2009 report

The 14th Portobello Film Festival 3–20 September 2009

700 Free Film Screenings At the heart of Portobello FilmFestival are shorts and features thatembody the state of cinematic arton digital formats. Themes andhighlights from over 700 filmsshown this year included Joanna

Lumley’s heartfelt appeal for the displaced people ofMine: A Sacred Mountain in India, USA’s sexy anddisturbing Liminal, Virgin Media

Shorts’ The Black Hole, Sidney Turtlebaum with DerekJacobi, Palestinian revelations like Aki Nawaz’s ToGaza With Love, packed weekend Matinees includingGus Berger’s Duke Vin And The Birth Of Ska, a Horrorevening starring The Black Blooded Brides Of Satanfrom Finland and Zombies & Cigarettes from Spain,

and the dedicated Spanish, Russian, French, USAand World Cinema sessions. Not to mention theavalanche of pro, low and no budget films fromLondon film makers putting the forever

underachieving mainstream mediaand film to shame in a fireball ofcreativity, originality, flair and wit.

Entry to all screenings and eventsat the Portobello Film Festival2009 was free.

The 14th Portobello Film Festival 3–20 September 2009

London Film MakersConvention

The London Film Makers Convention is a twiceyearly opportunity for all London film makers, fromthe best production houses to DIY street videomakers, to show their latest work to the public, meetup, attend workshops, socialise and network in aninformal, exciting environment.

For the first time we operated two screens (one inthe Project Space, one in the atrium courtyard atWestbourne Studios) simultaneously for four days tomaximise impact. It was encouraging to see thisvast space filling up with filmmakers and public tocheck out London’s latest film masterpieces.

Hanif Kureishi gave a wonderful Q&A onscriptwriting, illuminating theimportance of original work andcomedy, illustrated anecdotally withtales of Samuel Beckett and PeterO’Toole, followed by a screening ofhis culturally pertinent 90s movieMy Son The Fanatic.

Byron Wijawardena demonstrated the most recentdevelopments in Apple’s Final Cut Pro digitalediting, making professional and versatile systemsnow within the pocket of the most impoverished.

Andy Kimpton Nye screened his four landmarkindie Brit director bios: of Alan Clarke, TerenceDavies, Derek Jarman and Bill Douglas.

Helen Heathfield, Head Of Energy Management atJulies Bicycle, introduced an environmental filmstrand with a fascinating talk on carbon auditing.

Virgin Media Shorts and Encounters Bristol bothshowcased the best of their selections for 2009.

The Beat Goes On Portobello Film Festival 2009 remembered the BeatGeneration and their cultural legacy, featuring UKpremieres of films about Jack Kerouac, AllenGinsberg, William Burroughs, and the UK Beatpoets and musicians, curated by Michael Horovitz(New Departures magazine and 1966 Albert HallPoetry Olympics) at The Tabernacle on 4 & 6September.

Michael showed a specially commissioned GreatestHits film of his Poetry Olympics Superjams featuringJoe Strummer, Pete Townshend, Paul McCartneyand Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and performed a newversion of Ginsberg’s Howl that even included ashout for the Portobello Film Festival and free artsevents. Fellow Beat survivor Lee Harris screened afilm commemorating 50 years since the publicationof Naked Lunch at the Beat Hotel Paris and broughtBeat up to date with live poetry, hip hop soundtrackand VJ backprojection.

Uri Fruchtmann from Ealing Studios (and the SpiceGirls movie) introduced his film ofAllen Ginsberg’s last London showat Heaven, never before screenedin public.

The Beat theme continued throughthe urban artworks on display(Rap being a major source ofinspiration for street artists) and a VJ masterclassand performance from original Turnmill’s VJ PaulBlackwood, focussing on modern usage ofBurrough’s cut up techniques.

SaturdayMorningPictures

Portobello Film Festival weekend mornings atThe Tabernacle and afternoons at The MosaicCentre in Earls Court did not forget families andkids, and offered free screenings of the best infamily entertainment: Wall-E, Happy Feet, Garfield2, Magic Roundabout (with Robbie Williams asDougal and Kylie Minogue as Florence), andPooh’s Hefalump Adventure. Sponsored byRBK&C’s Early Years service this is a very popularstrand that should continue throughout the year,especially in a culture where public viewing istaking a back seat to home videos. Nothing beatswatching a film in a theatrical environment.

