GMAC's Beth Armstrong and Lindsay Goodall
Jennie Kermode: With just over a week to go, can you tell me how preparation for the festival is progressing?
Lindsay Goodall: We had a panel of people come in on Friday, including refugees themselves, and we spent about six hours watching films. It was great. We watched 18 films altogether. At the end of the day we had a big discussion and we managed to select about seven films we want to show.
Beth Armstrong: Of the two films that were voted unanimously for by the panel, one is Those Left Behind, which is an 11-minute documentary made by the Camcorder Guerillas and specifically it's about the Vucaj family - a Kosovan family who lived in Drumchapel and were victims of a dawn raid. They were raided and deported. So it's specifically about the Vucaj family but in general it's about dawn raids and asylum seekers. I think that was the clear winner of the films. It raised a really interesting thing for me: I suddenly realised after we watched it that some films tell you things and some films make you feel things, and actually what we were trying to do is go for the films that really made you feel. That was the top scoring film, the one that every single judge on the panel thought should be screened.
The second most popular film, which I was utterly thrilled about, was Albana's Asylum, a drama that was written and made by young people at GMAC in the GMAC youth programme. I used to work for Spirit Aid and we had a film project with a group of young people, mainly asylum seekers from north Glasgow, and they made a film - it was quite a funny film, they wanted to make a romantic comedy - and about two months after we'd had the screening of it these three young people (at that point the youngest was about 11 or 12) came into my office and slapped a script on my desk and said: "We've written this script. Can you help us get this film made?" It's difficult trying to explain to kids how complicated that process is, to get funding for a film. Anyway, when I came and started working at GMAC I brought the script and I showed it to my new boss. So for that to eventually get made - and it was written by young asylum seekers, it was directed by young asylum seekers... well, I'm really pleased that that has been selected as well.
JK: So what about the other films in the selection?
BA: Asylum Birds was a really lovely five-minute film that got sent to us from Newcastle. Nomad Cultural Forum are a group who work with young people in Newcastle and Sunderland. This particular project was working with people from Middle Eastern countries. We also have a film made by a company called the Exiled Journalists' Network, and it's called Exiled Journalists Speak Out. We thought it was interesting because it's journalists talking about their experiences of going through the asylum and immigration system and also their experiences as professionals, as journalists. There's a bit of a debate in the film about the nature of the press and the way the British press portrays asylum seekers. And then we've got some experimental films, again from Camcorder Guerillas.
LG: I think because we had these panellists who came from outside GMAC it was easier to ensure that we were fair and that it was the best films that were selected.
JK: What sort of audience are you expecting will come along to see these films? Who would you encourage to come along?
LG: The Refugee Council are inviting a lot of people along and we've been sending flyers out to colleges, so I think we'll have a pretty mixed group of people.
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JK: Do you think that people in that situation can make a positive, practical difference to their own lives by getting involved in film projects like this?
BA: Absolutely - on so many levels. First of all, a lot of people have been through awful experiences. They've lost family members, they've seen things that people in this country have never seen, and I think that in terms of therapy being involved in artistic things is really good. Anybody who's worked on a film knows what a collaborative thing it is. You make new friends, you learn to work with each other. It's brilliant for building up your confidence. Also, in my experience of working with asylum seekers and refugees on film, I'd say it improves language skills. And let's not forget that asylum seekers have got creative things that they want to express. On all of those levels I think film is brilliant.
LG: I hope that this will become a yearly event and we can build on it, and maybe next year it won't just be one evening, it can maybe be a whole day event or two days. I think it should become a fixture in the yearly calendar. I think it can become a focus for the asylum seekers and refugees Beth has worked with - it's a way of showcasing their work or similar work.
BA: I remember four years ago when the first Document film festival happened in Glasgow, and I think a lot of local filmmakers felt that it was worth going out and making films even if they were paying for it out of their own pockets because they felt that that kind of filmmaking - making human rights documentaries - it felt like there was a reason to do it, that there was somewhere to have things shown. I think it encouraged more films like that to be made in Scotland. I think that, hopefully, we can now encourage refugees and asylum seekers to get involved in making films. I'm hoping that this little film festival could have the same effect.
JK: Didn't you have difficulty getting funding for this festival?
BA: Yes. I think there's a real problem within the funding structures. There is what is perceived to be film funding, which is funding films that are very industry based, that are maybe going to do well at Cannes, but then there's the whole side of filmmaking that goes on within the community - which is where I think we can start to identify new and exciting voices, especially among women, the Asian community, the disabled community, refugees and asylum seekers - people who might traditionally not have been the beneficiaries of Scottish Screen, the Scottish Executive, and UK Film Council funding.
I think there's a problem because the Scottish Arts Council see what we do as film and they say it should be filmed but it should be funded by Scottish Screen, and Scottish Screen see events like this as community events. So, in fact, we had our funding application for this event turned down. It was originally supposed to be a two or three-day event in partnership with independent cinemas in Glasgow. Because we believe that it's a really important event to happen, between ourselves and the Scottish Refugee Council we've had to do it with absolutely no budget, and so that's why it's just one evening and that's why it's just here in GMAC, but we've started to get a really good response from local businesses now...
LG: Last week we started looking around for local businesses that might be able to sponsor us because we'd like to be able to offer refreshments. We've been asking local bars if they'd like to support us. We've had a positive response from Mono [a local Vegan café] and we're hoping to get more yesses this week.
BA: When we had our funding application turned down by the Scottish Arts Council we went back to the Scottish Refugee Council and said: "We're not going to be able to do the event," and the Scottish Refugee Council said: "Well, we have to make it work, because there is nothing like this." I think that it's a new element to Refugee Week. I think there will be lots of our partner organisations all doing really interesting stuff as part of Refugee Week. I think that you will be able to walk around this area of Glasgow in that week and find events that you can drop into. I think film has been a little gap in Refugee Week up to now. There's always been lots of dance and music and photography and performance and arts and crafts, but there hasn't been enough of a focus on films, so this is the beginning of it.
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