Manorlogz 2010 Xtreme Spoken Word - Finals

Manorlogz TV schedules announced

4front TV has confirmed plans to join Showcase 2 as an official broadcast partner for Manorlogz Extreme Spoken Word - the UK’s first extreme spoken word championships.

Under the agreement, the online TV station will share transmission with the award-winning Sky Digital broadcaster of the inaugural Manorlogz launch highlights show on Tuesday December 7 at 10pm. The deal also includes coverage of the semi-finals on Tuesday December 14 and the Christmas grand final on Tuesday December 21.

Manorlogz was launched earlier this summer as the UK’s answer to Def Poetry Jam - an HBO television series produced by hip-hop music entrepreneur Russell Simmons.

The series presents performances by established spoken word poets, as well as up-and-coming poets, the latter of whom feature in an online poetry slam voted for by the public at www.manorlogz.com

Bernard Kordieh, executive producer of Manorlogz, said: "We consider ourselves fortunate to have two committed television partners who are able to reach both new and established audiences throughout the UK. This agreement was successful in both establishing a long-term partnership and adding a new dimension to our multiplatform coverage."

The actor & comedian Lateef Lovejoy will anchor 4front's Manorlogz coverage starting from December 7 and continuing with the semi-final broadcast on December 14 with the grand final climax on December 21. The lineup of acts performing at the launch feature Indigo Williams, Polar Bear & Floetic Lara - one of this year's competition judges alongside former Daily Mirror journalist Jessie Grace Mellor and Tshaka Campbell – a household name on the spoken word circuit.

A spokesman for 4front TV said: “Manorlogz is a unique and entertaining series which will help define the direction of online TV and through Extreme Spoken Word will change the way audiences in the UK watch poetry on television”.

The free-to-air satellite coverage will be available to all Sky Digital subscribers on channel 203.

Tickets are available to attend the TV recordings of the semi-finals and the final on Saturday December 4 in Bethnal Green. More details can be found at http://manorlogzlive.doattend.com

Ends

Notes: 4front TV will launch its new online TV channel www.4fronttv.com on December 7 with a simulcast of Manorlogz in addition to the UK short film drama ‘Stick With Me’.

For all enquiries regarding 4front TV please contact the following:
VJ Davidson (Series producer): vj@manorlogz.co.uk
Juanita Rosenior (Co-producer): nita@manorlogz.co.uk
Yvonne Ossei (Marketing & Press): info@manorlogz.co.uk

The 2010 BUFF pre-Christmas message

Over the past 12 months, BUFF has invited filmmakers and journalists to offer their thoughts and experiences of the industry. Now its’ my turn. In what has been a year of exciting developments, BUFF was the first media outlet to announce the winners of the Film London Best of Boroughs awards – one of whom submitted their entry into the British Urban Film Festival only weeks before. The awards just happened to take place in the same week it was announced that the UK Film Council was to be abolished – arguably the biggest story of the year as far as the UK film industry was concerned.

And so as the arts brace themselves for funding cuts – and regardless of the number of A-list actors and directors brought forward to argue the case against, regardless of the success of British cinema in the last 12 months, the way we see arts is about to change bigtime.

And as with anything connected with change, technology seems to be the undisputed driving force behind it all. Big screens have enabled events like BBC Proms in the Park to work for huge audiences; Internet streaming is beginning to make great events accessible to far wider audiences. We use Facebook to communicate with many more people and Twitter to react instantly to share experiences. Everyone worth their salt has never had it so good in terms of being armed with these technological tools to get the word out. That said, it does need navigation. Having been a festival director and programmer for nearly a decade, I’d like to think that I can identify quality material when it reaches my desk - week in, week out.

And with so much that is out there, presented as ‘quality’, my role as a gatekeeper will have to adapt whilst maintaining my ability to organise, select and mediate the very best quality to audiences. For most people, the BBC is seen as a trusted guide as to what’s available in terms of the best quality and putting it out there on all their networks. It goes without saying that a world where only the BBC is seen as a trusted guide cannot be a healthy one. We are no longer constrained by broadcast networks (we are no longer constrained, period – thanks to Julian Assange).

