Siobhan Connor
Siobhan Connor from Connor PR compering Shrewsbury School Charity Fashion Show
SHREWSBURY SCHOOL PRESS RELEASE ____________________________________________________________________
Runway ready – Shrewsbury School’s Charity Fashion Show prepares for take-off
Organised entirely by A level students at Shrewsbury School, the 6th gala Charity Fashion Show takes place at the School on Saturday 4th October.
Lead organiser Georgia Bruce, aged 17, is putting into place the final touches to what promises to be a hugely entertaining evening for audience and participants alike.
“We are hoping to raise lots of awareness and money for Brain Tumour UK and Ethiopiad whilst creating a fabulous night of fashion that also helps to support local businesses and boutiques.”
“We’re thrilled with the wonderful response we’ve had from local shops. We’re really looking forward to showing off some gorgeous clothes from the autumn collections at Templeton Jones, Jones, Chequers, EA Jones Vintage. Harry Mundy, an former pupil here is bringing a sample of his collection of Saville Row tailored suits. We are so excited to be able to wear jewellery from Boodles.”
“We’ve also been given some fabulous raffle prizes and we’re extremely grateful to everyone who has donated. In honour of the Fashion Show we are giving a beautiful bouquet to the ‘Best-Dressed Lady’ of the evening”
Georgia has lined up 15 fellow students – boys and girls – to model the outfits. Students will also be providing musical entertainment during the interval, while others will be busy behind the scenes, building the catwalk and controlling the sound and lighting.
Adding an extra glamorous sparkle to the event, Georgia is delighted that the evening will be compered by local PR guru and lover of fashion, Siobhan Connor, Director of Connor PR.
The students of Shrewsbury School hope to raise more than £2,000 for Brain Tumour UK and Ethiopiad. _________________________________________________________________________________
Notes to editor: For further information and images, please contact: Annabel Warburg, Website and Press Manager, Shrewsbury School afwarburg@shrewsbury.org.uk tel. 01743 280522 / 07800 571174 www.shrewsbury.org.uk
Connor PR working on Martin Scorsese’s film Tomorrow with Stephen Fry, Joss Stone
PRODUCTION COMMENCES ON BRITISH FEATURE FILM “TOMORROW”
Martin Scorsese and Sebastian Street
Martin Scorsese’s voyage into British feature film gets underway
Cast to include: Stephen Fry, Stephanie Leonidas, Joss Stone, Paul Kaye, Sebastian Street, Stuart Brennan and Sophie Kennedy-Clarke
LONDON, 22 SEPTEMBER 2014: Landmark British feature film, Tomorrow, presented by Martin Scorsese, will commence production from today in London with confirmed cast to include: Stephen Fry (The Hobbit), Stephanie Leonidas (Defiance), Sebastian Street (Age of Heroes), Stuart Brennan (Risen), Sophie Kennedy-‐Clark (Nymphomaniac 1 & 2, Philomena) Paul Kaye (Blackball, Game of Thrones) and Joss Stone (The Tudors).
Produced by London based production companies, Roaring Mouse Productions & Studio 82, Tomorrow marks Martin Scorsese’s first ever voyage into British feature film as he takes on an executive producer role. It also heralds the feature film directional debut of Martha Pinson, Scorsese’s long-‐time script supervisor. Pinson has directed an award winning short film and off-‐ Broadway plays as well as collaborating with Oliver Stone and Sidney Lumet. She has also worked on Scorsese’s four most-‐recent narrative films: The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island, and Hugo. The script is being penned by Stuart Brennan and Sebastian Street who are producing alongside Dean M. Woodford, while Emma Tillinger Koskoff and Scorsese come on as Executive Producers.
Martin Scorsese said:“I’m honoured to join Martha in her directorial debut. Through her vision, the great cast, and dedicated team, this story will resonate for years to come.”
With a BAFTA Award winning cast already confirmed, Tomorrow has begun principal photography for six weeks across London locations to include Battersea, Borough and Shoreditch, as well as Tedworth House in Wiltshire, home for recovering soldiers, and Spain in October.
