Last Saturday saw the closing gala of the least advertised festival in the world, the Aberdeen City and Shire Film Festival. Apart from the opening screening of 'One Day Removals,' which sold out, numbers for the other films were terrible. Hopefully next year the organisers will try promoting the venues a bit more. For a city with more money than most others in Scotland the effort was pretty embarrassing. Aberdeen City council - get your sodding finger out!
The numbers at the closing gala were also not that great, especially considering the movie that was on. The film was 'Cass,' Jon S. Baird's movie based on the autobiography by Cass Pennant, about his early life in West Ham's InterCity Firm - one of the best known of the football hooligan crews in the 1980's.
We got a chance to meet up with the director Jon Baird (a fellow Aberdonian, now living in London) and Cass Pennant who also attended the gala. As few people turned up to the screening we managed to mostly monopolise Jon and Cass for the rest of the evening. They are great guys and we had a good evening chatting to them. Cass Pennant is so sharp, you really have to keep on your toes while talking to him: smart bloke.
In the photo are (from the left) Stirton Productions producers Kerwin Robertson and Michael Clark, director Mark Stirton and Cass Pennant. Sorry about the picture quality, photo is from a phone in bad lighting. Also sorry about the elf in the background, my pointy hat was at the cleaners that day.
The numbers at the closing gala were also not that great, especially considering the movie that was on. The film was 'Cass,' Jon S. Baird's movie based on the autobiography by Cass Pennant, about his early life in West Ham's InterCity Firm - one of the best known of the football hooligan crews in the 1980's.
We got a chance to meet up with the director Jon Baird (a fellow Aberdonian, now living in London) and Cass Pennant who also attended the gala. As few people turned up to the screening we managed to mostly monopolise Jon and Cass for the rest of the evening. They are great guys and we had a good evening chatting to them. Cass Pennant is so sharp, you really have to keep on your toes while talking to him: smart bloke.
In the photo are (from the left) Stirton Productions producers Kerwin Robertson and Michael Clark, director Mark Stirton and Cass Pennant. Sorry about the picture quality, photo is from a phone in bad lighting. Also sorry about the elf in the background, my pointy hat was at the cleaners that day.
4 comments:
If my cell phone took pictures that good, I'd be happy. Sad news about the turn out...but cool to have met Cass!
Cass and director were fun to speak too. Just really nice folk.
Yeah, the turn out at most of the screenings (apart from ours) were crap. No press at all turned up for any of the gala screenings. It was like an amateur thing.
BTW Jon Baird is not Aberdonian, he's from Peterhead, cos I went to school with him. He went out with a girl in my class, Janice Chisholm who now works in the Police! Funny connections huh? (JB may have been BORN in Aberdeen hospital, but that doesn't make him Aberdonian. He was definitely a Peterhead Academy pupil and his parents lived in South Road, Peterhead.) The only reason I'm complaining is for the same reason Mark pointed out that the Central Belt gets all the money for films, the smaller you are, the more you need to state your identity and be proud of it. We're proud of Jon in the Blue Toon!
p.s. ODR's premiere was probably the only decent one of the festival.
Post a Comment