Contact: Jo Comino 07786 536424; Alison Chapman (images) 07969 393884
Date: 21st February 2010

Borderlines Film Festival -
From Bromsgrove to the Magna Carta and from Beoley to Bhutan

Two Worcestershire directors take part in Borderlines Film Festival, Britain's biggest rural film festival, which launches this Friday 26 February with over 200 screenings over 17 days in 40 venues through Herefordshire, Shropshire and the Marches.

First up is BAFTA-nominated documentary film-maker Chris Atkins who brings two of his controversial films, Starsuckers and Taking Liberties to Borderlines in a series of screenings, discussions and workshops supported by BAFTA and Screen West Midlands.

Atkins, born and educated in Bromsgrove and whose parents still live in the town, has courted contention with Starsuckers, a radical and mischievous exposé of the way the media feeds and exploits our obsession with celebrity.

The film uses a mixture of rapid-fire animation and ludicrously far-fetched hoaxes - how Amy Winehouse's hair 'caught fire' and Guy Ritchie 'gave himself a black eye' juggling with cutlery - in order to get its point across.

It has earned Atkins libel threats from three different sets of News International lawyers in an effort to remove a section of the film which features a News of the World reporter, it was revealed last week. An item on the documentary was cut at the last minute from Charlie Brooker's Newswipe on BBC4, allegedly because the programme "ran out of room and edit time."

At the same time, Atkins learned that the film had been refused funding for a digital print by the UK Film Council, the first time this has ever happened.

While in Hereford, Atkins also screens Taking Liberties, his earlier documentary, that picks apart the erosion of our civil liberties under the Blair Government, in Hereford Cathedral which, appropriately enough, houses a copy of the Magna Carta in its archives.

Meanwhile, from Beoley near Redditch, comes another film about the fast-forward onslaught of mass communications, this time in oneof the most remote countries in the world.

Bhutan, Height of Happiness? is a fascinating documentary by Brian Becker about how this tiny Himalayan state that officially measures its output in terms of 'Gross National Happiness' is coping with its late arrival into the modern world: TV, video games

Director Becker, with a twenty-year track record of making TV documentaries for Central TV talks about being "very touched" by his visit to the kingdom.

"Filming in Bhutan was a privilege," he says, "meeting and working with so many people who have a unique approach to life in the 21st century. It is a very special country and I only hope that it maintains the spirituality which is at the heart of the people."

"Having it included in the Borderlines Film Festival, shown alongside some of the all time great films is more than just a compliment!"

Bhutan is just one among a cluster of films showing at Borderlines this year that were made locally. Still Life is a strikingly ambitious drama made by The Rural Media Company with members of the community in Bromyard while Shell Shock, a film that deals with the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder on a young army veteran was filmed by Herefordshire-born director James Price at LeinthallStarkes, near Ludlow (as well as Tokyo and London).

Young Farmers, from Hereford-based team, Anne Cottringer and Richard Branczik provides a unique insight into a film in the making as it follows members of the Herefordshire Federation of Young Farmers Clubs through a year in their life at a trying time for the industry.

Plus, of course, the usual distinctive mix of great films in unusual and spectacular locations that characterises this very special film festival.

Editorial notes

  1. Borderlines runs for 17 days from Friday 26 February to Sunday 14 March 2010.
  2. 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.
  3. Borderlines Film Festival is funded by Screen WM (with the UK Film Council), Herefordshire Council, The Elmley Foundation, Hereford City Council, Shropshire Council.
  4. Chris Atkins Starsuckers is an S2S and Met Film production. For all press enquiries contact Chris Atkins's PA Daniel Green dan_green1986@hotmail.co.uk
  5. Bhutan: the Height of Happiness? is a BBTV / Magnetic Pictures production. More info via Jo Comino, 07786 536424

Further images are available if required, please contact Alison Chapman on 07969 393884