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Next week on 3 Minute Wonder: Britain as you know it gets recut

Mosaic Films, Channel 4 and the BFI have joined forces to produce Britain Recut, a groundbreaking series of short films by four new filmmakers screening in Channel 4’s ‘3 Minute Wonder’ slot in the week of the 5th May 2008. For the first time in its history, the BFI made classic documentary footage available to the public to re-edit into their own short films, as part of an online competition which sees the four winning films screened on Channel 4’s 3 Minute Wonder strand, and entering the BFI National Archive.

The filmmakers were challenged to comment on an aspect of life in contemporary Britain by recutting public information films from the 1940’s and 50’s. More than three hours of historic footage from the BFI National Archive was available to the filmmakers, taken from a selection of films made by the early pioneers of documentary.

Andy Glynne, director of Mosaic Films and Executive Producer of the films, says “It’s the first time in its history that the BFI National Archive has made this material available to the public to recut, and these films really display the creative potential of archive material. What’s really changed in Britain the past 60 years? Was life really better in the good old days of Empire, dance halls and black and white films? The four filmmakers re-think ‘modern’ issues and find out that perhaps they’re not so modern after all. From asylum seekers and working mothers to how we have fun and the amount we consume, it seems some things never change.”

The films are:

Anyway, Who Are You? (Tuesday 5th May - Dir. Meghan Horvath)
Two refugees, fifty years apart, share their oddly similar experience of arriving in London.

A Welcome Return (Wednesday 6th May - Dir. Barry J Gibb)
If the great British public can’t watch their own weight, then perhaps it’s time to bring back rationing?

Women Only (Thursday 7th May - Dir. Valeria Coizza)
A group of women compare their freedoms – and their constraints – with those of their grandmothers.

Grandpa William (TX. tbc - Dir. Barnaby Lankester-Owen)
Barnaby Lankester-Owen wants to find out about how people used to have fun. A conversation with his 91 year-old Grandpa William leads to some interesting surprises.
Mosaic Films is an award-winning production company, and sister company to DFG. To find out about more opportunities for emerging filmmakers, visit www.mosaicfilms.com and sign up to their newsletter.

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