What lies beyond

Nov 24 2005

Jenny White, Western Mail

EVER despaired at the blandness of mainstream TV or dreamed of making your own film?Then you'll be interested in BeyondTV.The international film festival, held in Swansea this weekend, promises a feast of unconventional movies plus lessons on how to make and distribute your own films.Now in its sixth year, BeyondTV is the only festival of its kind. It draws together short films in every genre, from fiction and animation to cutting-edge documentaries.They are linked by their intention to encourage social change - and their creators have been fearless in their choices of subject matter: war in Uganda; the political response to September 11; the Israel-Palestine conflict - all these topics are covered.BeyondTV is organised by Undercurrents, an international group with charitable status that supports people wanting to make their own issue-based films by providing free technical training and help with production and distribution.It's the only group of its kind in Britain - probably the world - and it's based in Swansea.Here are some of the events taking place.The festival kicks off on Friday night with the MISTYs, a glittering and irreverent awards ceremony honouring people who have used film, video and TV to make a difference in the world. Among those nominated are comedian Mark Thomas, for his work in highlighting the arms trade, Sir Bob Geldof, and an environmental protester who attacked Jeremy Clarkson with a custard pie.The hot topic on Saturday is how to make and distribute your own films. Festival goers can learn how to get the best out of a camcorder, and how to get their work seen by audiences of 200,000 people - a figure comparable to many programmes screened on mainstream TV.The workshops reflect a major transformation in the way films are made and distributed."Undercurrents wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the camcorder," says Undercurrents coordinator Helen Iles. "The camcorder was the first revolution, then laptops became easier to use and edit on. I think the technology drives people to do it for themselves. And because it's very easy to use you don't need a lot of training."Once you've made your film, the next challenge is getting it seen. This is an ongoing problem for films supported by Undercurrents. "A lot are not TV material, they're too far out, too risky," says Iles.Undercurrents helps its filmmakers by releasing DVDs of their work, and festivals such as BeyondTV are also important. But one of Saturday's workshops introduces a powerful new way to reach thousands of viewers on a daily basis; peer-to-peer technology."Traditionally, you have one centre that broadcasts using aerials that reach hundreds of thousands or millions of people each. It's very expensive," explains Hamish Campbell, who runs the workshop."But now the whole internet is buzzing with peer-to-peer technology. Rather than having a central aerial, everybody uploads and downloads films from each other's personal computers. As everybody just uses their local internet connection, there's no central cost. And the more users you have the more efficient it becomes - you can have 200,000 people accessing a file simultaneously."Peer to Peer is a radical and politically interesting prospect because it is totally decentralised and deregulated."In theory it's going to change the way television and movies are produced and distributed," says Campbell. "We're talking about the start of a revolution."While some will use the technology for piracy, Campbell has other aims. "We want to intervene and put legal content on there - films that we have the copyright to, videos we've produced ourselves."Like those involving clowns.Picture the scene. In Edinburgh, the G8 summit is underway. Protesters have turned out in force. So have the police. It's a tense, possibly dangerous situation. But some of the protesters look different. They have big feet, candy floss hair and red noses. And instead of shouting angrily, they are capering about trying to make everybody laugh.Yes, clowning really is the latest protest technique, and on Saturday festival goers will be able to watch footage of the Rebel Clown Army's frontline tactics at the G8 Summit. If you feel inspired, you can also attend a workshop on rebel clown techniques. These could include speaking in a squeaky voice and stuffing your pockets with all manner of silly items to produce if you are stopped and searched.So what's it all in aid of? The clown army believes that "inside everyone is a lawless clown trying to escape".Like the Shakespearean fool, these modern clowns aim to be wise in their madness. Their website www.clownarmy.org explains, "Since the beginning of time tricksters (the mythological origin of all clowns) have embraced life's paradoxes, creating coherence through confusion - adding disorder to the world in order to expose its lies and speak the truth."Films with a global theme will be screened throughout the day on Saturday. We all know that some disasters seem to capture more media attention than others. In Rebels Without A Cause, film maker and journalist Daniel Simpson seeks to redress the balance by reporting in depth on the war in Uganda."He talks about the causes of that war, how it's perpetuated and how it's not talked about in the mainstream media," explains Iles. Simpson will be present at the screening to discuss issues raised by the film.Other topics covered include activism in Iraq, and the experiences of a Greek Cypriot who recently revisited Northern Cyprus, having fled the country when Turkish troops arrived.On a lighter note, The Baka (Baka Beyond) documents a musical collaboration between a British band and an African forest people, while The Only Clown in the Village follows the efforts of a Welsh-born man of Sri Lankan descent (the only Asian clown in Britain), who visited tsunami-struck Sri Lanka on his own self-styled aid effort.This film is typical of the Undercurrents approach. Iles said, "Undercurrents is empowering, it's light, it's hopeful, even if it's dealing with serious subjects. That hope comes from within the people who are making the films, because the process of making films in a creatively free way is very empowering."With empowerment in mind, Undercurrents created Broad Horizons, a series of workshops aimed at encouraging women to make their own films, music and art.The project began when Iles and her colleagues took a look at the Undercurrents back catalogue."There were so few women in there," she says. "We realised that we were just reflecting mainstream society because women are less powerful in the media."As part of Broad Horizons, women at BeyondTV can take part in DJ workshops on Saturday.The final films to be screened at Beyond TV have an activist theme such as This is Occupied Palestinian Territory, a film by Kerem Blumberg. It is an uncensored account of joint Israeli-Palestinian demonstrations against the Israeli separation wall in the village of Budrus, near Ramallah.Other films include The End of Suburbia, which examines the consequences of our dependence on fossil fuels, and Video Cops, in which comedian Mark Thomas takes on the surveillance police.If you would like to make a donation to Undercurrents, visit www.undercurrents.org or call 01792 455900.BeyondTV runs at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea, from Friday until Sunday. Tickets start from £2. For further details call the Dylan Thomas Centre Box Office on 01792 463980Page 2 - What next?hat lies beyond Previous 1 2

What next?BEYOND TV concludes on Sunday with a Green Fayre at the National Waterfront Museum. After that, Undercurrents will start work on their next project: raising enough money to make a feature film.The charity - now in its 11th year - has already outlasted all similar groups in a field where funding is notoriously difficult."We will have to raise £200,000 to make a feature film," says Helen Iles, whose short film Life Before Death was recently shortlisted and highly commended in the prestigious DM Davies award.So what would the film be about?"Peace making, making it populist," she says. "We are a world at war at the moment. How do we get out of that loop? How do we get people into the mentality of creating peace rather than war? It's very much a film for our time."