Hackney Film Festival 2011 launches

The second annual Hackney Film Festival is to unwind from 15 to 18 September at a range of venues across the borough.

Conceived as a community-based project, the non-profit initiative is the proud host of both professional and amateur film-makers with a Hackney connection. The 2011 event is twice the length of last year’s impressive début, and it will make its way through the borough in an enthralling series of screenings and audio-visual live performances.

At the opening bash on Thursday 15 September in the Netil House roof-terrace bar the audience can join a free informal get-together of directors, contributors and organisers. Come Friday, the festival moves to Café Oto for three audio-visual duo acts, before swinging through the Rio Cinema on Saturday for two handpicked short-film programmes.

Later the same day, the action heads towards the newly-erected Arcola Tent for an evening of live cinema featuring D-Fuse’s unmissable sound drifting Latitude, Noriko Okaku and Max Hattler’s unorthodox animation /\/\/\, and the politically-engaging We Made Our Own Disaster by Robin Mahoney and Si Begg.

On Sunday, short films and a live A/V performance precede the closing act, Under the Cranes. Exploring scales of time and space, this feature-length documentary is a poetic photomontage fusing contemporary footage with archive material to produce a film unique both in substance and technique.

Festival organiser Steve McInerney said: ‘’Once again we have been utterly impressed with what is coming out of this weird and wonderful borough, which in turn will be reflected in our diverse programme. This year will be a true testament of the film-making talent from Hackney.’’

Hackney Film Festival has become emblematic of a borough full of creativity and flair. Forget about autograph hounds on celebrity-spotting hunts: here you will meet down-to-earth artists and an approachable, witty crowd.