IAC DISCUSSION FORUMS

Don't think about sex, please ! Four presidents of clubs in my region have
decided to organize an inter-club competition. I'm one of them. We've asked
the members of our clubs to form different groups of three friends to make
a film together. Each group has one "boss". The other two are her/his assistents.
Theme of all the films : "Ladies". Documentaries, fiction films, animation
films, etc. ... Length : a maximum of 10 minutes. The competition will take
place in October. They can also use these films for local and regional heats
and for the national film festival. For weeks I hurt my brains (=Dutch expression)
to find a good story. I typed the words "Vrouwen verhalen". ("Ladies stories")
in google-internet, but I found quite a lot of pornographic stories ! Of
course they were not useful. From then onwards I also received SPAM-messages
with questions like "Would you like to have another partner ?". Eventually
I found a good subject. I bought two issues of the Dutch magazine "Special
WOON Engelse stijl". In each issue I found something interesting : 1. A Dutch
lady makes special hats. Her shop is called "Ladies Paradise". 2. A young
Dutch lady is a smith ! It's unusual for ladies, isn't it ? She makes all
kinds of objects in metal. The title of the article is "Woman Fire in the
Smithy". Or maybe the right translation is "Feminine Fire in the Forge".
Or is it "Female Fire in the Smithy" ? Oh, English is difficult from time
to time. It's difficult to choose the right word. Anyway, I've decided to
make two short films now. I guess that the camera work will take one day
for each film. I'm already looking forward to making a daytrip with my clubmates
to Vleuten and to The Hague in Holland. It's clear that I'll prepare everything
first : scenario, the questions I will ask, etc... The pictures in the magazine
are very helpful.

I've already heard from my colleagues that some of their members have decided
to make a film about ladies after a session of creative thinking. Also in
my club some members seem to be enthused. Maybe I've also given an idea to
you to make a film ...

I promise ... you will see my female smith in one of the rooms at the British
International Amateur Film Festival in Tunbridge Wells (Kent) next year,
unless the organizers don't agree with it of course.

"Willy Van der Linden" <forums@theiac.org.uk> wrote:

Don't think about sex, please !

Er ... how can you stop thinking about it?

That sort of competition sounds interesting. I wonder if we could do something
like it in the UK.

We really don't have a national competition. Willy mentioned the "North v
South" one which gets entries from clubs. Our international festivals, however,
get many entries from solo workers who are not associated with clubs. It
would be great to have a competition open to all non-commercial movie makers
in the British Isles.

That said - I love seeing films from other countries and other traditions.
Jan and I have just returned from the wonderful Festival of Nations in Austria.
We saw 110 films in competition plus 35 shorties (under 5 minutes) - from
a total entry of over 740.

Congratulations to Peter Rouillard of Guernsey Lily Festival fame whose "Innocents"
got a Silver Bear.
Geof Lindsay won a Bronze Bear for "The Clap".
Diplomas went to (among others):
Ned Cordery of AMPS in the USA for "Pretazine"
Alan Colegrave UK for "Reasons"

It was a baking hot week there (28 - 34 degrees) so the entire festival decamped
to the lakeside for a picnic lunch on three days.

This weekend is final judging for the Cotswold Festival ... though because
of their system of scoring the results will not be known for some time. Judges
write their notes at home over the next few weeks, assign scores and send
them to Lee Prescott. He totals the points and only then are the results
known.

Cheers


Dave