Some of Abingdon’s current filmmakers made their mark in an international event in Paris last week. A new AFU film was presented at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle in front of a large audience of teachers, filmmakers and students from all over the world, including Japan, Brazil, Bulgaria, Germany, Portugal, South Africa, Romania, France and many more. The screening was part of a programme called Le cinéma, cent ans de jeunesse, and was the second year running that an Abingdon film has featured at the event which is now marking its 30th anniversary.
Sasha and Beany, both in Fifth Year, have been working on their film since January, with the aim of drawing attention to some of the people behind the scenes at an Oxford United match. They contacted the club to ask for permission to film inside the ground at the game against Bristol City last February, and returned a few weeks later to record scenes outside the ground at the game against Watford. On both occasions, they were accompanied by AFU tutor and filmmaker Duncan Pickstock. The result, a 7-minute impressionistic piece called Out of Play (or Hors Jeu in French), featured the stewards, programme sellers, linesmen, groundsmen, ballboys, caterers and, of course, the club’s mascot, complete in furry bull outfit.
Sadly, both Sasha and Beany are in the midst of their GCSE exams, so were unable to make the trip to Paris to experience for themselves how well their film was received, but AFU director Jeremy Taylor and tutor Duncan Pickstock did their best to field questions from the audience on their behalf, and explain some of the inspiration behind the film. That included watching a short film called The Score, made in 1998 by the AFU’s co-founder Michael Grigsby, who died in 2013. Mike’s film focuses exclusively on the faces of the supporters at a match between Wolves and Sheffield United. In a lovely piece of serendipity, after the screening of Sasha and Beany’s film, a French undergraduate student at the Sorbonne approached the AFU team to explain that she was studying the work of Michael Grigsby as part of her degree course. In the wake of that meeting, we were able to share with her some of the Grigsby resources we hold in our archive.
Both that encounter, and the event as a whole, were timely reminders of the ways in which films can connect people and help them to understand more about each other’s lives. Many congratulations to Sasha and Beany for representing Abingdon on the international stage so effectively.
