Fortune and Glory x Monstrous Flesh

We sat down with Fortune & Glory Film Club and Monstrous Flesh to discuss their exciting International Women’s Day screening celebrating women in horror, funded by Programme Together.

Can you tell us about tonight’s event?
For the second year running, Emma (Fortune & Glory Film Club) and Clelia (Monstrous Flesh) collaborated on a special International Women’s Day event celebrating ALL Women in Horror, and all horror-loving women! Bringing together the official themes of IWD23 #embraceequity and LGBTQ+ History Month #behindthelens, our two groups proudly presented an evening showcasing the talent and strength of the Horror fan community in Nottingham: a curated selection of international short films directed by women centring of the female experience, guest speakers, live music from local DJs, and local artists stands.

What made you apply for Programme Together?
Our two groups had previously collaborated on a similar project for International Women’s Day back in 2022, and  as well as having a great time working together, we received really encouraging feedback from the audience. So it just made sense to try again, and take things up a notch! We both recognise how incredibly powerful collaboration is, and we want to encourage people to do the same!

How did the training and bursary help reach your goal?
Cinema For All run brilliant training sessions and this one was particularly interactive! It was so interesting to meet lots of different community cinema groups, hear about their projects and ideas for collaboration, and being able to share best practice and swap tips on how best to engage with your audience. It was really helpful to use part of the session to go through the funding application all together, this is definitely something that should be done more often with other funding bodies, to give everyone an equal chance at getting their projects funded. For our project, we wanted to widen the scope of the event we ran last year, add more immersive elements and invite more contributors, and we couldn’t have made it happen without this funding.

As well as helping us meet costs such as venue hire, equipment, film license and subtitling for the films, getting the funding gave us the opportunity to work with a local graphic designer to do a poster for the event, as well as designing and printing some programmes for ticket buyers on the night. We would not have been able to run this event with all these different elements if we hadn’t been awarded this funding.

Why do you think collaborative programming is important?
Collaboration is the key to success for community ventures! Each group has so much knowledge and expertise to share, and it’s genuinely a joy to work with people who are passionate about the same thing. We are all trying to make a positive impact on our community, so collaborating with groups whose vision align to yours is almost guaranteed to be a successful experience! Also from an audience point of view, whilst the two collaborating groups may have their own existing and established audience, it’s a good idea to find some crossover, so that you can bring two seemingly different audiences under the same roof – it’s very satisfying!

Has this event and programme inspired you to do more collaborative events like this?
It’s a massive yes from us! Not only that but I believe this event actually inspired others present that evening to collaborate with other groups.

What advice would you give to a community cinema putting on a collaborative event like this?
1- By the community, for the community: Your project should aim to showcase how collaboration makes community groups stronger and bring audiences together.
2- Share your experience and findings with other community groups.
3- Inclusivity and Diversity: Work with groups who pride themselves on organising events that promote inclusivity, diversity and kindness among the community
4- Diversity on screen: Screen films that need to reach a wider audience, and invite the audience to participate in the conversation around diversity on and off screen.