From the 15th until 26th of June, the Young Programmers from Edinburgh hosted various events and sessions in the framework of EIFF - Edinburgh International Film Festival
Interviewing guests at Youth Hub:
From the 17th until 20th of June, the Young Programmers hosted various sessions at Youth Hub, interviewing guests from different films in the festival in front of a youth audience (aged 15-25). Guests included actors, directors, editors, documentary filmmakers, costume designers and make up artists.
Conducting Public Q&As:
The Young Programmers introduced several public screenings and hosted Q&A sessions with the film’s directors throughout the festival. This was a great opportunity for them to engage directly with the filmmakers, facilitate discussion with them, and develop their communication skills.
Media Days:
Four EIFF Young Programmers attended the EIFF Media Days the 21st and 22nd of June. They hosted sessions in front of an audience of secondary school students (over 300 attendees over the two days) – this included a Q&A with the director of Cheer Up. By talking about their experience as Young Programmers, they also publicized the activities of the group for the 2016-2017 session, having subsequently received emails from several students asking how they can join.
During the previous two months before the starting of EIFF, the young programmers from Edinburgh worked on the final details of their programming and had working sessions with a Senior Programmer and the Deputy Artistic Director of EIFF.
In April-May the Young Programmers met with Niall Fulton, EIFF Senior Programmer of the two retrospective seasons at this year’s EIFF – Look Again, a retrospective of French Cinema du Look and Pow! Live Action Comic Strip film adaptations. The Young Programmers discussed the programming process with him and watched the above listed films from the retrospectives. They then wrote personal responses to the films and their writing was published in the EIFF catalogue. In this way, the Young Programmers were encouraged to critically assess the retrospective films and articulate their own response to them.
Alongside this, the Young Programmers also prepared brochure and catalogue copy for several other films from this year’s EIFF programme. This included their own shorts programme The Young and the Wild, Kids in Love by Chris Foggin (United Kingdom, 2016), Moon Dogs by Philip John (United Kingdom, 2016) and Sick (Bolesno) by Hrovje Mabic (Croatia, 2015). During this time they also met with Diane Henderson, Deputy Artistic Director of EIFF, to discuss their final choices of films that would be ‘badged’ in the brochure with the Young and the Wild stamp
Films
Weekly working meetings with a group of Young Programmers from Edinburgh, between january and june, to plan and organize one section for EIFF - Edinburgh International Film Festival.
The young group is responsible of the overall organization: film selection, communication, film presentation and dialogue with the filmmakers and guests during the screenings programmed in the Film Festival.
Films
The EIFF Young Programmers from Edinburgh started a collaboration with a group of Young Programmers from Glasgow in the framework of GYFF - Glasgow Youth Film Festival
Glasgow Film Festival runs also the Glasgow Youth Film Festival. Some of the Young Programmers from Edinburgh attended this year and had a great time meeting filmmakers, seeing fantastic new films and meeting other Young Programmers, so we are preparing an agreement of collaboration with them. The partnership will allow Young Programmers from both film Festivals (EIFF) and (GYFF) to meet and discuss films and to watch films that each group have programmed. This builds the confidence and ability of the young people from each group and expands their knowledge of cinema.