Tag Archives: Creative Scotland

Film shot in Glasgow to be screened at Sundance

Scotland at Sundance Film Festival

Two films supported by Creative Scotland , Exchange & Mart and God Help the Girl, will receive world premieres at the Sundance Film Festival, 16-26 January 2014 at Park City, Utah.

God help the Girl will be screened in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition and Exchange & Mart has been selected from more than 8,000 entries to screen in the Shorts Competition.

God Help The Girl is a musical feature film, written and directed by Stuart Murdoch, lead singer of the group Belle and Sebastian. It was produced by Barry Mendel, with Co-Producer Carole Sheridan of Singer Films and Associate Producer, Beth Allen of Forest of Black providing on the ground support for the film in Scotland. The film stars Emily Browning, Olly Alexander and Hannah Murray.

This is the debut feature of Stuart Murdoch who aspired to tell the story of “a better summer, or at least a summer when something happened. It happened to a boy and a girl in a city roughly the same size and population of Glasgow. Perhaps the canals were a bit grimier, the high-rise buildings taller, the streets emptier when you needed them to be, and the beat clubs busier than the ones around here. But on the whole the city was this one.”

According to Barry Mendel, “It’s a simple story – about the brief moment after you’ve realised what you want to do with your life, before your dream settles into becoming your job, when you’re filled with enthusiasm, meeting like-minded friends and the possibilities are endless.”

The film was shot, edited, scored and mixed in Glasgow over the course of 2012-2013 and will be released in cinemas around the world in 2014 following its world premiere at Sundance on the 18th January 2014. See: www.sundance.org/festival/release/2014-festival-us-world-and-next-films-announced

Starring Ewen Bremner and recent graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Grace Chilton and Tania Gardner, Exchange & Mart is a short about a boarding school girl who comes of age in the most unlikely of circumstances – during a self-defence exercise. The short is written and directed by Cara Connolly, co-directed by Martin Clark and produced by Phoebe Grigor and Maeve McMahon. Coming from a background in documentary filmmaking, Cara and Martin previously co-directed The Boccia Brothers, which screened on BBC2 in August 2012.

On being selected for the Sundance Film Festival Film, the team said:

“We are thrilled that our film has been selected for Sundance 2014. We had amazing commitment from our fantastic crew, and were honoured to work with such a great cast. We would like to thank Scottish Shorts for their help and support. Team Exchange & Mart can’t wait to be standing in the Utah winter snow. Skiing for Scotland.”

The film received support through the Scottish Shorts programme designed to discover and develop writers, directors and producers. The programme is a collaboration between Hopscotch Films and DigiCult, with funding from Creative Scotland.

Head of Development & Executive Producer at DigiCult Paul Welsh, said:

“Cara and Martin’s Sundance selection is an absolutely fantastic result for a Scottish documentary team working in narrative fiction for the first time. With the right level of investment and focused support, Scotland can generate world class filmmaking talent. Exchange and Mart is further proof of this at a key time in the development of filmmaking in the country

Youth arts strategy launched

Leave a reply

Scotland’s first national arts strategy for young people launched

Youth arts to receive £5million over next two years

Time To Shine, Scotland’s arts strategy for young people aged 0–25, was launched at the end of last week by Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs and Janet Archer, Chief Executive, Creative Scotland.

The strategy – which is centred around the three key themes of creating and sustaining engagement; nurturing potential and talent; and developing infrastructure and support – sets out a vision and key recommendations to enable Scotland’s children and young people to flourish and achieve, in and through the arts and creativity.

Youth arts in Scotland will benefit from £5m new funding from Scottish Government over the next two years and that this funding will support initiatives based on key objectives of the strategy. The initiatives are:

A major new open fund for organisations to develop new routes for young people to participate in and access arts and creative activity. Applications to the fund will open early in the New Year, via the Creative Scotland website.

