Stafford film festival to return

The Pocket Film Festival run by Unseen Cinema will arrive in Stafford between March 12 and March 17 and will see a week of short films, archive footage, old classics and new releases.

Organisers have said they expect to see around 800 people turn out this year as they build on past success - with an expansion seeing part of this years programme held at Stone Library.

Unseen Cinema director Owen Hurcombe said: "This year visitors can expect more of the same - we have got quite a varied programme so we hope we have got enough to cater for everybody.

"There is 20-minute shorts of archive footage again which we hope will give people a bit of a flavour of obviously what Stafford used to be like in the 50s and 60s.

"We have got a number of straight screenings from classic comedy through to my personal favourite which is silent classics and we have got The General accompanied by the incredible Meg Morley on piano.

"Last on the year on the whole most venues sold out which was fantastic and we found that there was a big appetite for it from the members of the public.

"Naturally we found things like the archive footage stemmed quite well for discussion and the reminiscence around it.

"A lot of the screenings that we did from my perspective brought in new audiences and people that maybe normally would not go to the cinema.

"We had quite a lot of festivalgoers as well - even for a small festival it was fantastic because we saw a lot of familiar faces and we also saw a lot of repeat visits to all of the screenings.

"There is not that much within Stafford but one thing we do is make sure we are supporting what currently is existing like The Stafford Film Theatre - which it was great to see them involved last year.

"Outside of the theatre there is nothing that we felt that caters for all cinema taste and provided that opportunity to go and see things in different venues and different settings so I just felt that we deserved it.

"We have tried to expand it a little bit this year so part of the programme is in Stone this year at Stone Library.

"The way we look at it is that each year we want to try and do something a little bit more than we did the year before and carry on doing it.

"Whilst there is an interest we will continue it definitely and we hope this year it provides enough for everybody.

"It would be great to see people come and we just hope that they enjoy it and that people turn up in this weather."

Venues for the festival include Stafford Library, the Floodgate Ale House, the Gatehouse Theatre, Stone Library, Staffordshire Record Office, Oddfellows Hall, St. Mary's Church, and Number 7.

Dates, times and prices of the events can be found on www.unseencinema.co.uk/pocket-film-festival-2018/