I love the ethos behind the initiative and applaud the intention to find new and different audiences for films that are often overlooked by the mainstream.
It is also refreshing to see such a tightly focused mission behind a new start-up platform, with ambitious plans to build communities both on and off line, and the innovative commitment from NGO partners to grow audiences.
Amanda Nevill - Director, British Film Institute
For those of us who make films to ignite debate and gather like-minded souls to share their passions, Brightwide is the home we've be waiting for.
We're all experiencing movies in new ways now. We want to know more, we want to elevate ourselves beyond passivity, we yearn to hook up with other artists and seekers and get excited together, turn each other on to stuff we haven't checked out yet, use our sense of community to get involved in movements and causes.
We need direction and a community hub for our gathering - at last Brightwide has opened the door.
Jamie Catto – Director, 'What About Me?'
I’ve never been a fan of political "messages". I don’t like to be lectured and one-sided arguments lead nowhere.
Brightwide is the place where we respond – where watching a film no longer has to be a passive experience. The passion, the distaste or the indignation go on long after the credits have rolled.
Where the activists have trouble rousing passion in the rest of us, they can now use the immense potential of film. The poster and the slogan are replaced by the power of storytelling. This is film as incitement to action. Where the film leaves off, we are invited to continue the story ourselves. It’s where we are introduced to some of today’s most compelling voices and invited into the conversation.
Colin Firth – Actor and Brightwide Founder
Because.
Because it’s time politics is taken outside of parliament, outside of debate halls and government buildings and brought into our lives.
Because when our news sources lack seriousness, we turn to more intuitive mediums.
Because, as Milan Kundera said, the struggle of people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.
I love the ethos behind the initiative and applaud the intention to find new and different audiences for films that are often overlooked by the mainstream.