Arts organisations should be collaborating, not only with the BBC but with other technology providers to create the richest possible offer for all. The demand for participation rather than passive observation, and for using technology in the process, is especially critical for a younger audience hence the increasing focus of cutting-edge arts venues like the Roundhouse in North London where the short film ‘Stick With Me’ (co-produced by BUFF) was screened earlier this year. The Barbican Theatre’s partnership with Theatre Royal Stratford East enabled “The Harder They Come” (starring Lateef Lovejoy) to bring in a whole new crowd earlier this summer. At the time of writing, “Fela” is wowing audiences at the National, thanks in no part to messyrs Jay-Z, Wil Smith & Jada Pinkett-Smith – the executive producers of the musical biopic.

BUFF continues to screen some of the most iconic independent cinema produced by the UK’s finest including “Sus” (adapted from the original stageplay), “Adulthood”, “Hip-hop Opera”, “Rappin at the Royal”, “Disoriented Generation”, “N-Dubz: the way we were” plus the very best in short film talent from across the country. But you knew all that already didn’t you? Course you did…

You probably also knew that Dappy will be delivering this year's alternative Christmas message on Channel 4. The N-Dubz rapper declared recently that his speech will be "real and relevant" to young people in the UK today. Since 1993, Channel 4 has broadcast a speech from a celebrity or political figure at the same time as the Queen's traditional Christmas message. Previous speakers have included Ali G, Jamie Oliver, Sharon Osbourne and Marge Simpson. Dappy is reported to have said: "We thought it would be cool to do a special Christmas message to rival the Queen's speech but I'll be giving a very different take on things to Her Majesty. I'm going to be talking about things that matter to young people today, keeping it real and relevant."

Keeping it real and relevant was behind BUFF’s decision to be a media partner in Manorlogz – the online poetry slam which was launched this summer as the UK’s answer to Def Poetry Jam, the HBO series produced by US entrepreneur Russell Simmons. Billed as “extreme spoken word”, the competition has secured broadcast rights on Sky and this year’s inaugural final will be shown on December 21st, 4 days before Dappy disrupts everyone’s Christmas dinner – needless to say, most people at BUFF tend to have their dinner after 3pm…

Dappy (or to give him his full name Costadinos Contostavlos) also just happens to feature in the BUFF 2011 promo which is currently doing the rounds on You tube and also on the new and improved BUFF website which recently announced its’ all important submission deadlines and festival dates for next year (Deadline: July 25th, Festival: September 3rd - 5th).

And so that has been the year that was. We’re all off to slap ourselves on the back (some more quietly than others), for one individual in particular, an open invitation to gorge on tap and knock back a few stiff ones before tackling the new year head on. We hope that as an organisation, BUFF continues to entertain and provide insight and understanding of the film business. And who knows, after the year we’ve had, we may even start our own PR agency… happy new year!

Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe

BUFF teams up with Islington Council to stage anti-bullying screening on December 1

In its’ highest profile screening to date, BUFF On Tour – part of the British Urban Film Festival’s outreach programme – will be premiering its’ latest short film (co-produced by Buff Enterprises) at Islington Town Hall on Wednesday December the 1st. In association with the Homes for Islington project, BUFF has teamed up with award-winning filmmaker Lawrence Coke to produce ‘Stampout’ – a short docu drama which examines the issues of bullying and anti-social behaviour in the London Borough of Islington. The screening, which is free, will be followed by a facilitated question and answer session with a panel of leading experts and practitioners.

Speaking ahead of the launch for the new BUFF film festival website, the founder of BUFF, Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe said “Through its commitment to the industry, BUFF has played a key role in the promotion and growth of urban independent cinema in the UK and i’m looking forward to extending that commitment over the next 3 years”.

It was also announced that next year’s British Urban Film Festival will take place on the weekend of September the 3rd, 4th and 5th. The call for submissions is already open to filmmakers and companies who wish to showcase their latest work at the annual London showcase.

