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Cornwall Media Focus

Celtic Film Festival review

Bursary recipients Shauna Osborne-Dowle and Paul Farmer report on Skye.

Shaune Osborne Dowle writes:

I was very excited when my short Cornish Language film ‘ANKOR’ was selected, short listed and then screened in the 2007 Celtic Media Festival. Even more delighted when I found out that Cornwall Film had allocated a bursary, to cover the travel expenses for me. Enabling me to be present at the awards ceremony. This would otherwise have been impossible for me to attend, as this year the Celtic Media festival was to be held in Skye. I was up for three categories of award; Short Drama, First time director and Spirit of the festival. I must admit I was hopeful of getting at least one!

Skye; What a fantastic location for the event. When I got there I soon realised that many of the issues faced by Cornish Film-makers where equally evident, if not more so in Skye! The Celtic Media Festival is special in this respect; it takes the Industry out to the extremities, rather than centralising it to London or other urban centres (as so often is the case). It rotates its location, each year selecting a different Celtic Nation to host the event. By doing so it brings its own energy and economy into the local area.

It was a delight to hear all forms of Gaelic language spoken freely, but not exclusively, as my own little understanding of the Cornish language would not have stood me in good steed. Had it not been for the clear English translations!

I was saddened however, by the allocation of some awards, which seemed to have been given to films, which had little or no link with either Celtic culture or a Celtic language. Why celebrate the difference, and then award the same old, same old? If the Celtic Media Festival is not the place for ‘Celtic film’ then there is surely no place left for it! Of course it is endlessly difficult to define, where ‘Celtic’ begins and ends, and so I’m not seeking the perfect definition of that. Rather I am seeking to clarify my own frustrations in an effort to rectify a potential point of future irritation. By finding some practical solutions...

I’m making a point of it because I feel strongly on this subject, and if I don’t do it, then who will? On a smaller scale, I noticed a similar oversight at the Cornwall film festival last year. It appears there is a fine line between those filmmakers who live and work in a remote and beautiful location, with all the difficulty’s that this entails (lack of funding etc) – And those who come into the region perhaps to use a spectacular location, or perhaps to study.

I’m not suggesting any lesser standard of work; many are highly skilled and very talented. I am suggesting that this is perhaps a different category of work! For example it could be presented as; ‘Celtic Locations’. The introduction of ‘student’ awards has already proved beneficial for The Celtic Media Festival. As far as I’m concerned, its about making sure, the few opportunities that are available locally, are not taken away from the people who live and work in the regions by those coming in.

The highlight of the event, for me was the ‘World Premiere’ screening of a beautiful Gaelic language feature length film; ‘SEACHD’. Followed by an interview with the Producer and cast. Hooray! Celtic to the core, and world class to boot:

It cleverly reflects the conflicts, faced by the young people of rural communities. The lead character introduced to us as a young island boy, eventually leaves Skye for the city, the job and the company car. Returning only when his grandfather is very ill. He then re-discovers the magic bestowed upon him by his grandfather in the memory of the Gaelic stories told to him in his childhood.

It was a perfect case of ‘You can take the boy out of Skye, but you can’t take the Skye out of the boy!’ I was totally uplifted by this one particular experience, and to be watching the stunning landscape of Skye on film while sitting on the island itself was pure magic for me. It was an experience I shall never forget! If this one doesn’t get an Oscar, then I know for sure the film industry is irreparably corrupt!

When I left for Skye, I had a preconception that I would be able to make contacts with the media community at large and perhaps in doing so, I might create some job opportunities for myself.

When I got there I realised this was less of a networking event and more of an invaluable over-view into the most exciting current developments across a wide range of media; From the Internet, to Gaelic language radio broadcast.

So although I’d expected to come back to Cornwall with connections firmly established outside the county. What I actually found was that the best business connections I made where amongst the other Cornish delegates, and a fine bunch they where! It’s just a pity that this year, no one from Cornwall bought home a Torc, to help put Cornwall back on the Celtic map!

Paul Farmer writes:

I first attended the Celtic Film and Televisions Festival (as it was then) in 1996 in Bangor, Cymru. In those days the festival was almost the sole potential outlet for Cornish film work. The few edit suites available in Kernow (mainly those at Cornwall Media Resource and 3SSS Films in Penzance) would be hot-seated for the weeks before the November deadline.

The Celtic was of immense importance to us – no one else was very interested in what Cornish film makers got up to. The ‘Regional’ English television stations seldom bothered with us, and video projectors were very expensive and few and far between, so there was little in the way of organized Cornish showings. Cornish film makers and educationalists attending the festival in Bangor described themselves as delegates and we even wore uniform T-shirts. Our primary duty at the festival was to out-party everyone else and make sure Kernow was not forgotten, the singe weapon in our armoury being our expertise in the bar and the buffet.

In the decade since then the importance of the festival to Cornish film makers has reduced. By the turn of the century, the existence of the CIA (interpretations of the acronym vary but for me it stood for ‘Cornwall Independent film-makers’ Association’) and Cornwall Media Resource’s showings programme had built large audiences here for Cornish films in Kernow.

