Category: Making Waves Film Festival

The Making Waves No 6 Cinema Takeover happened in Portsmouth’s famous Historic Dockyard on the 23rd and 24th of March this year! The idea of the festival was to get young people involved and to include the audience in the festivities of screening films in an immersive, community-driven way.

The festival hosted 5 main events on Thursday, a short film competition, a networking event, and a Fashion Reimagined screening. On Friday we had the young people at motiv8 come and do a Q&A with the producer of the film County Lines, The young people of music fusion, also did a pre-screening performance before screening the film County Lines.

The short film competition was a competition between university students who created films from 3 different universities, there were 6 different films, 2 from each university; the University of Portsmouth, Southampton’s Solent University and The University of Winchester, the films shown were as follows; Project 2, The Callback, Blitz, The Julie Tapes, Hannah and Where Did We Park? The award for Best Film went to the Callback and the audience award went to Where did we Park? Each production team was given a unique handmade whale tale statue crafted by local artist James Waterfield and a £75 Pizza Express voucher.

The event was really inviting and there was a real sense of togetherness throughout the showing, people had drinks, and chats before the screening started, which was a really nice atmosphere. Something that gave the event incentive and excitement about who would win, was the awards which were sat at the front on the stage through the screening and at the end, the audience was able to participate by using a QR code to vote for their favourite!

After coming out of the screening, there was a networking event at the bar sponsored by Millstream Productions, with loads of tables laid out with sandwiches and little snacks, and everyone was mingling, it was a great chance to meet people both from the city of Portsmouth and outside of the city, there were quite a few students from Winchester there, as well as people who had come for the screening of Fashion Reimagined, overall the networking event hosted a great intersection between the competition and the film.

Entering into Fashion Reimagined, you gave your ticket to the lovely ladies at No. 6 and you were brought into the screening of the film. The film focused on two ladies who worked for a fashion company on a mission to become more sustainable and took us through the process of how our clothes are made. They visited different countries where the manufacturers were located in hopes to find a company that is completely sustainable.

Throughout the film, it shows their struggles to find this method of production and their successes. After the film, there was a bit more mingling in the bar, and a lot of discussion about whether or not people would take the sustainability pledge promoted by the film, until it was inevitably time to go home.

On Friday the night started off with being greeted at the door by the young people from Motiv8, a charity based in Portsmouth that supports at-risk youth and raises awareness about the trouble they could fall into, especially in the city. We were given cups of sweets and welcomed into the bar to take a seat ready to watch the Q&A. Megan and Rebecca from Motiv8 interviewed David Broder, the Producer of County Lines (2019), and Matt Blessed, a music leader at Music Fusion, a music-based charity for at-risk youth in Portsmouth.

After the Q&A, we all headed into the theatre where we saw performances from Matt Blessed, Kizz and Cam, 3 artists from Music Fusion, in front of the screen, before the film was shown. Everyone was excited after the music, then the lights were shut off, and the film started! County Lines is a film about a 14-year-old boy called Tyler, whose family is struggling for money, and he gets mixed up in the wrong crowd. The film raises awareness about how dangerous county lines gangs are in cities, and how easily they can be avoided. It is a very hard-hitting film, which really resonates, and was a great way to finish the festival.

Making Waves Film Festival 2023 was a great way to get the young people involved, and bring people together for a great couple of nights out at the cinema! The audience and everyone who was involved in helping make this happen truly deserves a massive thanks for making this year great! Here’s to next year being equally as great!

By Amelie Harvey

Writer-director Henry Blake’s powerful feature debut County Lines boasts a compelling central performance by Conrad Khan as 14-year-old Tyler, whose mum Toni (Ashley Madekwe) is struggling to provide for him and his sister. Excluded from school, Tyler becomes a train-bound narcotics courier for local criminal Simon, played with a calm menace by Harris Dickinson.

This film depicts the ensuing cycle of debt, deceit and violent exploitation with a quiet stylistic confidence that’s all the more haunting for being so rigorously unsentimental.