The Stamp Out event will take place at the Assembly rooms in Islington Town Hall on Wednesday 1 December 2010 and will start at 10.30am. There will be a facilitated panel debate with Q&A, stalls, hot food and refreshments. For more information email stampout@ymail.com or call 07956 445 490

www.homesforislington.org.uk

The BUFF blog - November 2010

This month's edition is guest-written by Jessie Grace Mellor, previously the resident film reviewer for The Daily Mirror and now director of 'N-Dubz - The Way We Were', one of this year's BUFF UK premieres...

During this blog about my experiences with BUFF, I’m going to flit between a few different timelines. A time machine won’t be required but please bear with me. I’m gonna start in 2005.

I had just finished my short mockumentary ‘Billy Blaze’ and was eager to get it into festivals and let an audience see it. Meeting Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe and the boys at their office in Stratford, I was impressed by their energy and enthusiasm for BUFF. I thought it was very cool that they had taken it upon themselves to celebrate low-budget, urban British film when a lot of the more high profile festivals still favoured entries from studios and the US.

Billy Blaze went down so well at BUFF they showed it twice! The round of applause I heard on the opening night when Billy's credits went up confirmed what I'd already suspected when we'd had a dream shoot - over three days a few months before - that Billy Blaze was a character everyone could laugh at and relate to. But my high point happened in the insalubrious surroundings of the Genesis cinema's toilets when two young ladies laughed amongst themselves and heaped praise on Billy and his antics. I didn't let on that I was the director but it was a wonderful moment.

Fast-forward to 2010 and I contacted Emmanuel to let him know I was on my way to finishing ‘N-Dubz - The Way We Were’. I was excited when Emmanuel agreed to put it into this year's festival as I knew it was the most apt home for a film about N-Dubz as teenagers starting out.

So let me rewind quickly to 2002 when I met N-Dubz, who were then known as ‘The Lickle Rinsers’. Hardly the catchiest of names but it wasn’t their moniker I was impressed with – it was their raw, untapped talent. Under the guidance of the late Uncle B – Dappy’s dad – the enthusiastic trio had already been slogging their little hearts out, writing, producing and recording British rap and garage tracks. I was introduced to them by my mate Donna Dee, a respected producer and one of the innovators of Two Step. Along with Uncle B, she’d been co-producing and co-managing Tulisa, Dappy and Fazer, and was particularly close to Tulisa. Donna asked myself and Arlene Dignam, my filmmaking partner, to film the three teens, ostensibly as a promotional type video for Uncle B to use when trying to get them a record deal.

Filming took place over one day and we tried to do ‘a day in the life’ piece – with some observational stuff and interviews, conducted by yours truly. The filming was mainly ‘behind the scenes’ stuff of them in their studio, being interviewed in a car and performing at their second ever gig – supporting ‘More Fire crew’ at a non-descript sports hall somewhere in the suburbs (forgive me for forgetting where, it was eight years ago!). The cheery, open youngsters charmed and impressed us but seeing them perform at the gig to a bunch of pre-pubescent teens who fancied them but didn’t really get them, I knew they were a bit ahead of their time.

In my opinion, they were too young themselves to wow an audience of adults doing PAs at raves but their lyrics were too sophisticated and rude for the babyish crowds they were performing for. So I suppose it was only natural that ‘The Lickle Rinsers’ themselves needed to grow up from being the feisty fourteen year-olds I’d met before a record company could snap them up at eighteen or so and turn them into rich, slick chart-friendly fare, complete with expensive videos boasting designer clobber and private jets and with an over-reliance on wind-machines and flashy graphics.They are perfect fodder for young adults who want a touch of parent-friendly rap with their pop, but personally, I felt it a crime that they’d lost the lyrics about politics and streetlife along the way.

Technically, the film we produced and edited for Uncle B in 2002 was a bit rubbish, but Arlene and I have honed our talent a lot since then and it was as if the footage was meant to be stored for eight years and unearthed only when me as a filmmaker and N-Dubz themselves were worthy for it to be made into something more special.

And the over-riding memory I have of that time is getting goosebumps when Fazer and Dappyfreestyled for about 10 minutes in their studio.

Fast forward to late 2009 and N-Dubz as they were now known were basking in chart success. I decided to wait for a few months before unearthing the two hours plus raw footage we’d accumulated in case they were a flash in the pan. Then weeks later I was in a cab and the driver put on Radio One and I heard them pulling off an impressive performance on Live Lounge and I thought then that N-Dubz might be around for some time tocome.

