PRESS RELEASE                Kurdish Creative Film Centre

 

Zamahwand 2006

Kurdish Creative Film Centre present Zamahwand 2006, a two-day Kurdish Arts and Short Film Festival held at the Red Cinema in Salford Quays on the 30th September and 1st October. The festival will showcase and celebrate Kurdish artistic endeavours, including traditional Kurdish dance, music, drama and food, with a strong emphasis on film, including practical workshops, seminars and discussions.

 

Zamahwand 2006 is a valuable tool for the Kurdish Creative Film Centre as it raises local awareness of the Kurdish community and the profile of other ethnic minority groups. 17,000 Kurdish people currently live in the North West and have few artistic outlets.  The festival is an opportunity to bridge this gap by showcasing images of our cultural identity and art forms relating to the Kurdish experience within the host community. Many of the participants in the festival belong to Manchester’s refugee and asylum seeker communities, groups whose creative talent may never have been showcased in a mainstream event.

 

Kurdish Creative Film Centre’s commitment to training and instruction in all areas of filmmaking has enabled novice filmmakers to learn new skills and produce highly creative work. A number of the films to be screened have been produced at Kurdish Creative Film Centre, and will be shown alongside original contributions from Kurdistan. At the end of the festival, ten short films will be chosen by a panel of judges to be taken on tour around the UK. An international tour may then be forthcoming.

 

A concert of song and music has been arranged to open and close the festival featuring musicians from all over the UK, as well as local Mancunian musical talent. Shano, a Kurdish dance group of sixteen young male and female dancers will be travelling from London to take part in the opening of the festival.

An exhibition of visual art, featuring Kurdish artists will be open throughout the festival.  The UK tour will also feature some of the music and dance presented at Zamahwand 2006.

 

In partnership with The Kurdish Creative Film Centre and Northwest Vision, BAFTA will be hosting a screening of Bahman Ghobadi’s Turtles Can Fly, followed by a Q&A with the director, chaired by Alan Amin, Artistic Director of the Kurdish Creative Film Centre, on Saturday 30th September. The 7.30pm screening will follow a drinks reception at the venue and will be attended by a mixture of industry figures, BAFTA members, local audiences and key individuals from the local community.

 

Zamahwand 2006 is funded by Arts Council England, Diversity Exchange Network and "North West Vision is the Film, TV and digital media development agency for England’s Northwest. It works behind the scenes, supporting, funding and promoting film, TV and digital production in the Northwest, an exciting and dynamically creative region. "

 

Saturday 30th September2006, 1.00pm-10.00pm /Sunday 1st October 2006, 12.00pm-10.00pm

 

£10.00 Adult / £7.50 Con, per all day/ Turtles Can Fly £5.00

Red Cinema Salford Quays, The Lowry Designer Outlet, The Quays, Salford Quays, Salford, M50 3AG

(0871) 224 0240
Box Office 0161 234 2781, 07916288095, 07886296863, 07815008038.

 

For more information contact Kurdish Creative Film Centre: 0161 234 2781

Or Alan Amin KCFC Artistic Director and Festival Coordinator: 07916288095

kcfcfilm@yahoo.co.uk                               www. kurdishcreativefilm.com