Tomorrow is a moving and inspirational feature film, which candidly explores the difficulty and loneliness soldiers encounter as they try to reintegrate back into society having served for their country; moving on from losses and injuries to forge a life, find sustaining work and experience love. The film is a very personal journey for both writers and boldly explores several hard-‐ hitting yet underexposed issues such as post-‐traumatic stress disorder, as well as HIV and AIDS.
Martha Pinson said: ““Tomorrow” is a great script. The dialogue is brilliant and believable; the reversals and surprises are well placed and powerful. The characters and situations are vividly drawn. It explores the difficulty of moving on from loses and injuries, to forge a life, to find sustaining work, and experience love. This is an acute challenge for a person in their mid-‐late 20’s, which has not been extensively explored. For an injured veteran or someone who is HIV positive it is colossal.”
The subject matter of the film is both topical and timely, with the end of the UK combat mission in Afghanistan due to take place in December 2014 when British troops will be withdrawn after 13 years of intense fighting, which has claimed 453 British lives alone. The project is working with charity ‘Help for Heroes’ to collaborate in building a national awareness campaign for the film and the serious issues it deals with.
-‐ENDS-‐ For more information or images please contact:
Join in the conversation @Tomorrowfilmuk
Connor PR specialist in film PR, Connor PR promoting Tomorrow presented by Martin Scorsese, Connor PR specialist in TV and Film PR
Middle Farm Press holds exclusive launch party at Waterstones
Middle Farm Press Holds Exclusive Launch Party at Waterstones, Shrewsbury
With a turnout to be proud of, new venture Middle Farm Press held its launch party last night in Shrewsbury’s Waterstones.
With canapés provided by Momo•No•Ki,, guests included: Jenny and Marcus Bean (Brompton Cookery School); Colin Young (BBC Radio Shropshire); John Barton (Coach and Horses); Chris Burt (Momo•No•Ki.), Sam and Claire Barker (Greak Berwick Organics) and Suree Coates (The King and Thai), who all turned up to support Sam Gray and Kate Taylor as they celebrated their new company and its first book, Doing it in Wellies, which was launched at last week’s Ludlow Food Festival.
The evening is perhaps best summed up in the speech given by previous President of the Booksellers Association of Great Britain and Ireland, and Middle Farm Press’ Chairman, Bing Taylor:
“Like many other industries, and perhaps the music industry is the closest analogy, the publishing world has changed dramatically since I started my career as a university publisher at Longman in the early 1970s. With a little more experience under my belt I realized, by 1975, that people not only needed access to books (and large swathes of Britain didn’t have a bookstore within 100 miles in those days) but they needed selection, advice and guidance – the sort of help you would get from a good local bookshop. A friend of mine and I started The Good Book Guide which made English books available all over the world, at English published prices. We even published a separate edition for children. At about this time a man called Tim Waterstone and I were invited to speak at a conference called Children’s Books and the Chocolate Factory. Tim said he was thinking of starting a thinking person’s bookstore chain but that he would never stock children’s books as they were low ticket items and could never be profitable. He quickly changed his mind. Both Harry Potter and Waterstones were no doubt grateful.
A great deal of what I learned about people and books I learned from working at The Good Book Guide. For us, a quality selection and customer care were all important to retaining customer loyalty. Being a mail order operation we couldn’t provide on the spot guidance that you would expect from a friendly local bookseller so we got people with specialist knowledge to recommend books for the general reader such as Yehudi Menuhin on Music; Antonia Fraser on Biography and somewhat unexpectedly the Duke of Edinburgh on Wildlife Conservation. We learned a lot from our customers – the girls in the order processing department even got marriage proposals from people whose orders they had sorted out satisfactorily. And from our mistakes – one lady, who turned out to be one of our loyalist customers, lived in Papua New Guinea and ordered a copy of Quick Headache Relief without Drugs. We sent her The Joy of Sex. She wrote to say that miraculously her headaches had never returned.
