We are More – act for culture in Europe is a Europe-wide campaign for the arts and culture. It was launched in October 2010 and will run until 2013, when the EU decides about its next multiannual budget.

The we are more campaign promotes culture, heritage and the arts, together with education, social cohesion and environmental sustainability, as key areas in which the EU has to make more bold investments if it wants to reach its growth objectives and Europe to remain a thriving democracy in the future.

The force behind the we are more campaign is Culture Action Europe, a coalition of more than 100 organisations and many artists across Europe, in strategic partnership with the European Cultural Foundation. It is an open source advocacy tool that encourages arts and cultural organisations across Europe to get involved and stand up for increased support to arts and culture in the policies and programmes of the European Union.

The campaign has two demands; firstly, a reinforced Culture Programme that is more daring and experimental than the current one. Secondly, an increased and more explicit support to culture, heritage and the arts in the EU Regional Development Funds dedicated to cohesion and local and regional development. More information about the campaign demands can be found here.

Good afternoon (morning or good night depending on when you read this)! For once this blog post has one subject, and one subject only; IDFA 2011!

We’re jetting two talented young filmmakers, Mawaan Rizwan and Alex Nevill off to take part in the IDFA academy, where they’ll get the chance to take part in workshops and discussions about film and in particular documentary!

Mawaan is a presenter for T4′s Battlefront, a campaigns TV show that provides young people with a platform to run a campaign about issues they feel strongly about. We chose Mawaan for several reasons, primarily because we find his online videos HILARIOUS. His work with Battlefront shows how committed he is to making a difference to the world around him and as a filmmaker he’s picked up several awards, including the Film London Best of Borough Audience Award for his film Jimmy Will Play, which is also being screened at our very own London Film Festival! Definitely a good choice we felt.

Our second participant is Alex Nevill. Alex has worked on quite a few short films and 3 feature films, both privately and professionally. We first came across Alex when he submitted his film King Cone to our very own BFI Future Film Festival in 2010, where it won the Best Documentary award. His CV is peppered with festival screenings and film awards, and his latest documentary ‘Launderette’ may even be screened at IDFA 2011! His cinematography is inspired, and he’s really impressed us with his last few films have blown us away, so we felt he would be the perfect candidate for the IDFA academy.

That’s pretty much it for this update, aside from saying we’re incredibly excited to be heading to Amsterdam in under a month, and we hope to see you there! Check out more information about the IDFA 2011 Participants and the Full IDFA 2011 programme!

Good afternoon!

We’ve (once again) got a lot going on at BFI Future Film at the moment, so I’m here to give a little update to all of you wonderful readers.

First and foremost, our Step2TV bursary winners have started filming, and we’re looking forwards to seeing the work they produce. Hopefully it’ll be as good as some of the previous work the bursary scheme’s have produced. On the note of bursary schemes, keep an eye on that link, as we’ll soon be uploading our first documentary bursary films, including the hilariously brilliant Baroque’n’Roll.

Submissions are nearly closed for our 5th Future Film Festival, so if you’ve got a film to submit, get a wiggle on! Entries will not be accepted after the 31st October! The programme is slowly being assembled for the festival itself on the 11th & 12th February 2012, so put some crosses next to the dates in your diary – you won’t want to be anywhere else!

What else is new in Future Film land? We’ve got the We The Peoples Film Festival – Young Filmmakers for Development Day coming up on the 19th November (I know, I know, it’s at the same time as IDFA, but if you can’t afford the flights to Amsterdam, swing by the BFI instead!) The programme for that is looking impressive, with two new feature films and many youth-made shorts being screened. We checked out one of the features at this year’s London Film Festival and it was brilliant, beautiful and heartwarming, so if you can do, definitely come along!

Don’t forget we’re also currently running a Twitter competition, in which 12 lucky finalists get a chance to pitch to a panel of experts at Encounters’ Fresh Flix festival in November. The final winner, chosen by the panellists, will then get an all-expenses paid trip to a workshop with one of our partner Hubs in Europe! Exciting! Check out more information here.

‘Is that everything?’ I hear you ask, and I reply ‘NO!’ We’ve got more.

There’s two girls doing work experience with us at the moment, and they’ve been watching LFF Press Screenings and writing reviews on them, which we’ve in turn been posting online to our Future Film Facebook page! So head on over there to check them out. They’ve seen some fantastic films, from Coriolanus to Friend Request Pending.

