Contact: Jo Comino 07786 536424; Alison Chapman (images) 07969 393884
Date: 2nd February 2010
Borderlines Film Festival -
New cinema launches in Wem
Arriving in Shropshire and Herefordshire bright and early in 2010, the eighth Borderlines Film Festival is set to be bigger than ever.
Borderlines (www.borderlinesfilmfestival.co.uk) will screen more than 80 films in 33 venues in the two counties and beyond into the Marches between Friday 26 February and Sunday 14 March.
Where most film festivals gather people together in one location, Borderlines covers a huge span of countryside from Wem in North Shropshire all the way down to Ross-on-Wye in South Herefordshire, a distance of over 80 miles.
Not only is Wem Town Hall a brand new venue for Borderlines in 2010, the re-vamped Victorian building right in the heart of the small market town launches as an exciting new multi-use centre during the festival.
Gutted by fire in 1994, rebuilt, then gradually falling into disuse except as a location for weekly markets, the building's cause was taken up by the local Community Group in a 'Hall or Nothing' campaign and, in collaboration with Wem's Thomas Adams School, plans for the centre were put in motion.
Mayor Douglas Cooley calls the revitalised Wem Town Hall, which launches officially on 4th March "a beacon for the town."
The Borderlines selection at Wem has a distinctly musical theme with Youssou N'Dour I Bring What I Love, a refreshingly optimistic documentary about a super star of world music, the acclaimed Nowhere Boy which revisits John Lennon's formative years and the extraordinary accordion journey that is The Wind Journeys.
Playing on the festival opening night, Friday 26 February, the suitably dynamic early Soviet silent film Man with a Movie Camera plus Buster Keaton's Neighbors, both with introduction and piano accompaniment by regular Borderlines draw, Paul Shallcross.
Nowhere Boy also plays at Ludlow Assembly Rooms along with the fine adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel The Road. Other treats in store are Bright Star and In the Loop, showing at several village halls, while at The Three Tuns, Bishops Castle Film Society screens Times and Winds, a remarkable film about life in a remote Turkish village.
As well as bringing a superlative selection of the best movies from around the world directly into the heart of communities in one of the most remote parts of the country Borderlines continues to showcase local film-making expertise.
Shot in Leinthall Starkes (on the Herefordshire/Shropshire border), Tokyo and London, Shell Shock is an impressive debut feature from James Price, who grew up in the village. An evocative portrait of a young war veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder it's a movie that anybody who has friends or family serving overseas should see. James came back home to his uncle's farm in order shoot the scenes of conflict while his new film, The Marches, currently in development, is set squarely within the county too.
He says, "I'm very pleased to be screening Shell Shock at Borderlines. My earliest memories of cinema are of going to the Hereford Odeon and The Regal in Tenbury. The area defines who I am."
Chris Atkins, whose new documentary Starsuckers also screens, takes his hilarious earlier film about the demolition of our civil liberties under Tony Blair, Taking Liberties, to a venue that houses a copy of the Magna Carta, Hereford Cathedral, a brand new venue for Borderlines.
Other guests for this year's festival include silent film supremo Kevin Brownlow who introduces Winstanley, his 1976 film about the Diggers during the English Civil War. Brownlow's It Happened Here was shot around New Radnor in the early 60s. It is hoped that Sleep Furiously director Gideon Koppel will make an appearance at a village hall on the Flicks in the Sticks network.
Finally expect some lively debate with familiar personalities weighing in on global and local issues at Here Comes Everyone:) Citizen Journalism in the Digital Age, an event that focuses on using the media, old and new, to get your voice across. The day features thought-provoking screenings, guest speakers, incisive discussion and even the chance to get 'hands on' in a special workshop.
Editorial notes
- Borderlines runs for 17 days from Friday 26 February to Sunday 14 March 2010.
- Venues include Aston on Clun, Ballingham, Bedstone, Bishops Castle, Bodenham, Bosbury, Brilley, Cardington, Chapel Lawn, Church Stretton, Clungunford, Dilwyn, Dorstone, Ewyas Harold, Eye, Garway, Gorsley, Hay-on-Wye, Hereford, Ledbury, Leominster, Lingen, Little Dewchurch, Ludlow, Lydbury North, Michaelchurch Escley, Moccas, Presteigne, Pudleston, Ross-on-Wye, Tarrington, Wem, Yarpole.
- Borderlines Film Festival is funded by Screen WM (with the UK Film Council), Herefordshire Council, The Elmley Foundation, Hereford City Council, Shropshire Council.
- Shell Shock is a Pixie Films production (James Price: 07968 206248 james@pixiefilms.co.uk)
- Wem Town Hall, High Street, Wem, SY4 5DG. Box office no: 01939 237075. Rose Manley, Projects and Events Officer rose@wemtownhall.co.uk 01939 232299
Further images are available if required, please contact Alison Chapman on 07969 393884