The development of a new national digital platform to showcase and connect young people engaged in youth arts activity

The establishment of a National Youth Advisory Group (NYAG). A group of young representatives from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland will be tasked with making recommendations on the make-up and role of the NYAG, working in partnership with Creative Scotland who say that individual organisations will implement additional initiatives based on objectives in the strategy, with all work co-ordinated by a new, soon to be established youth arts programme management team.

The full strategy and accompanying documentation can be accessed here.

Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, said:-“The launch of Scotland’s first ever youth arts strategy is an exciting moment. At its heart, the strategy promotes the real benefits and value culture can have on the development of our young people and our communities.
“The Scottish Government recognises the positive impact that arts and creativity can have and the strategy will, for the first time, provide strategic direction, vision and resources so that we can engage and inspire a whole new generation. Time to Shine builds on the well-established links between culture, education, youth employment and personal development.
“It is not only about providing enhanced access opportunities for all of Scotland’s young people but it goes further to support meaningful career pathways for our talent of the future; be it on stage, the screen, behind the scenes or in our world-leading creative industries.
“Perhaps most importantly of all, our aim is that this engagement with culture will nurture personal qualities that will help our young people to grow confidently as citizens and towards realising their ambitions, wherever they lie in the arts or elsewhere.”
Janet Archer, Chief Executive, Creative Scotland, said:-“The launch of Time To Shine follows on the back of amazing work already taking place in youth arts in this country and the skills, dedication and energy of people of all ages involved throughout Scotland.

“Creative Scotland aims to ensure that this work continues and develops through the Time to Shine strategy. Putting young people at the heart of Scotland’s creative future will mean young people’s lives will continue to be enriched through engagement in arts and creative activity across Scotland.”

To read an extract of Janet Archer’s launch speech, click here.

16-year old Tom Strang from Grantown-on-Spey, who takes part in arts activity with Eden Court Theatre and is one of the young people advising on the make up of the National Youth Advisory Group, said:

“The arts give me a way to express myself through music, drama and dance. I hope that this strategy is taken on board by all arts provision providers in Scotland and reaches out to engage people who may not have had the opportunity to access the arts before. I also hope that it will lead to a future of even more high quality art being produced in Scotland.”

20 year old Jocelyn Gowans from Glasgow who works with YDance, said:-“Being involved in the arts means being part of a bigger picture, it expands your horizons. I hope this strategy will bring art forms together so that practitioners can coexist and create a world of endless imagination and inspiration for Scotland’s young people”.

Follow the conversation via #timetoshine

Photos Drew Farrell

Cashback for Communities helps young filmmakers

Leave a reply

Scotland’s Culture Secretary was in Glasgow yesterday to see how cash confiscated from crooks is supporting young people to develop their creative skills.

Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, visited the Glasgow Media Access Centre (GMAC), where young people from targeted areas of the city are benefiting from Mad About Movies – a programme of free activities designed to boost their knowledge and understanding of filmmaking.

The centre has been awarded £39,205 in Cashback for Communities funding through Creative Scotland.

The funding is supporting GMAC’s Mad About Movies programme which includes regular movie clubs and a filmmaking summer school. A training programme, also delivered through the project, will give teachers and youth workers the knowledge and skills to set up film projects for young people in their own communities.

Ms Hyslop went to an acting workshop at GMAC today, where Scottish actor Atta Yaqub, star of ‘Ae fond kiss’, was talking to the young people involved in the Mad About Movies project about his own skills and experience.

She said:

“Through Cashback for Communities, the Scottish Government has reinvested more than £46 million recovered through the Proceeds of Crime Act, back into communities to benefit Scotland’s young people.

“In particular, the creative strand of Cashback is helping thousands of young Scots to access life-changing opportunities to boost their skills, improve their employability and reach their full potential through engagement with creativity and the arts.

“Today I was proud to meet some of the young people whose lives are being impacted by this important work. The Mad About Movies project is an excellent example of how Cashback funding is making a real difference to their enthusiasm, confidence, outlook and skill base.”

