Leeds International Film Festival

We were excited to host a screening of our Nature Matters film show at the 37th Leeds International Film Festival which happened from 3rd to the 19th November in various locations around Leeds.

This year's event was the largest film event of its kind in the North, with 17 days of film from across the UK and around the world.

Our event on Wednesday 16th November sold out after only a short while after it was advertised, and was held at St Luke’s Cares in Beeston. The venue offered a perfect host for a nature-focused archive film event on a number of levels. Firstly, the St. Luke’s venue is a charity shop where you can pick up furniture, electricals and white goods: a focus on second-hand items and recycling is a key idea in eco thinking. The venue also runs various environment-focused events such as upcycling competitions and most recently ran a series of screenings as part of South Leeds Green Film Festival, including ‘The Migration Blanket,’ and ‘William and the Windmill.’

The venue also used to be an old cinema, and you can still see some features that allude to its past such as tiered floor for seating, a balcony level, and arrows pointing to exits and entrances. Showing archive film in a venue that is so rich in its cinema past was greatly exciting.

What was shown was a series of short archive films from our Nature Matters project, alongside some specific content related to environmental stories in the Beeston and Leeds area. The films that were locally focused highlighted how communities in the area have really pulled together to set up green spaces such as the work of Newlay Conservation Society in the setting up of the Kirkstall Valley Nature Reserve on a site of a demolished power station and also the work of Skelton Grange Environment Centre.