Some years ago, I started to organise film events in my community in Trowbridge, Wiltshire as a part of International Women’s Day celebrations, Black History Month, and more. This was made possible with the support of local organisations; from my  experience volunteering at FilmBath, and with prior knowledge following my previous experience working for a distribution company in Venezuela. 

I was delivering well-attended film events from time to time and connecting minority groups in my community using films, but I needed to connect with people who had the same interests and who were facing similar challenges. Then the opportunity arose to take part in Beyond Boundaries.  

Beyond Boundaries was an eye-opening experience, an invaluable networking opportunity with both fellow participants and highly qualified specialists who delivered varied workshops; sharing their professional experiences in the complex distribution and exhibition sector.  

The first sessions were conducted at Watershed. We watched thought-provoking films, we had conversations about them, we participated in workshops on film curation, budgeting, marketing, fundraising, and we started to think about how to adapt all these new ideas to our own practice and – best of all – how we could do this together!  

The formal workshops continued into the pandemic in 2020; now adapted to an online, virtual life and made the days in lockdown more manageable. Every week, one of us proposed a film to watch and then we met regularly to discuss ideas around it. We explored, reflected, and faced our own boundaries, our own personal barriers that were limiting our road to creativity.   

One of the best parts of Beyond Boundaries for me was organising our own film events. During the first lockdown, seven of us had the chance to organise and deliver a season of online film events in partnership with Watershed, under the banner of ‘Films from the Front Room’. This was part of the national BFI season ‘Film Feels Connected’.  

The Silence of Others is a documentary that connects memories and human rights. It  offers a cautionary tale about fascism’s long shadows, and the dangers of forgetting the past – raising profound questions about how societies grapple with legacies of state violence and what to do with perpetrators of crimes against humanity in their midst. 

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In my case, I proposed, curated and delivered a film screening of the documentary ‘The Silence of Others’, followed by a live Q&A with director Almudena Carracedo, from Spain.   

I highly recommend Beyond Boundaries to someone passionate about film exhibition who is looking to gain more confidence in their professional path, who needs to connect and learn, but who is also willing to share their vision and open their mind to new ideas in a safe and supportive environment.      

Lorena Pino lectured in Film and Television and worked at a film distribution company in Venezuela before moving to the UK. Lorena began volunteering in the South West at Bath Film Festival in 2011, which led to her running F-Rated film screenings from around the world to Trowbridge’s diaspora. Since this Lorena worked with Cinema Rediscovered and Watershed in Bristol. Currently, Lorena is leading Trowbridge Town Hall into its latest chapter as a cinema venue with a regular programme, developing on her past screenings to open cinema in the venue to a wider audience from the town and beyond.

Read more on Lorena’s work at Trowbridge here

Interested taking part in Beyond Boundaries 360 to access funding and workshops to curate cinema in the South West? Apply before Wednesday 29th September