East Meets East; a film about making a film premieres at EEFF 2012

Twenty budding young filmmakers from East London are set to reveal the secrets of filmmaking at East End Film Festival on 6th July with a documentary about their experiences of making a movie together.

The East Meets East initiative was created jointly by the Romanian Cultural Institute and the Four Corners Centre for Film and Photography to help nurture new skills for disadvantaged youngsters living in the Olympic boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Greenwich, Newham, Waltham Forest, Barking and Dagenham.

For the past three months, these youngsters have been learning the tricks of the trade from a group of award-winning Romanian filmmakers. The Romanian New Wave of filmmakers has been taking European film festivals, critics and audiences by storm in recent years. The group of Londoners worked with director Radu Muntean (Tuesday, After Christmas: The Paper Will be Blue), scriptwriter Alexandru Baciu (Boogie; Tuesday, After Christmas), editor Catalin Cristutiu (California Dreamin’; Everybody in Our Family) plus actress Anamaria Marinca (BAFTA winner for Traffic mini series; 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days).

Under the supervision of Four Corners’ technical manager Lynn Turner, the group of youngsters have documented the creative path that these workshops have taken as they explored the filmmaking production process and learned about team work. The film includes interviews with some of the Romanian mentors as well as the participating youngsters themselves. 

The short documentary of their endeavours will premiere with a free screening at the Rich Mix cinema in Bethnal Green on 6 July 4pm with all the young filmmakers in attendance. Along with various venues in East London, the Rich Mix will host a variety of screenings and events during the East End Film Festival, for more information visit the festival’s website.