Budding directors hit the big screen

Five films directed by MMU students are hitting cinema screens in Manchester this week.

The budding film directors - second and third year students from Contemporary Film & Video, Interactive Arts and Illustration with Animation - have all been selected for Exposures, the UK’s largest student film festival.

Talented young filmakers

Held annually at The Cornerhouse on Oxford Street Exposures attracts talented young filmmakers from across the country.

Organisers describe the festival as ‘a place to show your work off to an audience, and to see how it works – or doesn’t – on the big screen’ and holds eight film screenings over three days.

Films from 29 institutions, including the Royal College of Art and London Film School, have been selected to take part and MMU has the highest number of entrants taking part.

Four award winners

In an extra coup for MMU four of the five film directors being screened - Jim Morgan, Nathan Rae, Daniel McPake, Richard Webb – have been selected for awards.

These will be presented at the Corona Extra ‘Best of The Fest’ Awards on Thursday 19th November by special guests, including MMU alumni David Threlfall (Frank Gallagher in Shameless) and Exposures patron Paul Abbott (screenwriter for Cracker and Clocking Off). The winner of the sought after Audience Award will also be announced.

MMU entrants include:

Jim Morgan – ‘I Wear His Shirt’
An exploration of the vulnerability of family life through the story of two brothers killing time on the streets of Salford.

Eleanor Marechal – ‘Tape’
The linear of the narrative of the magnetic tape is broken into pieces to create something new.

Nathan Rae – ‘Lift’
A portrait of Britain on the move, told from the unusual perspective of a hitchhiker and the strangers who invite him into their cars and their lives.

Daniel McPake – ‘Kokiri’
A lone character, in a world no less real, and yet much more magical than ours, is on the hunt for something unseen.

Richard Webb – ‘Wishful Expectations’
Hand-drawn animation illustrating opposing views of Christmas, as seen through the eyes of a child and a single parent.