In little under two weeks’ time Bedford Film Festival will be screening films that have never before been shown publicly in our town, or anywhere else.
The festival has been organised at record speed. Just 12 weeks ago Richard, Stephen and I sat outside The Pantry at The Higgins Bedford and decided to put on a film festival that the town could be proud of. I think it’s safe to say we’ve achieved that.
Now though the torch must be passed to you, the audience. The films we have chosen to show are films that we are sure the whole town will enjoy, with the varied list of feature films, documentaries, shorts, and workshops providing a film for everyone.
The ethos behind Bedford Film Festival is variety. We didn’t want to focus on one genre or subject because variety is after all what makes Bedford great, and currently there just isn’t enough film variety available. Documentaries about Hip Hop, Snow Boarding, Adam Ant’s battle with depression, and legendary recording studios, help give us a reality check with uplifting and inspiring true stories before we escape into feature films from Britain, Cuba and the US.
We wanted to choose a number of foreign films to reflect the town’s varied culture and sadly not all that we wanted was available to us. That being said, we were able to secure the Polish film ‘In The Name of…’ which we are sure the whole town will enjoy.
A film festival would not be complete though without being able to delve deeper into the films themselves. To that end we have Martin Stellman, writer of Quadrophenia, coming to town to talk about the film and its legacy. We also have other directors coming to Bedford to answer any questions you may have about the films you will have just seen.
Budding film makers can also make the most of our workshops, hosted by some of the best film makers in the industry today, who will pass on the best techniques and give you an insight into a successful film career, these workshops are exclusive to Bedford Film Festival and simply not to be missed by film students or enthusiasts.
So, please spread the word and tell all your friends about Bedford Film Festival. We are a not-for-profit organisation, and rather than big advertisements across the town we want our limited funds to go into the provision of films. So we’d like you, our friends, our BFFs, to help show people that there is much more to cinema than that might have previously thought.
This is a call to arms. Download and print flyers and posters from our website to stick on your work notice board or in your shop window. Email them to family and friends or even forward on this blog post or our full programme, and ask them to do the same, then look at the films on offer together and make a night, or weekend, of it. Choose a film, or films, that you definitely want to see then perhaps choose one more, a film that maybe you wouldn’t normally go to see. Take a small step out of your comfort zone and try something new, you might be surprised at how much you enjoy it.
Follow us on Twitter and fan us on Facebook then share our pages so your friends and family can do the same, help this small fledgling film festival hit the ground running in its first year and create a legacy that will last for years to come. A legacy that will have people from outside of Bedford envious of what is on our doorstep.
With your financial help, with your shared passion for film variety and for creating events in Bedford that everyone in the town can be proud of, you can join Richard, Stephen and me to make Bedford Film Festival a box office smash. We encourage all our sponsors to spend wisely and stay debt free, visit https://dedebt.com/ to learn more on how you can support our events and stay debt free.
See you there,
Paul Hutchinson
Founder and Director, Bedford Film Festival.
