FOM 2017 – Real to Reel: The Craft Film Festival – The UK’s first festival dedicated to craft and making
Friday 5 May (8.30-10.30pm)
Opening the first evening is Roadliners from Pretend Lovers – an evocative documentary that sets out to shed some much needed light on an often unappreciated craft. The film celebrates road markers Tam and Jim as they hand-pour and paint lines on the streets of Glasgow.
Directed by Juriaan Booij and from the brains of the excellent Studio Swine, Terraforming imagines a world where a crystal planet has been discovered in the galaxy. The film, originally commissioned by Swarovski, takes some of its aesthetic cues from 1960s sci-fi classics.
Also featured is a music video by Lorna HB – the knitting MC. Her mission is to get more people knitting by ‘bursting the myths and stereotypes’ associated with the craft.
Saturday 6 May (7.30-9.30pm)
What happens when you drop art from a great height? What happens when 15 potters let go of their work from a second-storey window? Find out in Ewan Crallan’s The Drop.
Waddesdon, a documentary by William Taylor, follows the artist Kate Malone as she creates a series of ceramic works inspired by Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire.
In the Meadow is an enchanting animation from ceramist and recent RCA graduate Katie Spragg. The film explores the qualities that grass and clay share using stop-frame animation, with the artist hand-modelling each blade as it grows and twists in the wind.
Sunday 7 May (7.30-9.30pm)
There’s a seam of heritage craft running through this year’s programme exemplified by a beautiful documentary on Owen Jones, an oak swill basket weaver based in the Lake District. Directed by Jacob Hesmondhaigh, this is an intimate portrait of a master maker.
One The Line, commissioned by the British Council, takes us through three craft research residencies which took place in parallel in Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam as part of the New for Old programme, celebrating and supporting local artisan women.
Closing the final night, Benjamin Wachenje’s film The Craft of Carnival illustrates the amount of making that goes on behind the Notting Hill Carnival.