Is the dough in the right place?

Tuesday 23 December 2008

ReFrame

BREADMAKERS will be screened at the ReFrame Peterborough International Film Festival, Ontario, Canada, on Saturday 24th January 2009 at 12 noon.

ReFrame celebrates the latest works created by filmmakers from Canada and around the world, selecting films that will develop the viewer’s appreciation for arts and culture in contemporary media.

The 2009 program involves over a hundred community organisations and local businesses. Community group representatives introduce films to help the audience make the connection between what is happening in the film and what is happening locally. Over sixty volunteers from all ages and occupations step forward to make the festival a reality.

Previously known as the Travelling World Community Film Festival, the ReFrame Peterborough International Film Festival takes place between the 23rd and 25th January 2009.

More details at http://www.quidnovis.com/reframe/

Wednesday 17 December 2008

Humanity and Dignity

Yasmin has just sent this message by wire . . . well email.

BREADMAKERS has been shown at the Mustafa Ali’s Gallery in Damascus. The Gallery, with its various changing exhibitions, is situated in an old house in the Jewish quarter of old Damascus. It was so cold we went into the basement cavern-like bar, which has a bountiful supply of ironwork tables and wooden chairs. The bar was free (not possible in Scotland) and open (very possible in Scotland). We all had a nice time hanging out with the local cats.

About 50 people were at the screening, a mix of Syrian and International Artists young and old. I also noticed a couple of fellow filmmakers and a few curious local residents. There was a queue to see BREADMAKERS, so we screened the film THREE times. The third viewing included a very special guest – the Indian Ambassador.

The response to the film was overwhelming leading to an informed discussion afterwards. There was a nice comment from an older man, who said, "this film is not just about bread but about humanity and dignity". May I say that his words sum up the whole point of me wanting to make this film.

Saturday 6 December 2008

Tasty Treats

This article was published in the Strathspey and Badenoch Herald.

TASTY TREATS abound at Strath Film Festival

THERE will be tasty treats everywhere at the second Kingussie Food on Film Festival which runs for two days from February 6, 2009 at Kingussie High School. The first festival of its kind in Scotland, it combines feature films, short films, documentaries and a film-making competition with locally produced food, celebrity cooking demonstrations, competitions and a local food market.

The BBC's Craig Anderson will host Saturday's Film Night and interview all the short film directors. He said: "I so enjoyed taking part in last year's inaugural festival that I immediately agreed to come along and be involved again. This year I will also be part of an X Factor-style panel of film industry judges for the Highland Youth award for Short Food Films, which will open the festival on the Friday evening."

This award was launched in September after a highly successful film-making workshop in Kingussie attended by six schools from across the Highlands including Grantown and Kingussie. The workshop was run by Triple Echo Productions, of Newtonmore, who make the well-known "The Adventure Show" on BBC 2.

A £300 prize will be awarded for the best film at the Friday "Oscar Night" event, complete with red carpet, chocolate fountain, evening dress and live local youth bands. Also involved in the Saturday Film Night will be helpers with learning disabilities from Kingussie's Caberfeidh, who will be giving out free chocolate to eat with the screening of the main feature film, "Chocolat".

Internationally renowned cook, writer and presenter Lady Claire MacDonald will demonstrate her cooking at The Food Hall on Saturday afternoon, accompanied by her head chef Marcello Tulley. There will also be cooking competitions for children and a blind tasting competition organised by French chef Lydie Bocquillon for those eager to show off their culinary skills.
One of the festival's main organisers, Lydie said, "We are really excited to see the way this festival is taking off. I am confident it will grow and develop year on year and become a major event in the Highland calendar. The unique combination of food and films is irresistible, especially in the winter."

Sponsored by the Cairngorms National Park and organised by the Auld Alliance Gourmet Academy, in partnership with Kingussie High School, the event also received support from the Kingussie Business forum, the Strathspey and Badenoch youth forum and the Kingussie Mums and Toddlers Group.

The award-winning short film "Breadmakers", about Edinburgh's Garvald Bakery, which is staffed by people with Down's Syndrome and autism will also be shown and its acclaimed Lebanese/Canadian director Yasmin Fedda will appear to discuss the movie. She recently received the prestigious Black Pearl Award with its cash prize of £46,000 in Abu Dhabi but was delighted to take part in the Kingussie event when she was invited.

Tuesday 11 November 2008

British Baker Magazine

This was a short article published in the British Baker Magazine on 31st October 2008.

BAKERY DOCUMENTARY WINS ACCLAIM

An 11-minute documentary about Garvald Edinburgh Bakery, which is staffed by people with learning disabilities, including Down's syndrome and autism, has won $75,000 (£46,000) at the Middle East International Film Festival, taking The Black Pearl for Best Documentary - Short Film.

Breadmakers, directed by Yasmin Fedda, a previous employee of the bakery, looks at the intricate social relationships that operate between staff, as they make a variety of organic breads, rolls and cakes for daily delivery to 26 shops in Edinburgh.

Robin Mitchell, who produced the film with Jim Hickey, told British Baker: "The team at the bakery absolutely loved being filmed and, after a few minutes, really came out of their shells."

Sunday 2 November 2008

Yasmin - Star On The Rise

This was an article published in the Edinburgh Evening News on Saturday 1st November 2008 by Sarah Howden.

It shouldn't have worked. After all, the work of a bakery hardly makes for a riveting plot line. But Breadmaker has captivated audiences and just bagged its second industry award. Not bad for 28-year-old Yasmin Fedda from Abbeyhill, who swapped her apron for the camera and catapulted the Edinburgh bakers to international fame.

"The film allows people to see into a world they wouldn't normally see," explains Yasmin, whose film just won a £46,000 film festival Black Pearl Award in Abu Dhabi at the Middle East International Film Festival. "They got in touch with me and asked me to submit my film. I did but didn't think much more of it. Unfortunately I couldn't go to the awards ceremony so when I heard I was really surprised. It's amazing."

Her poignant 11-minute documentary is mostly silent, with the images in the Garvald Bakery speaking for themselves. Staffed by people with Down's Syndrome and autism, it was opened to provide a routine and creative space for adults with learning difficulties, as well as work towards college certificates for their skills. "It is such an inspiring place that it just made sense to make it there," she says. "Yes, it shows bread being made but, more importantly, it shows the relationships in the bakers and how people work together."

Growing up in Kuwait, Yasmin, who calls herself "Lebanese Canadian", decided to move to the Capital to study in 1998. "I had come to Edinburgh on holiday when I was young, but remembered nothing about it," she laughs. "Then, when it came to choosing a university, something made me pick Edinburgh."

Studying anthropology at Edinburgh University, Yasmin was unsure of what career path to follow. So when she graduated in 2002 she decided to volunteer. "This was when I first worked with Garvald and I just loved what they were all about. I went on to Manchester to get a Masters in anthropology and filmmaking and, when I graduated, I came back and became a relief worker with them. It was then I heard about the bakery and thought it was so unique."

Then she heard about the Scottish Documentary Institute's Bridging the Gap scheme. "The theme was white, and I came up with the proposal of white noise and the noises in the bakery. They liked it. From the initial proposal to editing, it took nine months with just two weeks of filming."

The heart-warming documentary went on to win an award at 2007's Edinburgh International Film Festival for Short Scottish Film and was also nominated for by BAFTA Scotland in the best short film category.

But Yasmin is unfazed – even when her film was shown at Robert Redford's renowned and star-studded Sundance Film Festival in the US."I went in January and it was a great festival – they had everything from small independent films to big budget ones," she says. "It was great for networking and they do say it's star-studded but I never saw anyone. I was too busy doing my thing."

Having recently tied the knot with city charity worker, Dan Gorman, 28, it's clear that Yasmin doesn't follow convention. Indeed her wedding was held in Syria, with her family flying in from all over the Middle East and Dan's Irish family travelling too, so it makes sense that the filmmaker's next projects are as thought-provoking and challenging as Breadmakers.

"Yes, one is a commission about a walk in Palestine which includes both locals and internationals. It was really exhausting to do but so interesting. The film allows you to see it from both eyes. The people there were really friendly and open, and it has such a beautiful landscape. We see the news, the economic problems, but until you are actually there you just don't realise how intense it is."

