Having ended the year on a rather sour note, I thought best to start it on a more positive one. After all it does seem to be the word of the month.

So let us raise our glass to the Malta Film Commission, which has just ended a stellar year attracting a number of Hollywood honchos to spend their mullah in Malta.

Better still the film commission has managed to convince them to use Maltese talent, both on-screen and off. The net result is that our creative industry (and the economy) has seen millions of euros pumped into it.

After a number of years in the doldrums, the Maltese film industry, and those who live off it, heaved a collective sigh of relief. And we are not just talking actors and extras here. We are talking electricians, prop makers, wig and makeup artists, lights and sound technicians, carpenters, caterers, special effects whizz-kids and more. The fact is that this very small country is blessed with some of the most creative, some would say ingenious, people around.

So ingenious it seems, that their work is now being exported. I caught up with a friend recently whose facebook page attested to a not illiberal amount of travelling. At the age of 26 he was jet-setting from Thailand to LA and on to Madrid.

I asked him what he was up to. Did he go to LA for a holiday? No, he told me, he was working on some special effects for a large Hollywood company. What, says I. Surely they have enough SFX guys out there not to require the assistance of some guy from Malta. Apparently not, was he reply with the faintest of smirks.

The facts of the matter was that our lack of resources has led us to create the mother of the mother of inventions.

So what was the great secret behind this re-flowering of the film industry in Malta?

Let me pause a little and take you back to a few months ago when I was asked to contribute to a session about culture which took place in the new Parliament house. There I spoke of how the current system of governance in the creative industries was run by amateurs.

Should we continue to allow this level of amateurism based on political favours and the whim of some minister or other?

That the people given positions on the government boards were amateurs with little or no professional training in this sector; that while middle management has a large number of talented people, the decision-makers, those who hire and fire, were really a bunch of political appointees who are, in the final analyses, responsible to no one for their actions. I asked if this would have been a satisfactory situation in a private company.

Needless to say this did not go down well in certain sections. Indeed I have it on good authority that some of those present tried to laugh the statement off.
So what has this to do with the success story that is the current Malta Film Commission?

If you take a look at the history of the commission it is not difficult to notice that over the years there was a steady increase in the number of movies being filmed here. Under the first two commissioners there was a successful attempt to attract foreign investment. (some may say that the indigenous film making industry was abandoned, but that is another story).

However things slowed down when Luisa Bonello left, in what can best be seen as ‘unusual’ circumstances. The fact that her replacement came directly from the board of governors did not help matters. It is also an open secret that there were several attempts from within the industry to have the new appointment changed, including meetings with the then prime minister.

2013 saw a change in government. And as per usual the change in government brought about that absurd game of musical chairs on all the boards of governors in Malta’s government controlled cultural sector.

Most experienced a clean sweep, with no members from previous boards there to provide context and continuity. Some even found themselves under a new ministry. In any case all the ministries had new permanent secretaries, so definitely no continuity there. The Malta Film Commission, believe it or not, falls under the Ministry for Tourism. Perhaps the minister feels his life isn’t glamorous enough and needs to hobnob with the Jolies!

I will let you contemplate the possible result. To give credit where credit is due, the board of governors at the MFC did the right thing and chose a person who knew his onions. Engelbert Grech is a hard, enthusiastic commissioner who has managed to turn around the situation in a very short time.

I have yet to be convinced about the other institutions. I am even less convinced about the competencies of the various directors on the various boards.

But why believe what I say. Perhaps we should remind ourselves as to who they are: The Arts Council Malta, Heritage Malta, Teatru Manoel Fondazzjoni Kreattivita, Malta Philharmonic Orchestra and last but definitely not least Valletta 2018. And with what is becoming the incredibly tedious saga called V18 just two years away, perhaps we need to ask ourselves: what have they really brought to the table?

And more importantly is this really the best way to serve our creative industries and our cultural sectors? Should we continue to allow this level of amateurism based on political favours and the whim of some minister or other? In other words, are we happy to continue shooting ourselves in the foot?

Oh dear, I said I wouldn’t but I did it again! Starting the year on not such a sweet note!