Highlights of the Berwick Film Festival

THE five-day Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, from September 15-19, showcases films and performances from around the world.

Opening with a live performance, The Keystone Cut Ups has been created specifically for the festival by artists People Like Us and Ergo Phizmiz, demonstrating the relationships between early silent comedy and experimental cinema.

Festival director Melanie Iredale says: "This year's programme is a playful one, and all themed around the idea of the screen as a stage, from 'staged' documentaries such as Mouth of the Wolf to the festival field in All Tomorrow's Parties.

"Berwick will become a platform for films and performances from all over the world, from Argentina to Australia, and we look forward to showcasing them all."

The festival, in its sixth edition, will have screenings across ten different venues, including an old prison. One highlight is Vintage Radio Plays, a 1940s-style radio broadcast combined with vintage celluloid.

Since it was founded in 2005, the festival has shown over 280 individual works from 32 countries in 18 different locations.

This has included a number of specifically commissioned pieces, one international premiere, 20 UK or European premieres, with many works being shown outside London for the first time.

A range of educational and outreach activities have also been run in parallel, some of which have taken place outside of the festival timeframe, thus maintaining a continual presence all year.

The festival has also been successful at attracting significant audiences with up to 10,000 visits to the 2005 and 2007 Festivals.