New Wave Short Films

Love and Other Chairs

What inspired you to create New Wave Films?
While I was at De Montfort University studying Media Production, I really enjoyed watching short films and made a lot myself. However, I found that there was nowhere to exhibit them, except by booking a screening room, which is expensive. This problem led to the idea of organising short film screenings, showing six to seven shorts, at local cinemas, where I pay the money for the screening room and recover the money I have spent through selling tickets. The organisation of these screenings means that the filmmakers don’t have to pay anything for their films to be shown on a cinema screen.

How did the relationship start with Broadway?
I studied at Confetti around four years ago and while I was there, we would always come to Broadway, with Confetti holding a showcase of all our films in the Paul Smith screen. I spoke to one of the managers at Broadway and we agreed to a private hire - we do all the promotion and Broadway host the event.

How do you decide which films you select for the screenings?
The films that we select have to have something that demonstrates the talent of the filmmaker, whether it is their shot choices or the quality of the script. The filmmaker may not have a big budget, but as long as we can see they have got ‘something’ in these areas we will select their film.

Tell us about some of the films that will be showing at the event in December.
We have a comedy called Love and Other Chairs which is a Charlie Kaufman-like story about a man whose wife turns into a chair, which is hilarious and quite twisted. There is also The Butterfly, which follows a swimmer with epilepsy who has to decide whether or not she wants to compete professionally and risk her health. Also, Epoch which won the best short film at the Confetti showcase last year.

 

Are there any other short films you have recently enjoyed watching?
Neill Blomkamp’s Alive in Joburg is a short film which his feature film District 9 was based on. Gulp by Jason Reitman is also a great short, which features a man desperately trying to find salt water for his fish before it dies. I also recently saw the feature The Babadook, directed by Jennifer Kent, which was especially horrific and really got under my skin - this film was developed from an earlier short film directed by Kent called Monster.

You are also offering networking opportunities after the event?
After the event we will meet at the Mezzanine bar, upstairs in Broadway, and anyone who wants to come and see the films are more than welcome to come and talk to the filmmakers afterwards and, perhaps, talk about collaborating in the future. I am also hoping for the New Wave Films website to become a forum for filmmakers to communicate and to organise working together on films.

Do you have any more events planned?
The next screening we have planned, after Broadway, will be in February at the Phoenix in Leicester. We plan to hold the screenings every three months, with the Quad in Derby, The Showroom in Sheffield and The Electric Cinema in Birmingham being the other possible hosts.

How can people submit their films?
Get in contact through our gmail account - newwaveshortfilms@gmail.com.  Anyone who has a film they want to enter can send us details of the film, and links to view it. There is no deadline for the screenings so if we like your film, and we cannot fit it in the next screening, we will fit into the one after that.

And how can you get hold of tickets for the screening?
You can buy tickets at the NWSF website or email us. We will be selling them on the day as well. If you buy tickets in advance it costs £5, and on the day it will cost £7. We are donating 25% of the proceeds to Dementia UK.

The New Wave Short Film Festival will be held at Broadway Cinema on Saturday 20 December 2014.

New Wave Films website