Our Four Lions screening with the Chris Morris Q&A was fantastic, thank you for asking, and highlights will soon be posted on our Facebook. We’ve also got big things in the pipeline with IdeasTap, so keep an eye out, and we’ll update you as we’re allowed.

We’re also heading to the 2011 London Screenwriters Festival this weekend which we’re all rather excited about! The programme looks jam-packed with good stuff so we’ll be updating you with what we learnt over the weekend in a couple of weeks.

That’s pretty much all for now, so I’d like to say So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersen, Goodnight. Adieu, Adiue, to you and you and you.

On Sunday 20 November (10.30 am – 12.00 am / Escape Theatre, Rembrandtplein) Doc Next and IDFA organize a special Industry panel. In the panel we will tackle the question:

“Is the documentary industry over the hill?”
Against the backdrop of an aging television audience there is a new generation of media consumers, who in many cases are also makers. Should the documentary industry try to adapt to these “prosumers” and how should it go about doing so?

We invite you to be our guest! Attendance is free but reservation is required.

Register HERE now

 

Moderator: Cath le Couteur

A graduate of the National Film and Television School in England, Cath has won numerous awards on the film festival circuit for her short films and is developing three features. She is also the co-founder of the social entrepreneurship organisation Shooting People (shootingpeople.org) the online social network dedicated to the support and promotion of independent filmmaking. 

Special guests:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ON STAGE

Jeremy Boxer (USA)
Creative Director, Film + Video at Vimeo, co-director at Vimeo Festival
Also, director and founder of Boxer, a consultancy which connects talent with new career opportunities for them.

Stan van Engelen (NL)
Editor in chief of Metropolis TV / VPRO
Metropolis is a globally produced website and TV show initiated by the Dutch public service broadcaster VPRO and the NGO Hivos. Metropolis has its own radically different approach in reporting on global issues: all of their stories are produced by local filmmakers who form a network of over 60 video journalists from six continents. They each explore their local surroundings and capture stories that go beyond the increasingly dominant culture of sound bites and headlines that currently defines global news media. “Great symbioses of 21st century technology and ‘old school’ documentary storytelling.”

Alexandre Brachet (FR)
E-producer and CEO of Upian
Upian is one of the world’s major players in web documentary making and at the intersection of documentary cinema and digital storytelling. In recent years, Upian has produced or co-produced some of the most highly regarded web documentaries, including La cité des mortes, Thanatorama and Gaza Sderot, the project with which Brachet put the interactive documentary on the map. In the spring of 2010, Upian presented Prison Valley, a new kind of interactive road movie: a journey into the American prison industry, directed by Philippe Brault and David Dufresne and co-produced by French TV channel Arte. Alongside its production activities, Upian is also a successful web agency, creating websites for brands and media. In June 2008, Upian opened a contemporary art gallery next door to its offices.

FRONT ROW

Mawaan Rizwan (UK)
Online presenter/producer / presenter at Battlefront
Self-made YouTube sensation Mawaan Rizwan (20) recently graduated from the industry-funded film training initiative Second Light, where he developed his skills in screenwriting and directing. “I write, perform and edit my own online comedy show, which has 47,063 online subscribers and over 10.5 million views on YouTube. My ambition is to look for unique stories and characters. I want to find more quirky stories covering themes such as immigration, cultural differences and disoriented families. I want to travel the globe, meet people, learn and creatively engage with different lifestyles and cultures while finding humour in everyday life.”

Willemijn Maas (NL)
CEO AVRO
AVRO (Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep or “General Association of Radio Broadcasting”) is a Dutch public broadcasting association operating within the framework of the the Netherlands Public Broadcasting, the name used in the Netherlands to refer to the country’s public-service broadcasting system as a whole; it is used, for instance, as the name of the joint portal coordinated by the NPO on behalf of all the broadcasting associations.
Willemijn is known for het efforts to involve makers into programming the channel. She is also working on reviving the old Film Museum in Amsterdam, changing it into a lively place where young makers can develop their ideas into projects.

