Trash’d in Hastings and St Leonards

We’re heading for the final weeks of Trash Cannes Festival and it seems like a good time to get an update from co-originator, film maker, anthropologist and local innovator, Keith Rodway. HOT’s Zelly Restorick asks his some questions about the past, the present and the future of Trash Cannes and the Festival’s offshoots.

What/When/Where is Trash Cannes?

Trash Cannes runs this year from 25 September to 21 December. Our first event was in The Crown – other venues are The Stade Hall, The Brass Monkey, Kino Teatr, The Observer Building and the Memorial Art Gallery. Our events cover spoken word, an exhibition of drawings by people living with dementia, punk photography, visual art and artists’ books, cartoonists’ reactions to the Charlie Hebdo killings*, the 5 Day Film Challenge and a closing night party with Thomas Truax**.

What are the origins of Trash Cannes?

Trash Cannes began when my friend author, filmmaker and lecturer, Garth Twa and I were planning a film festival and chose to run it in Hastings; it seemed the obvious place as there is such a thriving artistic and creative community here. We were inspired by Quentin Crisp, who said that Princess Diana was ‘trash and got what she deserved’ and by Keith Allen’s film, Unlawful Killing about the events surrounding Diana’s death, which was roundly booed at Cannes. Trash + Cannes = Trash Cannes.

There have been some objections to the name Trash Cannes, as it has been seen as a slight to Hastings – though I do think this is missing the point. Hastings has always been known for its hostility to pretentiousness and its self-deprecating humour, hence the name is a gentle dig at those who think that Hastings should become an annexe to Brighton or Shoreditch. We don’t agree.

How can people participate?

People can participate by attending our events, helping us design stage settings for our shows, or making a film and submitting it via this link: submissions@trashcannesfestival.co.uk You can submit any time you like. Please keep your film around 15 minutes or less. We hold pop-up events throughout the year to screen films by local filmmakers.

Tell us more about the The Trash’d New Wave Festival? 

Trash’d New Wave Festival is the sister festival to Trash Cannes, and covers everything but formal screenings of documentary films and narrative shorts. This is essentially because Arts Council funding does not cover conventional film exhibition; however, there is funding available for this from Film Hub South East, which we will be applying for next year.

Trash’d grew out of our love of classic British punk and the DIY ethos that punk championed. We promote art by independent or outsider artists. We consider that mainstream arts are well represented and prefer to focus on more subversive content. Hence the name! Trash Cannes is entirely voluntary and focuses on showing film only – documentaries, feature films, shorts, music videos and whatever else we can find.

And the 60 page Fanzine?

Our 60-page fanzine this year features images and/or articles by many of our contributors and writers, artists, cartoonists and illustrators living in Hastings, plus a 25 page section highlighting a selection of articles from the last 10 months of International Times, which was featured recently in BBC4’s documentary Psychedelic Britannia. IT was started in 1966 and editors included Bill Levy, Jeff Nuttall, Mick Farren, Barry Miles, John ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins and other counter-cultural activists of the time and continues online to this day. We are currently planning a series of 50^th anniversary events next year.

How do people get tickets?

Tickets to our events can be bought online through our website – we will be putting an online shop up on the website in the next few days, or on the door at each event, or through selected outlets in the town. We will announce these on Facebook prior to each event.

Our website is www.trashcannesfestival.co.uk and you can find us on Facebook and Twitter – and we have an Instagram account coming soon.

Plans for next year?

We are hoping next year to get Shane Meadows and Sleaford Mods. We’re already planning 2016!

* * Unfortunately, this event has been cancelled by the venue, due to recent events in Paris.

** Thomas Truax is a truly memorable, impactful performer with his unique self-made instruments. Saw him at the De La Warr a few years ago. A real character. Highly recommended. ZR)

Please scroll down for event flyers…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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