There’s a exceptionally strong contingent of rural films and events on offer and, alongside the recent Film Policy Review’s commitment to “launching digital screens and projectors in more rural community and village halls”, the festival extends its reach this year into three new locations in North Shropshire: Oswestry, Whitchurch and Market Drayton.
Borderlines is delighted to be hosting BAFTA’s first ever village hall event at Moccas in Herefordshire. Bruce Robinson (The Killing Fields, Withnail and I, The Rum Diary) will be In Conversation with the presenter of Radio 4’s Film Programme, Francine Stock, (now a Festival Patron) on Saturday 3 March.
Among the highlights of the main festival just announced: on the opening night and in March at Ludlow Assembly Rooms, the simply irresistible black and white silent film, The Artist, hotly tipped for Oscar success; The Descendants, a family drama set in Hawaii starring George Clooney; Shame with Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan in a fraught brother/sister relationship; The Well-Digger’s Daughter, a sun-drenched evocation of life in 1940s Provence as well as pre-release films featuring such far flung places as Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Anatolia.
The Artist, The Descendants, Shame as well as four of the films showing in village and market town venues (A Separation, We Need To Talk About Kevin, The Skin I Live In and Pina) have all been nominated for BAFTA awards.
Tune for the Blood, a new feature-length documentary chronicling a year in the lives of Herefordshire Young Farmers, gets its first showing on Borderlines’ opening weekend. Directed and produced by Hereford based Anne Cottringer, the film celebrates the connection of the young farmers to the countryside and to the rhythms of the seasons.
Resistance, foregrounding the beautiful but austere Olchon valley on the English/Welsh border, plays at no fewer than ten venues with writer Owen Sheers introducing the film at Michaelchurch Escley and four other members of cast and crew, (including Gavin and Stacey’s Melanie Walters) presenting the film at other towns and villages. Two Resistance themed walks are also scheduled.
Carrying on the rural theme, the Festival stages it very own Archers event. Ever wondered how that ewe sounds so authentic giving birth on the radio? The Archers' agriculture adviser Steve Peacock and senior sound supervisor Louise Willcox go behind the scenes of Radio 4's long-running, popular drama serial with sounds and pictures at Ewyas Harold and Bromyard on Sunday 4 March.
And there’s Whisky Galore! on screen and off, the classic Ealing comedy with whisky sampling thrown in at The Sun Inn, Leintwardine, one of Britain’s last remaining parlour bars and voted best Herefordshire pub of 2011 by CAMRA members.
Borderlines also sees the inauguration of live satellite transmissions of top quality theatre, ballet and opera to rural Shropshire venues thanks to the BFI Rural Cinema Pilot. The National Theatre performance of The Comedy of Errors on Thursday 1 March will beam in to the audience at the hall in the tiny village of Aston-on-Clun in South Shropshire simultaneously with cinemas all over the country. Also taking part are Shropshire Screen consortium members Festival Drayton Centre, Wem Town Hall and The Edge in Much Wenlock (part of Flicks in the Sticks).
Ian Kerry, Director of Flicks in the Sticks comments,v“We are really excited that Flicks in the Sticks can now bring live Satellite links to the national theatre to remote rural areas. It’s the kind of technical development we could only have dreamed of a few years ago”
The Festival is dedicated to the memory of Peter Williamson, Chairman of Wyevale Nurseries, who died recently. Peter was a long-time Borderlines board member, sponsor and one of its strongest supporters.
Booking for all films and events commences this week either in person at The Courtyard, Hereford, online at www.borderlinesfilmfestival.org or by calling the Central Box Office number, 01432 340555.