World Cinema Portobello Film Festival’s international partners - filmfestivals & distributors - in St. Petersburg, Munich,Madrid, Amsterdam and Dublin, and others, from

as far apart as USA, Iran and Korea, presentedpopular evenings of foreign work, often higherbudget than some of the UK productions and agreat way to take the pulse of World Cinema.These strands were especially well attended andeven filled up venues on Sunday afternoons. TheSpanish, French, and US contributions deservemention.

No less than 4 of the 10 awards this year weregiven to non UK films: Pachamama from USA,Todas from Spain, Free Jolito from Mexico, with theBest Film Award going to the delirious poeticKurosowa/Jodorowski hybrid Vermillion Souls fromFrance and Japan.

Video CafeThe Video Cafe has long been the bear pit of thePortobello FilmFestival. Weendeavour toshow every filmsubmitted, but inrecent years thenumbers of filmssent in (and theincreasingnumber of feature films) has meant less-easy-to-categorise films are put on a menu that can then berequested by the public or the filmmakers. This isthe Video Cafe: not unlike the gong show at theComedy Store. Films have to be good or wellattended to make a splash. It’s a great social eventand can feature the craziest organic programming(a film about Olympic Weightlifting followed by afilm about pollution from a chemical plant in Japanfollowed by a film about knife crime followed by athriller followed by a comedy followed by video art)but the audience get into the spirit of this live event.

There is also the option of bringing your film alongon the night for late entrants and one such film (atrailer for forthcoming feature Rock & Roll Lovely)even won a prize at the Award Ceremony.

Youth Film Festival There are many filmsbeing made by thenation’s youth but thereare few public exhibitionforums for them.Portobello Film Festival2009 presented our firstYouth Film Festival, concentrating on the

better films made by kidsand even introduced onenight by Dominic Westfrom The Wire for

Nick Marcq’s LatimerFilms selection. There wasalso work by youthprojects such as the EUStranger Festival, VideoCollege, Transient FilmExchange, First Light, andYCTV. Sponsored by

RBK&C PAYP, the Youth Film Festival took greatpains not to ghettoise these youth works but givethem a glamorous, funky public platform. GroveRoots made by local schoolkids about LadbrokeGrove’s multicultural history won a prize at theAward Ceremony.

Caribbean Film Corner Produced in association with KalinagoEntertainment, the Festival presented a 2 dayshowcase for contemporary Caribbean films at TheTabernacle on 16 & 17 September. The first nightfeatured shorts from Trinidad, Jamaica, DominicanRepublic and Martinique including the highly ratedPower Of The Vagina by Jimmel Daniel. The secondnight featured an actors/directors workshop fromHorace Ove (Pressure) and Rudolph Walker,including a lively debate on the exclusion ofCaribbean filmmakers from mainstream UK filmindustry, followed by a screening of one ofHorace's recent works.

Street Art Portobello Film Festival regularly showcases currenturban art – we even had a contribution fromBanksy in our 2003 programme – and over theyears has championed this vital art movementwhich history will probably regard as as crucial as

theImpressionistsand Pop Art.

This year’scover wasdesigned byC6

Dotmasters and is based on a poster for anAustralian prison girls exploitation film. It features40 seperate stencils.

The Courtyard space at Westbourne Studios wasdecorated by 6X7 foot screens especially paintedby C6, Solo 1, Sickboy and Bash. Zeus covered alarge part of the floor with his Streetopoly game.Zeus also designed the breathtaking gold Trellickstatuettes that were awarded for the first time asprizes.

The opening night featured the documentary TheFirst Season introduced by New York laser artistsGraffiti Research Laboratories and a film they hadmade with a paraplegic former gang memberpainting using lasers with his eyeball!

The Festival also presented a street art showcase at

the Muse Gallery featuring Joe Rush, Snug, Seize,Part2ism and Code FC that served as a prelude forthe highly praised October Mutate Britain showunder the Westway.

Alvaro, founder member of Joe Strummer’s 101ersscreened a biopic and played a live set at the InnOn The Green, and cult punk author Tom Vaguepenned a Portobello Beat History for the brochureand hosted a screening/talk on Portobello CarnivalHistory featuring Carnival pioneers and historians.

