Events
The Light Surgeons - Self Help
(Live A/V Performance) Plus DJ’s + Visuals.
Thursday 23 March 7pm – 11.00pm
Indoor Market, The Cattle Market, Hereford
Tickets: £6 / £4 concessions
The Light Surgeons are a collective of designers, film makers and musicians, best known for their pioneering audio visual performances. They are at the cutting edge of multimedia sound and light installations, working across a range of media such as video, film, photography, print based design, music & spoken narrative. The Surgeons have provided creative production and toured internationally with live music acts such as the Propellerheads, Cornershop, DJ Food and Unkle.
Self Help is a healing concoction of choice music and visuals, sewn together with their special blend of narrative with a psychological twist. This is AV therapy session not to be missed. A specially produced barrage of image bombs and foreign tongues where club culture collides with feature film. www.thelightsurgeons.co.uk
Plus MASH launches the mighty FUTURE SHORTS programme in HEREFORD for the first time. Future Shorts believe passionately in developing a wider audience for all kinds of short film from docs, animation, drama to the wildly experimental. Be challenged, inspired and above all entertained.
In partnership with mash cinema, www.mashcinema.com
Ken Wardrop presents Undressing my mother
Saturday 25 March - 10.30am
Ken Wardrop, a bright young talent from Ireland will introduce a selection of his short films. His most recent film, Undressing My Mother recently won the European Film Academy Prize for Best Short Film.
Ken Wardrop has recently graduated from the Irish National Film School and his latest film Undressing My Mother has gone on to win a staggering 22 international awards culminating in Best Short Film at the European Film Academy in 2005. The five and a half minute short is a poignant documentary featuring startling images of an ample, elderly and cheerfully naked woman. M Hannigan, Director of Cork International Film Festival describes Ken as "a genuine film-maker with a wonderful cinematic sensibility and an instinctive feel for what makes engaging cinema".
With his work often focusing on the rural Irish family, Ken will talk about his career to date, his influences and what he wants to achieve through his film-making.
There will also be an afternoon screening of Ken's full showreel with a Q & A afterwards at 5:15 in the Studio on the same day, Saturday 25th
How to Make an Award Winning Short by Dreamfinder Productions
Saturday 25 March - 12.00 noon
Old Market Hall, Shrewsbury
And who better to tell you than Dreamfinder productions' Natasha Carlish, Birmingham based producer of over 35 short films. Natasha's films have won BAFTA awards and nominations (Brown Paper Bag and Bouncer starring Ray Winstone) and screened at film festivals around the globe. The session will be a mix of screenings and talk about pitching and funding, getting the script right, and the all-important distribution of your finished film.
Adapting Chatwin & Filming On The Black Hill
Saturday 25 March - 12.00 noon
Roger Shannon will interview Andrew Grieve about his experience of adapting Bruce Chatwin's famous novel for the screen and filming in Herefordshire. He recalls walking round locations for On The Black Hill with Bruce Chatwin who later visited the set. Subsequently Andrew has made one feature film, Letters from the East, and a great deal of TV drama, including the Hornblower series, Lorna Doone, Poirot, and most recently, The Rise and Fall of Rome.
Introduction to Short Screen Stories by Simon van der Borgh
Saturday 25 March - 2.00pm to 5.00pm.
A practical, interactive workshop for anyone who's interested in screen stories and characters, and where they come from. Learn some of the secrets and skills needed to start developing your own screen stories.
International screenwriting teacher Simon van der Borgh leads a hands-on session looking at screen stories. Using some recent short films as case studies, Simon looks at how you get started, explains some of the writer's skills and tools, and offers some practical advice and exercises to help writers find and develop their characters and stories.
Simon van der Borgh has worked since 1984 in theatre, TV and film as a writer, director, producer, actor, teacher and script consultant. He is script consultant on feature projects in Europe & the USA and a tutor for LMU, Scottish Screen, Screen Yorkshire, and on Arista's international ADEPT programmes. He has written nine feature scripts, and tutors on North West Vision's 2006 New Writers' Feature Film programme. His original screenplay Boney And Betsy was developed with help from the UK Film Council..
