Despite the pending recession the End of the Pier International Film Festival continues to develop and grow in both scope and stature. With growth has come a re-structuring of the Management Team which has created a new opening for a UK Director to be appointed to take the festival through the next stages of expansion. It is then with great pleasure that we can announce that Alison Vermeeren will be officially take over as End of the Pier UK Director as of May 1st 2009. Meanwhile, Alison will continue to work as the Young Film Maker’s Project Manager whilst through the transitional phase of her appointment learn more concerning her future task. Alison has already re-branded the education side of the festival event and turned into a truly international arena for young people to share films and learn more about the film making process.

Alison grew up in Nottingham and Littlehampton, went back to Nottingham to study and then onto France.

About life on the South Coast she says: ‘I always miss the sea when I’m away from it, which anyone who’s lived by the sea will understand. It becomes a part of who you are. I came back to West Sussex almost 9 years ago, with my husband and our first little boy and we had our second little boy in Worthing. I’ve worked with fantastic people over the last 9 years; people who have taught me to grab opportunities with both hands. One is Bryan who started the film festival on his own and built up an incredible team, which I’m proud to be a part of.’
Alison continues: ‘I’ve worked on a wide range of arts projects in many different roles. Mainly project management, but also in design and even once, as a puppeteer! So I’m bringing to my new role as UK Director, an eclectic mix of skills and experiences which includes being able to pull a few strings! I’m absolutely committed to gaining maximum exposure for young and new film makers and creating new and exciting opportunities through our festival. But we’re also about infusing people with the energy and confidence to grab opportunities, to give back to their own community and be valued every step of the way. The whole team is thrilled to be coming to Worthing and the amazing response we’ve had. We want to establish our festival as an exciting week in this town, filled with new films, debate, guest speakers and master classes. Anyone interested in joining the team as a festival volunteer, please contact us through our website, www.eotpfilmfestival.co.uk’

Festival Director and Founder Bryan Gartside will be moving onwards and upwards taking over as International Director and the Chair of the new eotp management Board. This will enable him to develop eotp film events across a wide range of countries, Including Argentina, (June/July 2009) the USA, Europe and further afieled. The aim is to establish an End of Pier screening in every continent. With that comes increased opportunities for young and independent film makers to have their worked viewed by both public audiences and Industry professionals. The Argentinian event will see European works screened in South America for the first time, whilst also being a calling card for South American film makers to exhibit their work with a view to exporting the content to European audiences. The project will be based on commercial principles whilst still maintaining the basic ethos of the original end of the Pier concept: to gain exposure for new, Young, Independent and Low-budget Film Makers from around the world.

Working closely with European partners in both film markets and festival events will continue to offer a vast potential to exchange content across many language and cultural divides. A film maker submitting a short film into the UK festival may see his or her work subtitled and screened around the world to what will be new and substantial audiences. Of course all of this takes time, and a great deal of effort, which is why festival founder Bryan Gartside now believes he has to undertake this strategic development.

To assist him in these and other film related endeavours there will be new
initiatives put in motion to assist with raising funds to help develop the festival, whilst continuing to support home-grown film making talent. An innovative new development fund will be established to invest in low-budget UK feature productions. The emphasis will be on Directorial debuts and will initially focus on local film makers to assist them in launching their feature productions. The aim once more is to ensure as wider audience as possible benefit from the opportunity to see UK based low-budget films.

A new eotp Board of Reference will consist of representatives currently working at the leading edge of the Film and Television industries and the seminal appointment to be made is Michael Cowan from Brighton’s Spice Factory. Michael has been involved in the film industry for a number of years and has recently taken an interest in and become involved with the End of the Pier International Film Festival. The event, now in its fifth year seeks to exhibit and promote the work of new emerging feature film directors as well as running a short film competition.
Michael’s involvement with the event will be aimed at helping to further promote its reputation and profile within the international film festival circuit. His first initiative as a board member will be to increase the volume of NEW feature length films the festival showcases and is offering UK and foreign distributors the opportunity to premier feature films over the duration of the festival period: April 24th- May 2nd.
eotp PR December 2009