Shortly after closing the doors on this year’s Isle of Man Arts Development Summer Film School, the Manx film making scheme now ‘pulls focus’ to their inaugural 3-day Film Festival.
Although MannIN Shorts co-founders Dave Armstrong, Christy DeHaven and Phil Gates have been involved with the Arts Council’s festivals before, they have previously only hosted the opening nights of the event. In 2010 they held a launch event for the scheme itself, when they premiered their own short film ‘Ghostgirl’ and had screenings and discussions from an invited panel of guests that included Oscar shortlisted Chris Jones (author of Guerilla Filmmakers Handbook) and Hamish Morrow from Future Shorts (the world’s largest short film distribution network).
Then in 2011 they showcased material by various Isle of Man filmmakers, including free runner Will Sutton and photographer/filmmaker Daniyel Lowden, alongside a reel of internationally acclaimed short films and various clips and behind the scenes videos from their own fledgling filmmakers. 2012 is a major step up!
“When we heard there wasn’t going to be a film festival this year, we decided to put a proposal in to the Arts Council to run something through MannIN Shorts.” said Dave “One of the intentions of the scheme was always to culminate the year’s PokerStars sponsored workshops, and the productions themselves with some kind of festival event and with the support of the Arts Council, this is the perfect opportunity for us to develop this idea. Since then, it’s been a bit of a race against time to actually pull the whole thing together! We’re also awaiting final details regarding our corporate partners, without whose generous support it wouldn’t be possible”
They have invited Isle of Man Film to host the opening night. Award-winning film and TV producer Martin Pope is to be the special industry guest for a screening of “The Heart of Me”, which was filmed between London and the Isle of Man in 2001. A brooding period drama starring Paul Bettany, Helena Bonham-Carter and Olivia Williams, the film screening will be followed by a question and answer session with the visiting producer. As well as discussing “The Heart of Me”, Martin will be giving advice to audience filmmakers about producing films in general and gaining vital career experience in the UK film industry.
Martin has unparalleled expertise in utilising the Isle of Man as a film location and production base. From humble beginnings as a runner at the BBC Martin is now a highly experienced film craftsman with a diverse range of award-winning films. His projects range from the Daniel Craig-narrated nature documentary “One Life” and the TV adaptation of children’s favourite “The Gruffalo” to the Oscar nominated “Chico & Rita”, which trained and employed ten animators in the Isle of Man.
The Heart of Me is now in its tenth anniversary and is widely regarded as a modern classic. Michael O'Sullivan of the Washington Post calls the film “..a little, heartbreaking gem”. Hilary Dugdale, manager of Isle of Man Film said:
“I am delighted that Martin is able to join us at this year’s festival and share some of his experience and advice to aspiring filmmakers in the Isle of Man.”
“Martin’s skill as a producer is second-to-none and it was a hard choice as to which of his films to revisit as this year’s festival. “The Heart of Me” is a great study in what can be achieved on the Island in terms of exterior locations, set-build and quality production design.”
Saturday brings ‘An Evening With the Indies’. Christy explains “We wanted to inspire the local filmmaking community by inviting some of our writer, actor and Director friends from further afield to return to the Island and screen and introduce some of the films they’ve been working on, while also taking part in a Q&A afterwards so the audience can pick their brains. Long time MannIN Shorts supporter Danny Lacey is returning to screen two of the shorts he has made since he last visited the Island - “Host” starring Raffaello Degruttola (Saving Private Ryan, Quantum of Solace) and “Love Like Hers”, which stars Vince Regan among others (from “300”). Dave was actually camera operator on it so between them, they have some great stories about the whole experience.”
“Host” star Raff will also be at the festival, his first time on the Isle of Man. “Raff is a Writer, Director and Producer as well as an actor.” said Christy “He will be screening exclusive clips of his much talked about feature ‘FLIM - The Making Of’. It’s a brilliant Spinal Tap-style mockumentary which any filmmaker will relate to, and find very funny! Raff shot it while he was on acting jobs around the world and he managed to convince quite a few of his actor friends to take part, so it features some famous faces in some great roles”
Also showing on Saturday evening will be Manx filmmaker Danny Lumb’s short film ‘Extranjero’, which won the grand prize at the inaugural Sundance London festival this year. Danny had hoped to attend the Isle of Man Festival, but has just heard that his film has been selected for LA Shorts so he will be in Hollywood! He will, however, feature in a special film with messages from Manx filmmakers working abroad - like former Manx MultiMedia Centre student Andrew Harmer who works as a freelance Producer for international news channels and is in pre-production on his first feature film, Andy Blackburn who was shortlisted for the BBC3 YoungFilmmaker award at just 19 and who’s showreel includes instantly recognisable TV adverts for the likes of Vodafone, Special K and the British Heart Foundation, and Fabien Riggall, who is arguably one of the most influential people in British Film and further afield at the moment, having founded Future Shorts (the world’s largest short film distribution network) and more recently, the phenomena that is Secret Cinema.
The headline guest for Saturday night is Phil Hawkins, a multi-award winning British Director and Writer who has been feted by Steven Spielberg as “one of the best new and upcoming young Directors”. Phil’s career spans from commercials to music videos to feature film. “Phil is the perfect guy to round off our Saturday night” said Dave. “His work is so inspiring - visually stunning, extremely clever and always entertaining”. Perhaps Phil’s biggest achievement to date was to shoot a full length feature film - “Being Sold” - in just two days. Starring Lee Boardman - who will also be present on the night - the movie went on to win Best Film and Best Actor at the London Independent Film Awards in 2011. Phil will introduce clips from ‘Being Sold’, and will also be screening his new short film “SPARK”.
In addition to the screening events, there will be two workshops over the course of the weekend - Scriptwriting with Anne Marie O’Connor on Saturday, and Acting & Directing with Lee Boardman and Lesley Manning on Sunday. And Saturday afternoon is also the culmination of the Arts Council’s “Young Filmmaker of Mann” competition - telephone 694598 for details.
The final night of the festival is entirely ‘homegrown’. MannIN Shorts film “I Do” (written by Zoe Guilford and Directed by Sonya Quayle) will get it’s public premiere, as will “Hide & Seek” (written by Ady Hall, Directed by Laura Jones). The latter was the first film made as part of the scheme, back in August last year, while “I Do” was filmed in May. There will also be a scene from “Closet”, written by John Craine, and hopes to show something from “Solace in Wicca” written by Nat Russell-Raby and Andy North, if ready. “Alongside these, we’ll be showing our ‘Scene Stealer Challenge’ exercises to give an idea of what our workshops are all about. They are iconic scenes from The Graduate and The Shining and look absolutely fantastic, we can’t believe what our teams pulled off, it’s hard to tell the original from the recreations!”
Dave added “We want this to be the start of something much bigger on the Isle of Man. Next year, we’re looking to introduce the competition side to the event, much like other film festivals around the world. We’re proud of our indigenous filmmaking talent and want to put the Island on the map by making this one of THE places to include on the festival trail!” Tickets for each festival event are just ?5, with a reduction to ?12 for all three days. They are available from the Villa Marina Box Office.