Ken Wardrop Shorts
Saturday 25 March - 5.00pm
Saturday 1 April - 4.30pm
The Courtyard, Hereford
Ken started his working life in architecture In London, before coming back to Ireland to study production design at the Irish National Film School. With a new found passion for storytelling he quickly moved over to directing documentary, where his eye for design is reflected in his rich imagery and composition. His subjects are fresh and intriguing, from the dilemma of what to do with an inept farm dog (Useless Dog), to the uncomfortable subject of male circumcision, aptly entitled Ouch! Wardop often uses his own family as the subject of his film-making and works from the heart of contemporary, rural Ireland.
Hen
Ireland 2002 5mins
A little girl makes an impossible demand.
Love Is Like A Butterfly
Ireland 2003 4mins
A short tale inspired by the dreams we lose with adulthood. The music of Dolly
Parton accompanies this story of bright lights, prostitutes and butterflies.
Dampened Spirits
Ireland 2003 4mins
An experimental short film that explores the effect rain has on a cityscape.
Raving
Ireland 2004 4mins
A woman is not amused by her friend's persistent laughter. A little dancing
eventually loosens her stiff upper lip.
Useless Dog
Ireland 2004 5mins 30sec
A witty documentary about an inept but loveable farm dog.
Ouch!
Ireland 2004 9mins
Three men talk candidly about their experiences of being circumcised later
in life. Ouch! is a funny and touching examination of life on either side
of the foreskin divide
Undressing my Mother
Ireland 2004 5mins 30sec
A documentary that explores a woman’s unique take on her overweight and ageing
body
Focus on Shorts
Sunday 26 March 2.00pm - 4.00pm
Ludlow Assembly Rooms
Local filmmakers introduce their latest films. Come and see the best and brightest short films being made in Herefordshire and Shropshire and meet the film-makers. Borderlines and mediamaker tv are collaborating to put on a two county screening and films confirmed so far include Nick Duffy's Bedruthan Steps, Matt Dukes and the Angel Dance Co's lab's The Infirmary, Denise Salmon's 90 second gems and Naomi Vera-Sanso's Phone-o-phobia. If you are a film-maker looking to network or want to know how to get started this is the place to come.
Make a Film in a Day Schools Workshop
Monday 27 March - 10.00am to 4.00pm
Garrick Room, The Courtyard, Hereford
This informative and inspiring workshop aims to equip media practitioners and teachers with tools and techniques to make a film in a day. The process can be replicated in a classroom environment with groups of students and is suitable for both primary and secondary age groups.
The group will use a curriculum-based subject matter and follow a filmmaking process from initial ideas, storyboarding and scripting through to filming and finally editing the film. The day will also include a plenary session to explore techniques used and offer sources of further training and support.
Rachel Lambert, an experienced drama and film workshop director will lead the workshop. Rachel has worked in many primary and secondary schools around Herefordshire and runs The Courtyard's Film Making Club on a Saturday morning.
This workshop is funded by the School Improvement Services division of Children's
Services at Herefordshire Council.
Herefordshire Local TV
Tuesday 28 March - 11.00am to 1.00pm
Local TV is fast becoming a reality. The BBC is currently running a nine-month pilot service in the West Midlands, and every week since December Herefordshire people, assisted by The Rural Media Company, have been producing content for it. Topics range from the deadly serious to the bizarre and hilarious. But what is the future of local TV? What role could schools and colleges, county councils, training agencies, local businesses, media organisations and practitioners play? What economic, social and cultural benefits could Local TV bring to a rural county such as Herefordshire?
Please join us for this free seminar to debate these and many more crucial questions. You will meet some of the local producers, see examples of programmes, and debate the future and benefits of Local TV with the BBC and a panel of experts.
For full details contact: [email protected]
Education Day - Movies and Meanings
Wednesday 29 March
Hereford based writer James Clarke will present a day about thinking on film. What messages do movies communicate? How can we learn from them? How can we use them to spark our imaginations?
Schools Film Workshop
Wednesday 29 March
10.00am to 1.00pm
Film and Friendship For primary school children, aged between 9 and 11.
The day starts with a special screening of the animated film, The Iron Giant, a wonderful adaptation of Ted Hughes classic children's story. Afterwards James Clarke will lead a discussion about the film and how it can be used to trigger thoughts about citizenship, friendship and inclusion.
2.00pm to 3.30pm
Cinema and Censorship For 16-18 year olds.