Then it was a matter of finding the footage, which Arlene and I both swore the other had and which eventually was found hiding in box in my study, so sorry Arlene. Once I’d checked the footage and discovered it, in its unedited state, it was actually rather good (especially, as I’d remembered, the long freestyle rap in the studio); And so started the weeks of indecision. Should I contact the record company through the contacts a mate of mine at the Sun had passed on and see if they wanted to come on board and participate in a retrospective look at N-Dubz? Or should I just put some stuff on You Tube, guerrilla style? Either way, I wanted to use it to bolster the filmmaking image Arlene and I had been busy building in the interim. The only thing I was sure about was that I wanted it to be shown at BUFF.

So getting a 20 minute edit ready for that became the priority and it was shown at the massive Cineworld in Ilford in September. Those who saw it liked it and everyone touched upon the possibility of doing so much more with it and I felt privileged that it was shown alongside the excellent ‘Bad Day’, directed by Ian David Diaz. After the screenings, Ian and I were grilled on stage by Emmanuel who asked us about our experiences in making our films and also the state of the British film industry.

As a former reviewer for a national newspaper and a wannabe (paid) filmmaker, I felt able to give my two pence worth and mainly spoke out about the fact that the government need to support our industry a lot more. It seems obvious when I saw it out loud, but in places like France, if you go to any cinema at any given time you will see one or two Hollywood blockbusters alongside a whole host of indigenous films, because French people want to see French films and the government, distributors and exhibitors support this. Here, you’ll be lucky to see anything British or low-budget in anywhere else but ‘arthouse’ cinemas and until British films get the proper support from all of the above and the publicity and advertising they need to be seen, people will still pay money to see a ‘Clash of the Titans’ over a ‘Looking For Eric’.

British filmmakers also need to stop trying to copy Hollywood (because we don't have their money or weather but we do have amazing talent) and make intrinsically British films. But Ian and I both agreed, that these films need to be commercial or entertaining - or preferably both.

On a more positive note, I also touched upon the fact that it has never been easier to make films - even with friends - for little money. And the internet and festivals like BUFF are on hand to get these films seen. I've never had any problems making films with mates, as people are still attracted by the magic of movies. And bringing us bang up to date, thanks to BUFF and a lot of persistence and utilising of contacts of mine post BUFF, it seems I will finally be getting paid for my art as a production company has agreed to put money in to making N-Dubz into a 70 minute music documentary to be released early next year.

Lady luck is shining on me as I also have a producer on board for ‘One Love’, my feature about the rave and pirate radio scene in 1990, set in our beloved London, written by myself and Arlene. Imagine a film opening on the roof of a high-rise towerblock as two DJs repair a broken transmitter, with ‘You Got The Love’ by The Source, featuring Candi Stanton, blasting out and you get the idea.

Thanks BUFF for giving me a platform, expanding my contacts book and bolstering my belief in my own abilities as a filmmaker. You’re already on the list for the ‘One Love’ premiere.

ends.

The Buff Blog - October 2010

Picture courtesy of Alex Winn (c) MMX



This month's edition is guest-written by David Trumble, director of 'The Shift', one of this year's BUFF UK Shorts...

BLOG BEGINS: I have never guest-written for a blog before, so one thing you should know about me right off the bat: I ramble. Emmanuel very kindly asked me if I could write up my impressions of this year's British Urban Film Festival, and I was only too happy to. This is the first film festival my short film The Shift has been selected for, and I can't think of a better place to make our debut, the home of the passionate, the hard-working, the uncompromising, the different. And our entry, the tale of a cantankerous, flame-haired ambulance technician called Damon, was certainly different. We're currently preparing to attend our third festival with "The Shift" in November, but my experience of BUFF still remains the fondest, because of the atmosphere created by it's organizers. This was an environment that encouraged interaction between it's film-makers, conversation, debate, laughter and a looser, more intimate style of doing things. We were not simply watching films in a darkened room, the floor was opened up. This blog may be a little scattershot, because that was how I experienced BUFF, a stream of thoughts and ideas that still come back to me now. A lot of silent "wows" to myself. Wow, that shot of the henchmen pulling out their badges in Adventures of a Supernigger blew me away, Wow, it's Saskia Reeves from Luther and she THINKS she's met me before, Wow, that poetry was lovely, Wow, Ralph Brown's a legend, Wow, I would not in a million years be able to pull off the suit Lateef Lovejoy was wearing....And wait a minute. The tickets are FREE, you say????

