MyStreet has enabled some of the UK’s most exciting new directors to make their debuts and capture Britain in a radical filmmaking explosion.
By the way, you’re one of them. Put your hand in your pocket and chances are, you’ll find a film camera there. Technology has placed an extraordinary new filmmaking power into the hands of ordinary people: every smart phone is secretly also a movie rig and an editing suite, meaning everyone who owns one is secretly a guerrilla filmmaker. Which is exactly where MyStreet comes in – this thrilling new documentary filmmaking initiative is about to unleash an army of gonzo movie-makers on the UK.
The challenge is simple and vital: grab your iPhone or your digital camera and shoot a short film – anywhere from 90 seconds to 9 minutes – about your street. Or your corridor, your lift, your pub, your office or your doorstep. Once you’ve shot your short, simply register online, upload it, drop a pin in the map provided and your film will be available to view online by postcode, Google map and the street name. Think Google Earth flipped upside-down: an instant, intimate, living map of UK life shot from the ground up. From filming student tuition fee protests to wildlife on a country lane to observations on the bus to work, these punchy mini-movies will create a panoramic vision of modern Britain stitched together, street by street, out of the nation’s stories. No wonder Notting Hill director Roger Mitchell calls MyStreet “a modern urban Doomsday Book,” something that everyone can help create and explore. “MyStreet will be the X Factor of documentary making,” says Man On Wire’s Oscar-winning producer Simon Chinn. “Everyone should make a MyStreet film. It’s a brilliant and fresh way of looking at our world.” Submissions for MyStreet are open all year, the best films uploaded onto the site will compete at the OPEN CITY London Documentary Festival in June where, this year, the award-laden international jury included Chinn and directors Pawel Pawlikowski (My Summer of Love), Christi Puiu (The Death of Mr Lazarescu) and Penny Woolcock (The Principals of Lust).
It’s just 90 seconds. Shoot first and ask questions later!
