| 2008
June/July
Polkadotsonraindrops
are collaborating with ELBA (East
London Business Alliance) on a photography project
in six east London schools. The results will be exhibited
on billboards around the city later this year. The
project is sponsored by Reuters.
This
was Forever screened at the
LIFT festival in Stratford with a discussion
hosted by director Roger Graef.
Bookings are
now being taken for another short doc making course
at Central St Martins from 7 –
18 July – this time in association with the
National Gallery, the course offers
an opportunity to make films inspired by paintings
in the gallery’s collection. Students will visit
the gallery and view paintings by Titian to Toulouse-Lautrec.
With the assistance of gallery advisors and an experienced
film maker, the paintings will literally come to life
as films and sequences are developed on the course.
Please contact http://courses.csm.arts.ac.uk/summer
for more details and bookings.
Polkadots director
Mark Aitken is participating at the Avant
Garde festival in north Germany on July 6th
with a new film called Chevaline.
The film will be presented as a 'live edit' with musicians
playing a live soundtrack.
April/May
On
April 2nd, the 30 min doc directed by Mark Aitken,
Until when you die, screened
in competition at the Crossroads of Europe
festival in Lublin, east Poland. The film
also screened at the Seoul Independent Documentary
Film & Video Festival in Korea on the
29th March and the 2nd April.
Other screenings of polkadots films included This
was Forever from the Films from
the River Lee series at the East
End Film Festival as part of the EAST END
TRUE-LIFE STORIES programme at the Stratford Picture
House, London, Saturday April 19 – 6.30pm.
February/March
Following the successful completion
of the Films from the River Lee,
we’re embarking on another series of four documentaries
with young people from Waterloo connected with the
Blackfriars Settlement. Pending funding,
these should go into production this summer.
Director Mark Aitken ran another 2 week polkadots
Documentary Course at Central St Martins
in London. Five students hade five short films about
Brick Lane over 8 days. Check the movies section for
examples of the work produced. We ran a very successful
course last year – making 8 films about Berwick
St Market in Soho.
Polkadots founder Mark Aitken hosted a film show on
Resonance 104.4 FM on Fridays at
5pm. Rather than the same old review format, the show
actually conjures up film soundtracks live in the
studio - inspired by soundtracks sent in by contributors.
January
On Wednesday 9th Jan, one of the Films
from the River Lee, Mudlarking, screened
at the Roxy Cinema, Borough High St, London as part
of the London Short Film Festival.
Director Emir Kusturica is starting
the MOKRA GORA FILM FESTIVAL in Serbia between 14
– 18th Jan. They screened all four of the polkadots
River Lee films.
News Archive
Nov/Dec
On December 17th at the Rich Mix Cinema in Bethnal
Green, London, we screened the four films
from the River Lee for the first time. These
were funded by First Light, Leaside Regeneration and
Tower Hamlets.
Polkadots director, Mark Aitken attended the IDFA
Academy at the doc festival in Amsterdam. The Greek
Parliament TV Channel picked up Mark’s
documentary about Vietnamese refugees, Until
when you die for broadcast. Plans were also
initiated for a film to be made with young refugees
about digital communications and how it affects their
lives.
Work also started on the Taxi film (working title)
about the factory in Coventry that makes the London
black taxi. We’re hoping to initiate our first
on-line self-distributed film once it’s completed.
September - October
A special one-off
screening of This was Forever with
a live soundtrack performed by Amal Gamal
took place at Elefest in London on the 23rd September.
Over the past year, polkadotsonraindrops have produced
the film in tribute to the plot-holders at the now
demolished Manor Garden allotments.
Polkadotsonraindrops also facilitated a two-week documentary
course with Central St Martins in
London. We produced a eight short films about Soho’s
Berwick Street market.
July - August
Our
collaboration with Creative Partnerships
completed its first phase at the end of June with
six schools in west London. The multi-media project
was about connecting kids with different heritages
from around the world through storytelling called,
Our Memories, Our Stories, Ourselves. The objective
was to engage families more with schools. The first
phase was completed with a multi-media piece with
seventy children on stage. This project is due to
run until next spring and will engage film making,
interactive web-sites and more theatre work.