“The filmmaking is so sharp… I was hooked… The acting is superb” – Charlotte O’Sullivan, Evening Standard

County lines is a term that refers to the grooming, exploitation and trafficking of children as drug mules across the country and Blake’s incredible story is inspired by his own experiences working with young people just like Tyler. For over a decade, he’s worked with vulnerable children aged between 8 and 18, and through that work he was transferred to a facility for kids who were being exploited and trafficked via county lines criminal networks.

County Lines follows in the wake of outstanding British social realism and Henry Blake is sure to be discussed alongside directors like Ken Loach, Basil Dearden and Alan Clarke for his unflinching portrait ripped straight from the headlines.

“This is brute social realism with a thriller’s ticking clock: The tension is not over what will happen but when, and how fatal the fallout will be.” Guy Lodge, Variety

County Lines is showing at the No. 6 Cinema on Thursday 24th March. This community-curated screening by young people from Motiv8 includes a performance by DJs and rappers from Music Fusion and a Q&A with the film’s producer David Broder in the bar before the film.

Tickets are available here.

“Buy less, choose well, make it last” – Vivienne Westwood

Director Becky Hutner channels the iconic late fashion designer Vivien Westwood in her first feature Fashion Reimagined. The documentary follows like-minded designer Amy Powney of cult label Mother of Pearl, who embarks on a three-year journey to create a sustainable clothing collection.

Raised off-the-grid in rural England by anti-fracking activist parents, Amy has always felt uneasy about the devastating environmental impact of her industry. When she wins the coveted Vogue award for the Best Young Designer of the Year, Amy decides to use the prize money to create a brand-new collection focused on sustainability – from field to finished garment – and transform her entire business and the way we engage with fashion.

“Beautiful, informative, shocking and inspiring… Amy Powney is a heroine” Lisa Armstrong, The Daily Telegraph

Fashion Reimagined tracks Amy’s journey from an outsider of the fashion world, to an industry leader as she examines the complexities and waste of the global supply chain, whilst her own personal revolution becomes the precursor of a much more significant societal change.

Amy’s label Mother of Peal has committed wholeheartedly to sustainability since the success of their 2018 ‘No Frills’ collection; all that they’ve learned about the garment-making process and its untenable impact on the Earth has influenced how they operate their business from the production line to their head office.

If you’d like to learn more about the impact of fast and unsustainable fashion on the worsening climate disaster, see here for a breakdown of why affordable fashion is costing us the Earth.

“This film will shock you, inspire you – and charm you. A must-watch not just for the fashion industry but for everyone who wears clothes” Jess Cartner-Morley, Associate Editor (Fashion), The Guardian

Fashion Reimagined is showing at the No. 6 Cinema on Thursday 23rd March.

Tickets are available here.

The eye is drawn to the bar, decorated with a small grid of vintage film posters, surrounded by fairy lights which enwrapped various pipes across the ceiling, which if you looked at it for long enough convinced you that you were in fact in some kind of cruise ship, a beacon of socialising, colour and light.

Everything about the event made me feel like I was immersed in the movie. A romantic feel achieved by delicate flowers in vases on round tables dotted across a café set up brings the genre of the movie to life in the venue. Filming crew set up in the corner, felt like we were a part of a very special moment, lucky to hear the behind-the-scenes secrets.

The Q&A was incredibly informal and intimate. Casual wear as far as the eye could see and questions read of off a phone in a hesitant voice over a handheld mic. Nevertheless, we all watched intently. The truth of it is it was the relaxed, enjoyable experience which allowed everyone to feel comfortable and for the stories to flow effortlessly from our esteemed guest. Moments of laughter but also incredibly interesting and profound insight into the industry.

People leaned forward in their chairs or lined the walkway to the café area where the events were unfurling. It was truly surreal and rather joy inducing to see everyone’s eyes focusing on the same spot, all hanging on Harry’s every word. Amongst the clear silence that comes from absolute attention, I hear laughter and the rising noise of positivity as the audience hears an anecdote or two or a particularly impressive question from a fellow member of the crowd.

