Making Waves Film Festival 2024: ​Immersive cinema, food and live music are set to feature

​Screenings include an immersive secret cinema style event set around smash hit musical The Commitments and a live cinema dining experience during a screening of the international award-winning film The Secret of the Grain.

Set inside All Saints Church, Commercial Road on Saturday 23 March, Making Waves Film Festival in partnership with Kitchen of Hope, a Portsmouth City of Sanctuary project will celebrate Ramadan and break the fast (Iftar) while watching Abdellatif Kechiche’s award winning ‘The Secret of the Grain’ (2007).

This community event includes an authentic North African meal cooked by refugees working with Kitchen of Hope.

The refugees chose the film and created the menu for the evening as a reference of their own struggles dreaming of better for themselves and their families.

The film, set in southern France, tells the story of a Franco-Arabic shipyard worker, who along with his partner's daughter, pursues his dream of opening a restaurant.

John Ashlin from Portsmouth City of Sanctuary said: "Food brings community together. Plenty of our chefs don't have access to a kitchen in their temporary accommodation, yet they are passionate about sharing their local cuisine.

"Working with Making Waves Film Festival just adds a whole new dimension, we are really excited about the event and thankful to all our supporters."

Making Waves Film Festival will close with a live immersive cinema experience, The Staggeringly Good Commitments on Saturday, March 30 at the Staggeringly Good Brewery.

Set around the screening of the hit 90's musical The Commitments, the experience invites audiences to step back into the 1990's and mingle with familiar characters from the film as they prepare for the night of their lives.

The event includes live auditions to sing with band on stage(or sit back and watch) and win a free recording session at Casemates Studios. The hit film will be screened, followed by a soul gig from Portsmouth's own Soul Suspects who themselves share a love for the film.

Roy Hanney, Director of Making Waves Film Festival said: "This year, Making Waves is going further thanks to funding from the BFI. Cinema audiences want a total experience.

We are really excited to be working in partnership with community groups, venues, businesses, performing, artists, local musicians and event producers to put Portsmouth on the map as a creative and cultural centre."

Today, the festival hosts an event producers' workshop with Film Hub South West.

For more information go to makingwavesfilmfestival.com.