BAFTA film and a music festival about ‘borders’

The 2018 BAFTA winning British Short Animation film ‘Poles Apart’ will be screened locally as part of this year’s BrightMed and Gibraltar World Music Festival.

The film will feature as one of a number of events throughout the three day festival.

Local singer songwriter and musician Hollie Buhagiar formed part of the winning film team at the BAFTAs earlier this year.

This year the festival will include not just the film festival but an art exhibition, musical workshops, talks for local students, and the annual BrightMed International seminar.

‘Borders’ is the theme for this year’s BrightMed and the Gibraltar World Music Festival which is now in its seventh edition.

The organisers described it as a “controversial but exciting theme” at a press conference yesterday at the Rock Hotel.

Once again the festival will see a variety of musicians, singers and artists from around the globe in Gibraltar for the three day event this year held June 19 to 21.

Organisers felt that the theme would be “appropriate this year, in light of the uncertainties raised in respect of our future due to Brexit” and were keen to emphasise that the festival would explore political borders “physical and mental and future borders which may rise or fall due to new technologies”. BrightMed, they added would remain dedicated to actions for peace and ‘bridging souls and lands’.

GWMF will launch BrightMed Jazz, with the participation of major artists from UK, Jazz FM and the jazz press from London.

Musical workshops and concerts by local and international artists will be available throughout the week on Castle Street and St. Michael’s Cave.

Bands will include: Quarter to Africa and Orphy Robinson and the Voicestra Polyphonic Collective, comprising over 25 musicians.

“At the core of these concerts will be the influence of Black Music in the UK for the last 40 years,” said the organisers.

Quarter to Africa are described “as an uplifting Ethno-funk ensemble, fusing traditional Arabic ‘Makam’ scales with African rhythms, jazz and funk.

The result is a unique mixture of East meet West, and a musical performance that is all about the groove and the move’,” said the organisers.

The multi-instrumentalist Orphy Robinson has also created, especially for Gibraltar, a unique one and a half hour production called ‘Orphy Robinson and the Voicestra Polyphonic Collective’.

The BrightMed Art Exhibition in May will be in conjunction with the Kitchen Studios Association, a collective of local artists collaborating in projects and developing innovative self-expression, which will be hosted at Space 92 in which artists will give their own vision on the theme of “borders”.

Also this year’s BrightMed Talks will be held at Ince’s Hall and feature inspirational speakers from all around the world who will share their experiences and efforts to break through their own borders which have led them to success.

The festival will have its own app, which will also be launched in May.