Her second film is set in Damascus and fuses Greek Orthodoxy with Christianity. "There's two sides to every story," is her philosophy in life.Her own life is firmly based in the Capital. "It's been a little bit hectic recently and I've been all over the place, but it's just till the end of the year," she laughs. "I love it in Edinburgh – apart from the cold and the darkness in the winter. Why didn't I realise that all those years ago?"

The Guardian

This was an article by the journalist Erland Clouston that appeared in The Guardian on Wednesday 29th October 2008.

A short film about a Scottish bakery that employs people with learning disabilities has landed the biggest prize payout in the history of documentary film making.

An 11-minute film about life in a charitable Edinburgh bakery has been named best short documentary at the Middle East International Film Festival, picking up a cheque for $75,000.

The film's co-producer, Jim Hickey, was presented with the Black Pearl trophy last week in a six-star Abu Dhabi hotel. The prize money – the biggest sum in the history of documentary filmmaking – works out at more than £4,363 for each minute of the film, called Breadmakers.

The cheque was an unexpected bonus for the film's director, Yasmin Fedda, who was unable to pick up the award because the prize giving coincided with her wedding.

Her film's triumph over rivals including an Oscar nominee and a winner of a Sundance Festival award was received with delight in the humble Edinburgh office of the Scottish Documentary Institute, which had backed the film in 2007. "We could not believe the amount of cash – we thought it was a misprint," said Finlay Pretsell, the institute's distribution and production manager.

At the Garvald Bakery where 12 workers with learning disabilities turn out 100 loaves and 60 rolls a day in premises modestly located behind a car dealership, there was hope that international celebrity might induce a more sympathetic funding settlement from Edinburgh city council.

Profits from the bakery help subsidise a parent organisation, which provides 40 people with supported accommodation and 120 with training and workshop opportunities. "The publicity has been brilliant," said the day services manager, Nancy Macdonald.

Already an anonymous donation of £25,000 is being linked to the coverage given to Fedda's documentary, which has been shown at 22 film festivals, from Reykjavik to Tehran. Baking, despite being one of the oldest professions, has had a low cinematic profile.

And Fedda, 29, an Edinburgh-based Lebanese-Canadian, did not initially feel that her film, which has no dialogue and no storyline beyond the gradual heating of dough, was going to change this. "You know what it is like when you are doing something new: you struggle a bit, you wonder if it works. In the end I was just happy that it made sense," she said.

The director, currently filming Greek Orthodox nuns in Syria, completed two stints as a volunteer at Garvald before sensing that its contented world of hums, clangs, whispers and whistles offered artistic possibilities. "Sounds are very interesting," she said.

Some of the money will be shared among Fedda's former workmates and some will be used to subsidise an outing for the bakers to the Food on Film Festival in Kingussie in February.

The Scotsman

This was an article in The Scotsman newspaper by Arts Correspondent Tim Cornwell. It was published on 23rd October 2008.

EVEN in Hollywood, film awards rarely bring more than a statuette, a movie star's handshake and, hopefully, enough publicity to sell a few more tickets. But the makers of a low-budget Scottish documentary about a bakery staffed by people with Down's syndrome and autism have won $75,000 (£46,000) at a festival in Abu Dhabi.

Breadmakers – made for little more than £8,000 – won the Black Pearl Award for Best Documentary Short Film at the Middle East International Film Festival. It was awarded to the director, Yasmin Fedda, who used to work part-time at the Garvald Bakery in Edinburgh, and producers Jim Hickey and Robin Mitchell.

Mr Hickey accepted the prizefrom Casino Royale star Eva Green and the actor Joseph Fiennes at the Emirates Palace Hotel, in its 1,100 seat cinema. "I will never forget it," he said. "It proves that a short film can make a journey from comparatively modest beginnings to holding its own against the best in the world. "One of the contenders was an Oscar-nominated short film and we managed to beat that to the prize."

He and his fellow film-makers plan to ensure part of the cash goes towards the bakery and the people who work there. Proceeds from the film have already helped pay for a new roll-slicing machine.

The 11-minute documentary shows Garvald's breadmakers kneading, shaping, and baking bread for more than 20 bakeries and delicatessens around Edinburgh. Mr Hickey said the film gave an insight into the lives of people with different learning disabilities. "There is a fascination of seeing a very everyday thing of baking bread of being carried out in a context where very few words are spoken because they communicate mostly in sign language. Baking of bread is something in every country which people can identify with."

"We're a bit stunned," said Alastair Baines, a workshop leader at the bakery. "Money-wise, it's incredible."

Breadmakers has already been screened at the Athens Disability Film Festival, others in Poland and Iran, and the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in the US. It was nominated for a Scottish Bafta award last year.Fedda plans to take bakery workers to see Breadmakers at a Food on Film Festival in Kingussie next year.

The bakery is run by Garvald Edinburgh, which provides support services for adults with disabilities.Grace Nicol, of the charity, said: "The film was made as quite a small scale plan to show people what goes on in our workshops. It's just got a life of its own. Our members at Garvald have achieved so much in confidence and credibility for the work they do by the film being screened. That is just as important." Breadmakers has brought other benefits as well. Ms Nicol said: "We recently received a £25,000 anonymous donation, a huge amount of money for us. Perhaps they saw Breadmakers." The Kendal Film Club in Cumbria, which recently screened the film, sent a donation of £50.

Breadmakers was funded as part of a new talent initiative by Scottish Screen and Skillset.

THE Garvald Bakery is an "unprepossessing building tucked behind a car showroom in Gorgie, Edinburgh," says Breadmakers director Yasmin Fedda. But she was inspired to make the film partly by the "variety of sounds" she experienced, when she worked for a year covering shifts there.The film was initially conceived as a promotional DVD for the bakery.

Made with £8,000 in funding from Scottish Screen and other backers, it has no spoken narrative, but features only snatches of conversation and singing, and the sound of dough hitting tables. The lack of language may explain why it has done so well internationally. It won a short film award when it was screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and a Scottish Bafta nomination.The bakery is one of nine sites operated by the charity Garvald Edinburgh, providing "curative education" and therapy to more than 100 people.

Fedda, a Lebanese-Canadian who came to study in Edinburgh in 1998, made a previous documentary, Milking the Desert, based on her time in a Syrian monastery which encourages Muslim-Christian relations.

Friday 31 October 2008

Audience Award

BREADMAKERS has won the second “Palme Dewar prize” as voted for by the audience at a special event organised by the Heartland Film Society on Saturday 25th October 2008 in Pitlochry.

The award was presented by Peter Guthrie of Dewars to Tony Pitchforth of HFS who accepted on behalf of Yasmin and the Garvald Bakery.

From a more general Scottish theme at the 2007 festival, HFS this year focused on films actually 'Made in Scotland'. The Heartland Film Society (HFS) was formed in 2001 to enable the showing of films on a big screen in an informal and friendly atmosphere.

More details at: www.heartlandfilmsociety.org.uk

Friday 24 October 2008

Festival Screenings of Breadmakers

We're often asked about festival screenings of BREADMAKERS. Here's the latest list.

Microcinéfest2008, Toronto, Canada, 2008

Temecula Valley International Film and Music Festival, California, USA, 2008

The Middle East International Film Festival, Abu Dhabi, UAE, 2008
(The Black Pearl for Best Documentary Short Film)

dokumentArt European Film Festival, Germany, 2008

Planet in Focus International Environmental Film Festival, Toronto, Canada, 2008

Milano Film Festival, Italy, 2008

International Documentary Film Festival "Message to Man", St Petersburg, Russia, 2008

International Documentary Festival on Disability, Athens, Greece, 2008
(Awarded the best short documentary prize)

Krakow Film Festival, Poland, 2008

Wolverhampton Disability Film Festival, UK, 2008

Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival, USA, 2008

International Women's Film Festival Dortmund / Cologne, Germany 2008

SILVERDOCS International Documentary Film Festival, USA, 2008

Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Durham, North Carolina, USA, 2008

Glasgow Film Festival, Glasgow, UK, 2008

True/False Film Festival, Columbia, Missouri, USA, 2008

London International Disability Film Festival, London, UK, 2008

Quebec International Ethnographic Film Festival, Quebec, Canada, 2008

Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah, USA, 2008

Ofensiva International Film Festival, Wroclaw, Poland, 2007

Film Festival Dokumenter, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 2007

Docudays - Beirut Documentary Film Festival, Beirut, Lebanon, 2007

Documentary Film Festival of IRAN, "Cinema Verite", Tehran, Iran, 2007

Seventh International Festival of Visual Culture, Joensuu, Finland, 2007

Bafta Scotland nomination in the best short film category 2007

Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh, UK, 2007
(Short Scottish Documentary Award)

Thursday 23 October 2008

And the winner is . . .

