Young indie directors put on top short show
Films by younger residents of Perth and Kinross have been shown on the big screen and judged on their merits.
As part of the 2017 Aberfeldy Film Festival last weekend, Heartland Film Society organised the Young Indies Short Film Competition at the Birks Cinema.
For the second year running, 125 youngsters from across Highland Perthshire made 24 short films, ranging from fiction through to animation and documentary.
The proto-film makers were amazed and delighted to see their creations projected on the big screen at the Birks.
Announced at the final on Sunday, November 19, Grandtully Primary School won the Junior Trophy for its short film ‘The Rights of the Child’.
Second in the junior section were Breadalbane Primary P6 pupils Cara Duff, Kieren Lee, Kai Hoxton and Rebecca Price for ‘School Case,’ and third were Kenmore Primary pupils Marie, Aileen, Liam, Leo and India with ‘Volcanoes that go Boom!’
The senior trophy was won by Roddy and Hector Mathieson from Amulree with ‘Wayne Moon Pilot’, their own music video.
Second prize went to the team behind Breadalbane Academy’s ‘Killer Rat’ – Ruby Flatley, Emma Allardyce, Elise Vaux, Katlin Weaver, Carey MacNicoll, Erin Cross and Isla Logan.
Third was an Aberfeldy group which attended the Into Film movie making workshop in September, made up of Elspeth Milton, Annie Pointer, Amelie, Sam and Noah Storstein and Ewan Stephenson, with their spy story, ‘Magic Rock’.
Youngsters worked hard and with great enthusiasm to produce their short films and as well as having fun learning many skills along the way.
This year they attended workshops and had the opportunity to meet four professional young film makers - directors Robin Haig and Raisah Ahmed, Sean McInally and Dylan-Starr Adams - who gave them valuable tips and encouragement.
The film festival programme was opened on Friday with a showing Winners of the junior indie film prize were Grandtully PS pupils Myiah Quinn, Nina Balland and Freddie Brocklehurst
of the film ‘Edie’, directed by Simon Hunter and starring Sheila Hancock as an elderly woman getting over her husband’s passing by going walking up Scotland’s mountains, Edie’s long-held dream.
As part of the film festival fun around ‘Edie’, there were rucksack snacks, tea, coffee and music from a ceilidh band before the show. Some came to watch wearing hiking gear in the film’s honour.
During the weekend of the Aberfeldy Film Festival there was a chance to see ‘Into The West’, the film set in the badlands of Dublin and in the beautiful countryside in the western counties of Ireland.
Shown as the children’s film on Saturday morning, the cinema was packed with all ages, keen to see two boys carried away by a mystical white horse.
The runaways leave behind their tower block hell and start out on a quest to be modern-day cowboys and to discover their real Traveller heritage, all the while pursued by police and tracker dogs.
Saturday’s film for older viewers was Cloudburst, a funny, rude and raucous tale of older ladies breaking out of retirement to get married in Canada.
Sunday’s viewing offered the delightful Spanish film, ‘El Olivo’.