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festival report
Summer in Rome
By Kenny Glenaan
Kenny Glenaan
In Berlin you may be lucky enough to win the
Golden Bear. At the Rome festival I recently won
the Golden boot! A pair of CATS, to be precise!
Our film, Summer, was in
competition in the Alice in the
Cities section. On arrival, myself
and writer Hugh Ellis were whisked
off to a 'Gifting Suite'. This does not happen
at every festival, I warned the first-time
screenwriter. We were led into an Aladdin’s
cave full of free gifts. Everything from Gucci
bags, silk shirts, the best perfume, pens,
sweatshirts, Italian jeans, watches, jewellery,
the finest of wines and CAT boots.
It brings out the best and worst of you.
Appalled at the indulgence and delighted to
be getting a bargain, we choose our gifts.
So, feeling very smart in out new CATS
and smelling sweet as a nut, Hugh and I
apprehensively went onstage to do the Q&A
with the audience and jury.
It was the first time the film had played in
Europe. Would they get it because of the
language and geographical barriers? The jury
is made up of 15 to 17-year-olds from Rome,
who live, eat and breathe film together for
two weeks. The only qualification for entry
onto the jury is to tell the festival why you
like cinema. It is a fantastic opportunity for
young people to learn about cinema and a
great chance to be ambushed by stories from
Iceland to Kenya - and Scotland - as well as
honing your critical skills and having the
responsibility of awarding the prestigious
best film award.
But here was a film about two men in their
forties looking back at what had shaped
their life. It was all about the past, and when
you are a teenager you are not particularly
interested in the past because you are too
busy doing it for the first time, literally! The
depth of observation was incredible and the
connection with the film very strong. Game
on, here we had a story that could transcend
the barriers of language and talk to people
elsewhere in the world. What a vote of
confidence.
A week later, back in wet and windy
Glasgow and grateful for my CATS, I get
a call to hot tail it back to Rome. Summer
had been awarded best film and a cheque
for 25,000 euros! Our crew and cast, like
the Rome jury, had a lot of first timers in
a new environment. The award is fantastic
encouragement to all the young team on
Summer to follow their instincts and pursue
their dreams. To be formidable, to have the
arrogance to change the world for the better
through their own stories and films. Maybe
it is time we had such a jury in Scotland,
maybe at the Edinburgh International Film
Festival?
Summer is released on 5 December. It was supported
by the National Lottery through Scottish Screen’s
Content Production funding. Summer won the Best
Film Award at this year’s Scottish BAFTAs and Kenny
Glenaan picked up the award for Directing in Film or
Television.
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