When I was MD of Jonathan Cape in the mid 1980s we had, as our offices, a five story house in London’s elegant Bedford Square. Now Cape is housed in two rooms on a floor of Penguin, lately merged with Random House. When I started in the 70s there were more than fifty publishers, now there are about five major publishers with the number ever dwindling. What is missing from these vast, foreign owned, conglomerates is the personal care, nurturing and involvement of the editor / publisher. Some publishers have been able to retain this to a degree – Bloomsbury and their John Lewis style partnership with their authors is a rare example – but many books by major authors these days are far too long as editors dare not edit them for fear that the increasingly promiscuous authors will go elsewhere. Loyalty and trust between author and publisher, as between bookseller and customer, is an increasingly rare but highly valued commodity.
Fortunately here in Shropshire you are lucky enough still to have, against all the odds since the disappearance of the net book agreement and the advent of Amazon, surviving independent bookstores and to have branches of a chain that act as independent book shops with their emphasis on the customer of which this branch of Waterstones is a prime example and something which will I believe become increasingly the case under the leadership of Waterstones CEO James Daunt.
You are also the host town to an excitingly original new publishing enterprise Middle Farm Press, the brainchild of two indefatigable, multi-talented young ladies Sam Gray and Kate Taylor. Sam’s background as a pig farmer might not strike everyone as the logical training for a publisher (and if you think that you don’t know much about the publishing industry) but she is a natural entrepreneur as is Kate Taylor who has a more conventional background as a writer and publisher and despite that, has retained an endless supply of energy, enthusiasm and expertise. She’s come a long way since, as a little girl, she remarked to a dinner guest named Salman Rushdie that she didn’t read books as she thought all books were boring.
Now they have channeled their enthusiasm to form a remarkable partnership approaching publishing from a fresh perspective, cutting out all unnecessary middle-man costs, electing to sell books through the traditional book trade rather than through Amazon and putting a high premium on providing the sort of customer advice, support and guidance that used to be a hallmark of British publishing but has now all but disappeared from the scene. As a former President of the Booksellers Association of Great Britain and Ireland who fought long and hard to protect the independent bookseller it is a particular pleasure for me to be associated with their company as Chairman and to be here at the launch of, I’m sure the first of many beautifully produced books Sam Gray’s entertaining, informative and above all inspirational account of her year as a pig farmer on her 35 acre small holding in Church Stretton ‘Doing it in Wellies’.
Middle Farm Press is putting the book, and its proceeds, firmly back in the hands of the author. The publishers won’t be taking their traditional 85% to 90% of the profits from the authors but instead MFP will be relying on their personal relationships and experience to get the best deals from their designers, printers and suppliers. Thus allowing the author to not only benefit from the publisher’s business acumen but to keep the proceeds from all their book sales.
Amazon excitedly announced a few weeks ago that they will be the sole suppliers of Paris Hilton’s jewelry designs – no doubt a mouthwatering prospect for some but the writing is on the wall – the times are changing. A self-published book was on the Man Booker Longlist for the first time; HMV onetime owners of Waterstones, went bust a few years ago. It now has a new Chief Executive and has reopened its flagship Oxford Street store emphasizing the need to return to offering advice, guidance and support and to putting the customer first. And here in Shropshire Middle Farm Press is opening its doors to authors everywhere and enabling them, for the first time, to reap the true benefits from their creativity and plain hard work.”
Middle Farm Press makes high-quality books, specialising in produce, food and cooking but by no means exclusive to this genre. The company makes stunning books that allow authors to make a real profit. They support bookshops and champion authors – with a particular focus on producers, small farms and passionate chefs.
Middle Farm Press is the brainchild of writer and editor Kate Taylor and her author colleague Sam Gray, who runs her own smallholding. They set up the company to help authors who are considering self-publishing. Bringing with them the very best designers, editors, proofreaders, indexers, photographers, food economists, printers and cartographers, their aim is to help authors produce the same high-quality books produced by leading UK publishers without having to give away most of the profits. Since the founding of Middle Farm Press, it has been evolving to include all manner of things.