On Sunday 19th October BREADMAKERS was awarded a major prize at the Middle East International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi; the Black Pearl for Best Documentary Short Film, together with a cash prize of $75,000. Producer Jim Hickey was presented with the award in Abu Dhabi by Joseph Fiennes and Casino Royale's Eva Green.

The Middle East International Film Festival is one of the richest in the world, awarding prize money of $1 million. A total of 76 feature films and 34 short films from over 35 countries competed for the awards. Among the stars present at the festival were Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon, Catherine Deneuve and Ben Kingsley.

BREADMAKERS has already been programmed by 20 film festivals and won prizes at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Athens Disability Film Festival.

Jim Hickey said, "This prize is unprecedented for a short film and it will help us all to move forward with our next projects. Robin and I are already working with Yasmin on her next film for which she has been shooting some material in Damascus."

The Middle East International Film Festival's website is www.meiff.com

Wednesday 15 October 2008

"Palm Dewar"

BREADMAKERS will be screened on Saturday 25th October 2008 at the Heartland Film Society at Dewars Distillery, Aberfeldy. The audience vote for their preferred film and the winner receives the "PALM DEWAR" with an appropriate prize.

From the more general Scottish theme at last year's festival, this year they have focused on films actually 'Made in Scotland'.

The Heartland Film Society (HFS) was formed to enable the showing of films on a big screen in an informal and friendly atmosphere. In 2004, HFS won the British Federation of Film Societies Best New Film Society award. The judges made special mention of the novel and unique method (the bean-o-meter) that HFS uses to evaluate the success of each film shown.

More details at: www.heartlandfilmsociety.org.uk

Thursday 2 October 2008

The Hollywood Reporter

While Yasmin shoots her new documentary film in Damascus, BREADMAKERS continues on its remarkable journey around the globe. Future screenings have been arranged in Canada, Greece and back home in Scotland.

The following article is taken from the Hollywood Reporter about the 'in competition' line up for the Middle East International Film Festival, a festival BREADMAKERS will be shown at.

By Steve Brennan
Sept 28, 2008, 05:58 PM ET

More than 60 films from 32 countries have been signed in for the official competition at this year's Middle East International Film Festival that is due to run Oct. 10-19.

About 138 films will be screened with titles coming from East to West -- up from 80 films in MEIFF's inaugural festival in 2007. This year's competition includes features, documentaries, shorts and student films in four separate categories.

"I am pleased to say that MEIFF 2008 has attracted some of the top films, filmmakers and distinguished industry guests from all corners of the world, and we are honored to host them in Abu Dhabi," MEIFF vice chairman Mohamed Khalaf Al Mazrouei said.

"The official competition is the place to be at MEIFF to see up-and-coming films and premieres from across the globe," MEIFF director Nashwa Al Ruwaini said. "These films should be the first stop for cinema lovers in Abu Dhabi. Among our many world and regional premieres, the In Competition feature films "O'Horten" (Norway) and "Mermaid" (Russia) have both been submitted for the Oscar for best foreign-language film."

The festival's Black Pearl cash prize distributed to the winners, along with a trophy, has been increased this year with prizes totaling more than $1 million. Jon Fitzgerald, MEIFF's director of programming, noted: "With an expanded festival in 2008, it was logical to increase the number of films in competition."

The narrative competition features 15 films, seven of which are world premieres and two regional premieres. Among the films premiering are Samir Habachi's "Beirut: Open City" (Lebanon), Magdi Ahmed Ali's "Fawzia: A Special Blend" (Egypt), Saleh Karama's "Henna" (UAE) and the much-anticipated Rashid Masharawi's "Laila's Birthday" making its regional premiere.

Among the international films competing in the festival are Ayten Mutlu Saray's "Zara" (Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands, Kurdistan) marking its world premiere, Alexander Melnik's "Terra Nova" (Russia) making its regional premiere and Indian Girish Kasaravalli's "Gulabi Talkies."
Films participating in the documentary competition include "Seven Blind Filmmakers" (Iran), directed by Mohammed Shirvani; "Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love" (Senegal, Egypt, France), directed by Elisabeth Chai Vasarhelyi; and "Man on Wire" (U.K., U.S.), directed by James Marsh.

In the category of short films, 30 films from 21 countries will compete to win the prestigious Black Pearl. The shorts program is divided into four sections, Aspects of Life, A World of Youth, Middle East Vision and Animation and Experimental. Featured short films include "Sometimes" (Egypt), directed by Mahmoud Soliman; "Boxing Lesson (Romania), directed by Alexandru Marrodinue; "Breadmakers" (U.K.), directed by Yasmin Fedda, "Boutellisse" (Tunisia), directed by Nasreddinee Shili; and "The Graffiti of Mister Tupaia" (New Zealand), directed by Christopher Dudman.

The 17 student films in the competition include "Ali the Iraqi" (Lebanon), directed by Vatche Boulghourjian; "Kate Wakes" (USA), directed by Jasmine Kosovic; "The Morning With Other Eye" (Russia), directed by Philipp Yurev; "Ya Halawood" (Jordan), directed by Students of Workshop by Amman Filmmakers Cooperative.

Tuesday 23 September 2008

Microcinéfest2008

BREADMAKERS was recently screened at Microcinéfest2008.

Microcinéfest2008 is the brainchild of Toronto Cinécycle Martin Heath. At once Meta-Physician, Martin is the veritable Uber Miester Projectionist of mythic proportions, spinner of reels and wheels, stopping at nothing to light up our lives.

Originator of the famous bicycle powered projector, Martin Heath has been one of the most seminal influences in the Canadian film community. For 30 years, he was head of the restoration department of the Toronto International Film Festival.

More details at: http://www.microcinefest.ca/index.html

Temecula Valley

BREADMAKERS was screened twice at the 14th Temecula Valley International Film and Music Festival (TVIFF) on Thursday 18th and Saturday 20th September 2008.

Since 1995, the TVIFF has screened over 700 films from over 20 countries. The 2008 line up, featuring over 70 film programs from around the world, was held at the state of the art Movie Experience 10-plex at the Tower Plaza in Temecula, Southern California, USA. The categories showcased were U.S. and International full-length features, short films, student films, documentaries and animation.

The music competition component of TVIFF is designed to showcase the music vision and artistic wizardry of talented individuals and groups from across America and the world. The Festival is presented by Cinema Entertainment Alliance, a non-profit arts and education organisation dedicated to celebrating world cinema and music.

More details at http://www.tviff.com

Sunday 21 September 2008

Breadmakers heads to Abu Dhabi

Breadmakers will be shown at The Middle East International Film Festival– Abu Dhabi (MEIFF) which takes place between the 10th – 19th October 2008.

MEIFF is a celebration of cinema, dedicated to bringing a diverse slate of international films to the community and to introducing filmmakers from around the world to the region.

With an extended ten-day festival in 2008, MEIFF will showcase more films, and with a number of editions to programming sections and the prestigious Black Pearl Awards, the festival will honour and bring together talented filmmakers with experienced film executives from all over the world.

More details at: http://www.meiff.com

DokumentArt European Film Festival

Breadmakers will be screened at 17th dokumentArt European Film Festival between 17th – 22 October 2008.

The festival programme will be shown at the same time in Neubrandenburg in Germany and in Szczecin in Poland. Selected films are also screened in various different towns in the region.

The five members of German-Polish program commission for the festival selected 43 films from 19 countries for the competition of this year. Over 300 films were submitted. The commission selected eight further films for a special Eastern Europe program.

