Interview with Marina Kostova: I despise hiding behind an avalanche of words

Photography: Angel Panevski

The hybrid collection of short prose, film reviews, interviews and essays entitled "Language is a strange beast" by Marina Kostova, published by "Ili-Ili", was launched these days in "Bukva", and the book reveals her love for writing and to the word.

There is almost no film festival in our country where we have not met Marina Kostova. She is an award-winning journalist and film critic, and at the meetings the main discussion was about film art. She is the author of the monograph "Mancevski" and the book "Rain, the World for 'Before the Rain' by Milcho Mancevski", which as Macedonian artifacts are available in more than 120 national and university libraries in the world. She is the president of the National Section of the International Federation of Film Critics - FIPRESCI. "Language is a strange beast" is her first book in which we get to know her not only as a journalist, but also as a writer, and that fact opened new horizons for conversation.

How does it feel when you have been perceived as a journalist all your life, and now readers also recognize you as a writer?

– Very strange, simply unreal. I never saw myself as a storyteller, but rather as an analyst, because journalistic work deals with facts. But it was the preparation of this book that broadened my understanding of what a text is in a broader sense – both as prose and as a non-narrative record.

Why is language a strange beast?

- Because life is a strange beast. And language, in essence, is life.

What in life led you to the journalistic profession, in which narrower specialty is film criticism?

- I wanted to become a journalist since the fifth grade. Then writing was the most exciting for me, but especially the fact that I felt this profession as very dynamic, which does not tie you to one place and you are constantly on the move. I saw the first movie in my life at the cinema when I was 5-6 years old, in the cinema in Krushevo where I was vacationing, it was a James Bond movie. Growing up, it was as if I never left the cinema, everything I know about film I actually learned in the cinema. From a young age, I experienced films as a conversation with the author, and that dialogue remained the basis for me even when I professionally started dealing with film criticism. My first review was for Coppola's Dracula, a film that celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, but it came to us in 1993, so I still have a year until my personal anniversary.

I often say that when I'm at festivals, I watch 5-7 films a day. If they're good, it's a joy, but if they're bad, it's like you've spent 14 hours a day with very boring people who drain your energy. But there is one catch – if after six bad movies there is one good one, it lifts you up so much, as if you fell in love, you immediately forget the bad ones. I used to fall in love 3-4 times at a festival, now if I fall in love once - I'm happy.

Characteristic of the dynamics of the author, the book traveled through several meridians in the world

The book is a hybrid collection of short personal histories, reviews, interviews and essays. Considering that you are an editor at a media outlet, how did compiling its content and editing the book go?

- Actually, I never even thought of writing a book. It all started in the first months of the pandemic, when everything around calmed down, slowed down, got quieter, and in that deafening silence I started to hear the lines that I had memorized for some reason, more like a melody, related to childhood events. Perhaps because of the silence, the moment I remembered those lines, I also remembered the images, quite detailed, that are attached to the words. And so, I started writing down those short personal histories and posting them on Facebook under the hashtag #DeepPoolsOfNostalgia.

I was surprised how many people felt touched by those personal stories and how much encouragement I received to collect them in a book. Then I realized I could mix them in with other different kinds of writing—reviews, interviews, write-ups, essays, and even a fan letter I sent to Anthony Lane, my favorite New Yorker film critic, for a piece he wrote about Max Opuls which I liked a lot.

I was also surprised that most people told me that they perceive some of the short personal histories as a short film.

When I was putting the book together, as an editor it was clear to me that the first ten texts had to be punched to set the rhythm, and the rest was literally random stacking. To be honest, I wasn't even sure the book worked as such until I read the first proof copy – then it seemed light and flowed, so I was relieved (ha-ha).

The promotion of the book took place in "Bukva", and the cultural expert Dr. Darin Angelovski spoke with the author.

Behind you, you have enormous journalistic experience and baggage with articles published in several media. Did this book perhaps open the archives for a few more new ones, or put in it what he most wanted to be published?

- I don't know, the choice for this book was more intuitive, as if I put a thin line under everything I wrote. Or again, as a selection of necessary and favorite things that you decide to take when you have to leave.

A wonderful foreword for the book was written by Milcho Mancevski, who says in one place: "She loves every word, and she chooses the most appropriate one." How do you measure the words in your texts?

- With Milcho, we share the same respect, just drink, for the word, but also the same strictness and thrift for spending the word. The most important thing for me is that the word is true and most suitable for what I want to say, the text must be clean, clear, without a gram of fat. I despise hiding behind an avalanche of words (hiding an attitude or hiding no attitude), it's hypocritical and dishonest.

I am horrified by the thought that we are living in an extremely significant historical time, especially for our country, and in 20, 30, 50 years the only evidence that will remain of it will be a bunch of empty platitudes. What does "Bloody Thursday" or "Black Monday" or "The Unfortunate Event" mean? That, simply pathological, refusal to name things with the right words is key to this culture's collective self-forgetfulness. And for the pathological enjoyment of that self-forgetfulness.

You are the winner of the highest state award for journalism and publicism "Mito Hadji Vasilev - Jasmin". From that position, how do you see what is happening in Macedonian journalism (fallen standards, emergence of fake news, copy-paste journalism) in recent years?

