Artwork: Guille Mendia.

Trash Cannes prepares for take-off

The Trash Cannes Film Festival launches its third edition in early September, this time accompanied by the multi-genre Trash’d Festival. Judy Parkinson got the low-down from festival director, Keith Rodway.

“This year there are two festivals, Trash Cannes, which is film-based and Trash’d which includes art, music, literature and fashion. My main aim this year is to redress the idea that the arts is an elitist and exclusive province, because I sometimes think an element of art snobbery creeps in around here and I want art to be for everyone. We feature work by both local and far-flung practitioners and I’ve tried to bring it all together here in Hastings.”

Trash Cannes kicks off at the Memorial Art Gallery on Thursday 4 September with Hide and Seek, a curated art exhibition, plus short films by south coast film-makers. Trash’d runs from Friday 5 to Sunday 7 September at the Stade Hall, Memorial Art Gallery, Brass Monkey and the East Hastings Sea Angling Society.

New York Dollies - coming to the Brass Monkey.

The line-up for Trash’d begins with the fashion event with work by local designers in the Stade Hall at 7.30 on Friday 5 September. We also have Lucy Brett from the British Board of Film Classification looking at representations of sex in mainstream cinema, Archie Lauchlan talking about the regeneration of Hastings pier, Frances Viner on her community project about shoes and a homage to silent German expressionist film, Arthur’s Sleep, with a live score by Sam Harris and his band.

On Saturday afternoon, Garth Twa will talk about his 20 years of working in Hollywood and Philip Sanderson from the indie band, Storm Bugs will talk about his Snatch Tapes project at the Memorial Art Gallery.

Johnny Thunders and Nina Antonia.

On Saturday evening, we’ll move to the Brass Monkey for the New York Dollies, a close harmony, ukulele, punk covers band. Nina Antonia, Johnny Thunders’ biographer and editor of Pete Doherty’s diaries, will talk about the bad boys of punk rock and Vic Goddard will play a set to close the night.

On Sunday, we have the RAW event, in which local punk bands play before seasoned industry professionals, including Segs of the Ruts, Steve Finnerty of Alabama 3, Katherine Wallinger of The Wedding Present, Nina Antonia again and Tara Rez of the Duel. That will be followed with talks by Cathy Simpson (also of HOT) on the history of punk with live drawing, Rhys Lloyd about Peter George, who wrote Dr Strangelove while living in Hastings, and off-the-grid activist and author, Nick Rosen. Trash’d will close with a gig by the Fabulous Red Diesel.

Vic Goddard.

The Trash Cannes festival continues during the weekend of 13 and 14 September with films at the Memorial Art Gallery, including one by Kevin Wright, filmed in Brighton, starring Jamie Sives from Game of Thrones and Toby Worthington from Black Swan, and also others by local and national film-makers. There will be a surprise film at the end of the Saturday programme. On Sunday 14 September, we see the final of the Trash Cannes Five-Day Film Challenge at the East Hastings Sea Anglers’ Association.

All the events at Trash Cannes are free. Trash’d events are more elaborate and costly, but at only £5, last year’s prices have been halved.

I’m promoting Hastings as a great destination for everyone who wants to experience the arts, but I have one big ‘however’… There are some who come here to live and complain that Hastings seems a tatty place and needs tidying up and gentrifying. Well, I’m proud of Hastings as it is right now!”

To find out more Trash Cannes/Trash’d

See Meet Keith, the man behind Trash Cannes.

Remember her? The Trash Cannes festival also includes an exhibition of classic covers, stories and artworks from the underground newspaper International Times which made its first appearance in 1966. The exhibition, at the Hastings Trust building at 34 Robertson Street in the town centre, will be opened at 5.30pm on Wednesday 3 September, by Mike Lesser, a member of IT‘s current editorial collective.

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