Emotional finale for big-screen hero

9:50am Thursday 17th April 2008

The bad news for moviegoers in Bradford is that Bill Lawrence has now left the National Media Museum where he was head of cinema.

There was laughter and tears during a poignant farewell in Pictureville cinema last Friday.

As the rain poured down outside, Tony Earnshaw, head of film programming, paid a moving tribute to the man who created the cinema department in Bradford and to whom the world of movies means so much.

He described the first occasion at the Bradford International Film Festival when a rare copy of How The West Was Won was shown during the Widescreen Weekend.

"At the end of it Bill burst into tears. I have been there. After the screening of The Wild Bunch - a roller coaster ride - there were tears from me too," he said.

The Western, and movies in general, have that uncanny ability to take you to a special place emotionally," he added.

Among the tributes to Bill Lawrence was a specially-conceived video with soundtrack which was shown on Pictureville's big screen.

Bill said: "When I came here I didn't have a desk. Now I no longer have a desk, so things have come round elliptically. Thank you for making it so difficult for me to leave," he said.

But while his departure to Sheffield's Show Room cinema clouds the future of movie-going in Bradford, there is a silver-lining.

The good news for movie-makers is that Screen Yorkshire, of which Mr Lawrence remains a board member, is to get a slice of £18m from the UK Film Council over the next two years.

The money, a combination of National Lottery and other funding, will be shared by the nine regional screen agencies, which means that Screen Yorkshire can expect up to £2m.

Screen Yorkshire has been involved in a number of successful projects in recent years.

Warp Films's This Is England, which took this year's BAFTA award for Best British Film, was supported by Screen Yorkshire's Production Fund. The big screen adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, due out in cinemas this autumn, also benefited from the fund.

The short film Private Life, which received National Lottery funding through one of Screen Yorkshire's film-making schemes for emerging talent, has been shown at film festivals world-wide, picking up 14 awards.

Yorkshire, of course, is also home to significant film festivals, three of which - the Bradford International Film Festival, Bite The Mango and the Bradford Animation Festival - were created and developed by Bill.

He said: "One of the consequences of starting Screen Yorkshire, at the back end of 2002, was that we were able to have an agency in the region to negotiate with Yorkshire Forward. That resulted in a lot of films being shot on location in Bradford.

"At the moment, Kudos is filming another series of Spooks for BBC Television - Spooks Liberty, I think it's called - in the old police headquarters in the Tyrls and the old fire station in Nelson Street. They've been there for two or three months."

Sarah Senior, head of Bradford-based Shoot Productions, currently involved in producing a short film This Way Up, said Screen Yorkshire had proved its worth in many ways.

"If anyone wants to film in Yorkshire or is thinking of filming, Screen Yorkshire has lots of experience and information on where to go and how to do that.

"The organisation promotes talent in the region and is particularly good at training up staff. If anyone comes to me and says I want to get involved in the industry' I send them to Screen Yorkshire or tell them to look at its website.

"In the past, the industry has always been London-centric. Screen Yorkshire provides a one-stop shop, a point of accessibility, for those in film, TV and digital media."

Bill takes up his new post on May 1. Apart from the three film festivals he has created, another of his legacies could be the first ever City of Film designation by UNESCO.

He said: "This isn't a competition. Bradford has a remarkable heritage of movie-making. City of Film would help to focus the city more on film projects, to drive the film agenda and capitalise on the things that surround movie-making.

"We went out to UNESCO in Paris in March to talk about the bid. The formal bid, which is supported by other agencies such as Screen Yorkshire, will be made by Bradford Council in the next three to four weeks."

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