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Indeed Dogma have wholeheartedly embraced the DIY style of cinema. It is for them as much a political statement : to keep the creative act away from the moneymen and the parasite focus groups who interfere with your work, ripping the soul and the life out of the thing. . .as it is a very practical way of finishing the film.

A finished film is preferable to one that is forever in pre production. That is the ethic of The Portobello Film Festival.

Another director who got his first big airing at the Portobello Film Festival was Guy Ritchie with "The Hard Case" starring Jimmy Tarbuck's son Jim. Apparantly he was so short of cash at the time he could not afford an answerpint so the film only



existed on Beta. "The Hard Case" had many of the trademarks that he later made his own. These short films are very much calling cards for new directors and a good filmmaker can say as much in 10 as in 90 minutes. Incidentally although he was short listed for our major prize "The Golden Boot" he did not win it. . .so he has a BAFTA but not a Portobello Film Festival Golden Boot.

We've always slightly mistrusted the mainstream. If it was producing the sort of wonders you get with most international cinema (apart from Hollywood) we would wholeheartedly embrace it but the horrors that have come from desperate trendy wannabees

and copyists and some of the publicly funded works are not our cup of tea. You wonder how these films get made.

That is not to say that industry people inevitably make bad or indifferent films. Many of our best films over the years, including "The Hard Case" have come from industry mavericks. Frustrated with the corporate limitations of their medium, but technically adept and with enough contacts for crew, equipment and stock, they have often gone off and made remarkable work from the exclusive source of their own imagination.


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