More details at: http://www.dokumentart.org

Friday 12 September 2008

Return to Finland

BREADMAKERS will be screened by the North Karelian Regional Film Association at a small free event for disabled people in Joensuu, Finland, on the 19th September 2008.

Breadmakers was previously screened at the seventh annual International Festival of Visual Culture (Viscult), Joensuu, in 2007 when the main theme was "Daily Bread".

YASMIN was suitably delighted with yet another screening of Breadmakers. “The journey of our film is amazing. I’m so pleased it continues to be shown around the world”.

Through the years Viscult has seen many great filmmakers and visual anthropologists, Asen Balikci, Peter Biella, Gary Kildea, David MacDougall, Colette Piault, Faye Ginsburg, Judith Okely and Jay Ruby among many others.

The 8th VISCULT FESTIVAL IN JOENSUU takes place between the 2nd and the 5th October 2008. The main theme of this year’s festival is TRANSFORMATIONS.

Friday 29 August 2008

Milano Film Festival

"Breadmakers" has been selected for the Special Section of the Milano Film Festival (2008) called Vite (R)esistenti / (Un)common people.

This special section will feature a selection of biographical documentaries: films depicting life-long struggles against hostile environments, suspicious governments, and absorbing, annihilating memories. Stories otherwise left untold, that manage to represent countries through the lives of their citizens.

The festival aims at giving an insight into the lives of extraordinary people, on which young, talented filmmakers have focussed their attention and cameras. Once again, in spite of lacking instruments, they have managed to concentrate on people's lives and bring them to the attention of the most important festivals worldwide.

The Milano Film Festival takes place from the 12th – 21st September 2008.

Friday 15 August 2008

Planet in Focus

Breadmakers (Dir. Yasmin Fedda) will be shown at the 9th annual Planet in Focus International Environmental Film and Video Festival, which takes place in Toronto between the 22nd and 26th October 2008.

Planet in Focus promotes and showcases outstanding and compelling films and videos in all forms (documentary, drama, animation, experimental, new media), focusing on environmental themes and subjects by Canadian and international filmmakers.

Throughout the year and at their annual festival, Planet in Focus use environmental artistic expression as a catalyst for public awareness, discussion and appropriate action on the ecological and social health of the planet.

More details can be found at: http://www.planetinfocus.org/

Sunday 10 August 2008

Back to Beirut

Yasmin will be attending Beirut DC, The Cultural Association for Cinema, 5th edition of Ayam Beirut Al Cinema’iya Arab Film Festival, from October 16th to 24th, 2008. It's nice to think that while Yasmin spreads the word of BREADMAKERS in Beirut, the film itself will be screened closer to home at the Heartland Film Society’s Autumn Scottish Film Weekend in Aberfeldy, Scotland (see previous post).

Beirut DC was founded in Beirut, Lebanon in 1999 by a group of cinema professionals and art advocates. The organisation began its projects towards the end of 1999. The aim of Beirut DC was to provide help and support to Arab independent filmmakers, in facing up and overcoming the constraints facing independently-minded Arab cinema.

In due time, Beirut DC became more capable and efficient in its efforts to adjust to the difficulties and challenges facing Arab independent moviemakers. The organisation was able to learn and profit from its prolonged experience, and to gain the knowledge necessary to define and pursue its ongoing projects.

In a region where individuality is generally restricted, Beirut DC encourages its partners and collaborators to produce films that are relevant to their society, that seek to question pre-established forms and beliefs, and aim to induce change and new, personal approaches.

Sunday 20 July 2008

HEARTLAND FILM SOCIETY

After months of travelling the world’s film festival circuit BREADMAKERS will be screened closer to home at the Heartland Film Society’s Autumn Scottish Film Weekend in Aberfeldy. The screening will take place on Saturday 25th October 2008 at Dewars Distillery, Aberfeldy. The audience vote for their preferred film and the winner receives the “PALM DEWAR” with an appropriate prize.

Heartland Film Society (HFS) was formed to enable the showing of films on a big screen in an informal and friendly atmosphere. In 2004, HFS won the British Federation of Film Societies Best New Film Society award. The judges made special mention of the novel and unique method (the bean-o-meter) that HFS uses to evaluate the success of each film shown. Not only that but it received commendation for the programme notes issued for each screening.

HFS is run as a self-funding venture – fees cover only the cost of putting on films and the hire of the Locus Centre. Why not join? You don't have to join in advance – just come along to any of the performances. More details at: www.heartlandfilmsociety.org.uk

Monday 30 June 2008

First in Athens

Breadmakers has won best short documentary at the 2nd Emotion Pictures International Documentary Festival on Disability, Athens, Greece.

The festival, composing of documentary films focusing exclusively on issues of disability, is organised by the Secretariat General of Communication – Secretariat General of Information, in collaboration with the Greek Film Centre.

The aims and objectives of the festival remained the same, those being, the use of documentary films as a medium that puts on the map issues of disability by artists from around the world and walks of life; to increase public awareness and promote the inclusion of disabled people.

Director Yasmin Fedda was suitably delighted. "It's always good when your work is recognised."

Another Good Write Up

Another good write up . . . I think.

Geschäftiger Alltag in der Bäckerei Garvald in Edinburgh. Zwölf Menschen mit unterschiedlichen Lernschwächen arbeiten hier. Yasmin Fedda deckt die sozialen Beziehungen der BrotbäckerInnen auf, die in diversen Sprach- und Zeichensystemen miteinander kommunizieren.BREADMAKERS entstand im Rahmen der Filmförderungsinitiative "Bridging the Gap" des "Scottish Documentary Institute".BiografieYASMIN FEDDA ist libanesisch-kanadischer Abstammung. Sie studierte Visuelle Anthropologie an der "Universität Manchester". Ihr Abschlussfilm über ein Kloster in der syrischen Wüste wurde weltweit auf zahlreichen Festivals gezeigt. Neben Projekten in den USA und dem mittleren Osten gab Yasmin Fedda in Newcastle einen Filmworkshop für junge Asylbewerber. Ihre Filme stehen in der Tradition des "Cinéma Vérité" - ihre Vorbilder sind Jean Rouche und Peter Brosens.

Friday 23 May 2008

Breadmakers heads to Russia

Breadmakers has been selected for the XVIII International Documentary, Short and Animated Films Festival "Message to Man" in St Petersburg, Russia. The Film festival takes place between the 15th and 22nd June 2008. It is the only international festival of this kind that exists in Russia.

The festival program includes International competition, National documentary film competition "Gateway to Russia" and special programs. Nearly 2500 submissions from almost 90 countries were sent for pre-selection.

Films produced in 2007-2008 were eligible for participation in the International and National competitions. Competition screenings and special programs will be shown in "Dom Kino" and "Rodina" film centres. Special programs will also be presented in "Dom Kino" and other theatres throughout the city.

Sunday 20 April 2008

International Women's Film Festival Dortmund / Cologne

Breadmakers has been selected for the International Women's Film Festival Dortmund / Cologne in April 2008.

With the recent merger of the Feminale and femme totale - the two famous film festivals originally set up in Cologne and Dortmund in the 1980s - one of the most significant women's film festivals in the world has now come into being: the International Women's Film Festival DortmundCologne. Unique in Germany, the IWFF provides a perfect platform for the presentation of the latest film developments and trends as they relate to women working in all areas of film production. Not just women film directors but women cinematographers, film-music composers and other women filmmakers are given an unrivalled opportunity to showcase their latest work.

Based in the Rhine & Ruhr area, one of the world's largest metropolitan regions, the festival is open to all genres and styles. It takes place once a year, with the location alternating between two major and cultural important cities in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Cologne and Dortmund. The structures there that have organically grown over the last twenty years will guarantee that the tradition of expertly presenting the work of women involved in film production will be continued.

Friday 18 April 2008

Pangea Day

Breadmakers has been selected to be part of Pangea Day.

On May 10, 2008, Cairo, Dharamsala, Kigali, London, New York City, Ramallah, Rio de Janeiro, and Tel Aviv will be linked to produce a 4-hour program of films, music and speakers. The program will be broadcast live at the same time across the world. The program will be broadcast live to the world through the Internet, television, digital cinemas, and mobile phones.

