10 days to go until BUFF 2010 - the countdown is well and truly on...

The British Urban Film Festival 2010

4th, 5th, 6th September

For immediate release

Chairman's formal announcement

The British Urban Film Festival returns.

The annual 3-day event which is free to all ages kicks off on Saturday 4th September at Tottenham’s Bernie Grant Arts Centre – named after the black Labour politician who was MP for the area for over a decade. The stage play-turned-movie “Sus”, starring Clint Dyer, Rafe Spall & Ralph Brown, will be screened on the opening night of the festival which will also feature a Q&A with the cast. The festival will have its’ first ever female poet with a live performance from Floetic Lara.

Highlights on day 2 include the first-pick of this year’s short film submissions from British filmmakers at Bethnal Green’s Oxford House plus the UK premiere of “Last Train from Silver Street”, a raw and powerful drama in which loyalties are tested to the ultimate on the estates of Edmonton. The final day features ‘never before seen’ footage of the infamous UK hip-hop group N-Dubz - starting out at the age of just 14. The festival climaxes in association with The London Borough of Redbridge with the Cineworld Ilford screening of “Bad Day” starring Claire Goose, Robbie Gee, Sarah Harding and Donna Air.

Since its’ inception 5 years ago, the festival has been supported by national bodies including ITV, UK Film Council, Film London and the NHS. In the last 3 years the ‘British Urban Film Festival’ (BUFF) has staged over 50 screenings across various East London locations from where thousands of adults and young people have taken advantage of its’ free admission policy. In teaming up with event sponsors ‘Gabriel Media International’ (GMI) BUFF is excited at the prospect of thousands more being entertained not just during the festival but throughout the year – with the sponsors’ creation of © ‘Buff – On Tour’ first staged in July formally introducing further screening events across the country.

“There will be no bigger film event in the capital in September and BUFF will be at the forefront of the action bringing audiences an exciting weekend of ‘live’ British Urban film festival entertainment with 16 top quality screenings at 3 venues across 3 London Boroughs for 3 days in addition to online screenings and interactive coverage throughout the event thanks to our sponsorship deal with GMI”.

This year’s event is sponsored by Gabriel Media International (GMI) who has also struck a deal to be on-line media partners streaming exclusive footage from the festival on GMWTV featuring internet broadcasts showcasing short films plus clips and footage from the © ‘Buff archives’. The opening night live show will be presented by actor and comedian Lateef Lovejoy, fresh from his recent star turn in the musical The Harder They Come.

BUFF 2010 has been commissioned for Buff Enterprises by Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe. Project management, marketing and business consultancy is being handled by event sponsors: Gabriel Media International.

Free tickets are now available for BUFF 2010 by calling 08712 885 785. Full listings can be found at http://www.britishurbanfilmfestival.co.uk/ – lines close midnight Wednesday September 1st (no emails will be accepted as reservations). Those who wish to book must leave their name, contact number, email address and choice of timeslot.

For all press, marketing and broadcast enquires please contact:
Lorraine Gabriel on: +44 7941 143 412 hq@gabrielmediainternational.com
GMWTV can be accessed at: www.gabrielmediainternational.com

Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe, festival director and founder
www.britishurbanfilmfestival.co.uk
info@buffenterprises.co.uk
+44 (0) 7801 548754

© Buff Enterprises Ltd 2010

ENDS

The British Urban Film Festival - August Blog

Who would be a film festival director ey? It was always going to be a chaotic period once the deadline for submissions closed on Sunday July 25 at midnight. It was even extended to 5pm the next day. Add to that filming with Lateef Lovejoy for the festival and the debut of ‘Buff on Tour’ in Cricklewood at 7.30pm the next day also - and the phrase ‘killing hours’ comes to mind, a phrase which embodies the amount of energy being exhausted – and shared in equal measure by this year's festival sponsors Gabriel Media International – that are being put in to deliver the buffest film event on the calendar. That said, if the events of Monday July 26 were anything to go by then the buffest film event on the calendar may well be one of the very few in years to come after the revelation that the UK Film Council is to be abolished. This very blog was only just reporting last month on the demise of BFM (how long for remains unknown) and the general mood of similar organisations reported both in public and private who seem to be facing an uphill task in delivering to the public. One would assume by default that a film festival like BUFF’s – free to the public and currently without public and corporate funding – would be one of the early casualties in this era of austerity and streamlining, far from it. More of that later but to the main story at hand and the decision made by the culture secretary to disband the UK Film Council, seemingly without warning.

To be fair, BUFF first heard rumours about this just over a year ago when it was refused repeat funding for the British Urban Film Festival (In 2008, BUFF was one of the first beneficiaries of the council's' Black Film Exhibition Publicity Fund). Founded in 2000 under a Labour government, the state-sponsored film agency has pumped over 15 million pounds into UK films. In the intervening decade that followed, more than 4.5 billion pounds has been pumped back into the economy, supporting around 100,000 industry jobs with 75% of the money invested in London and the South-East. Within hours of the decision, online petitions to reverse it attracted 15,000 signatures and counting (if it can work for BBC 6 Music – why not?). Needless to say the shadow culture secretary has called the decision short-sighted, ill-considered, counter-productive and devastating. BUFF caught up with actor Wil Johnson who was of the opinion that dependency on handouts and a lack of creative freedom (traits usually associated with the Film Council) were crippling genuine film-makers and their art, both new and establishing. Actor Clint Dyer was talking in a similar vein when BUFF first caught up with him at a preview screening of ‘Sus’ back in April (Sus was co-produced by Clint Dyer).

