How do you decide which films should take centre stage when you are organising a film festival?

Marq English, of filmmakers MEV Productions, is the man charged with making the choice of what should be shown at the third Sutton Film Festival, which takes place at the UCI cinema in St Nicholas Centre on Sunday.

Marq said: "I had about 25 entries this year and I try not to have too many films with the same theme.
I have to admit that I do like comedies.

"One of my favourite from this year's festival is True Stories, which debunks lots of conspiracy theories such as the death of Marilyn Monroe and the moon landings."

This year's festival has a sci-fi and horror theme and among the films on offer are a special screening of Reeltime Pictures' independent spin-off production Daemos Rising.

There is also the premiere of MEV Produtions' latest short film, Reversing The Polarity: Memoirs Of Time And Space an affectionate dig at Dr Who and its fandom.

Filmgoers will also get the first look at new martial arts/sc-fi movie FIST, which stars Neil and Adrian Raymond from Matrix Reloaded and the award winning shorts Holly-Bolly and Snot.

Sutton is not the first place that comes to mind when one thinks of the film industry. For a start, it is not suffixed by the word wood', a seemingly vital criterion in such matters.
And for another, most borough residents would be very hard pressed to name a single film made by one of their number.
All that could be about to change this Sunday with the first in what its organiser hopes will be a long and successful annual series of short film festivals in the borough.
According to Carshalton actor, scriptwriter and director Marq English, who runs production company MEV Films, there is a hidden army of Sutton film makers struggling to get their feet on the ladder of this most difficult of industries.
He said: "I hadn't realised how many film makers there were in the borough, who have come out of the woodwork and told me they would love to make the festival but were busy."
Of the 12 films on display at the Charles Cryer Theatre on Sunday, a handful have been made by Marq's friends in the industry, while others have responded to his call to arms on the internet.
"The rest are from all over the country. Hopefully, it will give people the chance to do some networking on the night," he said.
This, the Endale Close resident insisted, was vital in an industry where public funding was next to non-existent, most practitioners had to hold down full-time jobs to stay afloat and reputations, once made, were unmade just as quickly.
"The Government isn't really piling the money into the arts."

Stepping stones.

Marq, who works full-time as a training consultant for the call centre industry, said: "I know a lot of actors who are quite established and who have a good body of work, but who work full-time. About two per cent make a living out of it."
In such a climate, the short fulfils the role of reputation-maker, rather than as a goal in itself.
"You don't make short films to make short films, you do it as a stepping stone into making feature films. Most people make a couple of shorts and then they take the next step.
"The big drawback is funding. Your crew is going to be larger for a feature and you're going to have to shoot it on 35mm film, which is expensive."
But he emphasised the challenges of making short films.
"Trying to tell a story in 10 or 20 minutes is a very hard thing to do. Having a good script is vital. But script writing is probably the hardest thing of all. Sometimes I go through six or seven drafts and it still changes when we are actually shooting."
Apart from MEV's own contribution to the festival the 2001 film Dawnrazor his pick of the bunch is a mockumentary called Walking With Walken, which took all of £300 to make and stars Croydon actor Adam Shaw.
The Skyman Films production tells the tale of a failed entertainer whose impression of Hollywood's most expert bad guy Christopher Walken gradually takes over his life.
The film triumphed at the 2001 Manhattan Short Film Festival and according to Marq: "It's the best impression of Christopher Walken you're ever likely to hear."
Director Simon Welsford is planning to make it into a feature and apparently the star of True Romance has expressed an interest in taking part. Marq said: "I understand he liked it."
Dawnrazor cost a comparatively princely £2,000 six month's worth of Marq's savings though the professional actors and crew involved were paid no more than expenses.

Dark thriller

He characterises his first proper film as a Buffy the Vampire Slayer style battle between good and evil.
He added: "I've had this idea for 10 years. It's a dark thriller with its tongue in its cheek."
He started the script last July and finished editing it in May.
According to Marq: "I'm just planning my next one at the moment. It's going to be an improvisation piece, a mock documentary about the life of an actor. It's going to be played dead straight and the humour's going to come from that. It's about a person who's totally into the arts and doesn't see anything around him."
The 36-year-old former pupil of Carshalton High School for boys is primarily an actor who has just moved into directing and making films.
One of Dawnrazor's stars, south London actor Matt Wolf, directs another of the festival's offerings The Cavendish Profile, which has a special appearance by screen actor Julian Glover.
The others are Mindfield, Avenging Angel, Once Upon A Time, Plastic, Shroves, One Cup of Coffee, Real Time, Burnt Bernard, Carpet and Symposium.
Marq has high ambitions for the festival. He said: "What I would love is to move it to the Secombe and have different rooms where people can go and see shorts. I'd like it to grow a bit and eventually turn it into a competition."
The Sutton Film Festival 2002 starts at 7.30pm at the Carshalton High Street studio theatre, with tickets available on 020 8770 4950.

Thursday 8th August 2002