Award Ceremony For the second time (last here in 1998!) wepresented our Award Ceremony at the iconicTabernacle. The ceremony was open to the publicand can be seen on our websitewww.portobellofilmfestival.com. A good time washad by all.

The winners were:

BEST FILM Vermillion Souls (Masaki Iwana, France)

BEST DOCUMENTARY I Voted Today (Al Alvarez, UK)

YOUTH FILMMAKERS Groove Roots (Groove Roots Crew, UK)

BEST COMEDY Free Jolito (Marcos Bucay ,Mexico)

BEST SHORT FILM Bagatelle (Ben Adler, UK)

BEST DRAMA Todas (Jose Martret, Spain)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY Pachamama (Toshifumi Matsushita, USA)

TIME OUT AWARD FOR BEST LONDON FILMTerry (Nick Nevern, UK)

BEST FILM SHOWN ATTHE VIDEO CAFE Trailer for Rock and Roll F---ing Lovely

AUDIENCE AWARD Captive (Gus Alvarez UK)

Press“This column likes to draw attention to free eventswherever possible. The Portobello Film Festival inNotting Hill is a perfect example, there’s noadmission charge to any event in its 18 dayprogramme” www.news.bbc.co.uk

“The hip London district of Notting Hill has beenhosting the annual Portobello Film Festival since1996. This year the curtain goes up on September3 and more than 700 films will be screened free ofcharge.” Irish Mail

“The launch of the Portobello Film Festival was anoisy affair. Performers for the forthcoming Carnivalcould be heard practising upstairs...downstairs itwas more leisurely as guests were entertained byfilm clips from the festival which silenced the roomas two naked girls began to fight on screen.”Evening Standard

“The spotlight is on modern movies” The Times

“Far too much film related fun to describe: shorts,features and talks, activities for kids and adults,community events, clubs and conventions, TV showsand documentaries, all of it absolutely free.” Time Out

“Wire actor Dominic West (aka Jimmy McNulty)appears at London’s Portobello Film Festival, wherehe will introduce the work of young film makers on10 September.” The Independent

“A celebration of all things left field since 1996, thefestival returns with a retrospective of Beat poetsand writers...the best environmental films...and theLondon Filmmakers Convention” The Guardian

You know you’ve arrived when you feature in an unsolicited 118 advert in the Metro.

Statistics Origin of the films London 200Rest of UK 135Spain 67Russia 50Italy 34Germany 33USA 29France 17Holland 17Ireland 11Turkey 11Australia 10India 8Canada 7Austria 6Belgium 6Sweden 5Argentina 5Iran 4Palestine 4Finland 3Japan 3Norway 3Romania 3Nigeria 2Mexico 2Switzerland 1Korea 1Sri-Lanka 1New Zealand 1Hungary 1Serbia 1Georgia 1Croatia 1Denmark 1Brazil 1Thailand 1

GenderFemale: 46%Male: 54%

Festival Rating (5: excellent, 1:poor) 5: 60%4: 31%3: 6%2: 2%1: 1%

Age18–25: 29%26–35: 42%36–45: 16%45–55: 8%Over 55: 5%

OriginBritish: 39%Irish: 6%Black British: 10%Mixed Race: 7%Caribbean: 7%African: 3%Asian: 3%European: 18%Australian: 2%Other: 7%

Postcode Attendance W10/W11: 19%W8: 5%W2: 4%NW10: 1%W12: 3%Other: 68%

Where Did AudienceFind Out AboutFestival? Family/Friends/Word Of Mouth: 25%Internet: 24%Local Publicity: 26%National Press: 6%Other: 19%

First Time Audience 64%

Analysis of Market Research Questionnaires

Attendance (09)Westbourne Studios weekdays:12 days: 3600

Westbourne Studios weekends:5 days: 2500

Tabernacle:6 Days (inc Kids films & AwardsCeremony): 1800

Inn On The Green6 Days: 1200

Muse Gallery:12 Days: 1200

Total (18 days): 10,300

2009POR TOBELLOFILM FEST IVAL

For further information please call: 020 8960 0996 or e-mail pff@btopenworld.com Portobello Film Festival, Unit 11, ACAVA, 54 Blechynden Street, London, W10 6RJ

Portobello Film Festival runs an EventManagement Practical Work Experienceprogramme for unemployed people andwould like to thank these wonderfulunpaid volunteers who made the Festivalsuch a great success.

www.portobellofilmfestival.com