According to the festival organisers, "Pangea Day plans to use the power of film to bring the world a little closer together."

Pangea Day was created in 2006 when documentary filmmaker Jehane Noujaim won the TED prize. Jehane wished to use film to bring the world together. May 10, 2008 will be the first Pangea Day event.

Iowa City for Breadmakers

Breadmakers was recently screened at the Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival.

ICDOCS is an annual festival committed to engaging their Iowa audience with the world at large through films that explore the boundaries of documentary and non-fiction filmmaking. The festival showcases independent, high-quality short non-fiction films from around the world, providing valuable screen time for rarely seen work, as well as providing the community the opportunity to see movies they would usually not get to see.

ICDOCS was founded in 2001 with the mission of serving as a catalyst for positive change and fostering dialogue on a range of contemporary issues, both international and local. They are a non-profit, all volunteer-run organisation whose board of directors programmes approximately 10 hours of short works in competition for a ‘Best of the Festival’ award as well as other cash prizes, and sponsors special out-of-competition screenings and events, including screenings by distinguished jurors.

In 2008, ICDOCS teamed up with the Mission Creek Midwest Festival in order to provide a weeklong event showcasing literature, music, and film.

Monday 14 April 2008

Wolverhampton Disability Film Festival

Breadmakers will be shown at the Wolverhampton Disability Film Festival on Saturday 19th April at 2pm.

The Wolverhampton Disability Film Festival is run by the Light House Cinema in Wolverhampton City Centre. It is run in association with Outside Centre - a local Disability Arts Charity headed by Dr Paul Darke. The Arts Council of England and Screen West Midlands are the main funders of the film festival.

Yasmin said, "This is the sort of festival I always wanted Breadmakers to be involved in." More details at: www.disabilityfilmfestival.eu

BAFTA Scotland and BAFTA Cymru present...

BAFTA Scotland and BAFTA Cymru have joined forces to create a programme of award winning, emerging new work. The screening will take place at The Celtic Media Festival, Radisson SAS Hotel, Galway, Ireland, on Friday 18th April 2008.

SCOTLAND:
Breadmakers (Yasmin Fedda, 10mins)
At a unique Edinburgh bakery, a community of workers with learning disabilities makes a variety of organic breads for daily delivery to shops and cafes in the city. The workers interact using individual expressions, repetitive speech and sign language, revealing intricate social relationships with each other and their support workers. In what can seem a chaotic workplace, there is a mix of sounds that can approach levels of white noise amidst the carefully structured everyday process of bread production.

Butterfly (Yulia Mahr, 12mins)
When Gemma was born the midwife said she was the fairest child she'd ever seen. Not long after she was diagnosed with albinism, a melanin deficiency which causes very fair hair and skin, and poor eyesight. This rare and intimate portrait explores Gemma's perspective about her condition which has often made her an outsider - but equally determined to lead a normal life. "I'll never be able to drive a car, but that's about it," she says as she climbs the highest indoor climbing arena in Europe. A film about a courageous woman accepting difference.

How to Save a Fish from Drowning (Kelly Neal, 12mins)
How to Save a Fish from Drowning is a quirky film about the death of white rural America told through the voices of three old men fishing on a frozen lake. In a landscape cloaked in snow and hovering in a bright nothingness, they escape their wives, chew the fat about another neighbour having had to sell his farm, and they wait....

WALES:
Mummy's Boy (Nicholas Davies and Oskari Korenius, 15 mins)
When a twelve year old MARK discovers a drowned sheep he experiences a traumatic reminder of his brother's death. Driven by anger at his grief-stricken mothers inability to recognise his suffering, he destroys the shrine -like sanctuary she has created in her deceased son's room

Beryl, Y Briodas a'r Fiedo ( Joanna Quinn & Les Mills, 9 mins)
On acquiring a new Digi Video Cam Beryl becomes obsessed with the art of filmmaking using it to articulate her desires. Dreams and thoughts as a video diary. As "cineaste par excellence" she agrees to video the wedding of her friend Mandy, seizing the opportunity to "strut her stuff filmically" with disastrous and often hilarious results.

Friday 4 April 2008

Breadmakers in Krakow

Breadmakers has been selected for the Krakow Film Festival, which takes place in Krakow, Poland, from 30th May to the 5th June 2008. Krakow Film Festival is the oldest film festival in Poland, organised every year since 1961.

In the early 1990's, due to the political and economic transformations which caused a drastic decline of film production, the Krakow festival went through a crisis, as a result of which the national competition ceased to be organised for a number of years. It was only in 1997 that it was restored and since then both festivals have been held jointly every year in late May and early June.

The fact that the Krakow Film Festival has been officially recognised by FIAPF, the European Film Academy and the AMPAS only confirms its reputation in its field.

Consequently, the films awarded at Krakow are automatically eligible for the European Film Awards and the Oscars in the short film category. The Krakow Film Festival is also a member of the European Co-ordination of Film festivals, the association of Europe’s most prestigious film festivals.

Wednesday 2 April 2008

Greece is the word

Breadmakers has been accepted to the 2nd Emotion Pictures International Documentary Festival on Disability which will be held between 21-23 June 2008, at the New Benaki Museum for Contemporary Art and Design, 138 Piraeus Street, Athens, Greece.

The festival, composing of documentary films focusing exclusively on issues of disability, is organised by the Secretariat General of Communication – Secretariat General of Information, in collaboration with the Greek Film Centre.

The aims and objectives of the festival remain the same, those being, the use of documentary films as a medium that puts on the map issues of disability by artists from around the world and walks of life; to increase public awareness and promote the inclusion of disabled people.

More details can be found at: www.ameamedia.gr/en

Friday 28 March 2008

SILVERDOCS

Breadmakers has been selected for the SILVERDOCS International Documentary Film Festival in June 2008.

SILVERDOCS is an international film festival celebrating the creative vision of independent filmmakers and the power of documentary to expand our world-view and enhance our understanding of the world around us. Entering its sixth year, SILVERDOCS has become the most talked about documentary festival in the United States. Due to record crowds in 2007, the 2008 edition of SILVERDOCS will be two days longer.

Leading filmmakers such as Nick Broomfield, Werner Herzog, Jim Jarmusch, Alan King, Barbara Kopple, Al Maysles, Stanley Nelson, Jonathan Demme, Penelope Spheeris and Martin Scorsese have shared their work and their perspectives with Festival audiences.

SILVERDOCS provides business and creative connections among filmmakers, broadcasters, distributors and funders from both established and emerging media markets at the International Documentary Conference. The conference includes over 60 panels and workshops and is attended by over 650 filmmakers and guests from around the world. Former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Al Gore delivered the keynote address in 2006.

SILVERDOCS takes place at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Centre.

Sunday 16 March 2008

Labour Ennobles

There will be a screening of Breadmakers in Amsterdam on the 18th and 19th April 2008 as part of the Amsterdam Shorts Teaser Night.

The event is entitled Labour Ennobles and this is their blurb . . .

" Let us shake up your drag of everyday life by showing you other people's humdrum routines at work. We guarantee this to be a refreshing experience for anyone. The third and final Amsterdam Shorts! teaser night presents five carefully selected films that show you that any kind of labour, ranging from the oldest job on earth to the newest quirks of globalisation, ennobles us human beings."

Calcutta Calling
R: Andre Hoermann
(Ge, 2006, 16')
Vikhee Uphall is making a career in telemarketing. Calling from Calcutta he sells phone subscriptions to Americans, Brits and Aussies.

De Zone
R: Ben van Lieshout
(NL, 1999, 18')
An accurately shot film about a typical Dutch phenomenon: de afwerkplek, a place where prostitutes and their clients can park a car to have sex in.

Morning / Evening / Morning
R: David Burrows
(Fr, 2006, 19')
A dreamy insight into the life of a couple who through conflicting work schedules never really are together.

Breadmakers
R: Yasmin Fedda
(GB, 2007, 11')
Somewhere in Scotland there is a bakery which has the happiest employees in the world!

