Glasgow Film Festival

I was invited along to join in and photograph the fray of the GFF last week. If ever the balance of culture and fun was to be tipped, this was it. Heavily in favour of fun though!

It is easy to forget that at the core of arts and culture events, swathed in glamour and panache, cinema does everything its own way. Its recipe is artistic celebration at its most social. Less the stiffness of the gallery launch and less operatic than the stage. If there is one thing the blockbuster approach brings, it is a damn fine jolly. What more can you ask from a business of entertainment? Comically up-itself perhaps, but it is the the loosest, most inclusive form of enjoyment out there that you can share with 100 strangers at a time. And at the moment (in my jazz age reverie at least) I can happily forgive its mass production for the charm and messiness and swagger of the red carpet. Film can take itself very seriously but the cinema is still a party.

Which is exactly what was put before my eyes in Glasgow. An already incredibly broad and adventurous programme of screenings was supported by an ensemble of cinema events in creative spaces full of colourful people. A total mix. Isn’t that what festivals are all about? That and fun.

The full festival galleries are avilable to look at here. Also, major credit to Stuart and Ingrid for their amazing work on the other events.

Sheree Folkson and Sally Philips of The Decoy Bride

Murray Grigor, producer of the documentary Big Banana Feet, which covers Billy Conolly’s 1976 Irish tour.

Step into the Blytheswood!

Tom , son of writer Sally Phillips  gets his front row seat for The Decoy Bride

Gala Champagne

Festival Co-director Allson Gardner during a tech for a Q & A

Murray Grigor introduces Big Banana Feet to a sold out Glasgow Festival Theatre

Queues rock the block on the opening gala of the GFF

The audience is listening – the premiere of My Sister’s Sister opens the first night of the GFF

Director Lynn Shelton during her Q & A for My Sister’s Sister

Wooden box woo the crowd at eh GFF gala

Guests at the Gala

Say hello to the band! Corinne on cowbell and The Barman, on the wine.