what we want!

The 4^th Youth Film Day took place as part of Woodgreen’s 8^th International Short Film Festival at a Cineworld. My film Depression Diary was screened alongside fellow www! filmmakers; The Special Ones, Life No More and Misconception.

Chatting to a woman in the lobby I told her a film I made was being screened, ‘What in the actual cinema? You’re a film maker! That’s fantastic’ she replied, all excited and happy for me.

I bumped into 4 of the guys who created The Special Ones and they explained to me how they knew each other. I said hello to Nellie and Elif (Life No More) and gave them a hug. It was great to catch up with them and see familiar faces. It made the atmosphere more comfortable and provided an opportunity to hang out with people in the same situation as me. One of The Special Ones said to me ‘I’ve never seen a film I made in the cinema before,’ it sounded like he was looking forward to his day.

The young bubbly hosts explained we’d view all the films, then there’d be an audience vote and the film with the most votes wins an award. Shown in a category called Reel Relationships, there were 7 films in total, about mobile phones, solitude, global warming, knife crime and families.

All the film makers took turns in coming to the front and collecting a certificate for having their film screened. Lots of photos were taken with the hosts and upcoming director, Mo Ali.

There was an interactive audience quiz about relationships with discussion. They asked questions like, ‘Have you ever cheated on a bf/gf?’, ‘How many relationships have you been in?’, ‘Do you lie to your parents?’ and so on.  Then each audience member voted for the film they liked best. A bar chart was shown and I was shocked, Depression Diary got the highest number of votes! I went up to the front once more and photos were snapped again. I was given a glass award in the shape of a star and a very generous prize.

A few audience members and staff came up to me and congratulated me. A young woman said she liked the animations in my film. I had originally intended to go in quietly by myself, see the films and then leave quietly. I came in silently, but was unavoidably leaving loudly!

Sam’s award, see more photos on our flickr page.

Samantha Ma, 09.4.10