Staplerfahrer Klaus. Der erste Arbeitstag
R: Jörg Wagner
(Ge, 2001, 10')
In this hilarious instructional video we follow lift truck driver Klaus' first day at work.

More details at: http://www.amsterdamshorts.nl

Friday 7 March 2008

CLICK HERE - Breadmakers on BBC Reporting Scotland

A wee section about Breadmakers on BBC TV's Reporting Scotland
- click on the title above.

Sunday 24 February 2008

FULL FRAME

Breadmakers has been accepted to the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, which takes place at the historic Carolina Theatre in downtown Durham, North Carolina, USA from 3rd to 6th April 2008.

Founded in 1998, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival celebrates the power and artistry of documentary film. Recognised as the premier documentary film festival in the United States by both The New York Times and indieWIRE, Full Frame is an important arena for documentary filmmakers. It is a place where they can showcase their work theatrically in an environment that stimulates conversation and community between filmmakers, industry executives and the general public.

The festival is produced by Doc Arts, Inc. and enjoys support from private and corporate sponsors whose generosity provides the foundation that makes the event possible. These sponsors include The New York Times, Duke University, A&E, and HBO, among many others.

More details at: http://www.fullframefest.org/

Monday 18 February 2008

On the Making of Breadmakers

An article from Short End Magazine.

In the parting shot of Yasmin Fedda's Breadmakers, a baker dances to the rhythm of his own quirky beat, a simple joy apparent in each of his movements. As the image lingers, the day in the life documentary study lives within a gorgeous subtly, observing in a quiet manner the lives of people born with learning difficulties. "I try to bring different worlds for people to watch, explore and think about," Fedda comments about her work.

Working on commission as part of the Scottish Documentary Institute's Bridging the Gap scheme--a program built to assist filmmakers in the creative transition from student to professional--Fedda teamed with producers Jim Hickey and Robin Mitchell to stitch the 10-minute short together. Responding to the commission theme 'white,' Fedda, also collaborating with sound designer Marcelo di Olivera, set her focus specifically on exploring white noise, as she puts it, that space "where creative and industrial sounds come together."

In this e-mail exchange, Fedda furthers the discussion about her approach to the gentle, humanist short.

SM: At Manchester University your master's degree work was in Visual Anthropology. The term is a new one for me, and I was hoping that you could define it. What makes that art format different than say straight documentary?

YF: Visual anthropology, in it's simplest terms (people define in in different ways, some more academically, such as the anthropology of visual media, to others more filmically) is using anthropological knowledge, research and ethics to inform filmaking. It doesn't really affect style, genre or visual approach but rather the approach to the content or subjects of your films. It is assumed you spend a lot of time with your 'subjects', getting to know them and them you. It is a loose term, generally meaning that the filmaker takes into consideration the point of view of their 'subject' as much as is possible to a wider audience.

SM: Breadmakers in particular is almost lovingly observational without living out the sentimentality of a thesis. It lacks a sense of manipulative judgement on a social topic that many people have preconceived and often erroneous notions about. How did you approach the topic in this way from a directorial standpoint? Additionally, how did you go about working with Vera Lettho from the perspective of crafting the cinematography?

YF: I had actually worked at the bakery as a relief staff member for about a year and got to know many of the people in the film in that time. When the opportunity to make this film came up, I really wanted to film the bakery and its rhythm. The film was commissioned as a short, and it was hard to incorporate much dialogue in that time (due to various issues of speech clarity) and I realised that what I found intriguing was the rhythm and the space itself and all the things that happen in it, from the mudane like the tea break to the funny and entertaining. I felt the bakery was a microcosm of the centre, and it reflected my expereince of working there as well, but I wanted to try and express this through the point of view of the bakery and its workers.

It was the first time I had worked with Veera Lehto on a film, but we have known each other for many years. I am a fan of her photography and cinematography because she frames shots in a way that you can see many subtle details through them, and I felt that this would work well in the bakery; for example in the closing scene, she filmed Thomas whistling and she framed the work table in the background, so we can see a show in the foreground, and people working and arguing in the back. She understood straight away what I found interesting and what we would be filming, and we spent a lot of time waiting for the unexpected, like the whistling shot, and she was happy to put in that time, so we could capture those kind of moments.

SM: What have you taken out of the short--whether that be a learning curve or even a small detail--that's surprised you?

YF: I learned a lot in the short and felt like I finally learned how to follow a story visually. After my last film, one judge at a competition said that there was too much talking, and so that stuck in my head until I made Breadmakers, and I feel like I finally understood what he meant.

I also learned that not having a voice-over can work and didn't take away from the subjects. I am happy that people have responded to it well and found some connection with the bakers. I have been surprised by the feedback from audiences about the bakery itself and how they are impressed by the work they do.

Thursday 14 February 2008

Stirling Bound

Breadmakers will be shown at the Macrobert Cinema, Stirling on Monday 18th February 2008 (6.30-8.30pm) at an event called FIRST LOOK: a special programme dedicated to first time filmmakers. Mitch Miller, Director, RUSHES & Ben McNeill, Director, FILM LIVE will host the event

Part 1

Short Stories: From the weird to the even-weirder (6.30-7.35pm)

Stuart Condy: Loast (5 mins) and One More Minute (7 mins)

Mike Callaghan: Father's Day (9 mins) and Nowhere (9 mins)

Seth Hardwick: VoodooPhone (20 mins)

Followed by Q & A with Stuart Condy, Mike Callaghan and Seth Hardwick


7.35-7.45pm INTERVAL


Part 2

True Stories: In search of the unique (7.45pm-8.30pm)

Yasmin Fedda: Extract from Milking the Desert (25 mins)

Breadmakers (9 mins) BAFTA Award winner

Saturday 26 January 2008

Festivals Screenings & Awards

We're continually being asked about festivals, screenings and awards for Breadmakers. Here's the latest list, and rest assured we will update the list at regular intervals.

Glasgow Film Festival, Glasgow, UK, 2008

True/False Film Festival, Columbia, Missouri, USA, 2008

8th London International Disability Film Festival, London, UK, 2008

Quebec International Ethnographic Film Festival, Quebec, Canada, 2008

Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah, USA, 2008

Ofensiva International Film Festival, Wroclaw, Poland, 2007

Film Festival Dokumenter, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 2007

Docudays - Beirut Documentary Film Festival, Beirut, Lebanon, 2007

Documentary Film Festival of IRAN, "Cinema Verite", Tehran, Iran, 2007

Seventh International Festival of Visual Culture, Joensuu, Finland, 2007

Bafta Scotland nomination in the best short film category 2007

Short Scottish Documentary Award, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh, UK, 2007

The List

From THE LIST magazine (issue 592)

A short Scottish documentary film is set to be screened at the world renowned Sundance festival.

The independent film festival, helmed by Hollywood star Robert Redford, will premiere Yasmin Fedda’s Breadmakers, a 12-minute film about a community of bakers with learning disabilities set in Edinburgh’s Garvald Bakery, which has already picked up the Best Short Scottish Documentary Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2007 and a BAFTA Scotland nomination for best short film.

The film was made as part of the Bridging the Gap New Talent Initiative, run by the Scottish Documentary Institute and funded by Scottish Screen National Lottery, Skillset Film Skills Fund and supported by Edinburgh College of Art and ADMC.

Noé Mendelle, director of Bridging the Gap said: ‘It’s our first film to get selected by Sundance, and we hope this is the first of many more in the future. It’s a great endorsement of our hard work in the last few years, and a brilliant way for Yasmin and the Bridging the Gap scheme, to get noticed within the wider filmmaking community.’

Leslie Finlay, Development Executive at Scottish Screen added: ‘It is fantastic news that Breadmakers has been selected for Sundance, one of the world’s premiere showcases for new work. Breadmakers is a heartwarming film with a talented team behind it and exemplifies what Bridging The Gap and Scottish Screen are aiming to achieve through our New Talent Development Initiative.’

Presenting 120 dramatic and documentary feature-length films in seven distinct categories and 80 short films each year, the Sundance Film Festival has grown in stature since its conception over two decades ago. As a film showcase it has introduced American audiences to cult classics such as American Splendor, Clerks, Hustle and Flow, Maria Full of Grace, Napoleon Dynamite and Sex, Lies and Videotape. This year’s opening night film is the world premiere of In Bruges, written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker and award-winning playwright, Martin McDonagh.

