Stoke Your Fires | Nouse

Reflection dir. Planktoon and Yoshimichi Tamura (France), SYF Best International Animation 2013

Stoke Your Fires Film Festival is a six-years-young, five day visual arts marathon held in the city of Stoke-on-Trent. Last March, I gave my initial response on Nouse Film?s twitter feed: ?Stoke pulls off a film festival both local and international in flavour.? Festival co-organiser Gillian Cale likewise stated that ?we get entries from all over the world,? equally sure to mention the ?Made in Staffordshire? film award which yearly handpicks one project with local roots. Aside from the core film competition, SYF presents a variety of media-related activities which often have free entry, but seem mostly geared towards old and new filmmaking talent.

Expert speakers, indie film screenings and the 48-hour shorts challenge should help raise the cultural profile of a city more commonly known for its bygone ceramics industry (abode of Wedgwood and Minton, and the festival?s namesake). According to Gillian it all began as a celebration of animated-film, but the festival experienced a planned growth-spurt when three years in it began actively responding to the local economy. ?We changed the format, heading towards professional development and supporting the film and digital sector within the city, making [SYF] more of an industry.?

Turbulence dir. Michael B. Clifford closed SYF this year

SYF has been able to work towards its commercial goals thanks to Stoke-on-Trent City Council and the EU?s Regional Development Fund, and by associating with the right names. ?This year we had our first marketplace event, run in conjunction with The Producer?s Forum which is a Birmingham-based company [?] we had about fifty filmmakers and ten financiers ? feedback was really positive.? This five hour project-pitching bonanza, organized by a professional network with a special interest in West Midlands filmmakers, is essentially a competition fought between producers, directors and writers for the survival of big ideas. Gillian also mentioned that the British Film Institute was present. Hopefully, SYF will come to host a reliable platform for small-scale investment in the visual arts.

Young and aspiring talent, as well as those with no interest in filmmaking, are also catered for. Building on ?a good relationship with Staffordshire University,? a student symposium organized by the School of Film began the festival with debates on education and film theory. Later on there was a screening of student films, more generally found throughout the festival, selected by Staffs Uni Media Production Awards who took over the cinema in the Potteries Museum for a couple of hours. ?It?s like a ?best of? for their past five years,? Gillian explained.

?? We captured people?s imagination? (Gillian Cale)

As I was told more about the festival?s chosen setting, I thought back to the last Aesthetica Short Film Festival and their careful selection of medieval venues in the hosting city of York. Stoke-on-Trent?s most distinctive architecture is that of the old pottery kilns, which tragically are being torn down one by one. I was however pleasantly surprised at what Gillian next revealed to be the location of the festival?s ?Hush Hush Film? event, even if it wasn?t a disused kiln.

Laura Linney and Tom Wilkinson in horror come courtroom drama, The Excorcism of Emily Rose

A timeworn courtroom in the depths of Hanley Town Hall was for one strange night invaded by live actors dressed as lawyers, a projector screen showing The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), and one very excited group of filmgoers. Gillian insisted I google search an organization named Secret Cinema, to understand the inspiration behind the idea, and which has been selling tickets for screenings of undisclosed films at mystery locations (typically somewhere in London) since 2007. Having posted teaser photographs on their Facebook page to build suspense in the run up to the event, Stoke Your Fires had no intention of informing ticket buyers where the unnamed film was going to be shown until the very last moment, when the revelation rather thrillingly spoke for itself. ?That we didn?t tell anyone where they were going or what was happening meant we captured people?s imagination.? Exploring the old cells beneath the court also formed part of the evening?s entertainment.

The refurbished Mitchell Arts Centre, named after the local hero who designed the Spitfire, also offered an airy setting for many events. Accomplished visitors gave master classes there, covering the kind of pitching, fundraising, directing and distribution that carries successful film projects. On the final night, after attending a workshop on micro-budget film production delivered by BAFTA-winning director Micheal B. Clifford, I headed down to the auditorium to watch his first feature-length film Turbulence, a lively drama about a fledgling rock band.

Stoke Your Fires offers something to film crowds whether they be local or international, casual or professional, on the city?s behalf. When asked about next year?s festival, Gillian seemed to say that the future of a small organised event is never secure, before confirming that marketplace networking and Secret Cinema style meetings will almost certainly return with improvements, ?but these are things we will sit and down and think about over the next two months ? its always changing and developing.?

Source: http://www.nouse.co.uk/2013/04/08/stoke-your-fires/

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