Channel 4 - FourDocs blog - Independent filmmakers getting their films made and seen

Independent filmmakers getting their films made and seen

Becca Frankel 24 April 2008, 3:32 PM

So, the East End Film festival finishes tonight. I headed up their independent documentary panel on Saturday in Stratford, and it was one of the most productive and promising sessions for new filmmakers I've been at for ages! The filmmakers were all making their own types of films AND getting them distributed in different ways, that suited them and their project.

Xanthe Hamilton talked about how the idea for Flora and Thieves lingered for so long, she just knew she had to make it. It has been circulating at festivals since it's progression from FlourDocs to 3 Minute Wonder, including the film buff's choice True/False - a genre bending film festival. Another popular one is in the fun stakes is the multi disciplinary SXSW festival. Alex Walker took his debut feature (made for £500!) We Dream America There there, a highly fitting release for a film about how American country music is influencing a new scene in Britain. Shane O'SULLIVAN started researching Bobby Kennedy originally for a fiction script, then got so involved with archive footage and testimonies to discover what really happened, that he decided to make a documentary. He sought funding from all the usual high level outfits, who all said no. A lone passion project it was, until BBC news night commissioned him to do a 10 minute mini-feature on the case, and he used the cash to fund another trip to produce an additional 2 hour film cut. It's going to be screened at the ICA, and has a dvd deal in American, and he got to make the film in exactly the way he wanted - result!

Pinny Grylls film Peter and Ben is fantastic. It's showing at HotDocs this week, and has been to Amsterdam and all over the world, and importingly won the FourDocs award at London Short Film Festival earlier this year. She was funded through the arts council to make it, partially because she knew how to demonstrate her pictorial imagination on paper. She recommends spelling out the mood of the film, not concentrating on fact and story, because it should be evident you can think about these things.

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It's good to know...

... we've teamed up with The Co-operative for this competition. We have a team of experts ready to watch the films, and they will choose which one will win a cash prize of £2,000, which ones get shown to a Channel4 Commissioning Editor, and which ones have the chance to be shown on Channel 4 itself on their 3 Minute Wonder strand.

Entered so far ...