East End Film Festival 2007

The sixth annual East End Film Festival runs this month from 19-26 April. The festival describes its aims as trying to ‘showcase a high quality range of new and contemporary films that explore the potential of cinema to cross cultural, political and artistic boundaries and that visualise the experience of living and working in the East End of London.’

The festival includes feature films, short films and animation from the UK and places as diverse as Spain, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Iran, Singapore, Serbia and the Philippines. The short films come in batches of 10 or more under titles such as Shorts:Homegrown, Shorts:Documentary and Shorts:East International among others.

The feature films include Almost Adult about asylum seekers in the UK, Guca about a small village that every year turns into a Serbian Woodstock when tens of thousands turn up to hear Gypsy and Serbian music, Every Good Marriage Begins With Tears a story of muslim girls getting married in modern day Britain, What Have You Done Today, Mervyn Day? a look at the Lower Lea Valley, a run down and forgotten part of East London that’s being developed for the 2012 Olympics (Mervyn Day was West Ham’s goalkeeper in the 70s and current assistant manager) and on the final night of the festival there’s a preview showing of Joe Strummer:The Future Is Unwritten, director Julien Temple’s film about the life of the former Clash frontman.

The East End Film Festival is taking place at four cinemas in the East End, the Genesis Mile End Cinema, the Rich Mix Bethnal Green Road, The Rio in Dalston and the Cineworld West India Quay. You can buy tickets for individual screenings or there’s a Festival Pass available for £35 for the whole week of films.