IMAGO president Mustapha Barat ABC shares details of IMAGO’s upcoming 30^th Anniversary Celebration and Annual General Assembly and highlights the new and improved website and communication between member societies, cinematographers, and sponsors. 

As we start a new calendar year, I would like to review some of the things the IMAGO Board and I have been working on since I was elected in May 2022 during the IEGA (IMAGO Extraordinary General Assembly).  

After being elected treasurer at the 2021 IEGA, I succeeded Roger Simonsz BSC to the post for the year 2022, and later had the honour of becoming the first president originating from a Latin American society, the ABC (Brazilian Association of Cinematography) of which I am also currently president. My belief is that this diffusion inside IMAGO is of paramount importance, given its objective as a constituted international federation. 

In December of 2022, IMAGO completed 30 years of existence since its creation by Luciano Tovoli AIC ASC back in 1992. 

Despite the great importance of this date for all of us, we had to postpone the celebration in view of a several impediments. 

Nevertheless, it gives me great pleasure to inform you that the IMAGO 30^th Anniversary Celebration will take place in conjunction with the IAGA (IMAGO Annual General Assembly) in Cinecittà, Rome on 24 and 25 March 2023.  

We are planning that most of the IAGA and especially voting be a hybrid online event, for those who will not be able to travel to Italy. As for the transmission of the 30^th Anniversary Celebration, if not live it will be recorded and later made available, but the final decision is contingent on matters still to be addressed. 

For those who will be there, and we hope many will be able to attend, it will be the first opportunity to meet in person since the 2020 IAGA in Brussels, which unfortunately was cut short by the pandemic. Although online events are now part of our new reality, the importance of human encounters, whenever possible, should be preferred. 

Amongst other activities, the 30^th Anniversary will include a tribute to IMAGO’s founder Luciano Tovoli AIC ASC and the founding member societies AIC (Italian Association of Cinematographers), AFC (French Association of Cinematographers), BSC (British Society of Cinematographers), and the BVK (German Society of Cinematographers); although the latter, despite not currently a member, has always been of great importance to the federation.  

As part of the celebration the program includes the projection of a documentary film on Luciano Tovoli and his works, followed by a roundtable featuring four guest cinematographers discussing how they envision cinematography in the next decade. 

Amongst the new addition to IMAGO activities and projects: 

The IMAGO TALKS, idealised by Adriana Bernal ADFC “as a space to talk about cinematography”, online lectures and exchanges on cinematographic techniques and other matters related to cinematography.    

The first episode will focus on the Analog Zone System in Digital Cinematography and feature cinematographers Edward Lachman ASC, Alfonso Parra AEC, ADFC, and David Stump ASC along with Marko Massinger. The video of the event will soon be available on our website, as with all the next episodes we have in store. 

New communication strategy 

To improve our communication between member societies, cinematographers, and sponsors, we hired a communication professional, creative director, and communication consultant Alexandre Braga whose experience and expertise includes at ad agencies and working as director and screenwriter. He will recreate the entire communication strategy of IMAGO, including a new, more dynamic, intuitive, and communicative website, in addition to media platforms. 

His proposal was presented and duly approved by the administrative members and the board. Therefore in 2023 we will have innovation and diversified but unified content for our website, Instagram, and newsletter. Cinematographers and members of the societies large and small will be invited and introduced monthly to share information, ideas, and experiences. 

As part of this new communication, we also proposed to technically reform and modernise our website with the experience of a specialised creative agency with an international client platform, to work with Mr Braga and his team, as well as implementing a new look more in tune with a federation of cinematographers. 

Another project of importance, conceived by the former co-president of IMAGO Ron Johanson OAM ACS is also in the spotlight. Entitled “Future Conference” and although still embryonic and without a defined date, the project aims to discuss with all affiliated societies, the future they desire and envision for the federation. 

This event should include a wide consultation and a democratic debate to review, elaborate and update new statutes necessary to face a changing reality with the wishes and needs of the memberships, which include so many different cultures and reality, but the same purpose. 

To conclude, though it might seem to some or perhaps many, that since my election in May 2022, not much work has been done, I can assure you that is far from the truth, and I can now state that you will soon see the results.