This film has been described as enveloped in music, humour and emotion and that is exactly what this event was. As the interviewer said, it was a room full of film nerds enthusiastic about the chance to fully understand the process of audio from sound that almost miss the ears of an unexpecting audience but are felt by the heart and soul to contributions to the soundtrack and diegetic music. Escott offered some insight into where he started and how he found and developed his craft, highlighting the importance of making connections and working through things naturally.

Particular focus was given to scenes to look out for with tunes gifted by an actor’s ukulele and a character’s mixtape as well as highlighting a cover of ‘Grace’ which can be found in the credits, a song which holds a special position of encapsulating a whole history of the character Ava and her relationships with other characters, and the story behind that particular recording. Sure enough, people stayed seated in the audience as the beautiful melody and vocals played and the credits rolled. There was not an audience member present that could have left that event saying that the choices of audio and song in film mean nothing.

I had the pleasure of witnessing networking in action as people brought together by this event set potential plans for the future. I watched a smile spreading across someone’s face at the realisation that their work had been seen and appreciated by someone, in the industry that inspires them and could keep them talking for years, left holding a card in surprised shock as they walked away.

The film was casual, funny, and endearing. Layering of sound is immediately noticeable, creating this key notion of harmony. The visuals demonstrated some interesting experimentation with close-up shots and aperture which were able to demonstrate how these emotional moments feel for characters who keep their struggles close to their chests.

It’s that situation where from the outside you may not know that someone is struggling but we are forced to look at details, almost slip into their perspective, climb inside their brain. Ali and Ava can see these subtle tells in each other as it is something they both do themselves. With a simple “something’s on your mind isn’t it” they see these similarities and force each other to see things in themselves

As much as this story focuses on a romantic connection, it finds rightful space for heartbreak and the act of letting go. The characters of Ali and Ava are both helpers, the kind of people who go above and beyond to make others lives easier, and it only emphasises how little time they take for themselves.

Demonstration of their connection through music is frequent. Loud songs never lasted long before they cut off and new scene began, an amazingly effective demonstration of these characters tendencies to avoid focusing on themselves and lying in their own tensions and negative emotions.

We also see this beautiful emotional connection between Ali and Ava develop in relation to a young girl. She brings them together at the start and mirrors their struggles in body language and emotion throughout, linked together by the music, until it comes full circle and she overcomes her fears.

A particular moment of laughter is a scene where Ali and Ava pick up some kids causing some chaos on the side of the street. It’s the first moment of many where we see that the character of Ali has this special ability to defuse tension in seconds, a superpower that is welcomed in many moments amongst this narrative.

As a secret is revealed, Clio Barnard tackles the key theme of change and we see our first notion of a stream of genuine struggle through issues of separation, divorce, drinking and abuse. The tone of the film takes a turn and we see Ali and Ava explore deeper, more meaningful, similarities, made endearing by a natural humour between them as these characters of an older age begin to act like kids in love.

Music dictates mood even when what we see in a scene seems happy. The audience go through a rollercoaster of emotions: We sit in moments of silence, feeling sadness and melancholy, and a deep drone creeps in building the tension until it becomes overwhelming, in a moment of pure heartbreak, we catch Ali feeling the absence of a child, perspective seems to take a positive turn as we have a moment of just Ava and the music through her earphones, incredibly effective subtle signs of danger or upset bring us to the edge of our seats, a moment of relief comes when troubles literally fade from focus when they look at each other.

Ava tells a personal story as the frame goes out of focus and the camera seems to pan. There is almost an expectation that the shot will land on something or someone that the audience is able to focus on but in truth, this would take away from the content of the story. Instead, our eyes dart across the screen of spreading colours amongst exhibits of bokeh and light but we are taking in every word she says. The outside world doesn’t matter in this moment, it just disappears.

By Louisa Clarke