Work continued on the four River Lea Documentaries
with three in post-production and another about to
go into production. The rough edits are coming together
and it’s already apparent that we will have
some beautiful and eloquent films to present.
Director Mark Aitken facilitated a scriptwriting course
with the Arvon Foundation in Yorkshire.
Sixteen adults wrote, used still and movie cameras
and editing software to complete a range of creative
exercises. David Pirie was the co-tutor.
Upcoming courses were a two-week documentary film
making course with Central St Martins
in London in September.
Director Mark Aitken presented films at the Avantgarde
Festival in Germany at the end of July.
June - July
Until
when you die was screened twice at the Mosaiques
film festival in London on May 13th at the
Ritzy, Brixton and on May 20th at the Lumiere in Kensington.
Leading up to the summer holidays, productions with
schools are in a very busy phase. Work continued on
the four River Lea Documentaries
with two in post-production and another about to go
into production with Swanlea school in east London.
The rough edits are coming together and it’s
already apparent that we will have some beautiful
and eloquent films to present.
Our collaboration
with Creative Partnerships started
with six schools in west London. The multi-media project
is about connecting kids with different heritages
from around the world through storytelling called
Our Memories, Our Stories, Ourselves.
The objective is to engage families more with schools.
The first phase will be completed at the end of June
by establishing a radio station and presenting a performance
piece at the Lyric Hammersmith. This project is due
to run until next spring and will engage film making,
interactive web-sites and more theatre work.
March - April
The first two (of four) River Lea Documentaries
funded by First Light and Leaside
Regeneration went into production in March
and April. One is about Manor Gardens Allotments
– a site next to the River Lea in east London
that’s being threatened with demolition by the
Olympics development. The other is in collaboration
with Swanlea School and the Ragged School Museum.
Polkadots Director, Mark Aitken was selected for the
Berlinale Talent Campus – part
of the Berlinale Film Festival. The feature documentary,
Tell Me. The Story of El Negro was
developed further and is now seeking co-production
partners in France, Spain and South Africa.
Our first collaboration with Creative Partnerships
is starting with six schools in west London. The multi-media
project is about connecting kids with different heritages
from around the world through storytelling. This project
is due to run until next spring and will engage film
making, setting up a radio station, interactive web-sites
and theatre work.
Cinexchange, the project in collaboration
with the French Institute in London
resulted in six films being screened in Lille, France.
The films were made to the same templates by six schools
in Britain, France and Belgium. Rules and boundaries
were established by the students themselves.
Polkadots films continue to gain exposure around the
world. Until when you die was the
centre piece screening at the True/False Festival
in Colombia, Missouri, USA on the 4th March as well
as at Oxdox in Oxford. Three of the
1 minute films from the Long Way Home
series made by young people from Derbyshire last summer
were selected for the Videotivoli Festival
in Tampere, Finland.
Five of our films were picked up for broadcast on
Propeller TV: Until when you die,
As above, so below, Resonance FM, Talking about us
and Where is Morton Valence? Propeller is the national
channel for new film and television talent available
on SKY all over Europe.
And finally, Zubia Masood from Hi-8tus
South has joined us as a producer – starting
work on the River Lea docs.
January - February
With the support of UK Film Council funded First
Light, we’ve been commissioned to make
four documentaries about the Lea River
in east London in 2007. The films have been developed
with schools and youth groups over 2006 and will be
made by young people (under 18yrs) who live in east
London.
The total budget for the project is £33k and
the films will be offered a multi platform release
in cinemas, festivals and online. The Lea River is
rich with past history and present change. Waves of
immigration, child labour, the slave trade, the Port
of London and industrial wastelands leading to the
2012 Olympics are all part of the Lea River narrative.
The young people devising these documentaries will
explore their heritage and invent their futures through
the film making process. The films will document the
past and present while being infused with hopes and
fears about massive change currently taking place.