Mark Reid (UK)
Head of Education at the British Film Institute
BFI Education and Learning exists to reach out to audiences new to specialist, independent, archive and art film and other forms of moving image media throughout the UK.
The Education and Learning team at the BFI aims to:

• Educate audiences about the historical, formal and geographical diversity of the moving image, while developing their critical and creative skills, and, where appropriate, training educators who work with audiences.
• Facilitate engagement with BFI programmes for our audiences – from the core to the marginal – through our cinemas, Mediatheque, Gallery, and online.
• Advocate for the moving image in education, and for education in film, through public debate, lobbying and campaigning, where possible backed by evidence from research which we either conduct, gather, or disseminate.
• Innovate by developing, trialling, and evaluating new ways of engaging audiences in education about film.
• Collaborate where possible with partners locally and nationally, in film, culture and education.

Above all we value experiences with film that are transformative: that is, that change people, ideas, and organisational approaches and practices.

Gokce Su Yogurtcuoglu (Turkey)
Founder/producer/director at MODE Istanbul (one of Doc Next Networks hub organizations) and producer/Director at Resfest Turkey.
MODE ISTANBUL is a motion pictures and digital arts initiative which organises cultural, social and educational activities such as film screenings, exhibitions, video workshops and seminars. By supporting artists of different ages and backgrounds and contributing to various creative productions, MODE ISTANBUL inspires cultural dialogues that go beyond borders and generations, and encourages further film, video and animation productions through strengthening the networks between audience and filmmakers.

Paulina Capala (Poland)
Directing Manager at Association of the Creative Initiatives “ę”
Since 2002, the Association of the Creative Initiatives ‘ę’ has been conducting social projects and workshops across Poland that seek to educate and inspire young people to be creative in artistic activities such as film, photography and theatre. The Association of the Creative Initiatives ‘ę’ supports new media makers, cultural animators, non-governmental organisations, teachers and artists in discovering passions, facing new challenges and realising ideas in the cultural sphere.

Ruben Diaz Lopez (Spain)
Co-founder en co-director of ZEMOS98
ZEMOS98 is a creative cultural management team that focuses on new narrative forms such as internet, digital video, internet radio and weblogs, and produces cultural events dealing with communication, education and digital culture issues. ZEMOS98 has been responsible for research and training projects in various formats such as seminars, workshops, exhibitions, conferences, courses, debates, projections and audio-visual concerts.

Matthew Cuzner (UK)
Project Manager at British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) promotes the understanding and appreciation of film and television heritage and culture. The BFI maintains the world’s richest and most significant collection of film and television, and is the UK’s leading body for film. The BFI backs a flourishing film environment in which innovation, opportunity and creativity thrive through connecting audiences with the widest choice of cinema, investing in creative, distinctive and entertaining work, promoting British talent to the world and supporting the next generation of filmmakers and audiences.

‘SECOND’ ROW

10 young do-it-yourself media makers 

For the 2nd year, Doc Next Network presents short documentaries of a next generation of makers at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). These do-it-yourself media makers are ready to represent Europe with fresh ideas, new forms of documentary and unexpected local heroes.

Doc Next films are personal reflections that portray another Europe. What crisis means to young Greeks, late nightlife in a London launderette, a Turkish girl immigration story and the neighbour who knows everything about everyone in Warsaw… How do they deal with daily life? Which images of Europe do they reveal?

Read all about Doc Next at IDFA here!

Hello again! We’ve had another busy couple of weeks (as if we ever don’t here at the BFI!), and we’ve got a few small and a couple of massive updates for you!

Since the last post we’ve chosen our Step2TV bursary winners and they spent a weekend with the Step2TV Mole getting training and advice on filmmaking. Check out the video of how they found it here. We’re currently developing a new bursary scheme that will see 6 talented winners travel to one of our EU partners for a filmmaking workshop, so watch this space!

We’ve had a series of Ken Loach masterclasses in a range of areas, from producing to acting and casting, cinematography to sound and editing. Barry Ackroyd gave some words of wisdom that really stuck with me: ‘Find your niche, get your signature, take everything you can and make it your own’.

So, what’s new that we’ve got lined up for you? Well… *Drumroll please* Submissions for the BFI Future Film Festival 2012 are now open! Hopefully this excites you as much as it excites us! Follow this link for more information on how to submit your film before October 31st!

We also have a screening of Four Lions on the 19th of October, accompanied by a Q&A with writer/director Chris Morris which should be good!

As always, for more information about our events and screenings head over to the BFI Future Film website.