Cinema really is for all, and there are people across the country making it so!
GWL is in an exciting development stage with various renovations planned. One of these is a new events space that will have a screening area. We have often put on films in partnership with other groups and organisations and want to continue to develop this further and really engage our audiences in a wider programme of film. Having worked with groups such as Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival or GFT’s Pop Up Programmers in the past we are no strangers to collaboration and working in partnership. So when I saw that the theme for the Cinema for All conference was Working Together I felt that this could be the perfect opportunity to learn from others experiences, make some good contacts and have a trip to a great film venue, the Showroom Workstation in Sheffield.
Having attended Film Hub Scotland events in the past and working with them on our #BFISciFi programme in partnership with Glasgow Film Theatre I already knew what a supportive organisation they were so applied for a bursary to attend the event and was successful.
The conference was 2 days of workshops, film screenings and also included the Film Society of the Year Awards. Each workshop was scheduled at the same time as a film, which presented me with a bit of a dilemma – as I love film and would have quite happily watched all that were being shown, but the workshops were all around areas that I wanted to hear more about – so I that’s where I went, starting with a session on Programming.
Here I heard from Carmen Slijpen of Lewes Junior Film Club, Joan Parsons of Showroom and Ryan Finnegan of Five and Dime. All the speakers were really interesting and I was extremely taken with Joan Parsons, her fearless approach to programming and advice on how to gain the trust of your audiences before challenging them with different titles was really useful, her experience and confidence was clear so it was great to hear from someone so skilled in the field.
Other sessions I took part in over the two days were Marketing and Publicity and Building a Network. I felt that all the speakers were engaging in different ways and having so many different perspectives from people with different experiences was really inspiring and helped me reflect on a lot of the work that we have done and are planning. I especially felt that elements that Woody from Minicine was talking about in the Building a Network session were really relevant to us, working collaboratively with artists, putting on films that have inspired the people you are working with giving new insight into writers or artists and thinking creatively when putting on film events linked with other things like book readings or that favourite – themed food events.
I did go along to see some films too. First, Crows, a Polish film about a young girl and how her relationship with her mother and translates into her relationship with a young child who she takes away for the day. A good choice of film to watch as it was a woman writer and director, and tackles the mother daughter relationship, albeit in a rather dark and bleak way. Then on day 2 while the Cinema for All AGM was taking place I went along to watch some short films, a great mix of genres and titles that really showcased short film from different eras.
Throughout the weekend it was great to see what other groups are doing, what works and what doesn’t and it instilled a feeling of confidence in me, that we are doing a lot of things right at Library and that there is scope for so much more. To be brave, work collaboratively and let our programming inspire our audiences.
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