Press Release

Contact: Bill Laws 07742 825813
billl@borderlinesfilmfestival.co.uk
Date: 6th February 2005

Exciting programme for Britain's biggest rural film festival UK film premieres including Nicotina, Mexico's most popular film of the year, and The Sound of Brazil, director Mika Kaurismaki's answer to the Bueno Vista Social Club, join forces with a low budget, fantasy adventure film to kick off this year's Borderlines Film Festival.

Soul Searcher, filmed on a shoestring budget of £25,000 by 24 year old Malvern director, Neil Oseman, launches Britain's biggest rural film festival on March 18.

The third Borderlines Film Festival, spread across Herefordshire, Shropshire, Powys and Gloucestershire, hosts 100 screenings and events at arts centres and village halls along the Marches from Ross-on-Wye to Shrewsbury and Presteigne to Ludlow.

There's a chance to see Ray, the celebrated life story of Ray Charles; Bullet Boy, which won So Solid Crew's Ashley Walters the 'most promising newcomer' award for his performance; and, under the popular Best of British banner, Mike Leigh's Vera Drake, nominated for three Oscars; Closer starring Jude Law, Julia Roberts and Oscar nominee Clive Owen; Ken Loach's Ae Fond Kiss; and A Way of Life, Amma Asante's powerful portrait of poverty and prejudice in South Wales.

Dear Frankie, the touching tale of a Scottish single mum fiercely determined to protect her deaf son, is director and cameraperson Shona Auerbach's first feature film. She'll guest a Festival talk for other first time film makers with writer Andrea Gibb, nominated for a BAFTA award for her script.

Director Alison Peebles will introduce her first feature, Afterlife, a bracing study of a brother trying to cope with his Downs syndrome sister, which won the Audience Award at the Edinburgh Festival.

Debbie Koons Garcia, wife of former Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia, travels from the States to talk about her own debut film, The Future of Food with Abergavenny Food Festival director Martin Orbach.

Former England cricket captain turned psychiatrist, Mike Brearley, explores the psychiatry in Behind the Sun by The Motor Cycle Diaries director Walter Salles. "Salles reveals much about the almost inexorable power of the past to fix individuals in old ways of functioning," says Brearley.

Also making its debut is a boxing documentary, Pugilists, contrasting the 19th century bare knuckle prize fighter, Tom Spring, with the British Featherweight Champion, Darren 'Dazzo' Williams, and made by a group of young, regional film makers.

"The Festival programme is a showcase for some vibrant and exciting British cinema - and a chance to signpost a long-overdue break-through by contemporary women film makers like Auberbach, Peebles and Garcia," says Borderlines' director David Gillam.

Editorial notes:
1. Borderlines Festival runs from March 18 to March 30 at The Courtyard, Hereford, Ludlow Assembly Rooms and 20 rural locations in Herefordshire, Shropshire, Powys and Gloucestershire. www.borderlinesfilmfestival.co.uk
2. For film images & press hospitality: alisonc@borderlinesfilmfestival.co.uk Alison Chapman – 07977 217155 or David Gillam - 01239 615066.