THE CAMERA rolls on Chagford’s 13th Film Festival at the end of this month as the event described as ‘the best small film festival in the world’ returns with aplomb.

From September 26 to October 1 the Chagford Film Festival will be bringing a diverse line up of films to venues throughout the town with the week culminating in a colourful, creative and fun-filled street parade. A number of musical movies are set to charm audiences starting with the 2021 film of Anything Goes which opens the festival and features Sutton Foster’s Tony-winning performance, beautiful art deco staging and stunning production values throughout.

Later in the week, in conjunction with Cancer Research UK and in tribute to the late great Dame Olivia Newton-John, Sing-a-long-a Productions will bring you the classic, unforgettable teenage romance Grease with the opportunity to dress up and join in with all your favourite numbers!

The performance will start with a Sing-a-long-a host who will warm you all up, train you how to ‘hand-jive’; deploy the contents of your free goodie bag and heckle in all the right places, as well as judge the fancy dress competition. This evening promises to be the perfect opportunity to let your inner Sandy (or Danny) rip!

“Sing-a-long-a Grease is much more than ‘just a film’ it’s an event, an interactive experience and the most fun you can have with your clothes on.”

Boiling Point is guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat, depicting an upmarket restaurant where things begin to rapidly unravel behind the scenes. Former Michelin-starred chef Michael Caines MBE will introduce this film with a talk about the real-life dramas of the restaurant business.

Equally gripping and tense, The Rescue is a documentary drama describing the 2018 cave rescue in Thailand of a trapped football team and their coach. Devon Cave Rescue — who don’t usually have to pull off anything quite as hair-raising — will introduce the film with an interesting local perspective on the challenges of underground rescue.

Some great documentaries on offer include South — Shackleton’s attempt to cross the Antarctic in 1914, featuring original footage shot aboard his ship Endurance. Stunning images combine with a matter- of-fact approach to the great explorer facing death, perhaps typical of his times. Maiden brings another nautical pioneer to the big screen with Tracy Edward’s all-female crew attempting the Whitbread Round- the-World challenge — Edwards was a 24-year-old cook on board charter vessels when she decided to take on the exclusively male competition, but her courage makes her a worthy successor to Shackleton.

Children and parents alike should enjoy The Railway Children Return — and perhaps a less publicised but equally touching film Gunda, a live-action film about a sow with her litter. No dialogue, no humans: just a chance to watch the secret and fascinating life of these animals. And there’s also a returning favourite Wurlitza, a unique five-piece band who supply their own musical accompaniment to silent films — back by popular demand, this year in St. Andrews Church, Moretonhampstead.

The music theme continues throughout the week with Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 biopic Elvis — a captivating film that does full justice to its subject — and Summer of Soul bringing previously unseen footage of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. This celebration of Black music rivalled Woodstock for live talent including Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight and the Pips, BB King and many others.

And the festival reaches its grand finale in a lively street parade of performers through Chagford followed by Steven Spielberg’s 2021 adaptation of West Side Story at The Globe Inn Cinema. Everyone is welcome to join in the parade.

The Chagford Film Festival was born back in 2011 out of a love of cinema and a ‘can do’ attitude.

A few interested film buffs formed a committee with the aim of putting on a local festival in the town. The committee includes people experienced in aspects of cinema and, in staging events, and this has allowed it to expand the festival to its current size.

In the first year, producer Gareth Unwin, who won an Academy Award for The King’s Speech, introduced the film to great acclaim. Since then, the festival has built a reputation for the prestigious filmmakers and industry experts it attracts.

It was Gareth who described the film festival as ‘the best small film festival in the world’ and equally impressed was Chris Dickens, the Oscar-winning editor of the massive hit Slumdog Millionaire who was a special guest at the festival three years ago.

But even when the big names can’t make it, Chag- ford knows how to throw a party and when it showed the film Rocketman a few years ago, the committee made it a night to remember with an Elton John tribute band — the star himself was too busy to come despite being offered a night at the award-winning Gidleigh Park Hotel!

Committee member Dean Gardener who has been involved since the early days said: ‘We had 80% attendance at the festival prior to covid, last year after a two-year absence it was less than 50%. This year with financial assistance from West Devon Borough Council, we are promoting it wider.’

At the recent Chagford Show the Vintage Mobile Cinema as featured on George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces was promoting the film festival and showing short films of Chagford’s people and places.

The 1967 Bedford coach, affectionately known as ‘Audrey’ was built by the Ministry of Technology and used to show films promoting modern production techniques to industries throughout Britain.

Audrey has been fully restored and was showing ‘Pearl and Dean’ style advertisements for local busi- nesses from previous film festivals, together with his- torical footage of Chagford and the surrounding area.

‘We know lots of people go to Chagford Show so we wanted to get the word out there about our festival,’ said Dean, who was also running a music quiz at the event with a chance to win tickets to the festival. ‘We would love people from Okehampton, across West Devon and Exeter to come. We have a great line up of films and special guests. We may be small, but we punch above our weight.’

The film festival is also getting out and about this year and for the first time it’s ‘on location’ in Moretonhampstead with Wurlitza who play live contemporary music to silent films. ‘They are absolutely brilliant,’ added Dean.

There are also plans in hand to run a free minibus from Okehampton and surrounding areas throughout the festival to improve access for people who don’t drive.

‘We want people to come and see how wonderful Chagford is, not just for tourists but for everyone and we also want the festival to benefit all the local businesses as they all support us by advertising in our programme.’

All details are accurate at time of going to press. A full programme and tickets can be found on the web- site: www.chagfordfilmfestival.com