Hi everyone

At the end of each Portobello Film Festival I send out my only editorial of the
year with my observations of the Festival. The Official Festival Report will be
prepared by Jonathan Barnett, the Festival Director, and available on our web
site later in the year.

On the opening day of this year's Festival, we were featured in the `118' advert
that runs daily in the London Metro. Throughout the Festival we received
extensive mainstream media coverage. And on the second Wednesday, we ran four
events with a total attendance of between 600 and 700 people. This mailing list
is nearly up to 1,500 subscribers.

It has taken a long time, but the Portobello Film Festival is now established
with its own place in the London arts landscape. We are no longer fighting for
acceptance. This provides its own challenge. The Festival is still largely run
by two people, on a total budget that would barely fund a 30 second advert on
ITV.

Last year the Festival looked back at the events in 1958 and 1959 in Notting
Hill, and this year the main theme was the influence of the Beat Generation. As
someone who has lived in the area all my life I had picked up on the importance
of the events of 1958/9 in shaping my own life, however I had probably taken for
granted the changes that came about through the Beat Generation. The events and
films at this year's Festival abou the Beats showed how crucial they were. Most
of the PFF audience have at some stage read Howl, On the Road or The Naked Lunch
– and many of us have read all three (more than once!!). It is important that
we understand where we have come from, to move forward confidently into the
future.

My involvement in the Festival centres on support for our core audience. This
year the films that created the biggest audience `buzz' seemed to be John
Wheeler's `Mask' and Jimmel Daniel's `The Power Of The Vagina,' shown at the
first Caribbean night. Unfortunately I was at other Portobello events on both
evenings and didn't see these movies. However enough people were talking about
these two films days afterwards, for me to know that these were the films that
the 2009 Festival would be remembered for.

John Wheeler has his own very personal vision of life. His films are unique and
sometimes not that easy to watch. Portobello is about the only place that will
show his films. And it is gratifying that substantial numbers of people are now
watching his movies.

Jimmel Daniel is a 21 year old film-maker from Trinidad who could break through
into the mainstream. `The Power of The Vagina' was shown to the Festival's
largest audience this year, over 300 people.

A few years ago, film makers were discussing how they could make films. The key
issue this year was distribution and how to make a living through involvement in
independent film. There was a long discussion at the second Caribbean evening
about this, and my chats with film makers seemed to centre on how to go beyond
Portobello and make some money. There isn't an easy solution to this, but the
question indicates where we are.

One of the best friends at the Festival is a lady called Janet Smith. Janet was
kind enough to film our awards ceremony and place this on You Tube. The links
are

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10r4UTsjCEQ

Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYILojwp4F4


Thank you for the emails and comments, most of them very kind. Let's hope we can
do this again around the same time next year.

We will be now taking a short break. There will be some admin type things to let
you know about over the next couple of months, and I will stay in touch.

Finally, the one thing that differentiates the Portobello Film Festival from
other film Festivals as that we want our audience to return the next year as
film makers. If you have never thought about making a film why don't you try it,
and then send it to the 2010 Festival.


I will be in touch soon


Geoff