Music, dance, drama, visual art and more in Dorset's County town - Dorchester Arts enriches the community with a wide variety of arts activity including Dorchester Festival and Inside Out, Dorset's festival of extraordinary events in extraordinary places.
Dorchester Arts' Olympic film, The Helpful Dead has won Best Film by primary age children at the Electric December 2012 awards in Bristol.
Four of the filmmaking team from Wyke Regis Junior school joined facilitators Sharon Hayden and Alastair Nisbet from ScreenPLAY to receive the award at Bristol's Watershed - and a bag of film goodies from sponsor Aardman Animation.
Project producer Sharon Hayden said it was a wonderful achievement for the ten year old filmmakers. "We're thrilled their work is being recognised in this way. “It’s the first time any of these children have been to Bristol - and being part of these awards has opened their eyes to some of the opportunities out there in our creative industries. Best Film in Electric December could perhaps be a first step on the path to a career in film.”
Entries included films from across Europe and filmmakers travelled from as
far away as Poland for the awards. Best animation went to 20 year old Agnieszka Konarska for her atmospheric film Hunt about a Raven and its bid to escape. Best Comedy went to Taking Out Tim by Tiverton High School students with My Pockets, and Best documentary to Adrenaline Junky, a moving film about a motorcyclist regaining his action packed lifestyle after an accident. Electric December producer Hannah Higginson said the films had all been chosen for their imaginative and distinctive style. “I’ve been knocked out by the huge amount of flair and talent on show this year. We are committed to developing new talent and it’s a joy to see the exciting range of films from across Europe.
All the Electric December films are on the website electricdecember.org - including The Big Splash, one of the other Dorchester Arts Olympic films by St John’s Primary School in Weymouth. Characters in The Helpful Dead were inspired by Victorian works of art in Birmingham and Cambridge. Read about the real people behind the story. The Helpful Dead was funded by the Lottery's First Light initiative with additional support from b-side, Departure Arts and the school itself.
The Devil's Violin Company Saturday 1st December 7.30pm Dorchester Arts Centre ***SPECIAL OFFER Two tickets for the price of one *** How much do you love me?... What would you do for the one you love? How far would you go? How far is too far?
A Love Like Salt features three wonderful tales that have gripped us for hundreds of years - tales of drama and danger, love and lust, humour and pathos that inspired two of our most popular storytellers: Chaucer and Shakespeare.
Aided by the dramatic, driving rhythms of an inventive strings and accordion trio, Daniel Morden, renowned for his powerful storytelling, takes the audience on a rollercoaster ride to King Arthur’s Camelot, the Breton shores and the ancient Britain of King Lear.
A Love Like Salt is a rich tapestry, peppered with magic and morals, lovers and villains, desire and disguise. “A scintillating combination of music, sound and story” The Times
“One of the most stunning experiences I have ever had in a theatre” Audience feedback
Commissioned by the Bodleian Library and the English Faculty at the University of Oxford, ‘A Love Like Salt’ – with its hugely accomplished simplicity – is a timely reminder of the power of the story to unite.
Tickets £12 / £10 members & concessions
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Animated films by children at two Weymouth primary schools have been selected for an international showcase of young filmmaking talent.
The Big Splash and the Helpful Dead, made for the Olympics by pupils at St John’s Primary and Wyke Regis Junior schools will be part of Electric December, a countdown calendar featuring the best of young people’s short films from across Europe. The films, seen by thousands on big screens during the summer, will now bring Weymouth and Portland - as seen through the eyes of ten year olds - to an international audience.
Over the course of a month in each school the young filmmakers worked with a group of six artists from Dorchester Arts, led by Sharon Hayden of digital arts organisation ScreenPLAY. She said the children gave both films a strong sense of place and local identity. “In the Big Splash they wanted to capture the feel of the torch relay on Weymouth seafront and the determination and courage of a group of young people swimming across the bay. In researching Helpful Dead, the children found a head teacher’s diary from 1872 with descriptions of a shipwreck off Chesil Beach. This gave them the idea to link a Victorian tragedy with the 2012 Olympics,” she explained.
The films, plus the third in the trilogy the Portland Race, were funded by the lottery through the BFI’s First Light initiative. More information about the project is at www.dorchesterarts.org.uk/projects or www.screen-play.co.uk.