At a time where our government no longer even PRETENDS to value the film industry, festivals like BUFF stand resilient and continue to cultivate and encourage new talent. And in the case of this lowly film-maker, it also provided some hot food and a place to sleep! A little bit of context first...Leave it to a guy with a dozen trusted friends in London to show up on the weekend that they are all off working on another short film and unable to let me crash. Worse than that, my trusted lead actor Greg Lock, who originated Damon's story with me and would have been at BUFF with bells on, was in the middle of a gruelling sponsored walk from Fort William to Inverness to raise money for the London Air Ambulance, and so was also a no-go. Curse you, Greg and your altruism! So when I arrived on the Saturday, I was pretty sure that some kind of Travelodge or B & B was on the cards, and as I resigned myself to that fate, BUFF came to my rescue!There I was on the Saturday night, after the screening of "SUS" (Excellent) finding myself sat in the BUFF main office talking into the wee hours with Emmanuel and Bernard, eating take-away courtesy of Emmanuel, laughing a lot, and discussing everything and anything. Dinner and a show indeed, the full BUFF treatment. Although the less said about our impromptu viewing of the first ten minutes of Shortbus the better.I'm not sure, but i think it was halfway through our conversation we discussed who would make a good black Doctor Who (My vote: Adrian Lester, the man doesn't age!) that I realized something about Emmanuel and all the people who made BUFF a reality: This is not a job to them. It's all for the love of it.

It reminded me of the actors and crew who turned up to make The Shift for free, the members of the Oxfordshire Community Foundation who took a chance on our film to open their charity premiere, the kind people at TLO Film Studios who gave us a subsidised price for the ambulance, my legendary editor Zack who let me sleep on his bedroom floor for a fortnight during post production...Making films is very counter-intuitive, and to an outsider who doesn't get it the whole process seems like an unfair deal. Give your all and get only a little back, if at all. Pulling together an independent short is an uphill struggle for a young director, requiring no end of personality flaws and obsessions. It all appears very masochistic, and...okay, I can't lie, it is very masochistic. It's kind of like being the child who jumps into the water in his clothes and then keeps doing it no matter how many times he is told not to. And every time you do your parents despair and cry "WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT AGAIN? YOU ONLY JUST GOT DRY!" Will we ever learn? Well...of course not. At least that's the way I see it. You have to love film to keep making it, and your crew have to love you to make it with you, if you don't get something out of it then you're not going to last. The secret those-who-don't-get-it miss: We're most unhappy when we've dried off, the moment we're back to normal again we can't wait to jump back into the water. We hate being dry, being dry sucks.

The joy of watching the BUFF Shorts was not only seeing that level of insanity and dedication in the films I watched, but also in the faces of the film-makers I met there. Three names worthy of special praise were the guys I shared the Q & A with, Rohan Green (dir. Physical Education, loved the steadicam shots and well-judged score) Tarun Thind (Dir. English, gorgeous tracking shots and compositions, a great eye) and Mawaan Rizwan (dir. Paperboy, endearing and less-is-more to perfect effect). I spent a relatively short time speaking to them each in person, but it was a flurry of back and forths, which Canon did you use, where did you film that, can I get your actor's details, what's your favourite lens? (For anyone who cares, mine's the 50mm!) Best thing of all was that never once did I feel like I had to ask them WHY they wanted to direct, why they were making these films. It was just obvious and unspoken, why WOULDN'T we? I love that mentality, and why should we have to explain it? In fact, that's what was so interesting about the Q & A. It was anything but a stinted question and answer session, there wasn't a divide between us and the audience, we were just people talking and sharing. I found myself very moved by a very emotional question about the race representation of the black bully in Physical Education, which allowed not only the film-makers but also other members of the audience to get in on the debate and give their personal views. That was pretty special. So where to next? For the British Urban Film Festival, another year, their sixth, and for me, a music video in Oxford, plus a new short film that was actually devised within the walls of BUFF itself! "Sofa", a short film that will be written, directed and performed by collaborators Liam Dempsey, Matt Brothers, and myself, was devised whilst waiting to go into the screening room for the BUFF shorts, as the three of us were sitting on, yes wait for it, a sofa. Inspiration can come from anywhere, and at BUFF, sometimes you're sitting on it.

