No Gloss Film Festival

Nathalie Blonder went to the first day of No Gloss Film Festival …

The 19th and 20th of October this year marked the second ever No Gloss Film Festival which was held for the first time at Canal Mills, and I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to go down there on the Saturday. After orientating the dubious pedestrian walkways to get there, I was confronted with what you’d expect; a mill, and a very quintessentially Yorkshire mill at that. From the get-go, there was a definite theme about the place of working with the materials available and making something great. The great thing about a festival of film is that people can come and go as they please in accordance with that they wanted to watch, which eliminated potential congestion and made the whole experience really quite enjoyable.

I got the chance to speak to Trent Rampage, the event’s director and the brains behind the operation, although he was quick to emphasise the importance of working as part of dedicated team that had an equal amount of input. The No Gloss core team itself consists of just four people but had a group of around 20 student volunteers from the different universities within Leeds, all passionate about film and none afraid to muck in and do the dirty work (they’d set up everything the night before and were in again from eight in the morning!)

From speaking to Trent himself, it was obvious that he was clearly very passionate about No Gloss and that despite the fact that it was built up from practically nothing, they managed to sell out Weekend tickets as well as Saturdays just while I was there! I asked him about the range of films showing and their countries of origin and he explained to me that the whole point of it was to have something for everyone, to suit all tastes, whether you’re a fan of animation, trashy Brit romcoms or classic subtitled, grainy foreign film.

When asked about what he wants people to take away from the event, Trent movingly said, “We want to people to come away from this feeling like they have experienced something new, to inspire them to be creative and that they don’t need lots of money or other people’s validation. No Gloss took risks to get where it is today, and look, we did it, and so you can too, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be in film: it could be in school, at work or whatever, you can do it!”

With a rebooted sense of unstoppable journo extraordinaire, I marched through to screen one which was packed with people in silence, watching in awe as Quite A Conundrum was coming to a close. About me, there were murals directly painted on the walls of the mill which I found beautifully encompassed the old with the new. The pull down projector at the front and speakers clamped onto the columns effectively makeshifted this multi-purpose space into a cosy community cinema for the weekend. From then I got to watch a great variety of amazing indie film, some hilarious, some moving, and the occasional downright stinker (Yes Dark Journey, I am looking at you).

For me personally, the films that stood out for me the most were a pair of German animations that were incredibly effective for what they were. ZWEIBETTZIMMER as described in the programme is ‘a parable about the greed of man – an animated intimate play about the power of imagination and illusion’. And they couldn’t have done it better with a pastel block palette reminiscent of Gorrilaz animation, and music and voices enough to convince the viewer of a children’s cartoon although there is no doubt this cartoon is for adults. The other was lighter in heart Frau Schwein geht in die Scheissedisko which was so simple in its 2D animation and synthy sound effects but it sent the audience into tears of laughter, although there was some definite symbolism cleverly thrown in which was very cool to notice.

Throughout the day, after a string of many short films and a couple long ones, the team kindly gave us breaks to get refreshed and acquainted with the various catering facilities there. I was happy to see that Brew Dog, a favourite Leeds-based brewery of mine, were selling their top quality ale and lager to those thirsty for a taste like no other. Crowder Barbecue were also there, a newly launched mobile food business that were discovered on the off-chance at the The Brudunell. No Gloss fell in love and the rest is history. I got to speak to one of the founding brothers, Dan, who was very happy to be taking part in a festival that started from scratch, which is exactly how Crowder Barbecue came about. Despite the pouring rain, under a little gazebo, Dan and his helpers ploughed on and the people didn’t stop coming as their food is so damn good. One patron, Rosie Alder, was amazed at the value for money with 10 BBQ chicken wings for £4. It’s a shame I didn’t bring any money with me myself because that pulled pork looked so succulent I could have eaten it with my eyes.

After speaking with a number of people attending the event, there wasn’t a bad word to be said about No Gloss, despite the lack of central heating because the sense of community and culture there was warming enough. The after-party proved to be as magical as the main event with DJ’s Release Yourself and Cosmic Slop providing swish beats and amazing culture fusion visuals, magicking attendees into an alternate universe where all is artistic expression and there are no grumbles to be had. No Gloss Film Festival turned out to be a massive success and all I can say is that I cannot wait for what next year’s event has to offer, watch this space!