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Friday: An afternoon tour took delegates to the "Isle" of Portland
(actually a peninsula with a narrow causeway linking it to the mainland.)
There was an unique opportunity to visit the National Sailing Academy on
Portland, where the Olympic teams were training, led by one of the founders
of the project.
In the evening, before a packed house of nearly 180 delegates, John Rowell
and Marion Waine presented a selection of sequences from the 2012 IAC
Peter Coles Audio-Visual Competition. John introduced each item with
great warmth and humour, while Marion handled the technical aspects. There was a buzz of
enthusiasm from the audience for several sequences. The passion and personal
nature of Malcolm Imhoff's Soul Music, where a dawn ascent of Mont
Blanc became a religious experience, was very popular. The Great
Prairie by Jean Paul Petit and Jacques van de Weerdt based on the paintings
of Edward Hopper was much admired. Few had expected outright comedy, but
Dave & Carol Gillow's piece Pirates featuring a tale for children
and a dreadful pun got broad laughs. An interesting blend of humour, AV and
video, Little Ted's Birthday Surprise by John Smith & Jill
Bunting also raised plenty of smiles. After the applause for the moving biography entitled Thomas, the authors Linda and Edgar Gibbs were invited to talk about it. The sequence deals with a remarkable Irish foundling escaping poverty by joining the British army ... and follows the family story to the birth and marriage of Edgar Gibbs himself. They won the Runner-Up Trophy and proved as entertaining a live double-act as they are great AV authors. The evening culminated in the impressive winner of the IAC Peter Coles Trophy, Le 203 ème Jour (The 203rd Day) by Christian & Danièle Brion. The piece is narrated by a premature baby who talks of the first vague impressions of other people, later the awareness of touch and voices as she develops. As the infant grows stronger and stable it sends with her telling us she now feels ready to love and be loved. |
John and Marion Linda and Edgar receive their award |
Bournemouth team |
The evening gave us not just an entertaining time but also an indication of the superb technical standards of the festival with bright clear pictures on screen and an astoundingly good sound system - achieved, we are told, by judicious use of contacts in the music world to obtain loudspeakers and the expertise of Ted May and Neil Anderson and the rest of the team from Bournemouth Video Club using sophisticated metering of the room's acoustic characteristics and careful setting of a graphic equaliser. |
IAC Competition Manager, David Newman, had organised programmes that provided a good range of films in each session. In each coffee break there was talk about what had just been seen and debates about the star ratings. The only risk was that the Hotel Rembrandt's meals were excellent and generously sized from breakfast to dinner, so it was tempting to doze for the first few minutes of each session until the quality of films compelled attention. In each mini cinema the same very high standard of projected image and sound quality we had seen on Friday night was maintained. After each film, the IAC Council Member acting as host in each cinema presented certificates to those film makers who were present.
Yoo Younguee, Suzy Sommer, Stephen Andrews, Jill Lampert, Kay Bamford-Burnell receive their certificates |
Sam Brown | There was some disappointment that the special session devoted to films by younger makers and compered by Sam Brown, did not attract more of the film makers themselves - not even those from a local primary school whose film was screened. Certainly we were in the last days of the Easter holiday, but perhaps IAC will have to reconsider ways of running this session in future. |
On Saturday evening the main cinema was converted back to its normal look as a function room for the gala dinner. While formal dress was not required, many people enjoyed dressing up for this occasion. Among the "penguin-suits" and formal frocks were Korean "Han Bo" and a Scottish kilt. The loyal toast was proposed by SOCO Chair, Anne Vincent. The toast to the IAC was given in memorable style by Dr. Georg Schoerner, General Secretary of VÖFA (the Austrian equivalent of the IAC). He began in a deceptively formal style, but soon had the room rocking with laughter with his comments on his experiences of Britain. National Chairman, Ron Prosser, responded with similar light-heartedness.
Pip Critten acted as MC and did a memorable comedy magic routine which left us all wondering how he had done it, even while chortling at his jokes. IAC President, Reg Lancaster, presented the UNICA Medal for services to the hobby. His build-up kept most of us guessing until he revealed the recipient was Michael Gough. Michael is well known and extremely popular, so this was greeted with a storm of applause. Potters Bar Filmmakers received warm congratulations for having passed their 60th anniversary. The guest of honour was actor and producer, Michael Medwin. His speech was, of course, beautifully delivered and very funny. His charming wife revealed later that, true professional as he is, Michael had refused alcohol before his speech. One of her duties was to have a large glass of wine ready for when he sat down again! Not that he was allowed to sit for long since prolonged applause made him take several bows.
Michael Medwin, Michael Gough, Dr. Georg Schoerner, Pip Critten, Potters Bar Filmmakers |
Sunday: The day revolved around the main cinema and the showing of the major award-winning films. But in the background our friendly film reporter from the Netherlands, Romy Van Krieken, was interviewing several of the winning film makers on camera. We hope to have some extracts of those interviews online soon. David Newman, Annabelle Lancaster and Jan Watterson spent most of each break returning discs, tapes and certificates to competition entrants. The Deputy Mayor of Weymouth popped in for the afternoon, declared herself deeply impressed not only by the films themselves but by the dedication and enthusiasm of all the people she met. Reporters from local press did interviews and assembled statistics. Several members of the public, who had heard about the event through the extensive local publicity in press and radio came along. Two sets of visitors came from London, one New Zealand actress visiting Britain and an animator from Serbia, were all attracted by a mention on the BBC website news page. Several young film makers, on the brink of a career in the industry, came along to see the work and were knocked out by the high quality of ideas and themes as well as the techniques and production values achieved by no-budget film makers.
Amid a barrage of photographers, Tony Colville and Jane Andrews were presented with trophies for Reading Film and Video Makers and Bristol Film and Video Society, the two winners of the Best IAC Club Website competition. At the end of screenings Chairman, Ron Prosser, opened the envelopes to reveal the winners of the two special awards. Best British Entry went to Stewart Mackay of Wiltshire for Pigeon Post. The Daily Mail Trophy for best film in the festival went to Angels on the Track by Moving Pictures from the Czech Republic.
Channel 7, Guido Haesen collects a Diamond for Vito Labalestra, Julian Baldwin collects awards for Stewart Mackay, Best Website winners |
But even then there was more on offer from the SOCO team: a bonus expedition to Athelhampton stately home for a private drinks reception and viewing of the house with a special showing of From Time to Time which was shot there on location.
Some of the SOCO team working at the registration desk, Phil Marshman, Eric Montague |
Every BIAFF is a special event with its own special delights. SOCO - hosting the festival for the first time - did us proud.
special awards |
diamond | *****
| **** | *** |
** | * | AV
awards | website awards
event report |
| competition statistics |
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