The British Film Industry is not dead, despite what people may have you believe. Film can never really be killed in this country, we have too much passion and drive for it. The loss of the UK Film Council is a blow, like our fragile economy we're in a tailspin, but like economies, this is a cyclical thing. The difference between now and the last British New Wave is that the methods of film-making are getting cheaper all the time, a young film-maker can pick up a digital stills camera and make something that looks stunning, the internet allows for maximum exposure at minimum cost, creativity is now overwhelmingly interactive, people can become their own studios, their own marketers. Watch the BUFF online shorts and see the many walks of life their directors and subjects come from. This is an exciting era for those who are just beginning, the landscape is rapidly evolving. For those who want it badly enough, the opportunities are there. But all of that hard work, all that begging, borrowing and stealing needs to find it's audience, which is where the major road-blocks are being thrown up. The problems this country is facing certainly do not help make a competitive market any easier to break into, but then...that's why places like BUFF are so very important. You could be a graduate, an award winner, a first-time director, but if you have something to say then there are people who want to listen. As I looked alongside the other film-makers I was sitting shoulder to shoulder with, I realized we were all from very different backgrounds, and had each come to this moment by different ways, which ultimately gave me hope when it was my turn to answer the question (in characteristic rambling form) of how I feel about the state of film-making in this country. There really is no one way to make it. If one avenue closes, you find another one. The one thing you don't do is stop.

So to all film-makers, film-lovers, or anyone who wants to see British film-making alive and well in 2011, I say to you...Come forward, if you think you're BUFF enough!


David Trumble.

The 2010 British Urban Film Festival - the review

Pictures courtesy of Andrea Siegl (c) MMX. All rights reserved.
At the time of going to press, a woman in China has sued a cinema and the distributors of the movie ‘Aftershock’ for wasting her time with adverts. According to the Xinhua news agency, Chen Xiaomei claims the Polybona International Cinema and film distributors Huayi Brothers Media Corporation should have told her of the length of the pre-movie commercials. Chen, a lawyer, accused the Xian-based picturehouse and the distributors of violating her freedom of choice and wasting her time. The claimant is seeking a full apology, a refund for her 35 yuan (£3.30) ticket, another 35 yuan in compensation plus one yuan for emotional damages.

Had that been applied to BUFF (for which it could do on so many levels) those who were in attendance on the opening night of this year’s festival would’ve missed exclusive previews of ‘Tupac Assasination’ (approaching the 15th anniversary since his death), 'The O’ Twins' (Nigeria’s answer to ‘The Simpsons’) and Manorlogz (Poetry’s answer to ‘The X Factor’) – and that was to name but 3. Add to that the 250-odd people who were amongst the acknowledgements thanking them for their support of BUFF over the past 5 years and one would be hard pushed to say that the pre-show was anything but enlightening.

Its safe to say that the British Urban Film Festival 2010 ticked a lot of boxes for a lot of people and yes, there was a fair bit of box-ticking during the festival. And though the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson was formally invited, the festival didn’t quite tick ‘Bojo’s’ box. Overall, the festival continues to reach new audiences young and old, far and wide, online, on-air and in person – a mantra taken to its logical extension with the advent of the festival sponsors’ Gabriel Media World Television (otherwise known as GMWTV) – not to be mistaken with the now defunct GMTV – though it was a new beginning or ‘a new dawn’ as actor Ralph Brown puts it so vividly in the festival’s opening feature film – ‘Sus’. A veritable array of actors and filmmakers duly converged at the 3 festival venues over the course of the weekend, stretching into the Monday. In addition to the aforementioned Ralph Brown (and his suitably dapper hat), BUFF was graced with the presence of the debonair Wil Johnson, the delightful Clint Dyer, the dashing Anjela Lauren Smith, not forgetting the commander in chief, Lateef Lovejoy and the impressive list of filmmakers who took part in some fascinating question and answer sessions.

