It just had to be. It’s just my luck. Just when I decide my New Year resolution is to be nice to others, and so I heap some praise on a government institution, the Malta Film Commission goes and spoils it all! Seriously guys, couldn’t you wait a couple of weeks?

No sooner was my last blog published that I started getting feedback that all was not quite well in the state of the MFC.

Sure enough a couple of days later the MFC provided the proof by launching its first film policy for the country. And that’s when the proverbial fertiliser hit the whizzing machine.

Let’s start off with the positive. There is now a declared film policy, which has been long overdue, and is definitely a step in the right direction. Yet, unfortunately, it is hot on giving us the current state of play, less hot on strategy and how to move forward. Very often it was a case of tell me what I don’t know already!

There is good news in the declaration that the much abused Mediterranean Film Studios will soon get a sound stage, something which has been called for for decades.

We risk reducing our creators to mere intelligent and well-skilled craftsmen, with no avenue to express themselves as artists

University and MCAST get a well deserved kick up their backsides and told to get their act together, with the emphasis being on the word ‘together’ in order to provide at least one decent foundation course in the art and science of film-making.

There are also some very quirky moments. Such as a section on film tourism as though the Malta Film Commission should have a responsibility in that sector. But hey, that’s what you get when you when you have the ridiculous situation of placing the MFC under the Ministry of Tourism.

Then there was the two per cent rebate if you show Malta in a positive light in your movie. Which made me wonder what would that consist of: perhaps a view of the Blue Lagoon or someone eating pastizzi in the background. Or George Clooney drinking a local beer while eating spaghetti with rabbit sauce and saying he has never tasted anything quite as good. (Other suggestions welcome. Please send on the back of a five euro note).

No, the main beef is that Maltese film makers have been left out of the policy almost altogether.

With a policy that looks squarely at the service industry aspect of the film industry, we risk reducing our creators to mere intelligent and well-skilled craftsmen, with no avenue to express themselves as artists, to tell their stories, our stories.

In my conversations with Maltese film makers, I was reminded of an article written by Shadeena producer Martin Bonnici about his experience at the Cannes film Festival.

He wrote this: ”It was my first visit to Cannes and I certainly wasn’t there to watch movies. I was there to promote my film projects, learn more about film business and understand the reality of the industry for a young independent film-maker from Malta... Most meetings were opened with a somewhat awkward question: “What do you do? Oh, I did not know you make films in Malta.”

You can sense the frustration in his voice. This is why he goes on to call for a separation of roles when it comes to the film industry, with one commission focusing on the servicing industry, that is the business of attracting foreign film business to Malta, and another organisation, say the Arts Council, with the particular brief of promoting indigenous talent.

This is not as far fetched an idea as one might suppose. As another film maker Kenneth Scicluna points out in a Facebook posting - Iceland, with three quarters of our population, gets films made, takes them to market, and to the selections, short lists and finals of important festivals and award ceremonies, so why can’t we?

And here is the irony of it all. As I write this, 20,000 Reasons, a romantic comedy written by Malcolm Galea and Jameson Cucciardi, is about to hit cinema screens. This production is the result of a training programme delivered by Film London and initiated by the Malta Film Commission with the support of ESF Funds.

The key word here is training programme. What happens now that the training is over?

Perhaps that’s one very good big reason to look at the policy once again and consider that question.