This is our biggest commission since the company was
founded four years ago and continues successful collaborations
with First Light.
2006
Blind Man’s Bluff, funded by
First Light was nominated for a best
screenplay award at the annual First Light
Awards in London in February. We didn’t
win but these people had something to say….Neil
Jordan, Director/Writer: ‘Photography and acting
were both very good.’ Amma Asante, Director/Writer:
‘Good twist, nice dialogue throughout also.
Cleverly reaches its climax in real time.’ Gurinder
Chadha, Director: ‘This film was very good,
a tough decision.’
As Above, So Below and Resonance
FM were screened at the Videotivoli
Children’s Film Festival in Tampere,
Finland and the Radio Zero festival
in Portugal.
This Place – our fourth film
commissioned by First Light was screened
at the National Film Theatre in London
in April. The short is a science fiction taking the
Chris Marker film La Jettee as its
inspiration and using the American neon light artist
Dan Flavin as a visual reference.
As Above So Below won two awards
at the Showcomotion Young People's Film Festival
in July. We also worked with Film Education
on INSET work for screenwriting with
a group of teachers in London. Again, emphasis was
placed on creative discipline and participants setting
their own boundaries to work by.
In August we were invited to run a residential in
Derbyshire with young people leaving
care. Some of these people had worked with us on the
Arvon residential in 2005. In two
and a half days we produced eight one minute films.
These were presented at Tate Britain
in October.
We continued to collaborate with the Film
& Video Workshop in London on courses
for adults on scriptwriting and camerawork. We also
started workshop screenings of polkadots films with
young film makers talking about their work process.
The first event happened in partnership with the Script
Factory and the London Film Festival.
Other courses on working with actors were run at Goldsmiths
University on the MA Film making course and
under-graduate course.
Another round of short film productions with Cinexchange,
Film Education and the French
Institute was launched. The cultural cinema
exchange between schools in France, Belgium and Britain
will bear fruit with new films in 2007. Award winning
As Above So Below was screened at
the Clerkenwell Literary Festival
in October.
Never Give Up, a one minute film
by Elliott Fraser produced during the Derbyshire residential
was selected to screen at the London Children's
Film Festival in London.
Polkadotsonraindrops director Mark Aitken and producer
Rani Khanna were invited to pitch our feature length
documentary, Tell Me: The story of El Negro
at the Sheffield Documentary Festival
in early November. The pitch was to UK broadcasters
for production funds.
Until when you die was nominated
for the Silver Cub Award at the International
Documentary Festival Amsterdam in November.
IDFA is the biggest documentary festival in the world
so we couldn’t hope for a better platform. The
half hour documentary is about Vietnamese Refugees
arriving in the UK during the late seventies. We combined
oral history testimonials with contemporary footage
from four countries and in doing so, established a
meditation on memory and history. This project was
funded jointly by community and lottery sources and
established a new platform for financing documentaries
for us. We competed internationally at IDFA with a
truly independent film.
2005
We shot our third film for First Light,
Blind Man’s Bluff over one
day on a Dockland’s Light Railway train at the
start of the year. The film was written and directed
by Damien Bent (The Blox, Ghostship on the Southbank).
Our first school residency took place at Windsor
Boys School between January and March. We
produced a series of short dramas, experimental work
and animation that was presented at the local arts
centre. At times challenging, grueling but eventually
rewarding, we also completed a two-week residency
at Rochester Prison, working with
young offenders on animation films.
In May we worked with Spread the Word
again and devised a radio show entitled The
Fall of London with a group of young people
in London. The 90min show was transmitted live on
Resonance FM.
Reviving our links with Bow in east London, we produced
a 20 min film with young people about health and fitness.
The film was funded by Leaside Regeneration
and Old Ford Housing Association.
Work continued on the Until when you die documentary
and we raised funding to take a Vietnamese woman living
in London back to Vietnam and China after 28 years.
Three more docs were made with young people that summer.
Where is Morton Valence? And As above, so
below and Resonance FM all
contributed to the growing body of polkadots productions.
