Midlands Spotlight on filmmaker Ben Crawford
midlandsmovies • August 12, 2020
Midlands Spotlight – Filmmaker Ben Crawford
Even in lockdown the filmmakers from the Midlands have been hard at work in front of and behind the camera to tell their stories despite the difficulties in production right now.
And none more so than up and coming local filmmaker Ben Crawford who has finished not just one but three films in the past couple of months.
Based in Birmingham, Ben is a part-time postgraduate student at the University of Birmingham.
The three films he’s undertaken during the pandemic are all shorts with two of them being documentaries and both of those take a look at the workings of two foodbanks/meal kitchens.
Ben has captured how difficult life has been during Covid-19 through interviews and footage of the daily processes at these organisations.
First up is 'Selly Oak's Community Response', which Ben prefaces with how a group of University of Birmingham students and local community members felt compelled to act. They set up a grassroots foodbank in one of their houses to distribute donations from students moving away.
Since then the operation has grown rapidly, moving to larger premises, coordinating a complex network of volunteers - all to be able to send parcels to hundreds of people in need.
For more information, how to get involved, donate or receive a parcel: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sellycommunityresponse
The second film is 'Cooperation Birmingham: Solidarity Kitchen' where The Warehouse Cafe, a workers cooperative, had to close but instead they set up the Solidarity Kitchen, a meal donation service helped by over 300 volunteers.
Cooperation Birmingham: https://cooperationbirmingham.org.uk
As well as capturing real life stories Ben has also turned his hand to fiction and his experimental short 'Within, without' follows the travails of someone confined and unable to live how they would like to.
Find out more about Ben’s work at his official website here: https://benjamin-crawford.com
Liam Banks follows up the excellent Run For Your Life! with a short, sharp horror experience that takes influence from the glut of uncanny, ‘imposter’ horror content across YouTube and gaming currently.
Two conspiracy theory barn pots kidnap a powerful CEO and chain her in their basement. Their goal? To expose her for being an Alien who wants to take over and destroy the world.
In one of the most unique venues I’ve ever seen a film in – the cave under The Whistle and Flute in Nottingham – thirty people came together to see a Halloween screening of one of the most controversial television plays ever screened.
Every season the nominations and eventual winners of the Midlands Movies Awards are chosen by an experienced jury made up of a wide-range of industry experts. Find out more about the 2026 panel...