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National Media Museum to concentrate on other cinema events

8:10am Saturday 24th July 2010 in News By Jim Greenhalf

Irfan Ajeeb with actor Om Puri at the 2004 Bite the Mango Festival Irfan Ajeeb with actor Om Puri at the 2004 Bite the Mango Festival

Bite the Mango has bitten the dust at the National Media Museum.

The world cinema strand has been abandoned following diminishing audience figures and reduced funding available to Screen Yorkshire.

No redundancies are involved and international films will continue to be shown at the museum.

Kathryn Blacker, head of public programming, said: “We looked to see if there was a different way of doing something to support something we believed in for 15 years, but that didn’t come through.

“As there was less of a pot of money we could dig into from Screen Yorkshire, it seemed better to concentrate resources on the Bradford International Film Festival and the Bradford Animation Film Festival.

“We will continue to show world cinema films. We have a big season of Japanese films coming up in August and September; but the Bite the Mango brand won’t be there.

“And we will continue to work with Kala Sangam to put on community events, but perhaps not in this building.”

Five years ago 3,200 admissions were recorded for the Bite the Mango film festival. Last year that figure was 407.

Last summer, after the award of the Unesco City of Film status, Bite the Mango was revamped. The festival was reduced to a weekend, with special films screened every month. The Indian dance group Kala Sangam was involved in several projects.

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But in the ten months from August to May this year admissions amounted to 1,349 – not enough, it was thought, to warrant the NMM bidding for Screen Yorkshire funds.

On average, Screen Yorkshire contributed between £8,000 to £9,000 a year towards the cost of Bite the Mango.

Admissions for International Film Festival and the Animation Film Festival last year – 11,000 and between 7,000 to 8,000 respectively – are up.

Overall, the last year has seen up to 81,000 admissions to cinema events at the museum, “a modest increase” according to Kathryn Blacker.

Irfan Ajeeb, former Bite the Mango festival director, said: “I just did not see it going out like this. It had so much more potential. I’m just sad to see these years of building coming to an abrupt end.”

Comments(14)

Joedavid says...
9:15am Sat 24 Jul 10

Bradford International Film Festival was reduced in time this year, in past included 3 weekends this year only 2 weekends.
Pictureville Cinema once was equipt to show allmost any type of film but can't show Digital 3D films.
Yes the IMAX does the IMAX 3D but not all 3D films done in IMAX.
It is a real shame the Media Museum appears to be suffering a lot through lack of money.

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steveinbradford says...
9:36am Sat 24 Jul 10

There is generally less money available to the arts as lots of funding has dried up. Lottery funding is primarily focussed on the Olympics, and let's face it, ther's not much else to bring anyone to Bradford at the moment. 407 attended last years Bite the mango..... Bet 50% were from associated groups, so actual public footfall would have been around the 200 mark. Do we really need this in Bradford? could we do more to engage public interest in out own CITY rather than some amateurish films that obviously no one wants to see? I think Bite the Mango also gives the wrong image - maybe just aimed at the asian majority perhaps?

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PotCallingKettle says...
1:12pm Sat 24 Jul 10

Bradford - the world’s first official UNESCO City of Film.......LOL :-)

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Footy_Freak says...
3:22pm Sat 24 Jul 10

Bradford City of Film?? Give me a break. The National Media museum is run by middle class people who have no allegiance to Bradford whatsoever. Bite the Mango was culturally very important for this troubled city but they think animation is more relevant. This city is going down the drain. I live in Bradford and never heard any marketing or publicity for the festival. So how can they expect attendances? I visited the festival in 2003 and bought a festival pass. It was vibrant, busy and the programme was 'culturally educational'. I got to see a Bollywood actor close up and attended workshops and screentalks. The audience was a mixture of all different cultures. The media museum is distancing itself from the real people of Bradford and is seen as a place where nothing is done for the inner city communities. I find this move very dissapointing. Wake up Bradford. This is not the way to move forward!!

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DR Hew G Rection says...
8:38pm Sat 24 Jul 10

because it dosent appeal to everybody thats why!
maybe bite the mango could re-locate to the malboro on lumb lane.

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PotCallingKettle says...
10:22pm Sat 24 Jul 10

DR Hew G Rection said "because it dosent appeal to everybody thats why!
maybe bite the mango could re-locate to the malboro on lumb lane".

Pour some water over this erection please someone, we don't need his nazi jizz......ooooops too late! LOL

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albion says...
6:47am Sun 25 Jul 10

PotCallingKettle wrote:
DR Hew G Rection said "because it dosent appeal to everybody thats why!
maybe bite the mango could re-locate to the malboro on lumb lane".

Pour some water over this erection please someone, we don't need his nazi jizz......ooooops too late! LOL
The Marlboro is on Carlisle Road.

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mad matt says...
10:53am Sun 25 Jul 10

DR Hew G Rection wrote:
because it dosent appeal to everybody thats why! maybe bite the mango could re-locate to the malboro on lumb lane.
The Marlborough was also converted to a 'party venue' (not very succesful) and then had a mysterious fire and hasn't re-opened since

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bcfc1903 says...
11:07am Sun 25 Jul 10

The Media Museum in Bradford is a superb facility which i've used on many occasions.Our last visit was for a screening of Avatar in 3D which was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.As for the bite the mango film festival,it's like anything else if it's not supported it'll disappeare,by the sound of it,it had very little appeal and deserved to bite the dust.

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PotCallingKettle says...
11:59am Sun 25 Jul 10

fyi bcfc.....and that's exactly what's happened to the majority of pubs in Bradford :-(

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Footy_Freak says...
4:00pm Sun 25 Jul 10

It bit the dust because the media museum bosses wanted it to. They are not interested in anything aimed at the ethnic minorities. It is a racist organisation run by numpties.

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albion says...
4:32pm Sun 25 Jul 10

Footy_Freak wrote:
It bit the dust because the media museum bosses wanted it to. They are not interested in anything aimed at the ethnic minorities. It is a racist organisation run by numpties.
Hmm, It does have some good features then.

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PotCallingKettle says...
11:07pm Mon 26 Jul 10

Albion - so u will b at the EDL march in August - Is the Pope Catholic?
O.M.G.

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Footy_Freak says...
11:17am Tue 27 Jul 10

Boycott media museum!!

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