What is the heart of the Abertoir festival? What drives you to put in so much hard work? GB: Thanks! Yes, it’s all done out of passion for the genre, and for the fans who come and spend their time with us. We’ve never forgotten we exist to put on an event for folk that’s affordable and fun, and the fact that we’re still here seven years later is a testimony to that. Obviously we have to thank The Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth University and the Film Agency for Wales for giving us the venue and support to continue as we are doing, but just to hear that people take time off work to come and attend means quite a lot to us. At the end of the day, we’re just a bunch of horror fans putting on an event for other horror fans and looking forward to having a good time….. NEB: We’re so lucky that so many organisations and individuals put their trust in us to put on a festival the way we do, and we’re forever grateful for that trust. Likewise, it’s so humbling that people keep coming back, from near and some quite far, and happily buy a ticket before they even know what we’ve programmed. Ultimately, I just want to spend a week with friends watching horror films, so my drive very much comes from wanting to make sure that the films on offer are the best and most interesting. GS: For the last six years, Abertoir has showcased a huge number of major releases, indie films and cinematic classics. What were the most difficult films to secure, which events have garnered the
biggest audience reaction, and what have you personally been the happiest to see up on your big screen? GB: Every year there’s always one or two films that have a special meaning to us. Either it’s something we’ve discovered ourselves that no-one else has spotted, or it’s a film that we love so much we just want to share it with you. It’s the new titles that are the biggest ones to secure and we frequently have problems trying to get them. In fact they’re usually the reason we don’t announce our schedule too early as we hang on as long as possible!
Geek Syndicate
ment was being able to screen Dead Hooker in a Trunk in 2010. I’d been the first person to screen the film previously in the year, so it was really satisfying to be able to screen it for a bigger and more anticipatory audience, as the film had garnered such attention in the mean time! One of my favourite audience reactions actually comes from when I just attended the festival. The screening of Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs ranks as my favourite cinema experience, because when the credits rolled there was just such stunned silence in the cinema. It was truly eerie knowing that this room full of hardened horror fans were so stunned by a film (myself very much included!).
This year, one of the things I’m particularly looking forward to is introducing Danger 5 (a hilarious Australian TV series) to audiences at Abertoir. It’s something I discovered purely by accident, showed it to Nia (who laughed as much as I did) and then sought permission to share it with our friends (aka audience) at Abertoir. There are always personal touches to the festival that reflect our own personalities and loves; my love for Vincent Price movies for example, culminated in his daughter being our guest last year – which gained us a huge amount of publicity around Wales (not many people knew Vincent’s wife Mary was Welsh!) Welcoming her to the stage will always remain one of the fondest memories of Abertoir! NEB: Gaz is always the one who m