by Crispin Lord
Having
searched high and low for work opportunities to fill my outrageously long University
summer holiday (4 months…!) I was lucky enough to be offered an internship here
at Ludlow Assembly Rooms. Over the next month I will be working in the
marketing department, helping to publicise the new set of films, screenings and
live shows we have coming up.
The thing
that has really struck me during my first week here is the incredibly varied
programme of events, especially when it comes to indie and foreign film. As the
Assembly Rooms is a charity, rather than a run-for-profit organisation, we are
able to focus on less mainstream cinema and more on more controversial films,
which might otherwise be overlooked by most people. Obviously we want to get bums on seats, but
the amount of help given by our fantastic volunteers means there is room in the
budget to not just try and sell out the auditorium with Hollywood blockbusters.
Even
just a cursory glance over the upcoming film programme for September-October
shows a wide-ranging selection of films and events, including a film that I’ve actually
been waiting to watch for a while: The
Wolfpack. The film itself is a documentary about the lives of the six
Angulo brothers, whose father kept them locked inside their New York apartment
for 17 years.
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| The Wolfpack movie poster - looking alarmingly like The Reservoir Dogs! |
The
boys learned about the outside world only through watching films, which they re-enacted
with homemade props and costumes, until one day one of the brothers escaped and
happened upon film director Crystal Moselle. The film captures the brothers at their
most vulnerable as they begin their transition into the real world.
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Mukunda Angulo in in THE WOLFPACK, a
Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
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Director Crystal Moselle on the set of THE
WOLFPACK, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Photo credit Megan Delaney
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Ludlow
Assembly Rooms is one of the few cinemas across the country that has chosen to
show this incredible and unique film. Even though it won Best Documentary at
the Edinburgh Film Festival and the Grand Jury Prize and Sundance Film Festival,
none of the major UK cinema venues are putting it on. I think it’s quite incredible
that a company as small as this, and with such a niche audience as it has,
feels it has a duty to put on comparatively under-represented films like The Wolfpack.
There
are also a number of foreign films coming up in our September-October schedule,
which really show the company’s dedication to artistic and creative film. Iranian
director Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s film The
President is being shown in September, and promises to be quite spectacular.
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| From left to right: Dachi Orvelashvili and Misha Gomiashvili in THE PRESIDENT. Photo courtesy of 20 Steps Productions |
It
tells the story of a fictional middle-Eastern dictator who is ousted by a coup
d’état, and subsequently goes on the run in his own country with his five-year-old
grandson. Posing as street musicians, the two are forced to experience the very
hardships that provoked the president’s downfall. Makhmalbaf has said how this
is not a simple story of good (the oppressed) triumphing over evil (the
oppressor), but rather a comment on how revolutionary violence only leads to
more violence, drawing influence from the Afghan dictatorship and the Arab
Spring in 2010/2011. This is an incredibly informative film, and should not be
avoided just because it is in Iranian (with subtitles…)!
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From left to right: Dachi Orvelashvili and Misha Gomiashvili in THE PRESIDENT. Photo courtesy of 20 Steps Productions
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In an
interview, the director perfectly summed up how important it is that companies
such as Ludlow Assembly Rooms continue to programme thought-provoking art-house
films:
“We need good
films to educate people around the world… Not everyone can go to the
university. Cinema is the university of people in poor countries”
-- Mohsen Makhmalbaf --
While England may not be one of those “poor countries” he’s
referring to, his point about general education is completely relevant.
Ludlow Assembly Rooms’ very own Dido Blench and Helen Hughes,
together with the help of the Independent Cinema Office, have created a
September-October programme that is unapologetically diverse; there truly is
something for everyone on it. Aside from the more intense and powerful films
described above, there are more light-hearted ones too that are, however, no
less creative and interesting. I feel honoured to be working as a part of this
brilliantly creative team, even if it is only for four short weeks!
