A Huddersfield company staging live cinema events is jetting off to Texas on Wednesday in a bid to reel in more business.
Live Cinema UK will attend the world-leading SXSW film, music and technology festival in Austin as part of a trade mission run by the Department for International Trade (DIT).
The Live team is joining more than 40 organisations from the north of England for the global event, which gets under way on Friday and includes conferences for film makers and distributors, screenwriters, actors, agents, film crews and fans, web and game developers, programmers, bloggers, investors, inventors and tech and new media.
Live Cinema UK, a not-for-profit company, brings together artists, exhibitors, distributors and producers to mix cinema and live events. Among its projects, it worked on Huddersfield Festival of Light in 2014 and combined a preview showing of the film Suffragette at the Lawrence Batley Theatre with actors in costume reciting speeches made by the sufragettes as they “protested” in Huddersfield town centre.
Live Cinema UK, led by director Lisa Brook, projects director Jay Arnold, digital and music co-ordinator Kate Wellham and creative producer Colm McAuliffe, has worked with artists including DJ Yoda, composer Mica Levi and musicians Norman Jay and Stephen Mallinder as well as providing marketing and audience development consultancy for film festivals and distributors.
At SXSW, Live Cinema will Lisa will chair a panel on Selling Celluloid: Finding New Audiences For Film, with Kate addressing another on The Future of Cinema in the Age Of Virtual Reality.
Lisa said: “SXSW is an amazing opportunity for us. As a company that has convergence at its heart, SXSW is the place to explore the crossover of music, film and digital, which is at the centre of what we do.
“Alongside the panels, we are chairing and producing which address vital questions regarding the future of cinema exhibition, we will be holding key meetings with potential partners and artists in the USA to collaborate on new live cinema commissions.
“We are also scouting films and virtual reality projects to programme across the UK over the next year.”
Mark Robson, DIT regional director for Yorkshire and the Humber, said: “The music, film and technology sectors are increasingly important contributors to the economic well-being of the Northern Powerhouse region. This mission allows us to showcase the burgeoning talent in those areas to a global audience at SXSW as the world’s premier event or creativity.”
