Callum: Hello, I’m Callum Robinson and this is Entertainment. Our topic today is films and film festivals. You may have heard of the Venice Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival, glorious occasions with A-⁠list celebrities from the movie world turning out to promote their latest projects. A festival you might not know is the Portobello Film Festival which is currently taking place in Portobello, an area of West London. It’s had its own independent film festival for a number of years and to learn more about it I’ve invited the festival’s director Jonathan Barnett. So, Jonathan, could you tell us about when and how the festival started.

Jonathan Barnett: Well, it started in 1996 because even back in those days there were people making very low budget films often using video equipment and there wasn’t really anywhere for them to show their films so we thought it would be nice to provide a platform for these filmmakers. We had the mad idea at the time of showing every film that was submitted and we also decided not to charge because I suppose at heart we weren’t rabid capitalists.

Callum: So the festival started as a way of giving unknown filmmakers somewhere to show their films. As Jonathan said, to give them a platform. Then I’ve got a question. How many films are being shown and how do you manage to pay for it, for running the festival, I mean?

Jonathan Barnett: This year we’re showing 700 films. The money comes in from funding mostly, we get money from people and organizations like Film London and the Arts Council and we also get different kinds of support from sponsors. So we don’t have to pay for advertising, we don’t have to pay for launch parties, we don’t have to pay for prizes.

Callum: Over the first three weeks of August 700 films are being shown as part of the Portobello Film Festival. What kind of films can be seen? Are they just short student films or does the festival attract big names as well? Here’s the festival’s director Jonathan Barnett.

Jonathan Barnett: The actual films we’re showing are a lot better than anything you’ll see on TV or on multiplexes and it’s everything from student films and we also get stuff from top filmmakers like, for instance, John Malkovich. So I think because we’re a festival that has a reputation for a certain amount of integrity and also being a little bit out on a limb we attract the big names as well as people who are just starting out. The first year of the festival we had Guy Ritchie’s first film which was called the "Hard Case", which was fantastic, it’s exactly the same as Lock Stock and Snatch but he was kind of formulating his ideas and it was a short film.

Callum: As far as I know, the Portobello Film Festival runs until the 21st of August as well as films there are other arts events, a variety of fantastic concerts, exhibitions and presentations. You want the festival to be more than just for film, don’t you?

Jonathan Barnett: Yes, what we want it to be is, we want it to be a bit like a kind of cross between Glastonbury festival and Edinburgh festival, but for free and set in Portobello Road.

Callum: We also hope it would become a big arts festival  — amazing, unforgettable and a good start for young talents!

That’s all from Entertainment this week.