Last Wednesday, students and staff from Abingdon, Fitzharrys, Larkmead and St Helen & St Katharine travelled to BFI Southbank in London for a reception and screenings to mark the 20th anniversary of the Abingdon Film Unit. The AFU is one of Abingdon’s extra-curricular activities that enables students to make their own films with guidance from industry professionals. It was founded in 2003 by Jeremy Taylor, Abingdon’s then Head of Drama and OA, and celebrated documentarist Michael Grigsby. In the last five years, the AFU has become one of Abingdon’s leading arts partnership activities.
On arrival, the students met AFU alumni – many of whom are now working in the film and television industries – as well as current AFU tutors Colin O’Toole, Duncan Pickstock, former tutors Joanna Harrison and Geoff Dunbar, and a number of parents, friends and supporters of the Unit. There followed two screenings in NFT 3 – one of three cinemas at the prestigious venue – where, in total, nine new films were screened (five from Abingdon, one from St Helen & St Katharine and three from Larkmead), before a short retrospective film, created by AFU tutors Colin O’Toole and Jeremy Taylor, which told the story of the AFU’s first twenty years. This contained previously unseen footage from 2006, featuring Wednesday afternoon workshops, “film pitching” sessions, a camera and sound training trip to Dungeness, and clips from some of the 200+ AFU films that have been made since 2003.
Whilst current members were interested to learn that Ut Proficias, the first Abingdon film, was made by Michael Grigsby in 1953 at the age of 15, AFU veterans found the retrospective a surprisingly moving experience, as they watched footage of their younger selves learning from Grigsby, who died in 2013, and former tutors Jonas Mortensen, Mikkel Eriksen and Arvid Eriksson. At the end, AFU alumnus and professional filmmaker Will Mcdowell spoke about the impact the Unit has had on many of those who have been a part of it. Afterwards, those who were able to stay on continued their conversations well into the night. All in all, it was a memorable and happy occasion, made possible through the generosity of the OA Club.
