The Isle of Man Film Festival 2014 came to a close yesterday after a hugely successful 5 days of varied events, which saw filmmakers and film enthusiasts alike cramming social network feeds raving about what they’d seen and heard.
Hosted predominantly by BBC & Observer Chief Film Critic Mark Kermode, who has family ties to the Island and is a Patron for Island of Culture 2014, the festival opened on Wednesday night with the first screening of clips from musician Davy Knowles’ highly anticipated documentary ‘Island Bound’.
Featuring interviews with Peter Frampton, Richard Thompson, Martin Simpson and a host of superb Manx traditional and celtic musicians, Davy took to the stage to be interviewed by Festival Programmer Christy DeHaven who is also co-Producer and Editor of the film, Festival Director Dave Armstrong directed the film. After screening clips and sharing anecdotes, Davy was joined on the Gaiety stage by some of the musicians who featured in the documentary including Ruth Keggin and treated the audience to his brilliant original music.
Each of the three venues hosting Thursday’s Future Shorts Fringe events were sold out in advance. The audience discussion and reaction to the fabulously varied mix of short films was passionate and entertaining, and the venues themselves enthused about the events afterwards:
“We looked around at old friends and new friends and thought that this was real evidence of community and partnership in action. We honestly had one of the most enjoyable evenings we've had in a while.” - Jackie Payne, Mother T’s Community Centre, Laxey.
Friday night was game of two halves - firstly a superb Q&A screening of Isle of Man Film / Pinewood Pictures feature ‘Belle’, with Mark Kermode interviewing BAFTA winning Director Amma Asante for almost an hour afterwards. The discussion was fascinating, funny and hugely inspiring. Kermode later described Asante as ‘a wonderfully eloquent filmmaker’ and Amma herself tweeted repeatedly about how much she enjoyed the experience, saying “I had a beautiful evening, IOM and IOMFF have my heart”. Kermode even convinced her to promise to sing the Isle of Man’s national anthem if the movie wins an Oscar!
After the screening, guests headed over to Noa Bakehouse for an exclusive late night VIP party hosted by Mark’s rockabilly skiffle band The Dodge Brothers, where Amma herself was spotted dancing amongst the enthusiastic crowd.
Saturday was one of the highlights of the festival; firstly, Mark Kermode took to the Gaiety Theatre stage for his “Audience With Mark Kermode” event. He proceeded to entertain the crowd thoroughly for almost an hour, with hilarious anecdotes collected through the years and an engaging audience Q&A.
Later he was joined onstage by the Dodge Brothers and Neil Brand who performed a stellar soundtrack to the wonderful 1928 silent movie ‘Beggars of Life’, keeping the audience entranced and enthralled. Long time Gaiety Theatre stage manager Seamus Shea remarked that it was ‘one of the most enjoyable nights I’ve ever had at this theatre’. Later Mark tweeted “It's been a lifelong ambition to play the Gaiety, and last night was a dream come true.”
Sunday saw the screening of the 12 Shortlisted films from the 2014 International Competition, to a packed house at the beautiful Broadway Cinema, during which audience members took part in the Audience Vote award by selecting their favourite film. That afternoon, the Red Carpet Awards event took place and the following superb films were announced as category winners:
Best Documentary Short: North (Temujin Doran)
Best Short Drama: Cancer Hair (Gail Hackston)
Best Comedy Short: Modern Man (Sebastian Solberg)
Island Life Award: Postcard from 2013 (Brook Wassall)
Audience Vote Award: The Boy with a Camera For A Face (Spencer Brown)
Special Commendation: Adventures of a Cardboard Box (Temujin Doran)
Best of the Fest: Cancer Hair
With such a superb international reaction to the festival, there is no doubt that IOMFF is going from strength to strength - highlighted by a comment by Mark Kermode in interview after the event: “It's a matter of making the Island feel that it is part of the global filmmaking community, for people to think of it as a destination to come and talk about films, show films and meet other filmmakers"
Organisers thanked Mr Kermode for his ongoing support and enthusiasm, along with all of their sponsors - in particular Island of Culture and the Isle of Man Arts Council - and their dedicated army of volunteers, without whom the festival simply would not have happened.
Photo - Amma Asante & Mark Kermode at Q&A session. Courtesy of Steve Babb Photography.
