Often films that had been made in deadly serious intent became unintentional comedies in context, and directors and audience howled with laughter at the producer's girlfriends who couldn't act, the leaden scripts, the out of focus camerawork, the bad sound, the non existent editing. Like the Festival itself its formula is organic and it has changed to suit the requirements of the filmmakers and the audience. This really is the frontline of modern filmmaking. Ideas first exposed here regularly up a year or so later in the mainstream. We've shown everything from previews of BBC Carnival documentaries to glove puppet cartoons by 14 year olds, from pre-release pop videos by chart bands to no budget alien invasion epics, from work from colleges like Goldsmiths, RCA and St. Martins to half hour loops of early morning bluebell woods.
All films brought along on the night are eligible for entry into the Film Festival.
Every three months we have a larger show at Subterania where we award a JVC Camera. At the beginning of 2000 we then moved to the Beat Bar and now have a license from the Council to go weekly. The Beat Bar was one of the best bars in Portobello Road and Nadia Bouzidi, the landlady is a great fan of film and a nice lady and we thank her and her staff for being so supportive. Unfortunately the Beat Bar has now changed hands. We have found another sympathetic landlord, Duncan Smith, and greatly enjoyed our stay there during the Portobello Film Festival.