Guest blog by Nick Jones
Why has it taken me this long to write about my highlights from Leeds Young People’s Festival, when it finished over a week ago? Because I’ve only just caught up on all the dental flossing and clothes washing that I had to forgo in order to help make it happen. Well, I might be exaggerating slightly, but I do apologise if I smelled bad when holding the door open for you as you walked to your seats in the Hyde Park Picture House.
A festival is only as good as its programme, and LYPFF is lucky to have the team of Debbie Maturi and Martin Grund pulling it together, using their knowledge of global cinema and years of experience working with young people. I joined as a intern working on the festival just before the programme was announced, and here’s a rundown of what the highlights were for me:
You don’t have to be a card carrying member of the Moomins fan club to have enjoyed Moomins and the Comet Chase. The felt, stop-motion animation had an understated ambience and philosophical bent which I hadn’t expected, as I was only familiar with the Finnish favourites from memorabilia aimed squarely at the cute market. The merchandise flying out the door did look pretty nice though, and I picked up a few posters for a friend.
The Great Big Family Film Day and Super Sci-Fi Sunday gave me a chance to experience two childhood favourites I’d not seen for years on the big screen, over the same weekend. I had faith that the super-inventive visuals in Jim Henson’s fantasy Labyrinth would hold up, and they did. No CGI can come close to matching the charm of what he and his team did with puppets and tricks of perspective. Ghostbusters did similar, and as an adult viewer the finer nuances of its sense of humour came to the forefront.
There were two entries in the INDIs (Independent Directions) Awards that really struck me. The first, The Lost Crystal of Ambalam (by Joe and Thomas Makarov, aged 12 and 9) starts off like exactly the kind of action-adventure you would expect from two young brothers. They run around a crag in commando gear, but beyond that I was quite content not to have had a clue what was going on, until their memorable meeting with a demanding crystal collector.
I bestow the honour of the exclamation “I can’t believe an x-year-old made that!” on 16-year-old Callum Hale-Thompson, quite a wiz on the young filmmakers scene, for his short film Sandwich. Shot on location in the US and on Super 8 film, it was the deliberateness of its unusual style that lingered after viewing, rather than its fancy credentials.
If you were plugged into social media throughout the festival you will have heard plenty about the success of the We Are Poets screening at Leeds Town Hall, or the Young Golden Owl Awards. Other great events included Caroline Maston’s Special Effects masterclass which showed how to make smoke bombs and fake blood, and a talk by insanely energetic children’s author Philip Caveney, once responsible for penning a book called Slayground!
Closing Gala The Cabin in the Woods packed the Hyde Park Picture House during two evening screenings, preceded by my final festival highlight – Michel Ocelot’s Tales of the Night, a silhouette animation featuring a compilation of stories based on myths including one about a magic tom-tom that makes people dance whether they want to or not, and another about prince given an awful ultimatum by the girl he’s fallen in love with. I’d not seen anything that looked quite like it, and its inspired me to bone up on my own knowledge of mythology.
As well as appealing to all ages, the festival’s selection appealed to many sensibilities within even the adult viewer. From cosy comfort viewing to subjects that are quite challenging, from homely slapstick humour to meanings you have to read between the lines to appreciate. I’ll look forward to having a flick through next years’ programme.