Budding actors take starring roles

11:13am Friday 14th March 2008

AMONG the 75 films featured in this year's Borderlines Film Festival are films which have won Oscars, featuring big-name actors who've been garlanded with awards and there are smaller-scale movies which have also attracted attention, acclaim and awards.

Two of the latter, Special People and Crafta Webb, will be of especial interest to a Herefordshire audience, both of them having strong local connections and both starring young Herefordshire talent.

Special People began life in 2005 as a short film, directed by Justin Edgar, which enchanted audiences around the world, playing at 50 film festivals as far afield as Australia, Korea and all around Europe.

Justin has become a big fan of Herefordshire since he was invited several years ago to come to the county by Rural Media.

"They knew my work and asked if I'd come and work with them," he explains.

The result of that collaboration with students at Bishop of Hereford's Bluecoat School was All Aboard, devised with young people with disabilities and telling the story of a minibus which breaks down in the country, forcing the driver to face his prejudices about his disabled passengers.

When he returned to work with the group for a second time, Justin asked what they wanted to make a film about and the unanimous verdict, based on their earlier experience, was that they wanted to make a film about making a film.

The result, Special People, which now has a UK distributor and will open in cinemas in July, follows Jasper, a film maker on the verge of a nervous breakdown, whose latest project on top of a mountain with a cynical bunch of disabled kids might just push him over the edge.

One of the stars of Special People, Robyn Frampton, had only ever acted at school before becoming involved in the Rural Media projects and, when she first heard that Justin wanted to extend and expand Special People into a feature film and wanted her to be involved again, she admits to taking little notice: "I heard that he wanted to do it and then forgot about it for the next year. When we came to shoot it, it was like a totally new project," she says.

Robyn is currently studying for A levels in drama, dance, film and statistics at the Sixth Form College. "My immediate aim is to pass my A levels and go to drama school in either Oxford or London," she says.

She's also got her eye on a part in EastEnders. "Dominic (the film's co-writer) has already been in it, so I'm just waiting."

Robyn will be taking part, with Justin Edgar, in a discussion following the Borderlines screening of Special People on April 10 at The Courtyard.

Meanwhile, Crafta Webb is a very different film made by the Rural Media Company, an ambitious collaborative community project inspired by the lost village' of Crafta Webb, which local folklore suggested was established by impoverished economic migrants high on Bredwardine Hill.

In Victorian times, the visits of famous diarist, Rev Francis Kilvert, provided the only real evidence that exists about the lives of the inhabitants.

Researching what was known about Crafta Webb, it became clear that much in 21st century Herefordshire resonated with the story of the marginalised residents of Crafta Webb, and a screenplay was devised and written that brought together the story of a modern Lithuanian immigrant to the county with that of the Crafta Webb community.

The young star of the film is, coincidentally, another Robyn, Robyn Collins, who had also never acted before. "When I heard that there was something happening in the village hall to do with drama, I went along, but I didn't realise it was something as big as making a film," she says.

Despite having to learn some Lithuanian and the accent for her part, Robyn, now a Year 8 student at Fairfield High School, was undaunted. "I found it easy to act as another person, and I think I'd really love to act when I'm older."

Crafta Webb can be seen at 6.15pm on Tuesday, April 1, at The Courtyard.

Special People will be screened on Saturday, April 5, at 4.30pm and on Thursday, April 10, at 3.20pm at The Courtyard.

For details visit www.boof the full Borderlines programme, click on the link below.

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