Local Film Screens At The Sundance Festival | |||
Produced in Wandsworth and screening in Utah
A short film produced in Wandsworth by a team of local filmmakers will be screened at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in Utah next year. Long Distance Information was written and directed by Douglas Hart, produced by Beth Montague and Ohna Falby, and stars Peter Mullan, Alan Tripney and Caroline Paterson. Set one Christmas Day, the black comedy explores the strained relationship between a father and his 20 year old son. The film was funded by a grant from Wandsworth Council's Short Film Fund which aims to discover grassroots talent and help local filmmakers break into the industry. Long Distance Information was met with wide acclaim at this year's London Film Festival where it had three sell out screenings and was highlighted as one of the best live action shorts More screenings followed at the Bristol Encounters 18th International Film Festival and the Leeds International Film Festival. Following its success on the UK circuit is has been added to the bill of the world famous Sundance Film Festival which was founded in 1981 by Robert Redford. The annual event is considered the premier platform for American and international independent film and has introduced audiences to Reservoir Dogs, An Inconvenient Truth and Little Miss Sunshine. It has also been selected to be screened next year at the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival in France and the London Short Film Festival. Writer and director Douglas Hart said: "I would like to thank everyone from Wandsworth Council who commissioned the film, and everyone who worked on making it. It's a great achievement to be selected from the 7,000 short films to be one of the 64 shown at the Sundance film Festival." Wandsworth Council's arts and culture spokesman Cllr Jonathan Cook said: "We are proud and delighted to have funded this superb piece of work. It's already been an astounding success and we wish them all the very best of luck in Utah." The Shorts Film Fund is run in partnership by Wandsworth and Kensington and Chelsea Councils, with support from Film London and Skillset. It will re-open for submissions in 2012. For more information on the fund contact Maria Horn at the Wandsworth Film Office: mhorn@wandsworth.gov.uk or 0208 871 7119. To find out more about Long Distance Information visit the film's facebook page.
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