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| | Local film makers are set to take their place in the spotlight at the inaugural Stafford Film Festival.
The week-long event (October 7-14), which will take place at venues around the town, aims to celebrate films made in or featuring Stafford.
The festival has been organised by the Stafford Film Festival Partnership made up of Stafford District Arts Council, Stafford Film Theatre, Staffordshire University, Staffordshire County Council, Stafford Borough Council, Culturegen and the Gatehouse Theatre.
Lottery grant
It has been made possible thanks to a £10,000 lottery grant from the UK Film Council and Screen West Midlands, the region's film development agency.
The Magdelene Sisters gets the festival underway at the town's Gatehouse Theatre, in Eastgate Street, on October 7.
The festival's very own Oscar-style ceremony takes place on the penultimate day (October 13), again at the Gatehouse Theatre.
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Proceedings will draw to an end the following evening with a showing of the Shane Meadows film Once Upon a Time in the West Midlands which stars Robert Carlyle (pictured right).
Jane Cannell, chairwoman of Stafford District Arts Council, said:
"The Film Festival is a great achievement for everyone, especially for all the diverse partnerships involved.
"It is fantastic that so many groups have come together to highlight the wonderful talent as well as deep interest in films and talent in the area.
"I believe this and many other exciting things happening in the town will definitely put Stafford on the cultural map both locally and nationally."
During the festival the Gatehouse Theatre bar will be transformed into a film cafe for informal meetings and showings.
Full listings:
Tuesday 7th October 2003
Time: 6:30pm (film 7:30pm)
Location: Stafford Gatehouse Theatre
Civic reception/launch event (6:30pm-7:30pm) An invited audience of guests will join the Deputy Mayor to celebrate the launch of the first Stafford Film Festival*. The Magdelene Sisters (7:30pm) Based on actual events, Mulligans powerful drama recounts the horrific history of Irelands Catholic Magdelene Asylums where thousands of girls and women were imprisoned and enslaved in the laundaries, to atone for their sins. The film follows the lives of three young women sent to a laundry; they soon discover the harshness of the nuns cruel regime led by the austere Sister Bridget. The last Magdelene laundry shut in 1996. Wednesday 8th October 2003
Time: 12:30pm 1:30pm
Location: Stafford Gatehouse Theatre
The Film Café (a tasty and varied programme of film talks, screenings, displays, and presentations on week day lunch times during the Festival week) Time: 7:30pm
Location: Eccleshall (exact venue/location tbc)
The Time Machine (a unique archive film event that takes the audience back, and occasionally forward, in time! Ray Johnson of Staffordshire University presents this special archive film screening that features Staffordshire residents and locations.
Thursday 9th October 2003
Time: 12:30pm 1:30pm
Location: Stafford Gatehouse Theatre
The Film Café (a tasty and varied programme of film talks, screenings, displays, and presentations on week day lunch times during the Festival week) Time: 7:30pm
Location: Gnosall (exact venue/location tbc)
The Time Machine Friday 10th October 2003
Time: 12:30pm 1:30pm
Location: Stafford Gatehouse Theatre
The Film Café Time: 7:30pm
Location: Stone (exact venue/location tbc)
The Time Machine
Saturday 11th October 2003
Time: 1:00pm 7:00pm (including Staffordshire Rebels, see below)
Location: Staffordshire University, Venue F14, Beaconside Campus, Stafford
Staffordshire Film Open Day (open to everyone, a unique opportunity to see behind the scenes at Staffordshire Universitys Film & Media School (Beaconside), a celebration of student film making, an exciting networking event for Staffordshire film makers and film enthusiasts including an opportunity to screen work and display publicity information, and a range of other, screenings and presentations. The open day will also offer three different guided tours:
Television Studio (including a blue screen background set up
could you be the next weather reporter?).
Digital sound studios.
Avid video editing suites. Presentations and screenings, and tours will run throughout the open day starting every half an hour: 1:00pm, 1:30pm, 2:00pm, 2:30pm, 3:00pm, 3:30pm Time: 5:00pm 7:00pm
Location: Venue F14 Beaconside, Stafford
Staffordshire Rebels (Peter Cheeseman CBE, former Artistic Director of The Victoria Theatre/New Vic Theatre, will introduce a special screening of this famous local production featuring many future stars of the silver screen
an local film event not to be missed! Christine King, Vice Chancellor of Staffordshire University, will welcome guests to this event at 5:00pm Sunday 12th October 2003
Time: 12:30pm 2:30pm
Location: Stafford Gatehouse Theatre (Mountbatten Suite)
Film Jazz Stafford Jazz Society present a programme of jazz music featured in film as a themed event in their regular Sunday lunch time live jazz programme. Time: 7:30pm
Location: Stafford Gatehouse Theatre
The Hours In 1949, Laura Brown, a pregnant housewife, though planning a party for her husband, cant stop reading Virginia Woolfs novel Mrs Dalloway. In the present, Clarissa Vaughan is throwing a party for her friend Richard, a famous author dying of AIDS. As the film progresses, we see that the fates of these two women are simultaneously linked to that of Virginia Woolf herself. Monday 13th October 2003
Time: 12:30pm 1:30pm
Location: Stafford Gatehouse Theatre
The Film Café Time: 7:30pm
Location: Stafford Gatehouse Theatre
Made in Staffordshire: Film Awards An invited audience of guests will attend an exciting evening celebration of Staffordshire film makers and their films. This networking event and award ceremony aims to raise the profile and reward local film achievements. The category winners of the The Fantastic 5 Minute Film Competition will be announced and rewarded during the evening. This short film competition has been running since August and aims to encourage and profile the work of Staffordshire film makers, and the range of local films being made in Staffordshire or featuring Staffordshire people or locations. Each winning film will be screened as part of the ceremony.
Tuesday 14th October 2003
Time: 12:30pm 1:30pm
Location: Stafford Gatehouse Theatre
The Film Café Time: 7:30pm
Location: Stafford Gatehouse Theatre
Once Upon a Time in the West Midlands In the mean streets of the West Midlands, shopkeeper Shirley (Henderson) is taken aback when her boyfriend (Ifans) proposes to her live on a daytime chat show. Watching her refusal is her ex-flame Jimmy (Carlyle), who left her and their daughter Marlene for a life of crime north of the border. When Jimmy arrives in town to win Shirley back, its time for Dek to put up or shut up. |
