LA RÉPUBLIQUE INTERNATIONALE DES ARTS
Founded by James Tanabe and Lena Gutschank at the 2012 Conference on World Affairs in Boulder, Colorado, la République Internationale des Arts has two missions:
1) to reward quality interdisciplinary film projects from around the world through substantial cash prizes; and
2) to incentivize intelligent, artistic curation of online film content through equally substantial cash prizes.
James Tanabe
Co-Founders
James Tanabe is a former Cirque du Soleil artistic director, a professional acrobat, a performing arts entrepreneur, and a former molecular biology, peripheral neurology, and space plasma physics researcher. Tanabe has produced and directed live entertainment collaborations in 19 countries. A graduate of MIT, l’Ècole Nationale de Cirque, an MA candidate of Foreign Studies at the University of Pennsylvania‘s Lauder Institute and an MBA candidate at Wharton Business School, Tanabe’s specialty is international creative arts management.
Lena Gutschank
Lena Gutschank is a multilingual director, choreographer, and project manager of international performing arts projects across Europe and Asia. She is an award-winning international performer who began training in contemporary circus at age 8 before leaving home at age 16 to pursue professional training in aerial arts and contortion at the prestigious Staatliche Ballettschule Berlin und Schule für Artistik in the former East Berlin. She has led workshops and lectured in countries including Thailand, India, and the United States.
Hi there,
I would like to know more about this organization, are you building a for-profit/non/social enterprise or social business? Is it planet aware? And are you serious about making a quality contribution to the world that goes beyond the reflection in a pond?
Excuse the intensity, you’re arists and so I know we understand eachother.
A fellow weaver,
Eimhin
Dear Eimhin,
Thank you very much for your email and for your question. The idea for this project, a free, online, film festival organized by artists and judged by the competitors themselves grew out of discussions at the Conference on World Affairs in Boulder, Colorado in 2012. Specifically, the concept arose out of preparation for a panel moderated by Terry Davis called “Surviving As An Artist” where we spoke on the panel with the amazing artists Gooding, Abraham Laboriel, and Limor Shiponi. We are 100% self-funded – the two founders have donated prize money to run four contests in the 2012-2013 season. If this concept is a valuable service to the international artist community, if the topics continue to engage, and if participation continues to grow, we will commit to another year of prizes. In addition to those funds, we accept donations both on our website and at the crowdsourcing site indiegogo. We are planet-aware in as much as we see that a community of artists that is committed to bettering their art, bettering the art produced by the international online community, and promoting quality execution of vision can truly change the world. Our inaugural competitor-judged competition has the theme “AKROBATIKA: The world of all arts acrobatic” because that is the world from where the founders came. There are three more festivals that we would like to run in the next 12 months and possible themes, range from “Travelogue,” to “Non-Verbal Comedy,” from “Conflict,” to “Live Musical Performance,” from “Dance in Unusual Places” to “The Environment.” As the audience making up la République Internationale Des Arts continues to grow, they will drive the choices of themes for each contests. Frankly speaking, la République Internationale des Arts is you and your peers – our level of awareness and commitment to making a quality contribution to the world will grow in proportion to the strength of our voice. As we posted recently, “If you do something with quality and panache, you have the responsibility to do it loud.” This website is just a lens and an amplifier.
Hello,
I am very happy to find your site. I would like to introduce my work, I am a Film Director and Choreographer. I have made a previous short film entitled ‘The Forgotten Circus’ that sadly is too long for your current competition. I made the film with Circus Space here in London in 2008.
I am about to make another three new Circus based films entitled ‘The Forgotten Trilogy’.
The films will involve, circus arts, dance, drama, music by The Irrepressibles and will feature some celebrated actors and performers. If you are interested in viewing the previous film ‘The Forgotten Circus’ please go to:
http://www.shellylove.co.uk/films/theforgottencircus.html
I look forward to following your site!
Shelly Love
Dear Shelly,
Thanks so much for your message and for submitting your film. Concerning the length limit, it is more of a guideline than a hard and fast rule – after all, what sort of republic would this be if we lay down arbitrary rules?
When the judging phase begins, we will strongly recommend to all participants to watch the first ten minutes of any video, and then, if they are so inclined, to continue watching – they can base their comments on the first ten minutes or on as much of the work that they choose to see. From what we’ve seen of your work however, it would be hard to imagine anyone stopping at the 10 minute mark.
The only reason the guideline is there in the first place is out of sympathy for you, the artist/judges – if you had to sit through 10 feature-length pieces for each round, it would be more of a chore than a virtual creative exchange, which is the ultimate goal, after all!
Best wishes and good luck in the competition. We look forward to having your voice heard.
Cheers,
-James and Lena