Darwen film festival could become an annual event (From Blackburn Citizen)

Darwen film festival could become an annual event

8:00pm Monday 4th March 2013 in Darwen By Dan Clough, Reporter

ORGANISERS of a film festival have said it was such as huge success, they want to turn it into an annual event.

More than 800 people attended the People and Planet Film Festival at Darwen Library Theatre.

Climate change officer for Blackburn with Darwen Sarah Urmson, who ran the two-week event last month, said: “We had a good attendance for all the films. The highlight was working with the schools and making ‘Darren’s Day Out’, a short film we showed before every screening.

“The link with schools worked really well and we will look to expand that next year.” Miss Urmson said the festival, which was environmentally-themed and sponsored by the Community Rail Partnership, attracted visitors from all over the county.

She said: “We had people from Clitheroe, Accrington and Bolton, among other places. And we had one woman from Chorley who was distantly related to an Arctic explorer so she came to all the films about that topic.

“A lot of those from out of town didn’t previously know about the Library Theatre and they all thought it was an excellent facility.”

Miss Urmson said despite getting a good response, it had been a learning curve.

She said: “I have lots of plans for next year and we are looking to expand the group of volunteers helping out. It was quite an ambitious programme but it paid off. Having done it now, we know how to do it for next year and make it even better.

“We are already putting things in place for next year and I have bid for funding from Defra as we want to link it in with the flooding issues in Darwen last year.”