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MADDINGCROWD
MADDINGCROWD
BAFTA NORTH
BAFTA SCOTLAND
The first quarter of the year has been as hectic as ever. Members’ screenings have includ- ed: A Room For Romeo Brass, The Insider, Being John Malkovich and The Hurricane.
Members were also invited to a long-awaited special screen- ing of the award-winning Beautiful People at the Odeon, London Road. It won the Cannes Prix Un Certain Regard at last year’s Cannes Festival, the only British feature to win an award.
The film was partly financed by MIDA’s Merseyside Film Production Fund, shot on location in the city and facili- tated by the Liverpool Film Office. As BAFTA North is pas- sionate about the promotion of new creative talent from the regions, a short The Lesson, written and directed by James Marquand and David Dilley, and produced by Daren Eagle, was also screened. A celebrity- packed audience attended along with the “talent” and industry professionals and afterwards Roger Shannon, of BFI, chaired a Q & A with writer-director Jasmin Dizdar and producer Ben Woolford. A reception sponsored by
Liverpool’s Life Café conclud- ed proceedings.
We played a major role in pulling together the production of Liverpool musician Pete
Wylie’s new pop promo, Heart As Big As Liverpool, from the album Songs of Strength and Heartbreak. BAFTA North’s Maureen Sinclair set up the initial meeting between local pop icon Wylie, director Alex Cox and pro- ducer Solon Papadopoulos. The meeting was a great success and Alex, from Merseyside, flew back from commitments in LA and Spain to direct.
We recently supported Western Spirit, a national charity based in Liverpool and co-found- ed by Simon Weston O.B.E. It promotes the personal and
social development of socially excluded young people between the ages of 14-25 and offers them a real alternative to prob- lems like unemployment, feel- ings of isolation and apathy, drug and alcohol misuse, home- lessness and abuse. We’ll be organising an event in June to help raise the profile of Western Spirit and its new initiative in partnership with BskyB, Reach For The Sky.
Together with Planet Wild and John Moores’ University, we have pulled together a consor- tium of companies including Mersey Television, MIDA and the Liverpool Film Office to mount the first WOW (Writing On The Wall) International Festival, cele- brating the world of words. It will take place in Liverpool from June 7-11. More info on the event can be obtained from Maureen at 0151 282 3726 or Shona Thomas, WOW co-ordina- tor on 0151 231 5135. ■
Beginning a career in the industry by making short films usually with- out very much funding and with the generous – and usually free – support of friends and colleagues is the accepted norm for most young film-makers.
Some of the
recent batch of short
films made in
Scotland are of an exceptionally high
quality, full of ideas
and very inventive.
Once completed,
however, most of
these films may be
seen perhaps only
once by film festivals
or very late night television audiences.
In order to expand the scope and opportunities for young film-makers, we organised a first Short Film Showcase in February at the Odeon, Glasgow.
There were were four films featured. Caesar, the directorial debut of actor David McKay recently seen in Ken Loach’s My Name Is Joe, was a darkly humorous look at the life of a Castlemilk pigeon fancier; Station, by Dundee-born Jackie
Oudney, was a study in black- and-white of waiting passengers viewed often surreally by a young girl; Beelines, from Edinburgh-based animator Rachel Bevan Baker, was an expertly drawn six-minute piece conveying in just six minutes the life of a busy gardener and
her bees; Irvine Allen’s haunting and well-acted My Daughter’s Face told the sadly familiar tale of a mother’s tragedy when her lovely young daughter’s serious drug habit ends in death.
Following the very real suc- cess of this showcase, we intend to organise more events of this kind and one featuring docu- mentary making in Scotland is presently being planned. Also don’t forget that we’ll be holding BAFTA Scotland’s New Talent Awards 2000 in November. ■
Photos opposite page from left: Julie Ann Marshall, Exec Director BAFTA East Coast and Board Member Susan Wagner with Director John Schlesinger at the screening of The Next Best Thing; Board Members Catherine Branscombe and Joseph Confreda at a cocktail party for BAFTA East Coast members hosted by the British Consul-General, Mr Thomas Harris and Mrs Harris; Oscar-winning filmmakers of American Beauty at the BAFTA LA screening (L-R): Chairman BAFTA LA Arnold Schwartzman, MD BAFTA LA Katherine Haber, Screenwriter Alan Ball, Director Sam Mendes, Cinematographer Conrad Hall, Daily Variety Editor Steven Gaydos and BAFTA LA Exec Director Don Haber; Toby Petersen (sculptor) with the new BAFTA Cymru Award
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Photos this page from top left: Director Alex Cox; Maureen Sinclair, Brookside star Andrew Fillis and Margaret Blakemore of Cops at the screening of Beautiful People; Maureen Sinclair with James Kennedy (on her left) and Brookside star Leon Lopez (on her right) flanked by the youngsters involved in the charity project Western Spirit;
inset top right: Producer Ben Woolford, Writer/Director Jasmin Dizdar and Head of BFI Roger Shannon after the Q&A session of Beautiful People; inset above left: WOW co-ordinator Shona Thomson and BAFTA North’s Maureen Sinclair;
inset above right: Animator and illustrator Rachel Bevan Baker’s Beelines