Cumbria’s first Chinese film festival is set to take place in Keswick.
The town’s Alhambra Cinema is set to host the inaugural Mint Chinese Festival, organised by the cinema’s co-owner Carol Rennie and London-based film curator Yixiang Shirley Lin.
The festival aims to bring filmmakers, critics, scholars, students and local people together to watch, award and discuss the films on show. It will also focus on the themes of the cross-cultural communication of Chinese cinema and women’s representation in film.
Taking place from February 3 to February 5, it will also be the first of a double festival month for the cinema, which will also host its annual arthouse film festival later in the month.
Dr Rennie, who has a PhD in Chinese literature and 15 years of experience in UK and China academic networking, said she was really excited to be the venue for the event.
She added that she had met Yixiang at a screening day, where exhibitors go to see previews of films to decide what they want to show in their cinemas.
She said: “I speak Chinese, so I went over to have a little chat with her and she told me she had just graduated from the University of Edinburgh, which is where I graduated and that there were lots of Chinese students on film production courses at Leeds, Edinburgh and St Andrews, which sparked my interest.
“I’ve always been interested in Chinese and Taiwanese film, but I knew there was no audience for a speciality film festival at my little cinema in the Lake District, but finding out that there were lots of Chinese students of film in cities near here, I thought actually, we could bring the audience here from those places.”
The festival will be split into three parts, including the feature film programme and short film strand, the panel discussion and workshop, and the Audiences’ Choice Award for the best short film and directors Q&As.
Dr Rennie added that Yixiang has been working with a team of student filmmakers to create the programme. The team are also running a short film competition, which currently has 200 entries and is open to Chinese filmmakers or short films with a Chinese theme.
She said: “There’s a big risk and that risk is that we don’t get an audience because they’re going to have to travel from a long way and they’re going to have to stay a couple of nights here. So I’m in the process of writing to accommodation providers and Cumbria Tourism to see if they will sponsor us so we can give out grants to hopefully 10 to 30 people from across the UK.”
Local film enthusiasts and families will also be able to enjoy the specialist weekend, as Dr Rennie plans to put on a series of activities for people to get involved in. The rest of the festival will focus on specialist films, which will all feature English subtitles.
She added: “It’s going to be really fun, on the Saturday morning we will have St Bees School students putting on Chinese New Year activities and one free event children can come to. We’ll also be putting on a popular Chinese film like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but it will be down to a popular vote.”
In October, Dr Rennie also organised a Diwali celebration, where the Alhambra showed two Indian films, served Indian food and put on a free traditional Indian dance workshop that 60 people attended.
She said: “The film festival is a continuation of me wanting to do more exciting things in Cumbria, we did Diwali in October, we’re doing Christmas this month and Chinese New Year next, so hopefully this will be a tradition where we do lots of these special events and give people tastes of other cultures even in a place like Cumbria where there’s not much ethnic diversity.”
You can find out more about the Mint Chinese Film Festival on the Alhambra’s website at www.keswickalhambra.co.uk/mint-chinese-film-festival
