Colonial Gods
1 Feb - 1 Oct 2009
The Festivals Company coproduced a 30 minute short film entitled Colonial Gods that received its world premiere at the 2009 Iris Prize Festival in Cardiff.
Written and directed by US filmmaker Dee Rees (left) - the winner of the inaugural Iris Prize, the world’s largest gay and lesbian short film prize – the film was a coproduction between The Festivals Company and the LA based Nortstar Productions.
Starring Cornell John (The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Adulthood; right) and local actor Said Mohammad (below left), the film focuses on a complicated friendship between a Somali man and Nigerian man, which unfolds against the chaos of gentrification and displacement in a small immigrant community in Cardiff Bay.
The large film crew comprised of experienced technicians and artists from the UK and US (including cameraman Bradford Young and award winning production designers Amelia Shankland and Murielle Wilson as well as a number of students from Skillset Screen Academy Wales who were offered an invaluable experience of working on a professional film shoot, which took place in Cardiff and Newport for 7 days in April 2009. Post production took place in Cardiff (Barcud Derwen and Sounds in Motion) and New York (Deluxe), and the original score was by Shahzad Ismaily.
"Undertaking a US coproduction was a fantastic opportunity for the company to use our extensive film production experience" said Berwyn Rowlands, Managing Director, The Festivals Company, and founder of the Iris Prize. "This was the first short filmmade under the Iris banner and we are all very happy with the end result, which has been enthusiastically received in festivals around the world. We are now looking forward to the film’s UK DVD release 
later in the year through the UK distributor Peccadillo Pictures."
"As one of the Producers I oversaw the film from start to finish" added Grant Vidgen from The Festivals Company. "My job was to ensure that the film was delivered on time for its premiere in November 2009, which I’m glad to say it was, and the reception it received made all that hard work seem worthwhile."
The Festivals Company is now in pre-production for the second Iris Prize produced short film, which will be written and directed by the winner of the 2008 Iris Prize, German filmmaker Till Kleinert, and will be filmed in the UK in July 2010.