Give Up Clothes For Good exhibition by world famous photographer Jason Bell
In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Give Up Clothes for Good campaign, TK Maxx and Cancer Research UK are hosting an exclusive exhibition of works by world famous photographer Jason Bell. I arrived at the Pall Mall Galleria and was proud to see my PR campaign from 2014s Give Up Clothes for Good campaign on display.
Give Up Clothes For Good encourages donating your old clothes to raise money for children’s cancers.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/showbiz/512015/Jerry-Hall-shows-off-her-youthful-looks-at-Cancer-Research-and-TK-Maxx-charity-launch
Launched in 2004, Give Up Clothes For Good is a biannual campaign based on encouraging people to clear out their wardrobes and donate quality unwanted clothes and household items to raise money for the treatment and cure of childhood cancers. The donated items are collected from TK Maxx stores and later sold across the network of CRUK stores.
I needed to come up with a witty and motivating call to action that encouraged the whole nation to take part in the biggest clothes collection ever. We took the double meaning of ‘Give Up Clothes For Good’ to suggest we all go naked for a good cause. A simple proposition that would guarantee stand out across all media. In order to engage the public and ensure extensive coverage, we set about contacting a host of celebrities to pose for some very tasteful and modest, naked themed shots, playing on the campaign strapline ‘Bare as you Dare’. Celebrities including Jade Jagger, Bruno Tonioli, Liz McLarnon, Sol Campbell, Lucy Benjamin, Julia Bradbury, James Anderson, Christopher Biggins, Kate Walsh all ‘dared to bare’ For the cameras in aid of raising valuable funds for charity and encourage the public to
strip their wardrobes bare too.
Whilst I was confident that images of naked celebrities shot by renowned celebrity photographer Jason Bell would provide us with a compelling news pictures, we also felt that the campaign project merited a pre awareness launch and a series of regional launches around the country that would serve to maximize awareness.
During the pre awareness stage TK Maxx, HomeSense and Cancer Research UK teamed up with online auction site eBay for a celebrity clothing auction. I set about contacting celebrities – Sharon Osbourne, Duffy, David Walliams, Jade Jagger, Tyra Banks, Nicky Hilton, Rupert Grint, Leighton Meester and the Duchess of York are just some of the celebrities who pledged an item. The team got busy selling in to fashion bloggers, showbiz desks and celebrity titles.
A week before the media launch day on April 6th the celebrity images were seeded with Press Association and Heat magazine offered the magazine exclusive. Over the Easter bank holiday weekend, the national picture desks and showbiz desks were spoken to in order to ensure the messaging and campaign credits were correct. National and regional sites were targeted, as well as relevant fashion blogs, entertainment and lifestyle outlets. encourage bag drops.
Local celebrities across six key regions with high regional media density also helped drive awareness. Regional photo-calls took place on launch day with local talent wearing a large Give Up Clothes For Good bag including Paul Potts in Cardiff, TV presenter Amanda Hamilton in Edinburgh, Ex Gladiator in Leeds, BBC Midlands presenter Suzanne Virdee in Birmingham and Orlaith McCallister in Belfast, as well as a photocall in Southampton. The team got busy selling in the pictures to regional targets. Inorder to target the fashion press, we worked with Jade Jagger who carried out interviews for Stylist and Stella. In addition we secured interviews with Bruno Tonilio in OK Magazine, Kate Walsh in Closer.
To keep the momentum going throughout the three week campaign and to encourage bag donations we scheduled regional activity during this time, including ‘naked’ radio drops using two naturists from Living’s ‘Four Weddings’ Fame in the final week.
TK Maxx, HomeSense and CRUK have smashed the 2008 till point donations revealing £258,097.65 worth of donations.
