Hall of fame

THE early film experiences of awardwinning Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall were confined to a once-a-year affair at school. “I remember they had big reels of films and we’d watch a black and white film from the Fifties. That was our special treat,” he recalls.

Things have changed. Today, a request is made to FilmClub and the DVD of the film arrives by post. Now, as part of a campaign for the national network of after-school film clubs, the Newcastle-born writer is returning to his old school, Benfield.

He’ll talk about the films that have changed his life, followed by a Q&A session. The same day, at Newcastle’s Tyneside cinema, he’ll address teachers about FilmClub, which aims to use movies to inspire and educate youngsters.

He’ll also show clips from films that have influenced him, including Kes, Dr Strangelove, Singing In The Rain and, of course, Billy Elliot – the North-East set film about the miner’s son who wants to be a ballet dancer.

“I’m also interested in using dance and music in film, everything from Gene Kelly to a hiphop documentary that came out last year,” he says.

“I’m trying to give everyone a flavour of the variety and depth of film, and how it involves other arts.

“A lot of the clips are films that really influenced me in my work and specifically Billy Elliot.

That story isn’t hugely about my childhood, but a lot about growing up in that time in the North-East. There are a lot of films that influenced me.”

His own film education was sparse, that’s partly why he’s backing FilmClub, which offers pupils the pick of more than 60,000 titles in the LoveFilm catalogue. Some 1,500 of them are arranged in series appealing directly to young people.

Members post their own film reviews, enter competitions and find out more about the industry through interviews and live webchats.

Hall came to film through theatre, where he first made his name as a writer. “They’re very similar things – you’re working with actors, characters, stories. But it was an uphill struggle to learn and find out about the technical side of film and visual language,” he says.

“Almost every school does drama, but hardly any do the same thing with film. In a way, with FilmClub, I’m putting back what I always wanted.”

FilmClub was founded by Bafta-winning film-maker Beeban Kidron, who directed Bridget Jones’s Diary, and educationalist Lindsay Mackie. The aim was to establish a nationwide network of school-based film clubs “to explore cinema’s ability to revolutionise the hearts, minds and visions of young people and to open up new avenues of discovery”.

The scheme is free to schools. “They choose a series, send off and the films are sent to them,” explains Hall. “It’s a really fantastic way of getting kids to understand about drama and film and visual language.

“We probably watch more TV than read books now. That film isn’t a crucial part of the school curriculum is absurd really. It’s an important way of kids understanding the 21st Century way of communicating.

“A lot of the excitement is sharing the information and creating a culture between schools and clubs. They explore things and find stuff they’d never have done otherwise.”

“It started off as a small pilot scheme 18 months ago. Now 30,000 kids every week are doing it through FilmClub and it’s expanding at a huge rate of knots.”

He’s excited to be returning to his old school for the first time since he was 16. “For me, the lovely thing is putting something back. Obviously, Billy Elliot and other work I’ve done in the film industry has hugely changed my life and it really started with some great drama teachers. Going back is like squaring the circle.”

His return to the North-East, where he visits regularly to see relatives, comes as Billy Elliot The Musical is proving a big hit on Broadway, collecting 15 nominations for the Tony awards, the US theatre Oscars.

They include nods for Hall for the best book for a musical and for best original score, for which he put the lyrics to Elton John’s music.

The Tony winners are announced at the end of the week he visits Benfield.

His latest play, The Pitman Painters – which began life at Live Theatre, in Newcastle, before moving to London’s National Theatre – will open in New York with the original cast.

Hall’s play is based on the true story of the Thirties Ashington pitmen who hired a Newcastle University academic to teach them art appreciation and ended up painters themselves.

THE production, directed by Max Roberts, will tour the UK before going across the Atlantic. He’s already staged the play in Vienna and Hall anticipates it being translated and performed across Europe.

“They did a fantastic job in Vienna and it seemed to go down really well because it’s such a great art city with fantastic galleries and museums everywhere you turn. The first night was quite a posh event with the British Ambassador,” he says.

Although Billy Elliot The Musical has been a success on the London stage, he admits to being nervous about taking the show to Broadway.

“We really didn’t know if it would work and it was opening at the worst time it possibly could, right in the middle of the banking crisis,” he says.

“But, in fact, it really worked and they took it to their hearts. That it’s had the most Tony nominations is amazing really and a great source of pride and joy.”

Press speculation has suggested that Billy Elliot The Musical will be turned into a film, but Hall says: “There has been talk, but I’m so exhausted by it I’m having a break, because it’s taken so much time looking after all the different projects and productions.

“I’m really ruminating on what to write next. I realise all these projects stay around for a long time and I want to make sure it’s the right one.”

■ For more information about the free teachers’ induction at the Tyneside cinema, see filmclub.org or email deborah@filmclub.org