Glasgow Film Festival 2010

The sixth Glasgow Film Festival launches on 18 February with a special gala screening of ‘Micmacs’, the new movie by Amelie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Big name stars who will appear on screen include Nicolas Cage in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Robert De Niro in Everybody’s Fine and Pierce Brosnan in The Greatest. The country focus will feature movies from Japan, including a tribute to Akira Kurosawa, whose centenary is celebrated throughout 2010. There will also be a retrospective celebrating the career of Cary Grant. The programme also features several  mini-festivals, including the Glasgow Music & Film Festival, the Glasgow Short Film Festival, FashionArtFilm and FrightFest to showcase the best in horror.

Special guests will include ‘voice of Darth Vader’ James Earl Jones and Scottish directors Peter Mullan and Kevin Macdonald. Star of ‘The Wire’ Dominic West will star along with Maggie Smith in the new Julian Fellowes movie ‘From Time to Time’. Fellow ‘Wire’ alumni Idris Elba and Clarke Peters star in the world premiere of the thriller Legacy, which closes the festival on Sunday 28 February.

The Glasgow Film Festival runs from February 18-28th. Tickets are on sale from 11am on 21 January  from www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk Further information and updates can be also found at www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk 

Red carpet for Glasgow youngsters

Five Glasgow youngsters got the red carpet treatment at the Glasgow Film Theatre when short films they helped create were screened at a special premiere.

The Glasgow screening follows a visit by the youngsters to the Stranger film festival in Amsterdam where films by young people from across Europe were shown.

The films were made as part of the British Council’s Inclusion and Diversity in Education (INDIE) programme and allowed participants to develop their filmmaking and story telling skills. Ellie Koepplinger from Hillhead High School worked on a movie called ‘Multicolour’, Natalie Reid from All Saints and Zayshaan Latif from Holyrood worked on a film entitled ‘Celebrate Diversity’, Kelly Gallagher from Lourdes Secondary and Osama Ahmed from Shawlands Academy worked on two films, ‘Differences’ and ‘Exclusion’.

The young people introduced their films before the screenings.

Les McLean, quality improvement officer for equalities, at Glasgow City Council and partner officer for the INDIE project in Glasgow, said: “Glasgow, Scotland and indeed the whole of Europe are becoming much more diverse. Issues around inclusion are increasing in importance to the council, and establishments in particular.

‘This is the third year that we have been in partnership with the British Council and their support in enabling our schools to develop projects with partners across Europe around themes of inclusion and diversity has been most welcome.

‘The impact on the young leaders of the various initiatives undertaken as part of the INDIE Project cannot be underestimated.’

Paul Docherty, Director British Council Scotland said: ‘As an international organisation the British Council believes in the benefits of a multi-cultural society. The achievements of these Glasgow schools show how forward-thinking and open-minded Scottish schools can be and we are delighted to be working with our partners Glasgow City Council and the Glasgow Film Theatre.’

The films will be shown again in February during the Glasgow Youth Film Festival. Links to each of the films below;

Multicolour

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8PEyVsq8oA

Differences

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks2nrLpGP5Q

Exclusion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY1Cmoi4I_k

Celebrate Diversity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnHR8_Th_6Q

‘Wee Shots’ film launched at GFT

Young people aged seven-11 from Glasgow’s Playbusters community project have made a powerful short film to highlight the issue of child poverty in the UK to show to politicians and decision makers.

 

‘Wee Shots’ is a series of short films made by children from Glasgow, London, Oldham and Bradford. The young people talk about the impact of growing up in poverty in the UK and what can be done to tackle it.

 

Made in conjunction with Save the Children, filmed by Glasgow-based film company Urbancroft and sponsored by FirstGroup, the film was launched at a red carpet event at the Glasgow Film Theatre on Saturday 17^th October.

 

Save the Children aims to use ‘Wee Shots’ to communicate to MSP’s how children live in poverty in the UK today and to strengthen support for the End Child Poverty Campaign.

 

Save the Children work extensively with children in poverty. 240,000 children in Scotland live in poverty – one in four young people whose parents struggle to get by every day.

 

90,000 of these children live in the most severe poverty when there simply isn’t enough money to pay for essential items. Save the Children believe that this is impossible and that even the basics — winter coats, decent food and back-to-school costs – can be crippling for families on such a low income.

 

Save the Children in Scotland is demanding that local councils and the Scottish and UK governments keep their promises to end child poverty and make changes for the poorest children.

 

To watch the films, please visit www.savethechildren.org.uk/endchildpoverty