London premiere of local film hopes to sell island to others
The premiere of a Guernsey-made feature film will be used this evening to sell the island as a destination for movie-making.
Last Flamingo of the Red Summer Sunset is set in post-Civil-War America but was shot in Guernsey by local directors Matthew Stockreiter and Cameron Ashplant.
Mr Ashplant wrote and produced the film, in which he also stars, alongside fellow Guernsey-based actors Andrew T Hislop, Dean Hollingsworth and his brother Brandon Ashplant.
The 80-minute movie, from Across The Channel Productions, is being given the full red-carpet treatment at the Prince Charles Cinema, Leicester Square, and the cast and crew will attend interviews with movie media throughout the day.
They will also take part in a Q&A following the black-tie screening in the cinema’s 104-seat, upper-floor venue.
‘To premiere our film at such an iconic cinema is beyond exciting,’ Cameron Ashplant said.
‘Film makers in Guernsey are continuing to break the mould and confound expectations. I expect it won’t be long before something even bigger gets going on the island. But for the time being, with a Guernsey movie premiering in London’s West End – in Leicester Square – I’m ecstatic.’
The premiere event is being sponsored by VisitGuernsey and will feature a short film about the island and a speech from the States’ director of marketing and tourism.
Some of the UK’s biggest location scouts will attend, Mr Ashplant said, and could be ‘opened up to the idea that Guernsey could be their next film location’.
The film was shot at Les Cotils, St Saviour’s reservoir and on the west coast and depicts a young sergeant’s obsession with his father’s legacy and his response to the reported sighting of a First-Nation inhabitant of the area, who appears to have survived a programme of genocide.
Tickets are available at mallardcinema.co.uk for Last Flamingo of the Red Summer Sunset, which is being screened from Friday 9 to Thursday 15 February. An interview with Cameron Ashplant and some of the cast will feature on a forthcoming episode of the Guernsey Press Arts Podcast.
Accolades from festivals
Cameron Ashplant received an accolade for his acting work earlier this week, winning Best Actor at the Budapest Film Festival for his role as Jack in Bet Your Bottom Dollar.
The short film, which premiered at the Princess Royal Centre for the Performing Arts in September, was directed by his brother Brandon, and filmed primarily at the Grange Lodge Hotel.
The Golden Goat Films production – supported by Guernsey Arts – deals with the subject of online gambling.
Cameron had already collected a best actor award at the High Tatras Film and Video Festival – based in Slovakia – at which Brandon was named best short-film director.
