Interview: festival director faces biggest mission he's ever had

JAMES Mullighan arrives in Edinburgh Filmhouse wearing a flak jacket and steel helmet, Rosetta Stone Store accompanied by a couple of burly bodyguards wearing customised Edinburgh Film Festival body armour (quite fetching actually). He sits at the table, puts three tape recorders down beside mine, to ensure accuracy , and then sits back in surly silence.Nah, only kidding. Mullighan, the producer of this years Edinburgh International Film Festival (or is it director now? I cant keep up. Theres been some slippage in his title since his appointment), arrives wearing a green check shirt, a couple of days stubble and the air of a man who actually seems to be enjoying himself.Absolutely, he says when I suggest as much. Time of my life. Its not what you might expect from the director of a festival thats been attracting flak in recent months like footballers issue superinjunctions.Its not easy, he admits, but I didnt expect it was going to be. Its the biggest job Ive ever had. And its bigger than it normally would be, I expect, because I [only] came into it in February. But its not as big as some would like it to be. This years festival is slimmer and less starry than in recent years.Change was inevitable. Last year was The Heralds former film writer Hannah McGills last as director, and she was followed out the door by the festivals highly regarded MD Ginnie Atkinson in January. Ticket sales were 10% down last year and, with funding from the UK Film Council coming to an end and budget cutbacks inevitable in the current economic climate, financing has taken a hit. So even before Mullighan, previously head of independent film-makers network Shooting People and a freelance journalist, was appointed, it had been announced this years festival was going to be radically revamped. Rosetta Stone V3 Out have gone the awards and the red carpet premieres, and down has come the number of films on show. That was enough in itself to have newspapers sniffing around. But the festival didnt help itself in the last few months with a couple of publicity cock-ups. It was announced that former directors Mark Cousins and Linda Myles had been tasked with reimagining the festival with the help of Tilda Swinton, only for Swinton to publicly announce her involvement had been overstated.Guest curators were then announced to programme strands of the festival only for one or two (Isabella Rossellini, most notably) to withdraw due to other commitments. Mullighan was named as the producer. And then it emerged hed been made director. Programme announcements were trailed and never made. German Rosetta Stone In the middle of all this the media put two and two together and came up with crisis.Mullighan himself admitted at the launch of the programme last month there had been a few bushfires to deal with over the last few weeks . The question is, I suppose, has he been burnt? Oh, singed, he says, laughing. But I dont take anything like that personally. Im a journalist. I know what thats all about. Of course it wasnt going to be marvellously smooth when a director comes in and immediately starts running as fast as he can and not exactly in the same direction as everyone has been used to. Ill freely admit one mistake I made was saying I will make a further announcement in such and such a period and I didnt. That was just me not being careful enough. He could have done without Rosetta Stone Languages the negative coverage, he says, but, actually, with a few exceptions I dont really feel anything people have written is unjustified .