AFU retrospective honours Grigsby at BFI Southbank

This week saw current and former members of the AFU gathering at BFI Southbank in London for an event hosted by the BFI’s Head of Education Mark Reid to mark the AFU’s tenth anniversary and to honour its founder and mentor, Michael Grigsby. In the presence of Mike’s brother Chris, sister-in-law Marion, and a number of his professional colleagues including Jonas Mortensen, David Naden and Larry Sider, AFU director Jeremy Taylor and filmmaker Matt Copson introduced a programme of extracts from Michael’s films, stretching back sixty years to when Mike was a pupil at Abingdon School. A montage followed of some of the 111 AFU films produced by its students since 2003. We also heard Michael speaking on film in a clip from Larry Sider’s excellent School of Sound interview about his approach to filmmaking and the humanitarian philosophy that underpinned it. Among many happy reunions, it was a special delight to welcome AFU tutor and webmaster Arvid Eriksson who travelled all the way from New Zealand to be with us. After the screening, more than eighty people from the worlds of film, television, theatre, comedy, music and dance met to exchange ideas, share experiences and discuss new projects in the Blue Room at BFI Southbank as part of the Loose Limbed Collective, an initiative announced here in October 2011, and designed to assist those working in the arts. We hope the LLC’s first film project will receive its premiere later this year, again at BFI Southbank. Our thanks to Mark Reid for hosting what was both a moving and uplifting occasion.