Unfortunately that factor is now gone, leaving us once more with a single significant showing opportunity. But the Celtic’s former role here has been taken by the Cornwall Film Festival.

SEEN IN SKYE

Skye is a long long way from Kernow – the best part of a thousand miles, at least the way we went. What a place though – fifty miles long with a population of less than ten thousand. There are mountains everywhere. Skye was a serious distraction!

The festival seems smaller nowadays. An important change for the worse is that there is now no comprehensive programme of showings. Alongside the schedule of discussions and presentations there was formally a parallel schedule in which all the entries could be seen projected, often in 35mm format. This gave a sense of depth and serendipity to the festival that it now lacks. There is now only the ‘elective’ screening (this seems to be Goidelic Celtic for “watching a DVD”) for those keen to see the actual work undertaken in Celtic nations, rather than merely listen to people talking about it. The facilities for this were comfortable and well run, but were too often oversubscribed. I go really to see the work and this was frustrating.

I ‘elected’ to see The Flying Scotsman, a film directed by Skye native Douglas Mackinnon that seems destined to be huge. Here’s the blurb (only the commas have been changed to protect the discerning, though I’m afraid the last sentence still ends with a preposition, and does not actually make sense. What an art form. Still):

“The true story of Graeme Obree, the Champion cyclist who built his bicycle from old bits of washing machines, who won his championship only to have his title stripped from him and his mental health problems which he has suffered since.”

The acting, by Jonny Lee Miller, Laura Fraser, Billy Boyd (the hobbit who isn’t in Lost) and Brian Cox, is excellent, and it’s a great tale, but the script seemed formulaic, the victim of one too many meetings or how-to-do-Hollywood workshops.

Popeth Yn Gymreig (‘Everything in Welsh’) is a very simple documentary series from Wales in which the poet Ifor ap Glyn goes to various English-speaking parts of Cymru and insists on speaking nothing but Welsh to see what will happen. He ends up organising an instant Eisteddfod, which is delightful. This is a kind of film we could easily make in Cornwall if we could somehow reconnect Cornish film and the cultural movement in a meaningful way. I reckon it had a budget of about tuppence, yet was great despite this.

In the gala presentations I saw the Skye story-telling film Seachd but was less keen on it than Shauna. I thought it suffered from having five writers and directors working on discrete sections and it never came together as a whole for me, though the project is admirable. I think we could actually do this sort of thing better in Kernow, if we were allowed to.

There was True North, superbly acted by Peter Mullan, Martin Compston, Gary Lewis et al, and astoundingly shot by writer/ director Steve Hudson and DOP Peter Robertson. The story starts grim and grows steadily bleaker and bleaker until I thought I had discovered the ultimate example of the genre known as Celtic Miserabilism – but then I came home and saw Mullan’s film Orphans, which contains a moment so perfectly miserable that I actually laughed out loud.

I also took the opportunity to see The Last King of Scotland in a fantastic mobile cinema parked up in Portree’s town square for the duration of the festival. Usually it is transported round the Highlands and Islands on the back of an artic, opening out to form a superbly proportioned film theatre. You would really never know etc. etc. I liked the film – once again the strength is in the acting. But again I found it formulaic, with it’s bolt-on thriller ending – Hannah Arendt’s quote about the “fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil” ring truer than the end of this film.

At the closing Gala dinner I am delighted to note that the Kernow posse kept up the noble traditions of past Cornish delegations. I will not go into details in case they are actionable, but Amanda, Vicki, Jack, Shauna, Debbie, Colin, Pippa and George (and I’m sure ‘Paul I’ and Mick, our colleagues across the dance floor, and the students from Tremough) were a worthy representative team of which even our most extreme brethren at home in Kernow would have been proud. I will say no more.

LESSONS OF THE FESTIVAL

I enjoyed myself on Skye and I’m grateful to Cornwall Film for making it possible for me to go to the festival outside Cornwall again. But I must be honest: the most noticeable aspect of the festival to me was how peripheral Cornwall now is to the whole business. As far as I could make out from the programme, none of the presentations even took note of our existence, and they certainly did not address the issues that confront us. The gala nature of the festival means that there is an element of self-congratulation on the part of the other Celtic nations, with their growing numbers of broadcasters and opportunities and their funded film industries, that is of no relevance to us whatsoever and so becomes wearying and a wind-up.

We are a Celtic nation too, yet we have no broadcasters. The average budget for a feature film in Kernow is about fifteen grand – the budget of the worthy Skye-made Seachd, for example, shot on HD and with all its community film aspects, supported as a means of giving a voice to a place with a population less than one fiftieth of our own, was seven hundred thousand pounds. Then there is the ongoing problem of what we do with our films once we have them, other than show them once at the Cornwall Film Festival. The Objective One money is gone and things will not get better here now but worse.

It is time the Celtic Media Festival and its other member nations came to terms with the fact that Kernow is a full member with as much right to have its concerns addressed as Scotland, Wales and Ireland. It is no good to us that they come here periodically and patronise us and pretend our immense troubles do not exist, or are the same as their own. Indeed, I have long argued that having admitted us they have a duty to help in the development of the industry here. Otherwise they should come clean and chuck us out rather than crossing their eyes and pretending they do not see us.