Saturday 6th November at the BFI Southbank

Back as a full group of five we headed to the BFI Southbank - perhaps our most prestigious venue on the tour. We had booked in at the BFI as early as May and we see it that our contact, David Somerset, and his teams' support from an early stage, helped us strengthen our original Deutsche Bank proposal to such a degree that we had the confidence to win the award.
So this was a special workshop for us and it wasn't to dissapoint. We were situated in the workspace - a hugely visible glass tank of a room just behind the bar and in view of the box office so we were able to collect many passers by throughout the day.


Our participants were noticeably studious - creating exceptionally detailed figurative and abstractly patterned animations with scratch techniques and permanent markers. Jo made a great hand-drawn sign that we were able to project onto whilst creating live loops - so entertaining our younger Unravel-ers whilst attracting people in. We loved the day and were especially thrilled to be linked with the Essential Experiments strand of the BFI's programme which was showcasing the work of one of our heroes and biggest influences - Len Lye.

Lye was a New Zealand born artist who pioneered some of the very first hand painted film techniques and was even employed by the G.P.O Film Unit of the Post Office during the 1930's and '40's under the tenure of John Grierson who also commisioned amazing short films like Harry Watt and Basil Wright's Night Mail and the hilarious The Fairy of the Phone by William Coldstream.
We regularly introduce people to Lye's work for the first time which is a great part of our touring process. If you have never seen his work check out his work here or on the side panel of reference films to the right of this text but really you should support the distribution of his work and buy the DVD or the BFI's excellent collection of films that Grierson commisioned at the GPO here, here and here!

Friday 5th November at Sheffield Doc Fest

So whilst Chris and Maria slept, or attempted to sleep, through an eleven hour sleeper train from Inverness to Euston, Mark and Jo had their own OKO led workshop at Sheffield Doc Fest. Although this was a short  workshop the results look amazing and we'll be telecining and posting all of the workshop results on-line as soon as possible. Chris was particularly gutted to be missing the only workshop booked in South Yorkshire so far - his home county so maybe we'll try and sort something out again for the new year.

Sheff Doc Fest was a major date on our schedule and the entire programme was distributed for free with the Guardian newspaper a week before so hopefully a few of you heard about us that way. Please e-mail us at unravelfilm@gmail.com for any queries as we are still booking dates around the country for the new year.

Thursday 4th November at Inverness Film Festival

Now just operating as a twosome of Chris and Maria due to to Kelvin's work commitments at Salford University we took in the amazing sites of another three hour train ride form Edinburgh to Inverness  through the Highlands - apparently the most sparsely populated area of Europe. Amazing scenery that reminded Chris of his stay in Iceland in September.

And so we finally arrived in Inverness, our most Northern city on the tour so far and our last date in Scotland. The people here were so polite and we even got picked up from the station to our guesthouse. Inverness Film Festival at The Eden Court is essentially programmed by one man, Paul Thompson, who oversees and introduces the entire festival and it had a great line-up especially in Paul's insistence to show Scottish Shorts before every film in the programme and we enjoyed Ruth Paxton's Paris/Sexy.
For the workshop we were positioned right by the front entrance to the Eden Court where hundreds of school kids on their way to see an educational event about the opera taking place there was held. We also met Georgina Coburn who wrote a great article about us and the whole festival here.
We'd have loved to have stayed longer but had to get the eleven hour night train from Inverness to London. If we had stayed we'd have definitely gone to watch the special performance of Blood of A Poet by Steve Severin of Siouxsie and the Banshees. Maybe next time... goodbye to Inverness and goodbye to Scotland (for now)...

Edinburgh at the Forest Cafe

We were able to get an extra date in during our time in Edinburgh thanks to our very good friend and exceptional host for the next two nights, Rachel McCrum  who is working for Craft Scotland - a great organisation who work with designer/makers, galleries and retail outlets to support them in building and sustaining audiences. Rachel has been one of our biggest supporters since we won the Deutsche Bank Award and it was great to hang out with her in her new neighborhood in Edinburgh.
So, under Rachel's suggestion, we approached the Forest Cafe an organisation that incorporates much of Edinburgh's rich cultural activity with a great vegan and vegetarian cafe and offers workshops, film nights, a huge gig venue, and a social centre for anyone and everyone. It was very easy going and we met some very interested and intersting individuals throughout the afternoon followed by a big screening before the night's acoustic gig. The Forest is currently under threat and there is an appeal to try and buy the venue, collectively, so as to maintain its activity. For more information click here. 

Edinburgh was beautiful especially around Holyrood Park, but next up Inverness, so far North that Chris know has to question his Northerner status, coming from Rotherham.

Edinburgh at Africa in Motion Festival

So back on the train (wishing we had one more night there to experience the Halloween fancy dress again at legendary nightclub Optimo) and over to Edinburgh for Africa In Motion Festival .

We were treated to a night in a very fancy guesthouse and set up residence in the Filmhouse - a brilliant old cinema that has maintained a film guild for over seventy five years and we were lucky to be in the Guild Room which displays a lot of this rich history on its walls. 
We had a fantastic crowd, from possibly our youngest film maker at three months old to an experienced Kenyan animator making beautifully crafted shoals of fish. 

Africa in Motion is a film festival showcasing films made in Africa in Edinburgh and was celebrating its fifth year at the Filmhouse this year.
We also got to see some of there films and really enjoyed The Silver Fez.
 Another great day on the tour.

Glasgow at the CCA

Straight away after finishing in Crook we got the train from Durham to Glasgow. The three hour train journey was quick and easy and as we set foot out of the station in Glasgow it was suddenly very clear to us this was Halloween weekend and Glasgow certainly likes to make the effort. To count, we saw about a dozens Smurfs, several Ali Gs, numerous Scooby Dos, a homemade and super detailed Predator, a couple of Sesame Street style Letters and a Chilean Miner as the centre was fully garbed in extensive fancy dress. The city was amazing and really good -natured and it was a great experience to witness everyone so decorated roaming around town (especially the stubbly and gruff voiced hungover Smurfette  on Sunday morning as we set up the workshop).
We were at the CCA to be part of Document-8 the International Human Rights film festival. This was a really special day for us and the participants throughout the day offered us many unique stories whilst adding to the film which looked brilliant at the end of day screening. Glasgow really is a fantastic and fun city and it was a pleasure to be there with Unravel. Cheers Glasgow!

Durham - Kids for Kids

So first on our epic stretch of tour dates was working with Kids For Kids UK branch in the small village of Crook in Durham.

This is an ace community of young people led by Helen Ward, a lovely lady who got in touch with us through OKO's facebook page from a previous workshop in Bradford. In attendence were many local families and their children of various ages plus half a dozen young people from Belgrade who were on an exchange programme with Kids for Kids Serbia.

The sense of community was fantastic and we even had our dinner cooked by Helen's parents. Many of our participants were rehearsing for a theatrical performance in a wood as part of Halloween festivities the next day and although we heard everyone got soaked through in taking part it looked set to be great.

Thanks Crook! It was a great day.