Arguably, the most exciting aspect of film programming is finding new voices and ensuring that their films get screened. Watching these first or second films enter into a dialogue with other works highlights the promise you as a programmer have in them, and suggests new paths the artists could take. In that vein, the Young Voices @ Essay Film Festival project coordinated by Dr. Janet McCabe allowed students from the MA Film Programming and Curating (including the author of this piece) to learn from that fantastic opportunity to find, foster and celebrate up-and-coming filmmakers.

The first edition of Young Voices @ EFF assembled a group of students from the MA to show work from participants in three projects: the Pittsburgh-London Film Program (in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh), the ‘Making Images’ course (held at the Phoenix Cinema, East Finchley), and the ‘Hidden Persuaders’ film workshops for Camden sixth-formers (organised by Birkbeck and the Derek Jarman Lab); and this participation led to further collaboration, working with Dr. Lily Ford (Derek Jarman) and Dr. Sarah Joshi (Pittsburgh-London), to develop this initiative involving young filmmakers.

Given the essay film form’s flexibility, the resulting films range from a feminist critique of the cultural meanings of the colour pink to a tour of London through its cafes, from a teenager’s bedroom to a busker in Trafalgar Square. Naturally, some are more confident with technical aspects than others and some feel more fully developed on a conceptual level. Therefore, the main challenge was presenting the films in a way that drew out connections and connectivity, brought out their strengths, but was respectful enough of the individual perspective of the nascent filmmakers.

The breadth of the films sparked stimulating conversations between the programming students, who ultimately settled on three strands: Captivated, Cornered and Connected, programmed by Liz Baker and Joanna Dugher; Reprogramming Reality, programmed by Nicole Atkinson, Rose Baker, Fernando Chaves Espinach, Katie Driscoll and Eliza Saunders; and Ordinary to Extraordinary, programmed by Jesus Manuel Blazquez Adan, Danielle Capretti and Denitsa Yordanova. Dealing with psychogeographies of London was a recurring topic; so were the cultural constraints on women’s lives. The perennial programmers’ questions arose, of course: how to connect the joyful nonchalance of Cigarettes with the pensive self-examination of Yellow while making sure each can fully blossom? What kind of conversation can this juxtaposition spark?

The original task was to curate a programme of short essay films from these (mostly) first-timers and screen them for an audience at the Birkbeck Cinema on Friday 14 December 2019. However, the project has continued to grow, in part because of the connection between Young Voices’ aims and the work done at the Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image’s Essay Film Festival, but also due to the excitement and rich discussion generated at the screening. A shorter selection was shown at the BFI’s Future Film on Sunday 24 February 2019, with the same programme repeated as part of the BIMI-Pittsburgh research workshop, ‘Displacement in Film and Visual Culture‘. For both screenings, the same programme was used, with a sharper division of the more intimate perspectives from those that dealt with social and communal experiences.

The first two screenings concluded with a Q&A with some of the filmmakers. For them, it was an exciting opportunity not only to show each other the fruits of their labour, but also to bring them to the BFI among peers and curious spectators of ‘future film.’ They confessed onstage to their sense of amazement at showing their work at the institutional centre of British film culture, but they were far from timid: whatever shyness may have tinted their discussion during the ‘premiere’ at Birkbeck had vanished, giving way to confident artistic voices that were clear about their films’ merits and hooks for potential audiences. In this sense, the third session, held once more at Birkbeck, allowed for an evaluation (of sorts) and a discussion that touched on some key issues that repeatedly recurred during the three screenings.

As Danielle Capretti (from the MA) suggestively described it, the first issue is one of ‘scaffolding’ or ‘ethics of care.’ How much do the programmers have to instruct, direct or guide the filmmakers ahead of the screenings? Is it their duty to point out mistakes, copyright issues and other issues for improvement to the filmmakers before their films ‘live’ in the world? The pitfalls of adult-centrism are fairly obvious in this kind of work, and particularly hard to avoid given the nature of the project. But there is a sense of responsibility that comes with the opportunity to present these films, at once fragile and assertive, and a sense of care that must envelop them. Their making, their effect on audiences, and their possible future in distribution, all formed part of the discussions; it is on screen and in front of an audience, of course, that films find completion.

It is, of course, a work that demands an acknowledgement of the emotional aspect of creating art in such a public manner. Not every one of the participants in the workshops will go on to become a filmmaker, but there is no reason for a first event like this to scare anyone away from a tentative career. In other words, programming ‘young voices’ must consider how the events themselves can nurture the creators. As Rhodri Benyon (Skateboarding: The First 50 Years) commented, it is exciting to find out that the things you are passionate about can touch or amuse other people. They are, after all, filmmakers, and they must know that every image will touch each audience member differently. Applause and criticism are inevitable, but it is desirable to have them face both in a serious, professional environment, hopefully conducive to the kind of conversation that will help these young filmmakers shape their second film project.

The programme

The participating MA Film Programming and Curating students were:  Nicole Atkinson, Liz Baker, Jesus Manuel Blazquez Adan, Danielle Capretti, Fernando Chaves Espinach, Katie Driscoll, Joanna Dugher, Eliza Saunders and Denitsa Yordanova.

The films shown at the first screening were divided in three strands:

Strand 1 : Captivated, Cornered and Connected, programmed by Liz Baker and Joanna Dugher

Film by Misty & Esme (Misty & Esme, 2018. 4mins)

Hidden Persuaders Around Us (Ronnie, Vinesh and Isaac, 2018. 3mins)

Litost (Benjamin Arthur Osborne, 2018. 6mins)

The Psychology of Proximity (Emma Dublin, 2018. 5mins)

Skateboarding: The first 50 years (Rhodri Beynon, 2018. 6mins)

Strand 2: Reprogramming Reality, programmed by Nicole Atkinson, Rose Baker, Fernando Chaves Espinach, Katie Driscoll and Eliza Saunders

Beauty (Athena Spillius, Mia Gane, and Catherine McCauley, 2018. 2:52mins)

Discernment (Iain Crammond, 2018. 9:38mins)

Material Obsessions (Federico Pernechele, 2018. 2:21mins)

Pink (Emma Graves, 2018. 9:07mins)

Strand 3: Ordinary to Extraordinary, programmed by Jesus Manuel Blazquez Adan, Danielle Capretti and Denitsa Yordanova

London from the Grounds Up  (Helen Richard, 2018. 7mins)

Yellow  (Mackenzie Stewart, 2017. 10mins)

Street Symphony (Prabhav Desai, 2018. 6mins)

Day-to-Day  (Thomas Wick, 2018. 6mins)

Cigarettes (Dean Bogdanovic, 2017. 6mins)