On Monday 5th April, the pictures and press release were issued under embargo to all national and regional newspapers and all major online outlets, supported by an aggressive call round.
The following morning I had secured newspaper coverage within The Sun, Daily Mirror, Metro, Daily Record, Daily Star, Daily Mail, The Times, Daily Telegraph.
The story was also successful in reaching newspaper websites including The Sun Online, Daily Mirror Online, Metro Online, Daily Mail Online, and The Daily Telegraph Online, as well as a fully credited.
Other key outlets secured include BBC Entertainment News, Sky News, Yahoo! and MSN, all crediting TK Maxx, HomeSense and Cancer Research UK. Online coverage continued to mount throughout the day, with stories appearing on online outlets.
The campaign became part of the ‘naked’ zeitgeist and discussions on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour and articles in the Evening Standard ‘Naked London’ affiliated TK Maxx and CR-UK with the story. As well as TV presenter Kate Walsh talking about the campaign on Live At Studio Five and Liz McClarnon on The Wright Stuff.
Total coverage
149 clips
£582,888 AVE
100,090,554 Circulation
House of The Rising Sun Restaurant Review in this month’s Shropshire Magazine
Connor PR specialist in launch and event PR has secured a fantastic review in this month’s Shropshire Magazine for client House of the Rising Sun, in Shrewsbury, Shropshire
and Australia’s strong ties with Japan also help determine the taste and style.
Gypsies, Come Dancing!
Press Release
Gypsies, Come Dancing!
Forget Got to Dance and Strictly Come Dancing, telly bosses are currently battling it out for the rights to bring an even more sequined dance event to our screens, the World Gypsy Dance Championships! The first and only worldwide contest for dancers from the Gypsy, Roma, Traveller community is to be hosted in London later this year. Organisers have already begun the worldwide search for the next Gypsy dance star, and are expecting stiff competition for the coveted gold medal.
Running the contest is Irish Romany Gypsy, Róisín Mullins, a former Irish Dance World Medallist and dancer with Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance. Róisín has judged thousands of Gypsy acts, including performing horses, in TV talent shows such as Travellers Got Talent and Gypsy and Traveller Face of the Year, alongside singers David Essex and Jentina. But now Róisín will be encouraging Travellers to swap their twenty stone wedding dresses for flamenco skirts, hitch up their wagons, and hit auditions at Traveller fairs, sites and events throughout the UK.
Róisín Mullins said: “The World Gypsy Dance Championships is a fantastic opportunity for dancers to take centre stage. We have already seen singers from the community make it on TV talent shows, but for me, the dancers represent our culture best”.
Joining Róisín to organise the contest will be her Gypsy partner, Irish dance show producer, Jack Jacobs. The pair are keen to show off a more positive side to the community, at what they hope will be the biggest gathering of gypsy dancers in history. Event organiser Jack is particularly excited about revealing the community’s hidden talent.
Jack Jacobs said: “The contest is a real first for the Gypsy and Traveller community. There are some incredibly talented dancers out there, and traditional dance styles that we, in the UK, have never seen before. So the chance to pull Gypsy dancers together from all over the world to compete against one another will be an amazing site”.
Celebrities rumoured to be taking a seat on the judging panel alongside Róisín include world famous Gypsy dancers, and stars from the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.
As well as heavily diamented costumes and fake tan, the contest promises to deliver an all out battle of traditional versus modern, with Flamenco and Irish dancing facing off against hip hop and street dance.
Entrants can compete in any dance style, but must be from a Gypsy, Roma or Traveller background.
To enter visit www.worldgypsydancechampionships.com
Press Enquiries:
For all media enquiries please contact: siobhan@connopr.com Tel: 07966 177025 or Jack Jacobs at jackjacobs@live.co.uk
Connor PR entertainment PR Specialist, Connor PR working with Gypsies, Come Dancing
Connor PR secures front cover of Independent on Sunday
Connor PR secures front cover of Independent on Sunday for Seeds of Hope
Expose of sexual violence in conflict
Connor PR working wtih Studio 9 Films for the UK Premiere of Seeds of Hope to be screened at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict
UK PREMIERE of Seeds of Hope
to be screened at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict
Studio 9 Films
- Award-winning filmmaker Fiona Lloyd-Davies takes us to ‘the most dangerous place in the world for women’ – the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo – in her film Seeds of Hope at the Summit Fringe on 10 June 2014.
