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The University of Southampton
Humanities

Shetland to Southampton and back again

Published: 30 January 2012Origin: Film
Shetland Arts

Professor Linda Ruth Williams and University Visiting Fellow Mark Kermode are involved in a pioneering festival of short films which will link the south coast with the Shetland Islands as part of the London 2012 Festival.

‘A Hansel of Film - Shetland to Southampton and Back'*, is a relay of screenings of short films made by ordinary people in every part of the UK. It will start in Shetland on 9 June, when the Olympic Torch reaches the UK's most northerly point in the isles. The various programmes of films will be relayed between participating venues by ‘runners'; creative and energetic individuals who will employ whatever means of transport they can to get the right films to the right venue on time.

Linda and Mark, who are the curators of the Shetland film festival Screenplay, will launch the event in Shetland in June, and will also greet the ‘runner' at Southampton's Harbour Lights Cinema, the project's half-way point. They will also visit other venues in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as the project wends its way down the UK and back up again from June to September, arriving back in Shetland for the 2012 Screenplay. "We are delighted to be launching this initiative, which will spread the spirit of the London 2012 Festival from Shetland in the north to Southampton in the south and back again, taking in many points east and west along the way," say Linda and Mark. "We are looking forward to partnering up with cinemas and film-makers across the UK who are as enthusiastic as we are about people making their own films and taking movies on the road."

The event will culminate in a marathon screening of over 120 short films at Screenplay 2012 in early September.


* A ‘hansel' is a Shetland dialect word meaning a gift that marks an event such as the launch of a new boat, the birth of a child or the creation of a new enterprise.

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