Film festival puts on glitz and glamour
Golden Bay's allshorts short film and music video festival is now in its fourth year and becoming a regular feature on local film lovers’ calendars. Again it is an opportunity for socialites to squeeze into their finest attire for the glitzy, red carpet affair and to enjoy a glass of bubbles while mingling with other movie lovers.
The festival is described by organisers John Salmon and Paddy Brennan as “a celebration of New Zealand audio visual art” and is held in support of the Village Theatre.
“All the money raised goes to the Village Theatre. The event doesn’t cost us anything. We have a website and an email list of 400 addresses of filmmakers we can contact and we don’t have any advertising costs. Galen King from Lucid Design gives us the domain for free, every year Flooring Xtra lends us the red carpet and people very kindly give us their films,” said Paddy.
This year, 24 films were selected for the festival. None is longer than 10 minutes and include narrative, documentary, comedy, music video, experimental, video art and student work from Antarctica to Auckland.
The selection process is always the hardest part admits Paddy.
“It’s such a thrill, you don’t know what you’re going to get in the mail. It’s also a real treat; most of the films you probably won’t see anywhere else and it’s a great opportunity for filmmakers to get their work onto the big screen. This year we had a lot of entries from Nelson and the Bay; all the Nelson filmmakers are coming over to attend the festival.”
“Every year we have more entries than we can show and the judging’s quite a responsibility, but this year we had Sarah Kaye from the Village Theatre to help us and that was very nice. She has a different taste from us and chose films from her perspective as theatre manager.”
The R13 festival opens at the Village Theatre this Saturday 24 October at 7.30pm for the champagne and red carpet. Tickets are $12 and festival-goers are invited to stay on afterwards to socialise with the filmmakers. Another screening will be held at The White Room in November. Ina Holst