– I still think the same thing I said when receiving the award in 2018:

"There is still censorship and self-censorship. Hundreds of journalists are out of work, and the majority of employees are working in precariat. When I think about the freedom of the media now, the same question that I wrote about in 2009 bothers me again: Freedom for what? The real question is not whether and how much the media is free, but what is it free for? Are they free to spit on anything and everything, especially the rivals of their bosses? Or are they free to think for themselves, to ask reasonable and logical questions and insist on answers, even when the prime minister and the ministers and even the bosses think that 'now is not the time for that'?

Is the journalistic guild free to compromise professional standards and professional responsibility for personal career motives? Or is he free to proactively protect the working and professional rights of journalists both in relation to the government and especially in relation to employers? Do our journalists want to be free to think, above all, about the professional standards of objectivity and truth?

The post-communist transition in Macedonia dilettantizes all professions, and this is mostly seen in journalism. The media has been dilettantized and instrumentalized in the struggle between political parties and between post-communist bosses. "The most devastating thing for journalism today is that every major businessman has his own media, every medium businessman has his own journalist, and behind each of them there is a party," the late cartoonist Delcho Mihailov lucidly noted at the beginning of the 2000s. And the dilettantization of a big door has opened up space for corruption, regardless of whether it is financial or political. The consequence of that is the sardonic, dilettantish and scandalous attitude of the media towards our reality.

Indeed, we live in an age of 'post-truth' or 'alternative truth' and fake news, and even here politicians have started using the term 'fake news' to discredit journalism. But dear colleagues, I believe we all know that fake news is not the greatest enemy of journalism. The biggest enemy is lazy journalism - rewriting, without independent checking of facts, pretending to be balanced, irresponsible and incompetent. Bad, lazy journalism destroys the ability of a free media and undermines public confidence in the seventh force. That media quasi-balance, motivated by an opportunistic refusal to take professional responsibility, is the biggest culprit that has contributed the most to equating the value of freedom fighters with that of anti-freedom fighters."

Today I am surprised, but I am also resigned that almost no one, not only in journalism, but also in any public profession, does not ask - freedom for what?

I never saw myself as a storyteller, but rather as an analyst, because journalistic work deals with facts / Photo: Dragi Nedelchevski

As deputy editor-in-chief, formerly in "Vest", and now in the digital editorial office SAKAMDAKAZAM.MK, in which direction would the definition of journalism, but also of film criticism, develop?

- Our profession is in the biggest crisis of its existence - it has become a rare, endangered beast, and thus its value as a public interest is greatly endangered. Due to the fact that financing opportunities, especially for digital newsrooms, are unstable and limited, salaries are low and more and more often journalists are not only changing media, but also changing professions. Also, the natural growth of newsrooms is disrupted - due to unstable funding, it is difficult to rejuvenate staff who can learn and develop in the newsroom, young journalists cannot find their place in it.

The worst thing is the media illiteracy, not only of the journalists, but also of the audience. For example, it has become a practice on social networks not to share the text of the original link, but only a printscreen of the title, without even looking at which medium it is from. The sharing is massive, and even by people who are considered intellectuals, and based on those print screens, an opinion is even formed about the given topic. And what do we have – our professional journalistic work is reduced to a meme for fun.

With film criticism, as well as with theater, dance, art criticism, the situation is even more depressing, because the problem is no longer that there is no professional criticism in the media, but that there are no cultural sections either. Imagine, creativity and cultural policies, a very important segment of social life, is almost erased in the media. It already has enormous consequences on the formation of the value system not only in culture, but also in the whole society. And it is not only here, unfortunately, it is already a worldwide process. That's why I think projects like "Culture Press" and your personal involvement and contribution, Tony, are a heroic deed.

Writing film reviews and being a member of FIPRESCI gives you the opportunity to look at what's happening outside our borders. Does criticism have the same treatment abroad and here?

- The Macedonian section of the International Federation of Film Critics - FIPRESCI has 8 members, experienced professionals who also participate in the jury of film festival critics. It is an invaluable opportunity to participate in quality discussions about film and art. Earlier this month I was at the FIPRESCI General Assembly at the festival in Miskolc, Hungary. My colleagues from Europe, Asia, Africa, America say that the situation with film criticism is more or less – equally bad everywhere. There is enormous pressure from the entertainment industry on the media, which, because they are in crisis themselves, have to give more space to entertainment content – ​​interviews only with stars, reports from red carpets and the like, and there is very little space for professional film criticism. and one cannot live on that alone. Even well-known critics in major media lose their space or are asked to report from the red carpet. It is a process that has been deepening for the last 20 years and no one is optimistic that it will get better.

But what is specific about the Macedonian cultural space is not only that there is no place for professional criticism of creativity, but that poison and petty scandals are the dominant discourse. Our entire social life is immersed in poison, shame and misery, and social networks further intensify it, so that, unfortunately, Golden Macedonia is a very unhealthy place to live.

(The interview was published in "Cultural Press" No. 148, in the print edition of the newspaper "Free Press" on October 1-2, 2022)

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