BFI Film Academy Labs are online events for 16-25 year olds to gain industry insight and get professional advice and support to develop their own film programming and filmmaking practices. Programmed by the Young Film Programmers’ Network (South East) they are delivered as practical masterclasses, workshops and networking sessions.
About the session
This month we’re delighted to be joined by Yi Wang and Carmen Thompson to discuss their respective journeys into the film exhibition industry and share some of the practicalities involved in setting up your own company, finding your own team and building partnerships with venues.
Yi Wang is the director and programmer of Queer East, a festival aiming to showcase LGBTQ+ cinema both from and about East and Southeast Asia and amplify the voices of Asian communities in the UK. Outside his role at Queer East, Yi Wang works as a creative producer at The Culture Laboratory, an independent studio for performing arts and cultural events management. In this session Yi will talk about his career and experiences working in the industry to date, and how he created his self-made career in exhibition by setting up Queer East Film Festival and developing partnerships with independent cinemas.
Carmen Thompson is a freelance film curator, researcher and creative producer based in Scotland. She currently works as a producer for international sales & distribution company Aya Films and curator for film exhibitors We Are Parable, and was co-director of the 2020 edition of Africa in Motion (AiM) Film Festival. She is also carrying out PhD research at the University of Edinburgh, with a focus on the work and practice of women documentary filmmakers in Kenya. Carmen is on the board of Document Human Rights Film Festival and is a programming consultant for CAMPLE LINE. www.carmenthompson.co.uk
This session will be live-captioned, we will provide instructions on how to access the captions at the beginning of the event.
If you have any questions about the event please get in touch at info@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk.