Kent Film Foundation’s Covid Film Challenge (KFFCFD) is going virtual from May 4 to June 4 and will include short films from around the world.
Some 400 submissions have been made in response to and under the constraints of lockdown and ‘bubbles’. The film event is being help in association with Ramsgate International Film & TV Festival.
The festival will also feature short films supported by Screen South. These were made as part of the BFI Film Academy which supports 16-19-year-old aspiring filmmakers. Screen South is a Folkestone based cultural development organisation.
There are three age categories which are 10-12,14-16 and 17-19 and there a £100 audience award for each category, sponsored by Strangelove Festival. Films can be viewed and voted for at www.strangelovefestival.com
The festival celebrates not only young filmmakers from around the world but is also a reminder of everyone’s courage and perseverance through the last 12 months. The Colyer-Fergusson Charitable Trust has supported for Kent Film Foundation to ensure the online festival can take place.
Youth film workshops will resume in May, initially remotely but with an aim for face-to-face sessions from September.
The programme:
Please Stay | Dir: Evangelina Sarett, 2 min, Animation, Russia, Age Group: 10-12
Even if you’re feeling sad you can still help someone, who may feel worse than you.
Smile | Dir: Tilly Jones, 1 min, UK, Age Group: 10-12
This film is themed around kindness and how it’s so important to always be kind which can make someone’s day.
My Big Happy Family | Dir: Hanna Peresztegi, Hungary, 2 min, Age Group: 14-16
Short animated documentary which focuses on a family though the pandemic.
555 | Dir: Mario Casado Fontana, 1 min, Spain, Age Group: 14-16
In this period of self-isolation and global pandemic, runners start to develop new ways of training.
Players | Dir: Ava Bounds, UK, 2 min, Age Group; 14-16
A special girl, a cigar box, a dead bird. Today, Thea adds a new player to her collection.
Pride | Director: Tom Nethersole, Australia, 1 min, Age Group: 14-16
We need to stop putting people against each other and we need to unite with PRIDE.
Dubai Quarantines | Dir: Lara Rudar, UAE, 3 min, Age Group: 14-16
Seven friends self-isolating in Dubai document a day during the Covid-19.
The Error | Dir: Musa Ahmed, Bangladesh, 1 min, Age Group: 14-16
A young man wakes up from a bad dream and finds out that he is still dreaming.
Sixty | Dir Paula Szczyrba, UK, 1 min, Age Group: 14-16
What if you knew you had one-minute left to live? What would you do?
Student of the week | Dir: Charlie Hills, UK, 1 min, Age Group: 14-16
A boy is trapped in a loop, a never-ending cycle of expected perfection, he grows tired of the monotony and mediocrity of student life.
42 | Dir: Cristian Păsat, Moldova, Animation, 4 mins, Age Group: 17-19
42 days of quarantine…
Moments | Dir: Konstancja Niscigorska, 1 min, Ireland, Age Group: 17-19
During a very troubling time and what is currently happening worldwide with Covid-19, we should appreciate the little moments that we take for granted and cherish them more closely.
Let’s stay together | Dir: Pietro Gobbi, Italy, 2 min, Age Group: 17-19
Synopsis: Let’s Stay Together shows the power of the family dynamic during Covid -19.
Abyss | Dir: Max Roach, UK, 3 min, Age Group: 17-19
Science and some magic can make the biggest dreams come true…
Quarantine Daydream | Dir: Charlton John Jocson, 3 min, Philippines, Age Group: 17-19
It’s just a normal day in quarantine for this young man, but something seems a little off.
kjgfkl | Dir: Tallulah Remond-Stephen, 3 min, France, Age Group: 17-19
She is trapped, we’re all trapped, sweetly with sweat, strewn in our own lives, that matter until they’re gone.
BFI Academy Films made by Kent based youth are also included in the festival. The BFI Academy is a selective film programme for youth aged 16-19 hosted by Screen South. Each year some of the young members of Kent Film Foundation are lucky enough to be selected to the youth programme: https://www.screensouth.org/bfi-film-academy/
The films are: Unfiltered, The Last Winter, From Within and Status Unidentified.
Kent Film Foundation began as a not-for-profit arm of a film production company based in Thanet. A group of filmmakers attached a training element to a series of feature film shoots. This successfully fed talented young people through and into entry level film industry jobs, film school, universities and drama schools for those interested in careers in media.
The clubs inspire young people to get more engaged with their local community and find jobs doing something they enjoy.
This prompted one of the filmmakers, Jan Dunn, who had also grown up in poverty herself, into founding Kent Film Foundation with charitable status in the hope of hiring professional filmmakers to mentor young people in film workshops that would be free to participants.
Kent Film Foundation, based in Ramsgate’s Cliff Street, will be offering film workshops once again for 15 – 19 year olds, initially remotely from mid May.
If you are interested or know a young person who might be, visit www.kentfilmfoundation.co.uk to register your interest.
