Preview: Salford Film Festival
Article published: Wednesday, November 18th 2009
In six short years, the Salford Film Festival has lodged itself firmly in Greater Manchester’s cultural calendar. The festival premiered in 2003 at the Red Cinema on Salford Quays. It celebrated the city’s celluloid tradition with screenings of 1960s kitchen-sink drama A Taste of Honey right up to 1999’s East is East, while laying foundations for the future, local guise of the festival with the premiere of Salford-made Talking With Angels. A true community production, it was filmed in the Langworthy area and starred local residents with no previous acting experience.
It is this emphasis on community links that now underpins the ethos of the Salford Film Festival. The North-West Underground strand of films showcases the work of the region’s most exciting independent film-makers, aiming to bring our attention to the “North-West’s New Wave”. Meanwhile, the Salford Youth Film Festival offers movies by or about young people a rare opportunity to be seen by a wide audience.
An impressive seven films are being premiered or previewed at this year’s festival, including Brian Percival’s debut feature A Boy Called Dad. The film follows the story of troubled fourteen year-old Robbie, whose life is changed when he becomes a father. After receiving praise from both critics and audiences at this year’s Edinburgh Film Festival, it’s a real coup for the festival to get a preview screening in Salford.
Other previews include New York-set, micro-budget comedy Mancattan, and Kandahar Break, a challenging drama following a British bomb disposal unit in late-nineties Afghanistan. The festival is also replete with events to cater for more specialist tastes. The Caught Short strand has a wide range of short films on offer, while Salford Goes International has a choice selection of films from further afield, including Greek thriller Omiros [Hostage]. Meanwhile, the Reel Life strand is perfect for documentary fans.
The Salford Film Festival remains the only independent film festival in Greater Manchester and if your appetite for it isn’t whetted already, to make it a truly accessible festival all screenings are free!
Simon Bradley
The Salford Film Festival runs from Friday 20 to Tuesday 24 November at The Lowry and venues across the city. For more information see here.
More: Culture, Manchester, Screen
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