History of FILMCLUB
“I think that stories and the telling of stories are the foundations of human communication and understanding. If children all over the country are watching films, asking questions and telling their stories, then the world will eventually be a better place. That’s how important I think FILMCLUB is.”
Beeban Kidron, FILMCLUB co-founder and Film Director
“ Films have the power to raise your gaze and raise your game and give you a ticket to pleasure and enlightenment forever more....”
Lindsay Mackie, Writer and Co-founder FILMCLUB
FILMCLUB was borne out of a passion by BAFTA winning filmmaker Beeban Kidron and writer and educationalist Lindsay Mackie to explore cinema’s ability to revolutionise the hearts, minds and visions of young people and to open up new avenues of discovery. They began a journey to set up a nationwide school-based network of film clubs with the onus on making a wide variety of films available allowing young people the chance to witness worlds they would normally not see.
LOVEFiLM, the UK’s largest online DVD rental company, came on board as a key partner providing access to their DVD catalogue of up to 60,000 films.
Between January and March 2007, FILMCLUB joined with additional partners, The Guardian, Film Education and the UK Film Council to pilot FILMCLUB in 25 schools across the country. The pilot was a huge success. Teachers were taken by the opportunity to bond with their pupils in a different environment and pupils were excited by the opportunity to be transported to different worlds with their friends. download a copy of the Evaluation here.
FILMCLUB is now rolling out nationwide. It is funded by the Department of Children, Schools and Families in England, in Northern Ireland by the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure, in Wales by the Film Agency for Wales and Skillset Screen Academy and in Scotland by Scottish Screen.
Beeban Kidron began directing feature films in the late 1980s and after studying at the National Film and Television School, went on to win a BAFTA for her ground breaking TV movie Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit (1990). She has since directed seven feature films including To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar (1995) and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004).
Lindsay Mackie, Chair of the Readers and Writers Committee, brings her expertise of setting up the national book club programme Reading for Pleasure in secondary schools. She has been a journalist for The Guardian, specialising in race and home affairs, a film critic with The Herald and arts feature writer with The Scotsman.