Hotfoots it to Mayfair - Mayfair Times

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14 film AHEAD OF BEING THE HOST HOTEL FOR THE GLITZY, HIGH-PROFILE BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL, THE MAY FAIR IS SUPPORTING UP- AND-COMING TALENT WITH THE EDGY, INDIE RAINDANCE FILM FESTIVAL. LUCY BROWN TALKS TO RAINDANCE FOUNDER ELLIOT GROVE AND FINDS OUT HOW THE HOTEL IS BUILDING ON ITS CINEMATIC HISTORY Raindance founder Elliot Grove is an interesting guy. Born to an Amish family outside Toronto, he ran off to art college and graduated with a degree in cire perdue (lost-wax bronze casting), worked with Henry Moore in the early 1970s, got into film through painting sets at the BBC and eventually set up film-training centre Raindance in 1992. “In the early Nineties, I was back in London, and I had fancied myself a property entrepreneur, buying and selling houses in Mayfair,” says Grove. “I went spectacularly bust in 1991 and spent an entire year feeling sorry for myself. I went back into film, but I had lost all my contacts. So I started training courses hoping to meet people, which I did.” He launched the Raindance Film Festival in 1993 to showcase the work of some of the people who had come to Raindance. Alumni include Christopher Nolan, David Yates, Guy Ritchie and Matthew Vaughn, while Edgar Wright was Grove’s first intern. Raindance also launched the British Independent Film Awards in 1998. “Raindance is a great place to come and see the stars of tomorrow,” says Grove. In the festival’s first year, it screened What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, starring a teenage actor called Leonardo DiCaprio. “That’s the kind of person you’ll find at Raindance, before they become a household name,” he says. Supporting role “We’re really all about discovering.” Other Raindance festival films have included Oldboy, Memento, The Blair Witch Project and Pulp Fiction. There’s a story behind the Raindance name – which bears a certain similarity to the high-profile Sundance Film Festival in Utah. “I chose the name Raindance because of the dance you do to get your film made and, of course, because in London it usually rains,” says Grove. “And that first year after I made the announcement, the phone went in my office and it was Robert Redford himself, saying, ‘Why are you stealing my name?’ I tried to explain the dance bit and the rain bit, and pleaded with him to allow me to leave him to the plethora of talented film-makers in Britain and Europe – and the line went dead.” The Raindance Film Festival 2010 had 3,000 submissions. “We sit and watch every single one and the ones that we think are extreme films – extreme storytelling, extreme film-making or extremely good – we pick,” says Grove. “By extreme, I don’t mean extremely violent. I mean film-makers that are very ABOVE: ELLIOT GROVE
16 film good storytellers – that’s the number one criteria, the storytelling ability – but they’re doing something extreme, usually with topic or sometimes with film-making technique or sometimes with both.” This year, “of the 77 feature films and feature documentaries we are showing, a staggering 69 are British premieres,” says Grove, “and many are world premieres – I’ve lost track of those.” The programme includes a number of controversial movies, including A Serbian Film, which is being shown at Raindance as a private screening, and Bruce LaBruce’s LA Zombie. Grove explains: “We’re under pressure from various people not to show these different films for different reasons, but we figured that, this year, given that the festival’s 18 years old and the people that come to the festival are at least 18 years old, we figured that you should be able to decide whether or not you want to see them.” There are also strong musical connections. This year, Los Angeles band The Airbourne Toxic Event are performing at the opening night after-party, and Motorhead’s Lemmy is on the festival jury. Other jury members include Charles Saatchi, Julian Barratt of The Mighty Boosh and film critic and historian Derek Malcolm. Screenings and events are running at the Apollo Piccadilly Circus and The May Fair hotel. Grove says: “The May Fair hotel has this rock’n’roll tradition, and it seemed like a good fit.” Hollywood impresarios the Danziger brothers owned the hotel in the 1950s and, since its 2006 relaunch, The May Fair has been drawing on its cinematic history, now working with both Raindance and the BFI London Film Festival. It is the 54th BFI London Film Festival Official Hotel, following a successful inaugural event last year, and is also a Gala Sponsor for West is West, the sequel to East is East. “It was always about going back to our roots of being connected with everything sort of film and fashion and music and so on,” explains global marketing manager Linda Plant. “Hence our partnership with the British Film Institute, and then taking that further and saying, you know, we don’t really just want to be connected with these institutions, we want to support institutions that nurture up-and-coming talent, and the Raindance festival is very much about that.” The May Fair has its own screening room, which seats more than 200 people, and runs the May Fair Family Film Club: a two-course lunch followed by a film. There will soon be a film club for grown-ups too, launching on November 21 with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. And the hotel even makes its own movies. Plant explains: “Through Raindance, we have what we call our film-maker in residence, so that’s an opportunity for new and upcoming talent to showcase their material – they’re going to make little movies and skits of London and the hotel, and sometimes do interviews.” These can then be uploaded to The May Fair’s YouTube channel. “It’s really exciting,” says Plant. “There’s a real vibrancy going on in the hotel.” The Raindance Film Festival runs until October 10. The 54th BFI London Film Festival runs from October 13-28. ABOVE: THE MAY FAIR HOTEL’S CINEMA ABOVE LEFT: A SCENE FROM DO ELEPHANTS PRAY? SHOWING AT THE FESTIVAL PHOTO: STEVE NORRIS
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Hotfoots it to Mayfair - Mayfair Times

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