Justin Marciano at Revolver Entertainment makes the point that without the additional funding support, 'Kidulthood' would not have been able to reach out to audiences across the UK as extensively as it did. He goes onto say that the success of that one film meant that the talent involved got the chance to make bigger films and build proper careers, all of which goes back into sustaining the industry. That said, the UKFC has funded films like 'Nowhere Boy', directed by Sam Taylor-Wood who had previously never directed a film. Readers of this blog over the past 18 months will have detected a decent amount of coverage being attributed to 'Kidulthood' and the almost two-tier industry which exists in the urban bubble – i.e filmmakers who resist the urge to model their films on 'Kidulthood' and those who do.

The hiatus which will now exist as a result of the end of this quango will certainly challenge an industry which is already facing challenges on a creative, economic and technological scale. For the last 5 years, it has always been a survival of the fittest as far as BUFF is concerned – those who purport to be truly creative will have their work cut out and only the smartest will prevail. For those who aren’t afraid of help, it seems that the industry may have to welcome corporate sponsorship on an even greater scale than it has done previously – BP could do with a charm offensive...

In amongst all this news was the debut of Buff on Tour. Held on the edge of town at the Heritage Inn in Cricklewood, the first fruits of Buff’s sponsorship came to being with the opportunity to showcase at 'Film & Cabaret on the Broadway' - a mixture of short film screenings and 'live' performances, anchored by Paulette Harris Germain, bringing the arts to the people of Brent who played host to the first 'Buff-On Tour.' For the lucky ones in the audience, there was a chance to see once again previous BUFF shorts including Diane Musafiri’s ‘Brothers’, Jane Thorburn’s ‘The Family Legacy’ and Jason Nwansi’s ‘Pavement Poetry’ with the man himself providing healthy debate after the screenings. At the time of going to press, Buff on Tour is currently screening shorts from last year’s festival at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and will soon be showing more from its’ vast archive across other parts of the capital and beyond. Watch this space as they say...

And so to Wednesday and the Film London Best of Boroughs awards at BAFTA. On the way to the ceremony, actor Rafe Spall was plastered double-page in that evening’s edition of the Evening Standard. For the uninitiated, Rafe is the son of actor Timothy Spall of ‘Auf Weidersen Pet’ fame and countless other TV dramas, films and commercials. One look at Rafe’s year to date and it seems that the apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree as far as our man Rafe is concerned – who can be seen currently in Channel 4’s new Friday night comedy ‘Pete versus life’ – as well as starring as Detective Wilby in ‘Sus’, showing on the opening night of this year’s British Urban Film Festival - the man is everywhere...

Affectionately known as the Bobs, The Film London ‘Best of Boroughs’ awards returned on Wednesday the 28th of July for a third consecutive year to celebrate grassroots film-making talent in London. Anybody looking for further dirt on the axing of the UK Film Council 48 hours previously may have felt shortchanged as it was business as usual at BAFTA where a total of 16 shortlisted films from across the capital went head to head for the coveted Jury and Audience Awards. East London featured prominently in the main shortlist with no less than 6 boroughs represented and it was no surprise when Evan Creevy, director of 'Shifty' announced that 'Physical Education' by Newham's Rohan Green duly won the audience award for his 8 minute school bullying drama. Many of the winning films as well as the shortlisted titles have been picked up by several of the capital's film festivals including the British Urban Film Festival and the London Film Festival - needless to say, the BUFF selection process was made a little bit easier by the success of 'Physical Education' having received the film as a festival entry 2 weeks prior. It was an evening of success on many levels for those involved with BUFF and to cap it all off, BUFF somehow managed to get starstruck whilst bumping into Andrea Arnold, director of 'Fish Tank', and could only manage for the most part to keep reminding her about her other claim to fame - the ITV kids show 'No.73'.

The last few days of the month saw an unwelcome hacking of BUFF’s wikipedia page, a radical overhaul of the BUFF website (which will be music to quite a few people’s ears), and a frantic last-minute rush of late submissions (deadline guys!!!) to the British Urban Film Festival including entries from serial auteur filmmaker Wayne Saunders and also from Daily Mirror journalist Jessie Grace Mellor - if only there was time to go into detail the conversations that took place that very evening as the final selection was being finalised and ripped apart for what seemed liked hours upon hours on end... Regrettably (and probably wisely) there isn't any time (for now anyway). And all of these events, since Sunday August 25th, happened in just 1 week... who would be a film festival director ey?

And so to August and all roads lead to Tottenham which is where the juggernaut that is The British Urban Film Festival 2010 will pitch up from Saturday September 4 at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre, the talking will soon be over... To book for your free ticket to be part of the experience, see the line-up* in full at www.buffenterprises.co.uk

*subject to change

30 days to go to BUFF 2010

Welcome to the official countdown for BUFF 2010 - the British Urban Film Festival. 15 shortlisted films, chosen from nationwide and international submissions, will be screened in the capital, free of charge to audiences young and old during the first weekend of September. The festival celebrates urban independent cinema and grassroots film-making talent both here in the UK and abroad and will be presented by actor and comedian Lateef Lovejoy. Run by Buff Enterprises and sponsored this year by Gabriel Media International, BUFF 2010 offers limited free tickets to the public to attend the screenings. A panel of representatives from the BUFF board have selected the 15 screenings which can be booked in advance by calling 08712 885 785. The British Urban Film Festival 2010 is supported by Gabriel Media International, The London Borough of Redbridge, Cineworld, Catch a Vibe, Just Productions and Knowledge Fountain. The full line-up can be seen at www.buffenterprises.co.uk

The official press release will be published later today.


Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe, founder & chairman of the British Urban Film Festival.