An illustrated talk by John Dyer Education Officer at the British Board of Film Classification. John Dyer will talk about the history and work of the BBFC and show clips from landmark films. His talk is intended to provoke a general discussion on censorship and regulation in the cinema.
James Clarke is the writer of the recently published Virgin Film Guide:
War Films. James is an Associate Tutor with the British Film Institute. He
has co-authored an online BFI resource about film and citizenship and has
worked extensively in community media production. He currently teaches at
Hereford Sixth Form College.
Collecting Clouds; from a baby's pram to the Thames Estuary
Wednesday 29 - 4.00pm
A short, illustrated talk by local artist, Anna Falcini about her exhibition, Collecting Clouds, that is currently on display in The Courtyard gallery. Anna will be discussing her approach to creating work, the continual motif of strange landscapes which inspire her, and the contents of her current exhibition Collecting Clouds. Working with digital and multi media, Anna develops installations and often references the work of video artists and traditional filmmakers. As well as showing extracts of her own video work, Anna will be showing a selection of films that have influenced her work, including work by Powell & Pressburger, Richard Serra, Alia Syed and Victor Burgin.
Making Documentaries
Unfortunately Florence Ayisi will not be able to attend the Festival so this talk is cancelled.
Wednesday 29 - 5.30pm
Florence Ayisi, director of Sisters in Law and lecturer at the International Film School of Wales, talks about making her first documentary and her experience of working for Channel 4 with fellow director Kim Longinotto.
Britten Sinfonia accompanies Charlie Chaplin
Wednesday 29 - 7.30pm The Courtyard, Hereford
Tickets £25 £20 £15 £8, concs under 18’s £10 £5
Easy Street (1917, 23’), The Cure (1917
23’),
and The Adventurer (1917 20’)
Producer/Director/Screenplay: Charles Chaplin
A great evening of classic Chaplin short comedies for you to enjoy. These films brought Chaplin worldwide fame and contain some of the funniest scenes he ever produced. These silent gems have been lovingly restored and will be shown accompanied by the Britten Sinfonia playing original music by film composer and conductor, Carl Davis, the master of silent film scores. The Cure sees Charlie as a recovering drunk at a health spa leading his fellow patients astray with his own supply of liquor. As a roller-skating waiter in the slapstick classic, The Rink, Charlie struggles to keep upright, angering the dinners but winning a sweetheart. Everyone’s favourite tramp, Charlie joins the police in Easy Street, takes on the local bully and becomes a hero.
This evening is kindly sponsored by NFU Mutual
Film and Disability Day
Thursday 30 10am to 4.00pm
The Courtyard, Hereford
10:00am to 12:00pm
DIS Life: Justin Edgar, from Birmingham based 104 films,
will present Dis Life (2005), a series of five short comedy films
made in the region with disabled young people. Special People won best short
at Chicago Children’s Film Festival. My Bloody Valentine won best
short at the Oska Bright Film Festival in Brighton. Walking and Talking
is nominated for Best Short at the 2006 First Light Film Awards.
Difference: Three disabled artists took part in the Moving image component of Digital NOW II organised by DASh and produced a one minute art film taking difference as their theme. The artists, Jane Roberts, Dave King and Zaim Chimma will be on hand to talk about their work
A Day in the Life: Members of Leominster MIND were given disposable cameras in February 06 to record/document ‘a day in their life’. Each documentor was given total freedom to record this day in whatever way they chose.
Theatre of Speed Vs BOZ’n’HOC: What happens when music meets a large group of artists in red tracksuits meets a large white inflatable structure with a camera? The latest pop video from a group of Australian learning disabled teenagers, which went down a storm at the London Disability Film Festival.
1:30pm to 4:00pm
Mat Fraser on Performance
Mat Fraser, actor, poet, musician and ‘thalidomide ninja’ lists an impressive
array of performance skills. His one-man show Sealboy: Freak toured
the country and Mat presented the TV documentary about Stanley called Born
Freak. His first major television role was in The Unknown Soldier,
he then featured in Metrosexuality, as Marlon in a role where his
disability was merely incidental.
We will screen Everytime You Look At Me
(Dir: Alrick Riley, UK 2004 1 hour 30 minutes) starring Mat Fraser and Lisa
Hammond. A tale of two people who reluctantly fall in love, and find the odds
are stacked against them. This is a ground-breaking film that for the first
time had two disabled actors in the central roles. Both the characters have
well-established lives and neither view their disabilities as an impediment
to success, but when they look at their future together, they must face not
just the prejudice of the outside world, but also of their families and each
other. “Every time you look at me you see yourself”.
