? Is a helicopter going to come if you defuse chemtrails with vinegar? In her 4-episode docuseries called To je pravda, napsala, Tereza Reková examines manipulation, misinformation, hoax, conspiration theory and how to recognise them. Do you also receive chain e-mails with horrible prospects for the future? Or have you come across unexpected information about reptiles governing Hollywood or Nazis living on the Moon? Read and listen before they delete it! (Czech Radio, © 2022)
- 54.
In 2007, Hanáčková made a radio documentary called Kodaňské rekviem (Copenhagen Requiem) with a subtitle Zpráva o stavu rozhlasového dokumentu (The Report on the State of the Radio Documentary). Among other things, she publishes her theoretical texts regularly at www.advojka.cz or www.dokrevue.cz
Works Cited
Biewen, John, and Alexa Dilworth. 2010. Reality radio. Telling true stories in sound. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-3357-5.
Bouček, Zdeněk. 2000. Úvodní vystoupení PhDr. Zdeňka Boučka při slavnostním předání cen vítězům soutěže REPORT, 12. prosince 2000. In Sborník z tvůrčích akcí SRT za rok 2000. Prague: Sdružení pro rozhlasovou tvorbu.
Brys, Edwin. 2001. Překládání pro rozhlas. Svět rozhlasu 6: 23–26. ISSN 1213-3817.
Hanáčková, Andrea. 2006. Vídeňský feature mišmaš. Svět rozhlasu 16: 4–5. ISSN 1213-3817.
———. 2016a. Performativní modus v autorském rozhlasovém dokumentu. Habilitation thesis. Brno: Janáček Academy of Performing Arts.
———. 2016b. Rozhlasová kritika a současné reflexe auditivní tvorby. Olomouc: Palacký University Olomouc. ISBN 978-80-244-4934-0.
Madsen, Virginia. 2018. Transnational encounters and peregrinations of the radio documentary imagination. Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript Verlag. ISBN 9783839439135.
McHugh, Siobhán A. 2022. The power of podcasting: Telling stories through sound. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN: 9780231208772.
Interviews Conducted via the Method of Oral History
OH Arvidson. 2022. An interview with Magnus Arvidson, May 23. International Feature Conference, Cardiff.
OH Braun. 2017. An interview with Peter Leonhard Braun, April 11 and 12, Prix Europa office, Berlin.
———. 2019. An interview with Peter Leonhard Braun, a phone interview, May 14.
OH Brys. 2018. An interview with Edwin Brys, a Skype interview, June 7.
———. 2019a. An interview with Edwin Brys, a Skype interview, May 14.
———. 2019b. An interview with Edwin Brys, a Skype interview, October 16.
OH Davids. 2018. An interview with Willem Davids, May 23, International Feature Conference, Prague.
———. 2019. An interview with Willem Davids, April 10, International Feature Conference, Castlemartyr Resort.
OH Hermer. 2017. An interview with Gabriela Hermer, May 10, International Feature Conference, Stockholm.
OH Jensen. 2018. An interview with Brit Plieštik Jensen, June 20, Czech Radio, Prague.
OH Lahner. 2018. An interview with Silvia Lahner, May 24, International Feature Conference, Prague.
———. 2019. An interview with Silvia Lahner, April 10, International Feature Conference, Castlemartyr Resort.
OH McIntyre. 2019. An interview with Diarmuid McIntyre, June 1, Grey Heron office, Kilfinane.
OH Moravec. 2018. An interview with Dan Moravec, June 20, Czech Radio, Prague.
OH O’Brien. 2019. An interview with Liam O’Brien, April 10, International Feature Conference, Castlemartyr Resort.
OH Shapiro. 2019. An interview with Julia Shapiro, a Skype interview, July 29.
OH Thomas. 2019. An interview with Helene Thomas, April 10, International Feature Conference, Castlemartyr Resort.
OH Vošalíková. 2018. An interview with Anna Vošalíková, June 20, Czech Radio, Prague.
Internet Sources
Braun, Peter Leonhard. 1999. The Genesis [online]. [cit. 2017-11-08]. https://ifc2.wordpress.com/the-genesis-of-ifc/
———. 2004. Thirty years later [online]. [cit. 2017-11-08]. https://ifc2.wordpress.com/the-genesis-of-ifc/
Ifc. IFC Since 1974 [online]. IFC [cit. 2017-11-08]. https://ifc2.wordpress.com/since1974/
Other Material
30 Years Åke Blomström Memorial Prize. Record of Documents May 1986–May 2016. Peter Leonhard Braun, 2017.
Mchugh, Siobhán A. 2012. Oral history and the radio documentary/feature: Introducing the ‘COHRD’ form. The Radio Journal – International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media 10 (1): 35–50.
Personal Archive of Edwin Brys
Beyer, Regine. 2000. Conference in Crisis. Berlin.
Brys, Edwin. 2001b. SOS Feature Hearing – Meeting at the Prix Europa 2001. Berlin.
Brys, Edwin and Willem Davids. 2000. IFC – 1st newsletter.
Chalaud, Damien. 2000. The 26th International Feature Conference, REPORT. Berlin.
Mowatt, Don. 1982. A personal report on the sessions in Montreal of the eighth International Feature Conference. Montreal.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Reková, T. (2024). The International Feature Conference. In: European Radio Documentary. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57185-5_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57185-5_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-57184-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-57185-5
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)