Call for Super8 Submissions!

Cherry Kino will be curating a programme of films in partnership with the world's first UNESCO recognised 'City of Film' - Bradford and we are delighted that the programme will be presented during the Saltaire Arts Trail, and will also be presented as a special evening screening, at the Cherry Kino Lab in Leeds.

Submissions are welcomed from all, adults and children alike, whether you are a Super8 beginner or a well-seasoned afficionado.

The only restriction is that the films are originally made on Super8 (submitted as a DVD), and under 10 minutes in length. During the Saltaire Arts Trail, the films will be presented numerous times in what could possibly be the world's smallest purpose-built cinema, seating only 10 people!

Saltaire itself is a fascinating UNESCO World Heritage village in the Bradford region of West Yorkshire, built by Titus Salt, a philanthropic businessman whose 'model village' raised living and working standards for workers in the textile mills. Saltaire stood in stark contrast to the nearby 'dark satanic mills' of Bradford's city centre, offering a different vision of how industrial working life could be. The name of the town comes from Titus' surname, Salt, and the name of the river that runs through it, the river Aire. Titus made countless very secret experiments with alpaca wool (from Peru), a material which was considered rough and virtually unusable by everyone in the trade, and he managed to transform it, through his knowledge of spinning and a bit of innovation and improvisation, into a wonderful textile which made him his immense fortune, and led to the building of Saltaire in the 1800s.

In some ways, Super8 can be seen as similar to alpaca - overlooked by many as obsolete or unusable, but with a bit of patience and experimentation it reveals itself to be a magical material capable of fantastic textures and light reflections, the mini cine format that can be woven into countless patterns, spinning endless tales and abstractions. Film and textiles share many traits - in fact, some early film projectors were modelled after sewing machines!

Saltaire also has strong links with the synaesthetic artist David Hockney, whose photo collages, some of which are housed in part of the old textile mill (now a gallery of his work), somehow always make me think of what is perceptually possible with Super8!

Submission is free. To submit your film to Cherry Kino, send a DVD with a brief description and contact email address to:

Cherry Kino
c/o Patrick Studios
East Street Arts
St Mary's Lane
Leeds LS9 7EH
West Yorkshire
UK.

The closing date for submissions is 15th May, so get spinning that film!

P.S. In terms of screening format, due to the frequent screenings (the cinema only seats 10 people So the films will be shown repeatedly over 3 days), originals won't be shown, and the showreel will be compiled onto DV Cam for the event. However, if you'd like your original to be shown at the second event (an evening screening at the Cherry Kino Lab premises), a very careful projectionist will show the films, on an Elmo ST-1200 in great condition.

Find out more about Cherry Kino here: http://www.cherrykino.blogspot.com/