HaHaArt Film Festival Manifesto

In 2022, the founders of the HaHaArt Film Festival wrote a Manifesto to articulate the identity and spirit that inspired the festival. More than a declaration of principles, it is a claim for the place of comedy within the cinematographic discourse, and conveys the understanding of how the genre should be represented at the festival, reflecting the vision that underpins its creative direction.

Pombal, October 30th, 2022

Laughter is a fundamentally human trait. We laugh at ourselves, alone and in spite of ourselves, and all of this again—but with others, at others, and in spite of them. Whether it is a joke, mockery, pleasure, or misfortune—or simply the amusement derived from perceiving incongruities between concept and object, as Schopenhauer asserts—humor strikes us suddenly and uncontrollably.

But comedy is more than just the ‘funny’ or the ‘humorous’. It shows us what is hidden in the face of all, the joy and will to live; it ruffles, repeats and augments; it turns concepts upside down and deconstructs what is the predetermined in order to make us foreign for a moment. And in the words of Wylie Sypher, “tells us things that drama cannot”. Whether for its honesty or for its portrayal of the absurd—which so often mimics reality—in its symbiosis between the open use of gags and storytelling, comedy films come closer to real life.

Comedy is also about sharing, empathy, and forging bonds among the audience—both because it is an honest portrayal of the human condition and because the laughter that spreads across our faces is an instinct inherent to our social nature, a remnant of the earliest days of human communication, a shared, common space. Sadly, it is many times spurned to the world of entertainment due to its impact on social life.

Comedy cinema is rarely recognized for its aesthetic and artistic value. Film critics often ignore its importance and in doing so they devalue and demote these films.

The HaHaArt Film Festival aims to highlight the aesthetic and artistic value of comedy films and place them on the same level of critical recognition as other genres. We wish to celebrate the films that have the courage to come fourth as comedies and resist this undervalued status.

We wish to celebrate the films that have the courage to come fourth as comedies and resist this undervalued status.

Let us recognize the absence of a comedy genre canon. Let us recognize the abstract nature of the genre and celebrate it! Let us cherish its mutable and chameleonic nature. Let us value the sights that comedy cinema offers us, and the emotional approach to the narrative structures made its own. Let us celebrate the incoherence, the unpredictable and the surprise; the exaggeration, the contradiction and the repetition of comedy’s methodic madness. Let us praise absent-mindedness, big facial expressions, large gestures, bumbling and mumbling, and bodily functions. Let us embrace the breaking of conventions, both social and technical. Let us embrace disruption and honesty. Let us take the comedic hero seriously: he who is lost in existence, unmindful of others, uncapable of change, but genuine, believable and real.

Making people laugh, as Woody Allen would say, is either easy or impossible. It is dependent on the openness to comedy’s risks and possibilities and on the ability to accept our own flaws; it is dependent on embracing the freedom of speech; on understanding, accepting and valuing comedy’s own mechanisms. We must welcome it with open arms. Then, yes, maybe we can die laughing… and we’ll be comforted!

The HaHaArt Film Festival aims to distinguish itself within the national and international film festival scene as an event dedicated to comedy films. Let’s watch movies and, together, rekindle the flame of what was once one of the most prestigious genres in the history of cinema.