Party in Bradford...

Life-affirming stuff in Bradford. It's My Party looked great on the big screen for all of its five minutes and all those involved were justifiably proud when the lights came back up, as were those that worked on the other Global Stories short, The Long Walk. A good project to get involved in, that's for sure, and I certainly don't think it's the last time I'll work with that group of talented filmmakers. Eight days to make a short film? Not easy but we did it. And we had a blast.

Prior to the screening Shobna Gulati delivered a positive, uplifting and moving little speech. At one point she compared our fast turnaround to the one she'd just experienced on Honey and Razorblades, shot in four weeks with no budget and now in post-production. What was all the more impressive was that two minutes before Shobna stood up in front of everyone, she'd told me she hadn't written her speech yet and was keen to sit in a quiet corner to make some notes. But so keen was everyone to have their photograph taken with her that she never did make it to the quiet corner. I tried a similar feat several canapes and drinks later when being interviewed by a camera crew for Equal, but came an oratory cropper the second I started using words like diversity and multi-culturalism, mainly due to all the wine I'd knocked back. Then, magically, I got into a coherent groove, only to wallop a low-flying boom and render my words useless. Still, I'm a writer - I'm not supposed to be articulate.

As for the film, well, fingers crossed it's just on the start of its journey and will be heading to a film festival near you as soon as possible.

Tags: Global Stories, short film, It's My Party, Shobna Gulati