Lights. Camera. Action!
On Saturday 2 October, I attended the Spirit of Independence Film Festival 2021 and it was a great experience. There were lots of feature films, short films, directors, filmmakers and most importantly, lots of popcorn!
But what made this day so uniquely cool and exciting?
When I arrived at the Abbeydale Picture House in Sheffield, the venue for the festival, there was a collection of stalls providing information to filmmakers from far and wide. After being given my lanyard and programme for the day, I entered the auditorium where the feature films, along with a few shorts, were being shown.
The schedule included a mix of films from a variety of places, some local and others from countries across the globe – as far and wide as Australia. The screenings ran from 11am until 11pm, with over four feature films being shown alongside multiple shorts and Q&A sessions.
As 11am came around, the first screening began. The content I saw all day was made to a very high standard, with the level of filmmaking being highly interesting to watch. One feature film that stood out was South African Spook Hunter (2018), directed by Daniel Rands and Kathryn MacCorgarry Gray.
When speaking to Rands and MacCorgarry Gray about the inspiration behind the film, they said: "We went to see The Conjuring 2 (2016) and we couldn't get over how ridiculous the British accents were and how we thought it would be really good as a comedy."
They added: "Doing Shadows was what led us down this documentary path and being able to make it ourselves and do it for nothing, just our own money."
Another feature film that stood out was The World's Best Film (2020), directed by Joshua Belinfante. The film sees Belinfante travel all over the world, meeting people who are the 'world's best' at some unique and very niche things. These include the world's best toilet tour guide, violinist, town designer, dog owner, taxi driver, and father and son music duo, among many more.
In terms of the shorts I saw throughout the day, my personal favourite was Selling Out (2021), written and directed by Lucy Scott-Smith. This short had a hint of La La Land in its narrative, telling the story of an actress who goes through multiple failed auditions and gets judged very quickly by the casting directors. This short captures the raw emotions felt by a struggling actress and I was hooked from start to finish. The writing and acting were brilliant and allows Scott-Smith to showcase her talent wonderfully.
While all this amazing filmmaking was being shown in the picture house, next door, local films were being shown, along with workshops for filmmakers and talks about the film industry. Even though I did not get around to see what was taking place in the Picture House Social, the building next to Abbeydale Picture House, they had a wide range of interesting things on offer.
On the whole, the day was a great success and Ben Wilkinson, the man in charge of the runnings of the film festival, did a brilliant job of putting together a wide range of quirky films and shorts.
You can find out more about the festival and the films that were shown here.
Edited by Jemma Snowdon
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