Crash on delivery

The other day I came across the brilliant clip being used as a teaser to usher in the One TV short story competition. Called Pause, it is one of those open-ended clips with very little dialogue; yet it has several layers of meaning, the most obvious of which is the adage about how all the world is a stage, and actors want no one in the critic's seat.

Since this is a television column, I choose to say that it signifies the effect of the media upon one's mind, annihilating it to the point of oblivion.

This is especially obvious in the content of certain television programmes; apparently, these are 'what the people want', and so, they get the mix-and-match preferential treatment of prime time, selection of day, funding, and what have you, from the station(s) involved.

Other people, whose programmes may be on a more professional and worthy level, albeit perhaps esoteric, are told that they 'ought to consider themselves lucky' that they are being given the opportunity to work on television.

This topic also came up during the press conference organised in connection with the Malta International Short Film Festival, which was held last Tuesday.

PBS chairman Clare Thake-Vassallo said that it is the sacrosanct duty of the public broadcaster to give space to local talent and local artists, local culture and local entrepreneurship. TVM was therefore the ideal vehicle for this festival.

It was therefore a great pity that this innovative festival could not be fitted into an EU funding pigeonhole.

Ever since taking over this column, I have been writing about the need to provide local audiences dubbed films, or at least films sub-titled in Maltese. There is also a ready market for the higher end of Maltese productions to be broadcast abroad - if anyone could understand what was being said in them. This exposure must be wider and farther than that obtained on You Tube, since some of the clips there are found merely by accident and will not help the fame and fortune of their makers.

At last, the ball has started rolling and it is envisaged that the infrastructure of the curriculum at Mcast be broadened, in liaison with the local film industry, to this end.

One notes that this film festival - the brainchild of Joyce Grech and Tony Parnis - could appeal to an international audience because it was streamed on a website with English subtitles. Yet this would not be enough on a commercial level.

• It is understandable that most radio and television presenters would have their own core of followers, who move with them if the personalities decide to change stations.

However, I draw the line when I smell rats. I sometimes wonder whether the same people are calling in with different names - because sometimes the voices are similar enough to raise suspicions.

Another occurrence that makes me wonder what may be happening behind the scenes is the palpable familiarity between the host of a programme and the caller - which goes deeper than the one that develops over the course of a schedule or six.

Sometimes, where there is a good prize involved, one can practically tell, from the first few syllables exchanged, whether a person is going to be a winner or not.

• I first discovered Bastjaniżi FM when my friend was washing her car and I stopped to talk to her. The mix of 1960s music, 'local' advertising and the whole package, indeed, caught my attention, and since then I have tuned in often; from where I live this community radio comes in loud and clear.

This is the combined effort of the Kummissjoni Żgħażagħ Bastjaniżi and the other three groups that are also involved in the organisation of the parish feast - the Pinto Band Club, St Sebastian Fireworks Factory, and the Decorations Group.

The inception of this station had actually been something of an experiment in 2003, but when it proved to be an unmitigated success, the decision was taken to build upon the very first meagre broadcasts, and the people involved have not looked back since.

These days, in fact, the station broadcasts all manner of programmes: there are programmes about literature, discussions, religious broadcasts - something for everyone. The station is also streamed live over the internet, which means it has garnered a wider audience now.

What makes it work is partly the fact that costs are kept to a minimum because of the great amount of voluntary work.

Indeed, during the aforementioned short film festival, as Joyce Grech rightly said "you can never put a high enough value on voluntariat". Get more information from www.bastjanizifm.org.

television@timesofmalta.com