hurrengoa
REBOR: the man behind the fear.    The Cultural Centre in Donostia. All you have to do is glance at all the little reminder notes littered all over José Luis Rebordinos’s desk to see that the man works his butt off. Papers and video cassettes all over the place...
I won’t ask you too many questions... Do you mind if I record the interview?
Not at all! Turn the yolk on and do whatever you want...

13
Yep, You organise a celebratory 13th edition and you start to look back at what’s been done and the number provokes a certain sense of vertigo. The 13th edition of the film festival also seems to be telling us that we’ve been in the organisation end of things too long. It’s about time some fresh blood got involved...

Anybody who comes in to take over will certainly have their work cut out for them...
That’s actually one of the biggest problems. All the same, something new is necessary…just like in everything else. The XIII Donostia Fantasy and Terror Cinema Film Festival, Nosferatu... everything has got a sell-by date. This is no different.

Yeah, but it’s a real pleasure to be able to enjoy something like this...
That’s just what I mean. I’m half-afraid that one day it won’t be a pleasure anymore. I know it’s difficult to get something new off the ground... The Fantasy & Terror Cinema is an important festival. It’s special...

That’s why we like it so much...
During The Festival Week anything goes. Maybe because the freedom to do whatever we want that is denied to us everywhere else exists in the festival is the reason why it’s so popular. The Antzoki Zahara (The Old Theatre) is home to freedom during the festival. Nothing is forbidden. Well, you can’t smoke in the screening room, but that’s because it wrecks the screen. Otherwise, everybody can do what he or she wants. We also have total freedom to show whatever films we want to. Don’t get me wrong, it sometimes scares us. We can’t control what goes on in there. There’s a certain responsibility for that. Having said that, the municipal owners have always been on our side as far as that is concerned. I think that freedom is what makes this festival different from the others.

You have a really loyal bunch of spectators that comes year after year
Because it’s heterodox. We look for plurality. We don’t just show what we like. The spectator who comes along knows they can see the likes of the Mexican porn movie “El monje loco” or Murnau’s Faust. The Fantasy & Terror Festival is a festival that’s programmed for the spectator.

A fantasy?
You mightn’t believe me, but I’d like The Film Festival and Nosferatu to disappear and something else to take their place. I’d like somebody else to do something different...

Go on!... We’ll have time to talk about that. Just when we’d decided that The Festival and Nosferatu were still a real pleasure...
(Fit of laughter)... Yeah, well then, I’d love to bring over John Carpenter... or bring back Peter Jackson and his wife who were here a few years ago. I’d love to see a lot of people who have been here over the years again. You know, have a big slap up meal with them all.

Is that fantasy not just a little over the top?
Not at all. Working in a film festival lets you lay your heroes to rest. When you meet a director or actor you admire, you often find out that they are really unpleasant people. You also discover that the bloke who made that film you thought was rubbish is a really nice guy.

What are you afraid of?
Well, I have two nightmares. The first one is that the small group of us in the Donostia Cultural Centre who are involved in the festival fail to look after the people we bring over the way they should be looked after. The other is, and it hasn’t happened so far, well, what never happened during those wild first years... I mean, and I can see the funny side of it now, but last year...

Hang on a sec! I’ll just turn off the recorder.

I turned off the recorder and we carried on talking. Short Films, the political situation, French porno stars... Rebor’s a nice person to have a chat with. What happened last year? Well, a giant squid, alcohol and an ambulance were all involved...