Another triumphant return for the Black Bird Film Festival 2019.
This year the independent film festival held at The Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton, had a goal of £500 to raise for charity after raising over £200 for The Sophie Lancaster Foundation in 2018, instead, they managed to raise over £550 for this year’s selected charity Crisis UK. Well done to all involved.

The festival included screenings of short independent films, an awards ceremony for various categories and included other artistic performances with dance and poetry. They received just under 90 submissions from filmmakers for the festival, eventually narrowing it down to the final eight shown on the night. The makers of the films were invited to introduce their films accordingly, with varying genres and highlighted topics.
For the full listings and more information please click here.

It was also attended by the Mayor and Mayoress of Wolverhampton, Cllr Phil Page and Mrs Elaine Hadley-Howell, who gave a heartfelt speech on homelessness in the city and the need to fight on for improvement across all communities.

I asked one of the founders (Alex Hackett) for a little background on the origins of the festival:

“We set up [BBFF] because, like in Limbo (the micro-short winner) we feel that despite our academic success and hard work, it’s just so cut throat trying to get opportunities in the Midlands, so we created our own.”

Black Bird Film Festival will be returning next year and submissions are open to all, check out their website and put it in your diary, whether you’re a filmmaker, photographer, performance poet or dancer. Creatives supporting creatives – it empowers us all.

Finally, to end with a quote from the festival programme –

Support the dreamers, they will tell you wonderful stories.