We also worked with BBC Blast on
a comedy sketch called The Park with
young people in west London. The film went out on
BBC2 at the end of the year.
The French Institute and Film
Education invited us to contribute to Cinexchange
– a language, cultural and cinema exchange where
four schools in Britain, France and Belgium made short
films to the same creative template.
Our first scriptwriting residential at the Hurst –
an Arvon Foundation centre –
took place over two weeks in December. The first week
involved making films with young people leaving the
care system, which resulted in Albert’s
View and Emily’s Fantasy.
On the second week we worked with adults interested
in scriptwriting. Both weeks used the same work templates
for devising and developing ideas through writing,
photography, sound recording and filming. Groups also
set boundaries and limitations for each other when
making films. Some films were only allowed one character
or one location while others weren’t allowed
dialogue or could only use non-sync sound. The idea
of participants making their own rules established
a new form of creative discipline to work by.
2004
The year began by collaborating with the Film
& Video Workshop in north London on a
series of short film productions with adults. We also
worked with young and older people in Bow on a film
about the history of a housing estate called R
Enz. The film was commissioned by Chisenhale
Art Gallery and funded by Old Ford
Housing Association. This was our first foray
into oral history with the use of testimonials and
documentary. Private courses for adults on weekends
at the Electric Cinema in west London
were also successfully introduced.
Taking the work environment into consideration, we
collaborated with Skyros Holidays
in Greece on our first residential courses. Two five
day courses were run with adults and the beauty and
culture of the island led to uninhibited creativity
and inspiration. The Lambeth Crime Prevention
Trust also commissioned us to make a documentary
film about the Vietnamese Refugee community in south
London. Along with funding from the lottery and other
community grants amounting to £20k, the process
of research and production of Until when you
die began. Testimonials from refugees were
recorded about the journeys made to the UK from Vietnam
in the late ‘70’s.
Other productions that year included the first Get
Reel documentaries for the London
Development Agency called Prisoners
Abroad about British citizens held in prisons
abroad and one about the Time Out news
desk. A commission from the Hayward Gallery
and First Light produced
Ghostship on the Southbank. The crew
included Damien Bent from the Blox and the Super 8mm
film was part of an exhibition about early cinema
at the Hayward.
2003
polkadotsonraindrops was founded
in 2003. The name was designed to imply a sense of
visual playfulness and a marriage of the artificial
and organic; film and what is being filmed. Mark Aitken
designed a series of courses that focused on the separate
components of film making. Finding an entry point
into film making can be difficult but finding a sound
for a picture or a frame for a shot is a lot easier.
These courses were designed to explore film making
as if walking in the dark without having to worry
about bumping into anything. Technology played a part
in these courses and with a DV camera, laptop, mini-disc
recorder and Final Cut Pro, making films had never
been more accessible. Pilot courses were tested on
film makers, teachers, artists and writers. The overall
ambition was to establish an educational context as
the most productive and interesting environment to
make films in.
2003 also saw the first polkadotsonraindrops films
being produced. The Blox with Southwark
Youth Services, written and directed by Damien
Bent; O Dia De Santa Martina with
Lambeth Arts, First Light
and the Lambeth Portuguese community and Talking
About Us with the London Film Festival
and London youth groups about citizenship. A photography
and storytelling course with Spread the Word
and Lillian Baylis school was also
completed.
The company also received lottery and community funding
to acquire two laptops, and a full digital production
kit.
2002
While completing post production on the independent
feature, Same Same But Different,
writer, producer, director, Mark Aitken formed a new
approach to film education. Making an independent
feature film had taken three years: writing the script,
raising finance, casting, production, post production
and distribution. The experience was an intensive
learning curve but unforgiving in the sense that being
spontaneous and creative on a feature film production
is an all too rare commodity. Discovery through the
work process is difficult when you have a crew of
thirty people watching you on location in the freezing
cold. Having worked in film education and film making
since 1990, Mark realized that a new way of working
was required if making films was going to be a creative
experience.
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