The next Sundance takes place in Park City, Utah, Thu 17–Sun 27 Jan.

The Reel Deals

An article by CHITRA RAMASWAMY of Scotland on Sunday.

WHEN the Bafta Scotland nominations were announced last year, most of us – myself included – homed in on the fact that only one woman was nominated in the Best Actress category. While we were busy bemoaning the lack of women working in the Scottish screen industries, we failed to notice that the short film category was dominated by women filmmakers alone. More surprisingly, all three films were documentaries.

When Stuart Cosgrove, Channel 4's director of nations and regions, presented the short film award in November to Alice Nelson for Losing Myself: Annie, a tender study of dementia, he said: "This year's short dramas were blown away by documentaries. What we know is that a young and precociously talented group of women directors have dominated short film-making in Scotland. What we don't know is what they will achieve in the future."The future is already looking bright for Nelson, as well as the other nominees, Yasmin Fedda and Yulia Mahr, all three of whom live and work in Edinburgh.

This month Fedda's film set in a bakery in Gorgie, Breadmakers, is at Sundance. Meanwhile Mahr, whose documentary Butterfly tells the story of a Scots girl with albinism, is set to make her first feature documentary exploring the condition in Kenya.

Most exciting of all is Nelson's next project, The Ten New Commandments, which will see 10 Scottish directors, both established and emerging talents, each make a short documentary on a different article of the Human Rights Declaration to commemorate its 60th anniversary. Irvine Welsh, Douglas Gordon and Tilda Swinton are all set to be involved and it is hoped it will premiere at this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival.

It's a genre that dates back to John Grierson, the Perthshire-born father of British documentary film, and his groundbreaking classics of the 1930s such as Night Mail. Like Grierson, many of the subjects this new wave of filmmakers are choosing stem from a commitment to social issues as opposed to the more salacious or faux-naif style of, say, Louis Theroux.

"Documentary is really healthy in Edinburgh at the moment," says Nelson, who started out as an artist in Dublin before studying at Edinburgh College of Art. "I find that the people here who are making short films are really passionate, and that they're making work just for that reason. This documentary on human rights really shows that.

In Glasgow, television and drama is strong but in Edinburgh there's a growing community of documentary makers. I think women are really good at relating to a subject, and getting inside it."All the women filmmakers I speak to credit this renaissance to a small research centre at ECA, staffed by just three full-time members.

The Scottish Documentary Institute was set up in 2004 by ECA's head of film and television, Noe Mendelle, and in that short time it has transformed the landscape of documentary film in Scotland. Nelson, Fedda and Mahr have all come through the centre, and the SDI's Bridging The Gap scheme, which every year commissions filmmakers to submit short documentaries on a particular theme, is the only such initiative in the UK.

"It does seem like there is a new wave of female Scottish documentary makers," says Sonja Henrici, head of development at the SDI. "Last year, five out of six of the Bridging The Gap commissions went to women. They just had great projects. This year we have selected five talented women again, from across the UK. We're trying to nurture a community of filmmakers with a creative vision for cinematic documentaries and a knack for storytelling."It's the SDI that is behind The Ten New Commandments.

The masterclasses they run have been hosted by filmmakers from Nick Broomfield to Kim Longinotto. Both Fedda and Mahr's films were made thanks to being selected for Bridging The Gap and with funding from Scottish Screen and Skillset.

The commissioned directors get £8,000 in cash and another £8,000 in kind for equipment, as well as the support to make their films. Though it started off as Scotland-wide, it has proved so successful, with around 120 films being entered each year, that it has been opened up to the rest of Britain.

"Through the SDI you realise there is an opportunity to make documentaries and an audience for them," says 27-year-old Fedda. "Having a hub like that is really encouraging." Nelson tells me she ended up at the SDI when the National Film School turned her down because she wasn't deemed "documentary with a capital 'D'. I got to the final 12 but they thought I was too much on the periphery of documentary film, whereas at SDI their attitude was all about making good films and not caring what category they fell into. I loved that."Mahr, who started out as a theatre director and is making her Kenya-based feature with the Institute, agrees: "When I went to the SDI I hadn't done a single documentary, but that didn't matter. There are so many great people coming out of that place. I was absolutely stunned when I saw it was all documentaries on the Bafta shortlist."In Bridging The Gap's fourth year, in which Fedda and Mahr were chosen and the theme was 'white', there were four other documentaries – beautiful, understated works about ice fishing in a small depressed town in North Dakota, and the huge and disconcerting market for skin-lightening products amongst the Asian community in Britain.

The stories may be varied, but what all these documentaries have in common is a commitment to their subjects and their own visual language.Another SDI alumni is Astrid Bussink, now based in the Netherlands, whose 2005 ECA graduation film, The Angelmakers – made with the support of the Institute and the winner of the Grierson best newcomer award at EIFF – is now being made into a film starring Helen Mirren and John Hurt. It's an astonishing piece of work about a Hungarian village made famous in the 1920s when a number of women poisoned their husbands with arsenic. For the film, by the way, the action is moved to Yorkshire.Bussink's next film, The Lost Colony, which travels to the world's oldest monkey laboratory in the former Soviet Republic of Abkhazia, will premiere this week at the Rotterdam Film Festival. Her work may take her all over the world, but Bussink says she loves working in Scotland.

"It's a great place to make documentaries. Especially at the moment, there is so much new talent. I find Scotland very supportive of documentary-making, which makes it a great place to experiment, and that's how great films are made."

Monday 21 January 2008

Breadmakers at the Alhambra

Breadmakers is to be screened at the Keswick Alhambra Cinema at 5pm on Sunday 17th February 2008 as part of a Keswick Film Club event.

Keswick Film Club began life in 1998 with the intention of bringing the best of World Cinema to Keswick. Since then it has won many awards from the British Federation of Film Societies including Best Programme four times, and regularly hosts 100+ audiences. In 2006-7 they were Film Society of the Year.

Breadmakers will be shown before 2 DAYS IN PARIS. As Peter Bradshaw (The Guardian) says, this is a very likable, smart, offbeat debut from Delpy as director, inevitably related to the Richard Linklater films in which she starred. Similar to the walk-and-talk intimacy of Before Sunrise and Sunset, but sharper, funnier and less syrupy, we follow a couple (Delpy and Adam Goldberg), she a Parisian, he a New Yorker, as they spend a weekend in her home town.

The film was written, edited, directed and co-produced by its star, who reveals a wicked sense of humour and a real understanding of relationships. She also wrote the music and cast her real parents as her onscreen ones.

In Philip French's opinion, Delpy's ego trip proves, fortunately, to be a happy, very funny excursion

Saturday 19 January 2008

Home Made Breadmakers

After visits to Poland, USA, Finland, Iran, Lebanon and Indonesia - it's closer to home for the next screening of Yasmin Fedda's Breadmakers.

Breadmakers is to be included in the Bonds of Belonging programme at the 2008 Glasgow Film Festival. The screening will take place on Sunday 17th February at 2.30pm in CCA5, and will then be available to view in the CCA videotheque from 19th February- 29th March.

Over the eleven days of the Festival there is a chance to see what will become some of the most talked about films of 2008. There are documentaries that will stir you to anger and tears and a special focus revealing the rich film cultures of our European neighbours in Poland, Hungary, Serbia, Romania and the Czech Republic. We have a dazzling crop of documentaries, an inspiring weekend of short films where you can spot the stars of the future and a return visit from Fright Fest that is not for the faint of heart.

True or False?

Breadmakers has been invited to the 2008 True/False Film Festival.

The True/False Film Festival offers a wonderful opportunity to watch, ponder and discuss excellent and creative films with a wide variety of filmmakers and aficionados. The festival runs from Feb 28 - March 2, 2008 in Colombia, Missouri.

For four days, downtown Columbia, Missouri is transformed into a Midwestern utopia. Here forward-thinking filmmakers and audiences celebrate a passionate engagement with the world through rambunctious live music, white-hot DJs and the liveliest new nonfiction films in the world.

