Neil Fox and myself share a passion in film. Having specifically reformed a partnership to make a short film, the idea of FILMSTOCK 2000 was casually thrown into conversation, until we realised that we could develop this idea using our combined strengths in planning, technology, devising and of course enthusiasm for cinema.
FILMSTOCK 2000 was a learning curve. Within six months it had gone from a 3-day festival to a 2-week programme, from a local focus to an international one and from a company sideline to a full time job. However, as all film enthusiasts can imagine, the task of programming the festival was not exactly a burden. It is not unlike making a list of your favourite films to compare with friends, except in this case you got to show them all over a two-week period.
There was no real trick in acquiring international status either. The simple power of the internet attracted some film-makers from New York. They asked to enter and we saw no reason not to open our doors to them - followed shortly by requests from all over the world by short and feature films makers. The only issue was one of time-consuming admin, but we kept our head above the water. In our first year, amongst many other things, we screened a diverse collection of shorts, premiered a prestigious new piece of cinema from Slovakia, a new documentary from Bosnia (that caused some customs problems on its way out) and a never before seen episode of Abbott and Costello.
There is no book on how to do this, and if there was it could not possibly remain objective. Politics and finance both played their part in our struggle to pull off Luton's first film festival. Politics, in the loosest sense of the word, was everywhere and luckily for us we seemed to stay on the right side, partly to do with the supporters we enlisted. Unfortunately when you try to start an event like FILMSTOCK, rather than everyone patting you on the back, you naturally get those who are critical and those who don't think that their taste is reflected in the films we screen.
Just the other day a woman who shall remain nameless (only for the reason that I don't know it) approached us and openly called the 2001 programme 'boring' and went on to lecture me about the lack of European cinema on show.
Is there a high percentage of European films this year? No. Why? The main reason for this is a lesson we learned quite early on. When starting a film festival in a town, you have to be conscious that the words 'film' and 'festival' together bring connotations. For many they will be positive, but for just as many people their reaction will be that it is an 'arty' event that excludes them. We programme FILMSTOCK so that the majority of people in the town, who are Friday night cinemagoers, can enjoy it, whilst the audience who are seeking new or more exclusive films can also find something within the festival. And, perhaps somewhere the two will overlap, we hope someone will take a chance and watch something different because it is being offered as a result.
The financial issue is a simple one. We pulled off a festival that might sensibly cost £50,000 for about £45,000 less than that, mainly because we had to. Our main grant was rejected because they wanted us to 'down-size'. Everything but the money was in place, so we went ahead with it anyway.
Location, budget, venues, sponsors and political correctness will continue to be issues as long we continue to expand. This is just our second event. There is room to grow and room to learn and we have enough foresight to try to cater for everyone's tastes.
This year we are particularly proud of the short film weekend programme, which reflects a year of hard work of contacting and building relationships with the filmmakers included. Many of them are travelling from America to see their work screened here. Last year, after the final night, the festival organisers, visiting film-makers and audience members stayed behind in the bar to talk. This went on until the early hours of the morning. It was just what we had wanted to achieve. This year promises more.
So what started as a love letter to our favourite films happily remains one. Next year FILMSTOCK 2002 will be our ultimate personal favourite, as one of our themes intends to journey through our favourite film era (1967-1980) in a tribute to the book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. But hopefully we will see you this year, whether you are enjoying the Back to the Future trilogy back to back or checking out some new short films. Either would be fine but both would be even better.
FILMSTOCK 2001 runs from June 1st- June 15th at locations throughout Luton. Find out more by visiting www.filmstock.co.uk.