Since we’re on the theme of all things dapper and the like, there was talk that Dappy, Fazer and Tulisa otherwise known as the group N-Dubz would be gracing the festival with their appearance – which would’ve made for an interesting contrast to the final day’s UK premiere of the documentary ‘N-Dubz – the way we were’ i.e. the way they were, aged 14. Directed by Jessie Grace Mellor, this marked the first time a filmmaker has had their film chosen for selection twice in the 5 year history of BUFF. The first time around, ‘our Jessie’ brought ‘Billy Blaze’ to the public’s attention. Not only will you find Billy Blaze knocking around on Youtube but you’ll also find a fair few of this year’s ‘chosen few’ for the festival online aswell. Not for the first time, the likes of Youtube and Vimeo (with its obvious attractions) are becoming an outlet for filmmakers to not only showcase their talent to the public, but to monetise their content also.

This will become the battleground in the next few years, given that the UK film industry is now in a perpetual state of hiatus with the abolition of the UK Film Council. It will also be a challenge for festivals like BUFF who although offer free tickets for all its’ screenings will have to offer value for money so to speak when it comes to putting on premium content – fortunately the festival was able to secure 2 exclusives this year. BUFF is already in co-production on a number of films working with the likes of Islington Council and 4front Films – and submissions are already coming in for BUFF 2011 and we’re not yet in October. The future’s bright...

And whilst we’re on the subject of submissions, BUFF Shorts UK brought together some of the UK’s finest filmmaking talent on the middle day of this year’s festival with 4 of the directors taking part in the question and answer session. It made for some electric banter with the audience certainly getting their money’s worth (so to speak) getting to know a little bit about what makes these half-psychotic... ok quarter-psychotic... individuals tick, the subjects in question being Rohan Green (dir. Physical Education), still living off the trappings of his Best of Boroughs audience award earlier this year, from Oxford (via an overnight stay at BUFF’s expense) the charismatic David Trumble (dir. The Shift), and then completing the line-up the gracious Tarun Thind (Dir. English) and the talented rookie, Mawaan Rizwan (dir. Paperboy). Also present were Casserley Cielo, writer and star of Je Suis Naive Tu Es Cruel plus Kamran Assadi and Randy J Lewis (directors from this year’s festival sponsor online screenings ‘Stalker’ and ‘Magical Michael’ respectively).

Other festival highlights included the closing movie Bad Day (dir. Ian David Diaz) with lead actress Claire Goose shooting everyone that got on her wrong side (the phrase ‘hell hath no fury than a woman scorned’ couldn’t be more apt). BUFF was also graced with Floetic Lara’s poetic tribute to actor Gary Coleman and recording artists Sugar Mynott and Guru – all of whom passed away earlier this year.

Over the course of the last 5 years, the British Urban Film Festival has been brought to audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Cricklewood Broadway, Stratford Picture House, Tottenham, Mile End, Redbridge, Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, Waterloo... and still counting.

In the immediate future, the festival will be going on tour, across the country, presenting audiences the very best in British Urban Film. Watch this space as they say to find out when BUFF will be coming to a cinema near you. The festival season is now in full swing with British cinema shouting from the rooftops not just at BUFF but also at the Toronto Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival, the Portobello Film Festival, UrbanWorld, Raindance and of course the London Film Festival. And with so much on offer (and more besides), one would be mistaken for thinking that the British film industry isn’t in such a bad state after all – it is in a bad state compared with other countries. BUFF has already started to sing for its supper with a number of pre-release deals on the verge of being tied up with several filmmakers. The film submissions continue to pour in and the countdown has already begun to the BAFTAS, the Golden Globes and the OSCARS and then before you know it the British Urban Film Festival 2011 will be upon us – what price the movie ‘Sus’ picking up one of those coveted awards? Long may the passion continue...

For full details of BUFF on Tour or for how to submit your films to BUFF 2011 visit our spanking new buff website – www.britishurbanfilmfestival.co.uk