Earlier this year, I applied to become a trustee of the Cambridge Film Trust, the organisers of the Cambridge Film Festival, the third longest-running film festival in the UK after the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the London Film Festival. I was delighted to be invited to join the team, and seeing as the 38th edition of the Cambridge Film Festival has just finished – in perfect style, might I add, with the near-perfect Roma as the Surprise Film – I thought I’d write about why I was keen to get involved.
I love going to film festivals and have volunteered at several across the UK, including a stint as a student in the EIFF Audience Awards team, plus I grew up in Cambridgeshire, so all in all it seemed like a perfect opportunity to learn more about the logistics of running a film festival while getting the chance to return to my old stomping ground.
The Cambridge Film Trust (CFT) is a registered charity and its mission is to bring quality independent cinema from around the world to Cambridge and the South East, championing the cultural value of film for everyone, from all backgrounds. Here’s where we get to one of the key challenges for the small and dedicated team: Cambridge is Britain’s most unequal city, so we need to address factors of access and inclusion in order to enable as many people as possible to be moved by, learn about and interact with film. The team has some brilliant ideas to achieve the CFT’s aims, but these require resources, hence the board’s decision to recruit new trustees to assist in matters such as fundraising, advocacy and sustainability.
The new trustees offer a range of skillsets including social media, broadcasting and equality and diversity. It was interesting to find out more about their backgrounds during the festival, as we were asked to be on site to offer assistance as and when required; this was great fun, as it tended to involve welcoming visiting filmmakers ahead of their screenings and Q&As. I met the makers of Eastern Memories, Is That You?, From Cairo to the Cloud and You Go To My Head and it was fascinating to hear the stories behind their films, various hurdles they had to overcome during production, and their experiences at other film festivals.
I also met a lot of the interns, volunteers and writers of the official festival publication, Take One, and was impressed with how much warmth and vitality they bring to the event. This, for me, is what makes Cambridge Film Festival stand out from the others, as the collective excitement and passion for the variety of films on offer becomes quite infectious.
Keep an eye on the website for future events and if you’d like to learn more about sponsorship opportunities, please get in touch or head here.
