Alison Poltock, East End Curator

Between 27 April and 2 May, while some are celebrating the royal wedding, others will flock to Brick Lane for the tenth annual East End Film Festival. This is East End resident Alison Poltock’s fourth year as the festival’s director.

The festival is notable for its ‘multi-platform’ approach and Poltock has been busy organising all manner of events, from a flash mob of cyclists in Spitalfields market who will accompany a filmed tour of the East End shot on a camera attached to a bicycle helmet, to the ‘Movie Mayday Film Takeover’, where all the shops and restaurants on Brick Lane will host free film screenings and events.

‘The moving image is our starting point,’ says Poltock, ‘but we do a lot of crossover mixed-media events and that’s something that you don’t get at other film festivals. I like taking films out of traditional venues to create a whole new audience experience.’

The festival was set up ten years ago as a platform for local filmmaking talent. Poltock has found ‘so much creativity in the East End and that needs to be exhibited’. She believes that one of the things that’s so special about film is that it’s accessible.

Proudly, she tells me that the festival ‘embraces all levels of film making, from multi-million pound productions to making creative films on mobile phones.’ Local filmmakers are able to showcase their low budget features alongside much bigger productions. Ideally filmmakers have some training but everyone has a story to tell and modern technology has made it easy for everyone to tell their story in some form or another. Supporting local filmmakers is essential to keeping the festival successful. I think it’s very good for the industry as a whole not to be too exclusive and for people to be able to understand the whole pathway across filmmaking.’

The cultural and historical background of the East End is at the heart of the festival’s programming remit. Poltock is passionate about ‘the ghosts of the area’ and how ‘individual, creative, defiant and energetic’ the East End is. There is a strong programme of UK film, particularly debut features and short films about the area. Poltock has worked with the Polish and Romanian communities on an Eastern European film programme, and there is are South Asian films on show too.

It has surprised Poltock that changes in the UK film industry and the axing of the UK film council have not impacted on the festival. ‘We’ve got a really strong British programme and if anything the changes have made film makers dig their heels in even more. But finance is always on people’s minds and the festival’s funding support and routes to market workshops are more popular than ever.’

Although Poltock says she is ‘certainly not a filmmaker’, film is a big part of her life. She studied composing for film and her perfect night out in London would be to see a film and then wander along the river with a bottle of Prosecco. Becoming director of the festival was a ‘sideways step’, and she gave up her job running an events company to take it. She understands the area; ‘the buzz of the new creative blood and the history that’s so important to the area’s character.’ The independent cinemas of the East End are among its many charms, and Poltock singles out the Genesis on Mile End road and the Rio on Kingsland High street, which she spent her formative years, between the ages of 20 and 30, living next door to, as her favourites.

After so long living in London, Poltock says she still loves to explore the city and discover new things. With screenings in churches and films giving voice to all the different people who make up London’s East end, the festival reflects Poltock’s enthusiasm for London and all it has to offer.

Various locations in and around the East End, 27th April-2nd May 2011, with the full programme here

Image by Jordan Bassett