Hackney Film Festival

This weekend see the opening of the second Hackney Film Festival, a not-for profit project that will showcase the work of local audio-visual artists and filmmakers and celebrate the talent of the borough.

Steven McInerney, Hackney Film Festival director and founder, says, ‘We’d done some screenings in the past with just friends, and it was quite rewarding – we thought we’d do a festival and make it more local.’

The festival is situated at various locations around Hackney, with the striking artwork created for each event designed by a number of different illustrators.

The poster for the opening night this Thursday is designed by Patrick Savile, co-founder of electronic music night The Gravy, which is co-running the event.

Savile’s background is in screenprinting, and the works he produces capitalise on the mistakes and blurs the medium often conjures on the page, ‘If I make mistakes, I work into them’, he says.

Savile tells Design Week that one of his major influences is film title sequences – where text is more ragged, losing definition and focus as the film peters away – favourites being those from 1950s Westerns, or 1960s Jean-Luc Godard film A Bout de Souffle.

The posters are – as always in his work – created in black and white, and use bespoke typography and the image of a piece of negative. The monochrome and fuzzy type ties the poster in nicely with the other images for each of the Festival’s event, with Friday’s ‘erimental performance event’ poster created by Andrea Kearney.

McInerney adds, ‘We asked people to keep the poster in the remit of the mood behind the festival. A lot of the films are quite dark, and the posters reflect that tone. The black and white is what we’ve been running with since we started.’

We particularly love the artwork for Sunday’s festival closing event on Dalston Roof park, with its abstract shapes and swirls in monochrome spectrum. The design has been created by illustrator Celyn Brazier .

Hackney Film Festival runs from 15 – 18 September at various locations in the borough. For more information visit http://hackneyfilmfestival.com/