IF YOU LIKE: Tyne Valley Film Festival

The Tyne Valley Film Festival returns from Friday 14th-Friday 28th March for two weeks of film, live music and panels in various venues across the valley and beyond. The festival, nowin its fifth year, is hosting 33 screenings across 23 venues, ranging from its main hub at The Forum Cinema in Hexham, to Allendale, Corbridge and even as far as Newcastle’s Star & Shadow Cinema. Over the years, the festival’s aim has been to make up-and-coming films more accessible for people in rural areas, as well as keeping it affordable for young people, with tickets for those aged 25 and under costing just £3, and festival passes for £30 allowing viewers to see all the screenings at The Forum Cinema. This year’s festival features a mixture of premieres, interactive screenings and re-releases, as well as collaborations with local musicians and clubs. Here’s a look at what’s coming up…

IF YOU LIKE…

Getting ahead on new releases

The festival is showing a number of previews and a UK premiere. The Oscar-nominated film Flow is shown on Sunday 16thMarch ahead of its wider release a week later. The Latvian animated film is about a cat whose life is affected by a gigantic storm, and is up for two Oscars, including Best Animated Feature. The Return, starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, is a retelling of The Odyssey, which previews on Sunday 23rd March before a wider release in April. And finally, Swiss drama The Courageous will have its UK premiere on Wednesday 26th March having previously premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. The film focuses on a rebellious mother who risks everything to keep her family together. All three films are showing at Hexham’s Forum Cinema.

Discovering local artists

Some films this year are accompanied by live music from musicians across the region. Iconic Jim Carey movie The Truman Show will be opening the festival on Friday 14th March and is accompanied by live music from rising alt. rock artist Melanie Baker. Springsteen fans can enjoy the 2019 jukebox musical Blinded By The Light at the Tannery Pub in Hexham on Thursday 27th March, when musician Chris Kelly will be performing a mixture of Springsteen covers and originals. Kenneth Anger’s 1972 cult classic short film Lucifer Rising will be screened at Newcastle’s Star & Shadow Cinema on Saturday 22nd March, featuring a live score from band Boy Latex. The experimental film focuses on Egyptian Gods trying to summon Lucifer.

Learning more about regional history

The Hexham Photography Group is hosting a screening of the 2023 documentary Tish, about the social documentary photographer and trailblazer Tish Murtha. The film will be followed by a discussion of Murtha’s work, as well as that of other documentary photographers, at Hexham Library on Wednesday 19th March.At Ovingham Reading Room on Friday 21st March, the Young Women’s Film Academy will screen a collection of short films by their members alongside the 1972 dramatised documentary Byker, which was built around Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen’s photographs depicting life on the Byker Wall at the time.