East End Film Festival highlights

Hands up those who don’t support local film. When was the last time you decided, out of the goodness of your heart, to attend our very own East End Film Festival purely to boost support for budding film makers?

This is not to say the event has poor attendance figures. If anything, it seems to be swelling. The festival was birthed in Tower Hamlets and kicked off in 2001. Since then it has continued to provide support for film exhibition and film making. The week-long festival ends tomorrow.

So what did you miss? An interesting film to see was East End Lives (Directors: Hazuan Hashim, Phil Maxwell), which looks at people who have grown up in council housing in the area and their cultural landscape. Another eye catcher was Fire Burn Babylon (Director: Sarita Siegal), about a crew of Rastas evacuated to East London after a volcanic eruption at Monsterrat. They reinvent themselves as “rude boys” rappers in the areas club scene.

A pretty rich mix, if you ask me.