An Audience with Barry Norman
Thursday 30 7.30pm The Courtyard, Hereford
Tickets: £13 concessions £11.50
Film buff and legendary TV presenter Barry Norman will reflect on his career in the film industry and share his thoughts on interviewing celebrities like Robert de Niro, Peter Sellers, Steven Spielberg, Michelle Pfeiffer, Bob Hoskins and Alan Parker. As the front man of the BBC’s cinema review programme for 26 years, Barry Norman became a household name. A chance to meet the man who has so many great stories to tell of the rich and famous film stars and their antics both on and off screen.
Travellers Remember
Friday 31 11.00am The Courtyard, Hereford
In association with Traveller’s Times magazine
This is the launch of a ground-breaking heritage project made with Gypsy and
Traveller families in the West Midlands in 2005 and introduced by Jake Bowers,
one of Britain’s few Romani journalists, who has worked for The Guardian,
The Independent and BBC Radio & TV.
Atmospheric and articulate, Travellers Remember presents a rich and varied tapestry of their values and traditions in the 20th Century – rural and family life, agriculture, trades and crafts. Traveller families worked alongside Rural Media Company digital artists, using stills cameras, microphones and laptops to produce beautiful 2-minute digital stories, all of which will be available free on a new section of the Traveller’s Times website and for sale on DVD.
www.ruralmedia.co.uk
www.travellerstimes.org.uk
Focus on Digital Film Production
Saturday 1 April - 10.00am to 5.30pm
Naomi Vera-Sanso, a local film-maker based in Leintwardine will present her award winning 10 minute short Phone-o-phobia , written by Paul Coates and starring Mark Charnock, the 2005 winner of the British Soap Award for the Best Dramatic Performance as Marlon in Emmerdale. The film was made through the UK Film Council's Digital Shorts scheme to encourage new talent and was funded by Screen West Midlands.
Last November the film came second in the BBC New Talent Awards out of an
initial field of 500 and is due to be broadcast on BBC3 in the spring. As
a follow up Naomi has just finished a short drama commission for BBC3, called
The Audition, again penned by Paul Coates and starring John Henshaw,
best known for playing the landlord in Early Doors.
Mark Charnock, the star of Phone-o-phobia will present to discuss
the making of the film.
Writer/director, Jan Dunn and producer Elaine Wickham talk about what they have achieved with their low budget feature debut, Gypo, and the response they have had to the film. Gypo will be released in cinemas in the UK in June.
Jan started her career as a classically trained actress and has acted in everything from Shakespeare to Shaw. In 1997, after attending the National Film & TV School, she began producing and directing her own short films. Her two comedies, Mary's Date and Joan, were both critically and financially successful and were selected for festival representation by the British Council. Both short films achieved UK theatrical distribution and worldwide sales. Her debut feature, Gypo won the prestigious Best First Feature award at San Francisco's Frameline Film Festival 2005. Jan is currently writing a number of screenplays and she will be directing her second feature, Ruby Red Chequer later this year.
Gypo is producer Elaine Wickham's first feature length film since setting up her independent film company, Medb Films. Having sold worldwide, including UK and USA, Gypo has earned Elaine industry recognition, most recently when Elaine won the "Outstanding Achievement in Production" Award at the 2005 British Independent Film Awards.
Elaine and business partner, Jan Dunn, also run a post-production arm of Medb Films, and Medb Independent Film Focus, a trainee shadowing initiative supported by Arts and Business. Elaine has a slate of feature films at various stages of development.
Film and Counselling Event
Sunday 2 April - 12.00 to 4.00pm
In partnership with Couple Counselling Network - Herefordshire and Borders. Dr David Hewison, Senior Couple Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist and Clinical Lecturer at the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships in London will introduce Lars Von Trier's masterpiece Breaking The Waves and lead a discussion afterwards.
Couple Counselling Network - Herefordshire and Borders - is an independent association of qualified and experienced counsellors created to promote the benefits of couple counselling and provide a referral service for the general public.
Dr David Hewison has a particular interest in the relationship between contemporary Jungian and psychoanalytic thinking and between clinical work with individuals and work with couples.