It's All About the River

The programme of contemporary and historic film, compiled by artist and film curator Lucy Reynolds and Peninsula Arts film programmer David McErlane, includes open air presentations of cinema classics, special screenings just for children and the premieres of new films. It will also use the extensive archive of films relating to rivers at LUX and the South West Film and Television Archive.

Among the new commissions, BAFTA nominated director John Akomfrah and production company Smoking Dogs, founding members of the Black Audio Film Collective, will premiere their new work Tropikos which explores and reimagines some of the first British encounters with peoples from Africa, using historical locations around the Tamar.

There will be new works from Uriel Orlow, who featured in Tate Britain’s recent British Artists Film and Video programme, internationally recognised artist Mikhail Karikis, recipient of the Oriel Davies Award 2012 Melanie Manchot, and Glasgow-based sound artist Mark Vernon. Plymouth-based artist Richard Allman will present his first ever animation, while Plymouth University lecturer Kayla Parker and Sundog Media’s Stuart Moore will premiere a film formed by the ebb and flow of the River Tamar.

Other highlights will include a unique screening of Francis Ford Coppola’s classic Apocalypse Now on the Torpoint Ferry, while Keith Richards, Bono and Aretha Franklin star in Muscle Shoals, showing at Calstock Arts. Horror fans will be able to see Plague of Zombies while enjoying a drink at the Buccaneer in Gunnislake, while the spirit of the 1940s will be recreated with a vintage evening transforming Bere Alston Parish Hall into a wartime cinema.

Phil Gibby, Area Director South West at Arts Council England, said:

“It’s All About the River is about taking great art into the heart of our communities and celebrating a shared sense of place. We’re pleased that, through our Grants for the arts awards, we can support activities like this around the region and hope the festival will leave a legacy that everyone can be inspired by and enjoy.”

Sarah-Jane Meredith, UK Wide Manager for the BFI Film Festivals Fund, said:

“Through the Film Festival Fund, the BFI encourages people to build a life-long relationship with a broad range of film, ensuring that film culture can be accessed and enjoyed by everyone across the UK. It’s All About the River impressed the panel for a number of reasons, not least its relevance to local communities. Working within a wider partnership, the ambitious cultural programme will explore the histories of maritime trade and local industry, and have a huge impact on the longer term development of a cultural strategy for Plymouth and the surrounding areas.”

The festival has also received a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to create a Young Roots film project with Youth 2 Youth group in Bere Alston, allowing young people to connect with their heritage and bring their vision of the Tamar to the screen.

Tickets will go on sale in August 2014.

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