Iain Munro, Director of Creative Development at Creative Scotland, said:

“During the Year of Creative Scotland 2012, the creative strand of the CashBack programme will allow over 8,000 young people across the country to create a film, choreograph or perform in a dance production or record their own piece of music.

“Taking part in creative activities can make a real difference to the lives of our children and young people. It provides an opportunity for young people to shine and express themselves and learn how work as part of a group. We look forward to the continued success of this life-changing programme for years to come.”

Beth Armstrong from GMAC, said: “GMAC has a proud 30 year history of championing diversity and equality within the Scottish film industry. We are delighted to be part of Cashback for Communities which allows us to offer this amazing programme of free film activities for young people from all over Glasgow. If you’re 10 – 19 and Mad About Movies then get in touch and get involved”!

Creative Scotland bring VOICES to Glasgow

Leave a reply

With the cityscape of the ‘Dear Green Place’ as its backdrop, Voices is four days of contemporary theatre, dance, street and live arts, with more than 70 performances by over 30 companies presented as part of IETM Glasgow.

IETM (International network for contemporary performing arts) has chosen the city as the venue for its international plenary meeting and artistic showcase during 4-7 November 2010. Up to 600 performing arts practitioners from 45 countries will roam Glasgow for an intensive four-day programme of talks, performances, networking tours and events.

The theme of ‘voices’ encompasses everything from communication, argument, noise, identity and many other ways to express ourselves as individuals, groups and nations

One of the most strategically significant cultural events in Scotland’s 2010 calendar, IETM Glasgow integrates Creative Scotland’s ambition to increase the country’s capacity for international working with showcasing the country’s creative talent: on stage; in found spaces, newly inhabited by artists; and across the dinner tables of its host city.

New productions commissioned for the IETM Glasgow artistic programme include Bridging by Laika (Minty Donald and Nick Miller), a unique site-responsive performance situated on the banks and waterway of the River Clyde and Fish and Game’s Alma Mater, which will take the audience on a performative tour of Scotland Street School. Many of Scotland’s leading arts organisations will be presenting work, including: Roadkill, Ankur Art’s site specific production on the complex realities behind sex trafficing; Midsummer, David Grieg and Gordon McIntyre’s weekend to remember; and Janice Parker’s Private Dancer.

Keynote speaker at the conference is Todd Lester, the founder of freeDimensional (fD) and more recently the Creative Resistance Fund. Before launching freeDimensional he served as Information & Advocacy Manager for the International Rescue Committee in Sudan.

Andrew Dixon, Chief Executive, Creative Scotland: ‘IETM Glasgow is an outstanding showcase for the best of Scotland’s performing arts talent, the city of Glasgow as a creative place and as a catalyst to promoting the country’s contemporary culture internationally.’

Mary Ann DeVlieg, Secretary General of IETM, says of IETM Glasgow 2010: ‘Let’s meet Glasgow as it is today with its nuanced historical, demographic and contemporary cultural mixes. Let’s let Glaswegians see how a few hundred incoming arts professionals see their richly layered city and let the meeting’s participants hear how Glaswegians ‘live’ their city.

‘Glasgow also marks a turning point for the IETM network: an energetic three-year commitment to proving the value of arts to our societies by making visible the hundreds of amazing projects throughout Europe which allow people to think, see, feel, touch, taste, be critical and be confident… in other words to be alive and be human in this century. Starting with Glasgow!”

According to IETM Glasgow’s Producer, Steve Slater: ‘It is an opportunity to change the way people think about Scotland. It’s also about how we think of ourselves, our own creativity, imagination and culture.

‘This project has re-kindled in me an excitement for the potential of Scottish work to hold its own on the international stage. It’s made me see the work and the city a-new again, fresh and sparkling in its commitment to new ideas and creativity.’

For more information see: http://www.ietm-glasgow.eu