As filmmakers, producers, distributors and exhibitors of any non-commercial film will be aware, these are shifting times. Two years ago the National Lottery promised what seemed like unimaginable riches to the UK's film community. Since that time the commercial franchises have been allocated, something like £100m over three years to Pathe, the Film Consortium and DNA. Non-commercial film (as it was then termed) was promised its own franchises, to be allocated to consortia in a similar fashion. However, the total amount for these franchises would be approx. £1m. The London Film Makers' Co-op (LFMC) and London Electronic Arts (LEA) had together begun preliminary discussions with prospective consortia partners, and other agencies around the country were doing like.

In the meantime we have seen structural re-prioritising within the British Film Institute (BFI). Feature film production, with a budget of approx. £1m was cut, despite outcry in the community and pleading in the press. A ratty odour filled the air- were the non-commercial franchises, now singular and termed the Alpha fund, going to be handed directly to the BFI Production as compensation for its cut? Of course nothing was to be that simple. The BFI itself is about to transform into the Film Council, which will cover the previous roles of the BFI, British Screen and the British Screen Commission within one body (so the Government would now know where to forward letters, as one wag put it). In turn, the Arts Council of England (ACE) is also re-structuring, shedding staff and re-allocating art form funding through the Regional Film Boards (RABs). Thankfully, the Artists' Film and Video production awards and Exhibitions and Initiatives fund seem to have survived unscathed. Within London, we are unsure as to the future of the London Film and Video Development Agency (LFVDA), especially as the new local government for London is yet to come about, let alone set an arts policy.

Central Government, though, has been busy with the business of film. The Film Policy Review Group produced A Bigger Picture (Till Report), a study into the future of the British film industry as a public-private partnership working towards growth and profit. The absence of any mention of non-commercial, independent or cultural film production was glaring, to rather a lot us.

It was in the light of these rapid changes and uncertain times that Vertigo magazine, the bastion of intelligent film criticism and campaigning, sought to bring together the diverse corners of the independent film community in order that we may strive to be the dictators, rather than the dictated to, with regard to the application of the scarce resources that may become available. The time was apt to look again at what the independent film community, if indeed it may even be called that, thought was important about our art. What is cultural film production? Why is it important that it is still produced, distributed and exhibited? Does the term independent have any purchase anymore, if so, for whom, and who is excluded? We not only need to know what we want and why, we need to know who we are. Questions left unattended for too long. Vertigo invited a group of filmmakers, producers, distributors, exhibitors and funders to come together to set up the conference, The State of Independence, that took place at the Lux on Saturday 7 November. As the Lux was a main host of the Experimenta strand of the London Film Festival, the festival came on board to add their support, organising-capability and bountiful publicity...