The University of Cambridge Alumni Group for Film and Other Media was involved in two new projects which were both launched in Cambridge in November 2015. Both form part of the group’s programme of activities aimed at inspiring students who are considering a career in this sector.

The first was Creative Bridges, a series of free one-day filming workshops for a dozen young people (aged between seven and 13) from different local communities who might otherwise never meet. It began on 22nd November and was overseen by tutors who are themselves professional film-makers but have a particular interest in the use of the film-making process as a means of self-expression and empowerment. The project also involved two Cambridge-based charities, The Independent Film Trust (IFT) and Balik Arts. The workshops were hosted by Cambridge TV School, the not-for-profit company that is a sister to Cambridge TV, the local television station which began broadcasting in August 2015.

The output of these workshops were two three-minute films, based on the ideas of all of the members of the group and produced by everyone taking it in turns to do the directing, acting, camerawork, editing – and operating the clapper-board at the start of shooting. The films will subsequently be shown to an invited audience at a cinema in Cambridge.

The second initiative was the Cambridge Latin American Film Festival (CLAFF), a project to organise regular free screenings of Latin American films, roughly one per term, which again involved the IFT along with a number of student groups – the Cambridge University Mexican Society, the Cambridge University Brazilian Society, the Cambridge University Latin American Society and the Cambridge University Portuguese Speakers Society.

The first film, screened on 25th November at Magdalene College, was Tierra Caliente, a Mexican re-enactment documentary about an ordinary family caught in the crossfire between the Narco drug cartels and the military. The screening was followed by a Q&A with the director Laura Plancarte and a reception supported by the local Mexican restaurant group Nanna Mexico.

Written by Neil McCartney (Magdalene 1975)

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