"The East End of London is the typical planet earth place... It's like a little picture of the general world's state."
— With Gilbert and George, EEFF 2007
The East End Film Festival has grown year on year to become one of the biggest film festivals in the UK and a major fixture in the London event calendar. Spread out over 8 days, the 2008 festival included more than 130 feature length and short films, alongside a host of live music events, exhibitions, talks and workshops. The Festival prides itself on supporting local filmmakers from East London with various screenings of features and shorts plus events to showcase local talent in film and music, to spreading it’s wings wider to premiere international work in particular linking up with other Eastern parts of the world, from both Asia and the strong emergence in cinematic movements across Eastern Europe.
The Festival works with over 10 venues, including 5 cinemas in the area such as Rich Mix, Genesis, Rio, and Cineworld West India Quay, and other East End venues such as Whitechapel Gallery and the Vibe Lounge.
Supporting new talent
East meets East
Special Screenings
Delegate’s Centre
Shorts
Audience Attendance
EEFF Future
The East End Film Festival supports new and local talent, and in 2008 twelve new British feature films screened, from our opening night premiere The Waiting Room (starring Anne Marie Duff and Ralph Little) to the debut features The Inheritance by local filmmaker Charlie Belleville, East End drama Saxon by local director Greg Loftin, and Mouth to Mouth by London based filmmaker Alison Murray and starring Ellen Page. Plus a whole slew of British documentaries, from our Festival award winner Tantric Tourists produced by local production company Slack Alice, to the UK premiere of We Dreamed America about the UK Americana music scene, to local documentaries on the Jewish community in Children of the Ghetto and Tracey Emin’s local The Golden Hart in Sandra.
The East End Film Festival has made strong links with Eastern Europe in “East Meets East” with 8 new feature films including from Poland, Estonia, Russia, and Czech Republic. Highlights of this were the UK premiere of Lejdis, the Polish box office sensation of 2008 breaking all home box office records in it’s native Poland; the UK premiere of the 2008 Estonian Oscar entry Klass supported by a visit to the Festival by director Ilmar Raag, and of the Czech coming-of-age release by young woman director Karin Babinska - Pusinky also supported by a visit from lead actress Sandra Novakova. We were also proud to preview Import Export by Ulrich Seidl before its UK release.
Elsewhere we premiered experimental drama The Tracey Fragments, also starring Ellen Page, which was followed by a live soundtrack by indie band Youthmovies to a remix of the film by VJ Fay Milton. The Robert Mapplethorpe documentary Black White & Grey was also screened in a live lounge situation with suitable music from the New York seventies era. Musically, composer Michael Nyman performed a live soundtrack to a variety of his own short films, and Hackney-based post-rock band Spork performed a live soundtrack to a visually stunning, although somewhat kitsch, Russian teenage movie.
We presented a number of retrospective screenings including the locally made 1970’s docu-drama Tunde’s Film with the original cast in attendance for a raucous Q&A, and “A Sense Of Place” at Whitechapel Gallery explored the significance of identity in East London with a selection of older short films and discussion.
A delegate’s centre at the Vibe Lounge in Brick Lane saw industry events with a variety of partners from Wallflower Press to Warp Films to local animation company Slinky Pictures, and at Stratford Circus we held hands-on workshops and panels with the New Producers Alliance, FourDocs, DFG, and others.
Finally, the Festival supports short films, both internationally with guest programmes of work from Poland, to a strong support of local filmmakers particularly with two selections of East End documentary (followed by a discussion) and with local filmmakers working in experimental and artist film & video practises (also followed by a discussion). Plus the premiere of short films made loacally under the New Pathways scheme.
The East End Film Festival aims to showcase a high quality range of new and contemporary films that explore the potential of cinema to cross cultural, political and social boundaries and capture the experience of living and working in the most exciting artistic hub in Europe - London’s East End.
In 2008, the East End Film Festival broke all previous records with many screenings completely selling-out in advance and audience attendance up four-fold on an already bursting 2007 programme. The breakdown for 2008 reflects our theme of East Meets East which was aimed at reflecting the growing numbers of new Eastern European residents in East London’s boroughs. Members of the local communities make up a large part of our audience but we have a strong take up from young professionals prepared to travel across London in search of new and innovative experiences.
The Film Festival has grown year on year with increased programming, wider geographical and media presence, greater audience loyalty and attendance and a growing industry affiliation. With further investment the festival has the capacity to cover a larger geographical area and reach a broader local, regional and international audience base to become one of London’s and the UK’s largest urban festivals.
