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7 World Premieres, 3 International premieres, 2 European premieres and 19 UK festival premieres take place at the festival. This year’s festival also boasts an impressive range of post-screening Q&A’s with filmmakers in attendance as well as a free exhibition programme.
Just 2.5 miles from the Scottish border, Berwick-upon-Tweed is England’s most northerly town. From its base at The Maltings in the centre of the town, Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival serves local audiences year-round as well as drawing visitors from Edinburgh, Newcastle, Glasgow, London and international film and arts communities to its annual flagship event.
The Festival (BFMAF) is back for its 18th edition, championing the films and filmmakers who push boundaries and enliven audience relationships with cinema. This year’s programme includes a range of World, European and UK premieres that run the full gamut of genre and filmmaking style, here are just some of the highlights:
This year’s festival opens with the UK Premiere of Anerca, Breath of Life by Finnish father and son filmmaking team Markku Lehmuskallio & Johannes Lehmuskallio which documents the singing, dancing, and forms of contemporary living amongst indigenous peoples living in the Arctic Circle.
Part political satire, part zombie stoner film and informed by contemporary internet culture, Hello Dankness (UK Premiere) is a bent suburban musical comprised entirely of pirated film samples that bears witness to the psychotropic cultural spectacle of the period 2016 to 2021.
Screening for free every day of the festival, Christopher Ulutupu’s video work Hidden Amongst Clouds embraces Samoan mythology and 90’s fantasy TV aesthetics. Ulutupu imagines news tories and moral virtues; unfolding in an unhurried manner that feels radically resistant to the pressures of twenty-first century life.
The UK premiere of Cláudia Varejão’s delicately nuanced debut fiction film Wolf and Dog is a luminous ode to queer communities on the Azores island of Sao Miguel.
The UK festival premiere of Luke Fowler’s Being in a Place - A Portrait of Margaret Tait draws on a wealth of unseen archival material and unpublished notebooks from the iconic Scottish doctor, filmmaker and poet.
Closing the festival is Arnold is a Model Student (UK Premiere), the debut feature from Sorayos Prapapan that is by turns an absurdist satire and act of cinematic protest, inspired by the Bad Student movement calling for educational reform in Thailand.
LISTINGS
Anerca,Breath of Life +Q&A with filmmaker Johannes Lehmuskallio - Friday 3 March, 19:30, Maltings Main House
Hello Dankness +Q&A with filmmakers Soda Jerk - Saturday 4 March, 12:00, Maltings Henry Travers
Hidden Amongst Clouds +Q&A with filmmaker Christopher Ulutupu – Friday 3 March – Sunday 5 March, The Gymnasium
Wolf and Dog -Saturday 4 March, 19:30, Maltings Main House
Being in a Place – A Portrait of Margaret Tait + Q&A with filmmaker Luke Fowler - Sunday 5March, 16:00, Maltings Main House
Ungentle + Q&A with filmmaker Huw Lemmey- Sunday 5 March, 17:30, Maltings Main House
Arnold is a Model Student - Sunday 5 March, 19:30, Maltings Main House
For Festival Tickets and Info please CLICK HERE