Midlands Spotlight on filmmaker Ben Crawford
midlandsmovies • August 12, 2020
Midlands Spotlight – Filmmaker Ben Crawford
Even in lockdown the filmmakers from the Midlands have been hard at work in front of and behind the camera to tell their stories despite the difficulties in production right now.
And none more so than up and coming local filmmaker Ben Crawford who has finished not just one but three films in the past couple of months.
Based in Birmingham, Ben is a part-time postgraduate student at the University of Birmingham.
The three films he’s undertaken during the pandemic are all shorts with two of them being documentaries and both of those take a look at the workings of two foodbanks/meal kitchens.
Ben has captured how difficult life has been during Covid-19 through interviews and footage of the daily processes at these organisations.
First up is 'Selly Oak's Community Response', which Ben prefaces with how a group of University of Birmingham students and local community members felt compelled to act. They set up a grassroots foodbank in one of their houses to distribute donations from students moving away.
Since then the operation has grown rapidly, moving to larger premises, coordinating a complex network of volunteers - all to be able to send parcels to hundreds of people in need.
For more information, how to get involved, donate or receive a parcel: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sellycommunityresponse
The second film is 'Cooperation Birmingham: Solidarity Kitchen' where The Warehouse Cafe, a workers cooperative, had to close but instead they set up the Solidarity Kitchen, a meal donation service helped by over 300 volunteers.
Cooperation Birmingham: https://cooperationbirmingham.org.uk
As well as capturing real life stories Ben has also turned his hand to fiction and his experimental short 'Within, without' follows the travails of someone confined and unable to live how they would like to.
Find out more about Ben’s work at his official website here: https://benjamin-crawford.com
A dollop of crime and American iconography permeate the first feature from poet Tony Tost who writes and directs this tale of Dixie-infused characters embroiled in a twisty plot of violence and theft.
The Correction Unit is a new science-fiction thriller that is set in a near-future Britain where artificial intelligence, state control, and youth incarceration collide.
There are some great film education establishments around the Midlands including the Pauline Quirke Academy and the Midlands Screen Acting School and another one to add to the ever growing list is the MetFilm Summer School.
“These go up to 11”. Who would have thought that from a humble 1984 mock/rock-umentary - itself spun off from a 1978 sketch show - a quote from a dumb guitarist has now become part of our global lexicon and beloved by millions.