Never Mind The Celluloid Strikes Back - today at Hull Screen

I woke this morning, at the godawful hour needed for my slow and pricey train ride to Hull , from a dream where I was a kid once more, back in my school hall at St Aidan's again. We'd just finished a double filmmaking lesson (probably inspired by watching M.Dot.Strange's awesome film skool on Ytube till the early hours) and were putting the chairs back to the sides with the teenage tedium of those times. I was muttering to my friend about picking up a copy of the Independent as they had a big feature on the film industry. And I realised suddenly that I would not have been the punk cinema kid at school.

Had we been lucky enough to have filmmaking lessons, I would have been the nerdy, geeky square one reading up on the film industry and tax breaks. 'Oh God' I cried, 'Why am I such a Jewish cliché'? I implore the heavens, my arms outstretched in a kind of permanent throbbing shrug, my eyebrows twisted in incredulity, my hands bouncing as if tied to elastic.

Which is a digression, really, from the reason I sat up in bed to scribe this, rather than steal an extra 30 minutes sleep before I set off to Hull, with my Sid Vicious cutout, for a follow up to a panel that first took place in November 2004. Devised by the unhinged genius of Mr Laurence Boyce, we asked back then if cheap digital technology, coupled with access to online distribution was about to herald a PUNK CINEMA REVOLUTION with people making films and distributing them without any industry interference, much like pioneers of punk and the original garage bands. We questioned the idea and created a seven point manifesto (point 1 - question everything, point 2 - take risks, point 3 - focus on live experiences, point 4 - share your experiences, point 5 - use famous people, point 6 - give your work away free, point 7 - be constantly honest and challenging)

Of course, barely three  months later, Chad and Steve set up YouTube, and the rest is kind of history. The majority of films watched online are created by the likes of you and me, with no industry interference whassover, according to Screen Digest. We Are The Strange and Four Eyed Monsters, and the rest of the crew, show the new punks distributing their own films not just online - for free - but on DVD and in cinemas too. I'm still a little confused by point 5, however, tho all should hopefully be resolved at today's panel - Never Mind the Celluloid 2, Hull Screen, Sunday afternoon, 2.30 - 4.30.