Visit the archived film festival website for more information.
It’s All About the River was a major cultural programme presented by the River Tamar Project and Plymouth University in Autumn 2014, which aimed to explore the historical and future connections of local and international communities with the river.
Running through September and October, the festival featured new commissions from local, national and international artists and filmmakers, alongside screenings of popular and cult classics in impressive settings along the banks of the Tamar.
“Working with such renowned artists allows us to explore the international reach and context of the river and to help develop new thinking around the River Tamar’s future. We are enabling national and international artists, as well as individual communities, to create striking works and thought-provoking experiences. The festival will not only celebrate this important natural asset, but will raise its profile both nationally and internationally.”
Paula Orrell, Artistic Director, River Tamar Project
It’s All About the River spanned the tidal reach of the Tamar and began on Friday 12 September 2014 with a weekend of events in Calstock and Gunnislake. It then flowed downstream, stopping at Bere Alston, Cargreen, Saltash, Barne Barton and Devonport, before its conclusion on Sunday 12 October. The venues included Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s striking Royal Albert Bridge, stately homes such as Pentillie Castle and the dockyard of the Royal Navy.
The programme of contemporary and historic film, compiled by artist and film curator Lucy Reynolds and Peninsula Arts film programmer David McErlane, included open air presentations of cinema classics, special screenings just for children and the premieres of new films. It also used the extensive archive of films relating to rivers at LUX and the South West Film and Television Archive.
Staged with funding from Arts Council England, the British Film Institute Film Festival Fund, the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site, the Heritage Lottery Fund, FEAST, the festival aimed to celebrate and revitalise cultural spaces and communities and raise new questions about the river’s potential as an economic and cultural force in the 21st Century.
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