A comedy film festival featuring stand-up is returning to Islington for the fourth year. The annual comedy event is being hosted at the Collective Acting Studio, Hornsey Road, on Friday 20th and Saturday 21st March.
Marcus Kai, a former Islington resident and co-organiser of the Funny Life Film Festival, said: “This will be our fourth year running it. Before, there weren’t really any comedy film festivals in London. We had our own film that we wanted to get out there. We thought, why don’t we do our own thing? We just wanted to celebrate emerging comedy film makers.”
As the only comedy film festival to be a member of the Association of Independent Film Festivals, the event will allow comedy filmmakers to screen their first films. It will also provide workshops and networking opportunities for those interested in the industry.
“We are quite unique in that it’s a purely comedy festival. A lot of the actors that we screen are stand-up comedians as well,” Marcus said. “We feel that every comedy filmmaker needs to start somewhere. The festival is to help anybody who’s interested in film or comedy, or both. We offer workshops, and it’s a great place to network and meet new people. You can actually learn how to make and distribute a film.”
Top Secret Comedy Club, Backyard Comedy Club, Wallace Chess, the Association of Independent Film Festivals, Collective, and Ivan Weiss London are sponsoring the event. Stand-up artists will include Daniel Hippolyte, Maple Zuo, Hazel Donovan, Dave Vaughn and award-winning comedian Liam McGough.
Hazel, a Leicester Square New Comedian of the Year finalist, said: “I’m quite excited about this as this will be the first time for me performing at a film festival, it will be an opportunity to bring my humour to a new kind of audience. It will also allow the audience to experience live comedy and add it to their list of genres; it will bring a whole new level to their day.”
There will be 47 comedy film screenings at the venue, which seats up to 100 people, with organisers expecting 400-500 people to attend over the two days. Tickets are currently going for £50.
Keith Large, who heads K Lens UK Film Production and is looking forward to screening his new film, ‘Wheel Gone Kid 4 – Crash Course’, said: “This will be the fourth year, and our production company will be the only production to have a film at each of the four years. It’s just lots of laughter, and that’s what we need in the world… Commercial cinema is fading, so if you want to see really good films, you need to go to a film festival.”
Sam is an MA Newspaper Journalism student, news blogger, and freelance writer who has previously written for Spiked.