Most films come freshly discovered from Sundance, Toronto and other festivals, others appear mysteriously before their official premieres elsewhere. Sandwiched between the nonstop movies, we throw parties, host debates and field trips, and challenge local filmmakers to reimagine the possibilities of nonfiction filmmaking.

Young People Who Rock ... Sundance

From CNN. com

With 3,624 feature-film submissions, 24 countries represented, 81 world premieres, 16 North American premieres and 12 U.S. premieres, the 2008 Sundance Film Festival represents the best of the best -- including these filmmakers under 30.

The Short Film Category at Sundance is full of talented filmmakers, and Tadashi Nakamura and Yasmin Fedda, both 27, are two of the young standouts with their powerful social commentaries.

Nakamura is as a fourth-generation Japanese-American and second-generation filmmaker. His introduction to filmmaking happened at the super-ripe age of 9 days old, in a film directed by his dad, award-winning director Robert A. Nakamura. Now he stands on his own with his film "Pilgrimage," a tribute to a small group of Japanese-Americans in the late 1960s who transformed an abandoned World War II internment camp into a symbol of solidarity.

Fedda has traveled around the world to produce documentaries on subjects like the Santeria religion and colonial stipends in Syria. She is a Lebanese-Canadian filmmaker currently living in Edinburgh, Scotland, which is the scene of her latest film, "Breadmakers," about a community of workers with learning disabilities who make organic bread for local shops and cafes.

Tune into CNN.com Live on Monday, January 21, when I will interview Nakamura and Fedda during the 3 p.m. EST hour.

On a Roll

An article by Erlend Clouston in The Guardian on Wednesday January 16 2008.

The Gorgie district of west Edinburgh is a sinuous urban weave of railway lines and sandstone tenements studded with cheerful nodes of human activity, including Polish delicatessens, cobblers, a city farm, umpteen barbers, a gospel hall and Heart of Midlothian football club. Next week, audiences at Utah's Sundance film festival will enjoy watching another of the area's enterprises.

Breadmakers is an 11-minute documentary about a bakery set up in a former ice cream factory behind a car dealership on Gorgie Road. What makes the enterprise unusual is the fact that all 12 people who work there have learning difficulties.

The director of Breadmakers is Yasmin Fedda, a 27-year-old Lebanese-Canadian, with an MA in visual anthropology and, it seems, an affinity with small-scale food production: her previous film, Milking the Desert, was set principally in the dairy of a Syrian monastery.

Humble material

Breadmakers is one of only 200 (out of 8,000) films to make it through the vetting process for what is the world's biggest showcase for independent cinema. The scale of Fedda's achievement with her relatively humble material can be measured against the subject matter of the other documentaries on offer at Sundance. These include the late head of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, gang-rape in Congo, Russian fascists, and a dinner party with the president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf.

The Garvald bakery is one of half a dozen non-profit organisations that come under the Garvald Edinburgh brand, a voluntary organisation that runs projects "inspired by the ideas of Rudolf Steiner" in Edinburgh and the Borders and is registered to provide accommodation and day services for adults with learning disabilities.

The film is the result of the happy conjunction of Fedda's post-graduate stint in the bakery as a relief worker and the Scottish Documentary Institute (SDI), offering bursaries for short films on the theme of "white". Fedda has interpreted white, in this case, not as flour but noise: the susurrus of scraping and clanking that acts as backdrop to the manufacture of loaves. "I was very interested in the blending of creative and industrial sounds," explains Fedda, who is a former samba drummer. The SDI funding helped pay for Fedda's visit to Utah.

Filming people with learning disabilities presents particular problems; the line between art and exploitation can be fuzzy. Fedda was aware of this and her MA came in useful: "We were taught that the most important thing is the people, not the story." After each day's filming - she spent nine at the bakery - she and her camerawoman would reflect on their new material. "We would talk about it to make sure that everything was being shown in a humane way," Fedda says. The sensitivity paid off. Breadmakers won the Bafta award for best short Scottish documentary of 2007.

Unusually, Garvald Edinburgh demanded no control over the finished product. Its reward is an unexpectedly potent negotiating tool in its imminent funding discussions with Edinburgh city council. It is a delicate subject in the Garvald Edinburgh canteen. "We have the impression that around the top echelons of the council they don't recognise the excellent value for money that we offer," says day service manager Andy Hunter.

Steiner philosophy decrees that everyone's core spiritual being is perfect but sometimes the enveloping body and soul can be flawed; it is just a question of maximising ability. Unfortunately, Garvald Edinburgh's faith in the remedial powers of communal craft workshops - it also provides tuition in, among others, joinery, tool restoring, puppetry, woodwork and ceramics - is not shared by everyone.

Intensive fundraising

Garvald Edinburgh receives only a small weekly three-figure sum for each of its 83 city council placements, significantly less than it needs, and significantly less than its local authority-run equivalents bank. The gap has to be made up by intensive fundraising. The daily sales of around 130 loaves and 70 rolls at least help the bakery to break even.

Fedda's documentary does not offer a critique of Steiner/Garvald policies. In fact, it offers little in conventional cinematic terms. There is no commentary, no interviews, no eavesdropping, no love interest and no conflict, unless you count the moment when Chak-Hong Fung, one of the documentary's participants, in an apparent fit of pique, drops his dough mixture off the end of the table.

In the course of 11 minutes, the only plot is the narrative arc of granary batches from telephone order to delivery van. The only music is a sign-off, straight-to-camera, whistling of For He's a Jolly Good Fellow by 32-year-old breadmaker Thomas Griffiths. Considerable footage was shot of the funeral of a bakery colleague, but Fedda opted to exclude it: "It was a distraction and it took too long to explain."

Jim Hickey, a former director of Edinburgh film festival and Fedda's co-producer, speculates that it is this sparseness that seduced the Sundance selectors. "Struggling farmers, football hooligans, cosmetic surgery - we've seen all that before. This takes you to somewhere you would never normally see."

Monday 14 January 2008

Straight in at number 3

Yasmin has been listed by Scotland on Sunday in a top ten of faces to watch in 2008. This is what they said.

"3 FILM Yasmin Fedda:
Fedda is the young Edinburgh filmmaker behind Breadmakers, which won the Short Scottish Documentary Award at last year's Edinburgh International Film Festival and heads for Sundance this month. In the past Fedda has filmed a desert monastery in Syria, members of the Afro- Cuban religion Santeria, and a group of pensioners in Damascus. This film, though, stays closer to home. Following a community of workers with learning disabilities working in a bakery in Gorgie, in Edinburgh, it's a beautifully observed study of the complex systems of communication that the group use as they knead their loaves. We think Fedda's going places, and not just in Gorgie."

The full article can be viewed at:
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/performing-arts/2008The-10-faces.3642782.jp

French Toast

Breadmakers will be shown at The Quebec International Ethnographic Film Festival.

This internationally renowned ethnographic film festival has moved from being a Montreal based event to one that now spans the province of Quebec. The University of Chicoutimi has joined the festival’s committee, thus reaffirming the success of their annual events devoted to the discipline of visual anthropology.

This year, the FIFEQ is celebrating its fifth anniversary and they will be holding events in Montreal, Quebec City and Chicoutimi on January 25th, 26th, and 27th 2008. Photography exhibitions, discussion tables and conferences will be presented in order to enhance their wide variety of films chosen for the festival…all of which are free of charge for everyone!

Dedicated to the promotion of ethnographic films, the FIFEQ will screen films created by new filmmakers from both Canada and abroad as well as from renowned figures in the discipline of visual anthropology and the social documentary genre. The festival is both a celebration of the discipline of visual anthropology, as well as a reflection on the debates and ethical issues surrounding the utility and relevance of employing visual media when studying cultures and societies.

This has all been made possible due to the efforts of anthropology students from Concordia University, Universite de Montreal, McGill, University of Laval and the University of Chicoutimi. The FIFEQ creates a forum for professors, professionals, students and others passionate about films and anthropology to watch contemporary ethnographic films on the big screen and in turn to exchange ideas, pose questions and learn more about film media within the domain of the social sciences