Leeds West Indian Carnival film captures movie pioneer's prize

old and new footage of Leeds West Indian Carnival will feature in the film that has won the inaugural Louis Le Prince prize.
By The Newsroom
Published 10th Feb 2018, 09:33 BST
Updated 10th Feb 2018, 09:35 BST
IMAGE: A still from Rhea Storrs proposed film, A Protest, A Celebration which won the Le Prince Prize.IMAGE: A still from Rhea Storrs proposed film, A Protest, A Celebration which won the Le Prince Prize.
IMAGE: A still from Rhea Storrs proposed film, A Protest, A Celebration which won the Le Prince Prize.

Rhea Storr’s ‘A Protest, A Celebration’ will be shown at the Leeds International Film Festival later this year.

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The prize was open to all UK-based filmmakers and was launched at the last November’s festival, during a day of events at Leeds Beckett to celebrate film pioneer Le Prince who created the world’s first moving picture sequences in Leeds in 1888. A plaque was also unveiled at his old workshop, which is on the site of the university.

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Rhea, 27, was the unanimous winner of the prize which was announced by the Northern Film School at Leeds Beckett University who will commission her experimental work.

She said: “The film will look at archive material of Leeds West Indian Carnival alongside contemporary footage, considering carnival as both a protest and a celebration.

“I believe black culture is inadequately historicised.”

She added: “The work will consider the affirmation of culture through analysing body, gesture, collective and individual. My wider practice seeks an adequate language to speak about black identity.”

The prize includes the equivalent of £1,000 in production and processing costs, access to equipment and expert mentoring.

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Annabelle Pangborn, director of the Northern Film School and one of the judges, said: “We were delighted with the response we had to the Louis Le Prince prize. Applications for the prize were many and diverse, and presented a tough choice for the five members of the selection panel.

“Rhea submitted a powerful and exciting proposal that represents her unique identity as an artist while also embracing the challenge of innovation and the materiality of analogue film. The decision to award Rhea the inaugural Louis Le Prince Experimental Film Prize was unanimous.”