Filmmaker and exposures 2010 winner Max Kimber shares her festival experience…
Winning the Grand Jury Award at exposures 2010 for my film Cusp was a moment I will never forget. I remember going to collect the trophy from Johnny Clifford and feeling astonished and overwhelmed that I had won – I’m pretty sure my knees were shaking! Since that time Cusp has also won Best Experimental Film at the National Student Film Festival and was shown at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2011, plus numerous other small festivals around the country.
The reason I was so astonished to have won the Grand Jury Award was that Cusp was up against some incredible films of real technical genius, whereas my film was shot in six minutes with ambient lighting and slightly shaky camera work. I think that’s where exposures festival is really outstanding. It offers a level playing field where artistic concept can be valued as highly as technical know-how, although having technical know-how probably helps!
After winning at the festival, I found the hits to my website peaked massively and with local papers and the University of the Creative Arts publicity machine getting into action, it gave me a good name-check boost on Google too.
I’m currently in my final year and planning my degree show. I’m showing another film (this time it’s a mole in a jug…long story!) and I’m showing it alongside some animated animal bones, which has all spiralled out of my taxidermy/photography obsession where I propose that taxidermy and photography are theoretically identical. I hope to continue my studies by taking a masters at a London university in the near future.
exposures film festival was a wonderful experience, and whether you win a prize or not or are a fine art or film student it’s a really prestigious event to be involved in.
For more information on Max’s work visit her website. And view the full exposures 2012 festival programme here.