Co-operative Young Film Makers

By Ivy Broadhead

The Co-operative Young Film Makers festival has been running since 1966, giving disabled and non-disabled young people from around the country a chance to showcase their skills on celluloid. This includes entries from Scotland, but this is the first year that the screenings have made it north of the border, having already been shown at the National Media Museum in Bradford last October. I went along to the Glasgow Film Theatre to watch the ten Scottish films that had made it into the 2007 festival, and came out an hour later really rather impressed.

From a surreal animation to a Bugsy Malone-style gangster flick, it was easy to forget that each of the pieces had been made by people under 21. Most were the work of school and youth groups, such as St Oswald’s Secondary in Glasgow, a school for people with learning difficulties. St Oswald’s pupils, aged 15 to 17, had managed to pack the life of good old Scotswoman Mary Queen of Scots into just a couple of minutes, with a little help from Project Ability, a Scottish disability arts charity.

They had certainly picked a gruesome section of history to focus on, and the audience were treated to plenty of gory beheadings and blood dripping down blades, as well as sharp editing and solid performances. It was great to see films by disabled and non-disabled young people all part of the same bill, and there was a real mix of entertainment on offer.

Entries for the 2008 Co-Operative Young Film Makers are being accepted until 27 June. Entries must be under 6 minutes long, with films under 3 minutes preferred, and 100 will make it into the final showing, which will run from 9-10 October this year, and also includes workshops and master-classes on the industry.

• To find out more, tel: 0161 2462215/6 or visit www.young-film-makers.coop