I just had my official London screening debut for taking over the Kingsland, at the Portobello film Festival. London has many festivals, of different types from the grandiose London film Festival, which brings feature films from around the world, to the Raindance Festival, which is a mix of different types of things, to small specialist festivals and even neighborhood festivals. It means that almost any night of the year you have a chance to go and see really cool films in London, many of them by independent filmmakers from all parts of the globe. It’s such a stimulating place to live and to be a filmmaker.

Portobello film Festival is one of the most interesting of the festivals. For one thing it is huge, they program a lot of films and they have several venues and it’s extremely eclectic. The principal venue is really impressive, it’s a pop-up cinema, which is located under the Westway, the massive elevated freeway that runs across West London. They constructed the cinema underneath it, with a giant 30ft screen, and outside a sort of courtyard with a bar and partying space etc. It has a really great atmosphere, it’s extremely chilled out and because the festival is free, it encourages people to come, come and come again and participate.

Because my film is about street art and culture, it seemed to me to be the perfect environment to screen the film and it seemed that when I was watching the film and seeing the responses of the audience, though, is really right. I also really appreciate the fact that the festival is free, since my film and the project it is about, was all about being outside of the ‘cash nexus’ …

Portobello film Festival has a really amazing essay about the neighborhood the Portobello Street Notting Hill area, which is extremely interesting and has fascinating history. Although many people may be familiar with ‘Notting Hill’ from the totally fakey movie with Hugh Grant, it’s actually a much more diverse and quirky area. Even though it has been to a large extent colonized by the Uber rich, like most of London, it hasn’t completely sunk in the swamp of oligarchy. Anyway, there’s a fantastic little article on the Portobello film Festival website, which you can look at here

.