Portobello Film Festival ready to launch next week

Portobello Film Festival showcases an unrivalled selection of films from young filmmakers
- Showing over 20 short films from young filmmakers working in urban areas
- With Dominic West from US drama The Wire introducing Nick Marcq’s Latimer Films strand
Youth Film Festival: Mon 7-10 Sep – Inn On The Green
Portobello Film Festival: 3-20 September, Westbourne Studios, The Tabernacle and Inn On The Green

The Youth Film Festival is giving young filmmakers a platform to showcase their creative and ambitious films. As part of Portobello Film Festival the Youth Film Festival will features films from youth projects The Video College, Connexions LDD, Transient Film Exchange, the EU StrangerFestival, YCTV and Latimer Films.

Latimer Films was formed in 2001 after their first film REAL NOTTING HILL, made with a group of excluded teenagers from the Pupil Referral Unit in Ladbroke Grove was nominated for a BAFTA and won the best film at the Portobello Film Festival. Since then they have developed a unique method of creating educational dramas with and for disadvantaged young people, using improvisation and the real life experiences of the young people involved to devise films that speak authentically to their target audience. Dominic West, star of US drama The Wire, will be introducing the selection of films within this strand.

Transient Film Exchange (TFE) is an award winning Community Interest Company that works with young disadvantaged people to produce films that give a fresh new voice. TFE teamed up with Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea Youth Arts and Action Disability Kensington & Chelsea to produce Grave Mistake.

The Connexions LDD Film Project was designed to give a group of young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities the opportunity to develop practical and technical skills in film-making. At the same time the group worked to achieve a Bronze Arts Award and to explore opportunities in the media industry.

The Video College is a charity that has been working in North Kensington since 1994. It is committed to involving those traditionally under-represented in the media and offering young people real skills and opportunities. After-school, in half-term and holidays, 12-19 year olds worked with industry tutors to write, perform, shoot and edit films on a range of topics – from global warming to the effects of bullying and gossip, a series of shorts that explored their own and their neighbourhood’s history, a story of love and loss and an edgy drama about the theft of a bike.

The UK StrangerFestival partner, ACAVA, has been working this year with Young Tate to help 12 participants to create short videos which will be shown at Portobello Film Festival 2009.

**INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE WITH - JONATHAN BARNETT – PORTOBELLO FILM FESTIVAL DIRECTOR**
***FURTHER INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE WITH NICK MARCQ – LATIMER FILMS***

Portobello Film Festival takes place 3-20 September at, Westbourne Studios, The Tabernacle and The Inn On The Green.