- Seeds of Hope tells the extraordinary story of Masika and her journey to help women and children who have experienced sexual violence in conflict in eastern Congo.
- The Foreign Secretary Rt Hon William Hague and Angelina Jolie, UNHCR Special Envoy, will co-chair the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict on 10–13 June 2014 at ExCel London.
- The summit calls for an end to sexual violence in conflict – an act that destroys lives and damages communities.
- It will be the largest gathering ever brought together on this subject.
Starting 9.00am on 10 June 2014, there will be three days of global action aimed at creating awareness of sexual violence in conflict. One voice that will be added to the call for an end to sexual violence in conflict is Masika Katsuva’s.
The 84 hours of action is the largest meeting ever held on ending sexual violence in conflict. The Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict (ESVC), co-chaired by Foreign Secretary William Hague and Angelina Jolie , Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, will bring together government delegations, NGOs, experts and sexual and gender-based violence survivors from over 145 countries.
Studio 9 Films will show Seeds of Hope at the Summit Fringe on 10 June 2014. Seeds of Hope tells the extraordinary story of Masika and her journey to help women and children who have experienced sexual violence in conflict in eastern Congo. Masika, herself a multiple rape survivor, has helped thousands of women and children in eastern Congo who have suffered physical and sexual violence.
Every hour, 48 women are raped in Congo (DR). Eastern Congo was described as the ‘rape capital of the world’ by Margot Wolstrom, the United Nations Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict in 2011. A new generation of children, born from rape in the DRC are growing up in a country where violence is a regular occurrence. It’s become a place where there is widespread acceptance of rape and brutality towards women. “Whenever there is fighting, militia use rape as a weapon of war”, Masika says.
Filmmaker Fiona Lloyd-Davies also interviews perpetrators of rape, among them soldiers from the Congolese army. Groundbreaking interviews are captured with the soldiers whose duty it is to protect the women they are brutally violating. These men give extraordinarily open testimony as to why they rape and their attitudes towards their horrific acts. As one soldier candidly reveals, “Raping gives us a lot of pleasure. When we rape we feel free.” This calls into question the crucial issue of justice and as one of the women, Nzgira, poignantly says, “If justice is done maybe this will stop the soldiers. It’s just they aren’t afraid of anything.”
The aim of the summit is to facilitate dialogue between governments, NGOs, experts and survivors that outline solutions to sexual violence in conflict and develop international co-ordination. For Masika, to stop sexual violence means the conflict must be brought to an end. “If the fighting were to end in the hills, it would mean an end to rape which we want to stop forever.”
Filmed over three years and capturing the ebb and flow of the seasons, we see how the process of farming this small patch of land empowers and transforms these women.The field is their hope, their therapy and their source of food and income. The rape victims and hundreds of children born from rape sow lines of seed every quarter (three months). Together they nurture them, pray for good weather and eventually harvest them to eat, sell and plant again to generate more crops.
The field becomes a central feature, almost a character, both in its symbolic value and as a signifier of time passing. The process of renewal and rebirth that nature provides offers up hope anda restored focus to the women. As one of the women, Mongera, remarks, “When we meet as a group, for a moment, it helps us forget what we’ve been through.”The women build new friendships, helping them come to terms with their pasts and look to make plans for the future.
The extraordinary natural beauty of Congo is juxtaposed against the horrific experiences that these women have endured and the threat of sexual violence that remains, lurking in such landscapes.
Since the filming of Seeds of Hope, 39 soldiers have stood trial for the crimes that took place in Minova in November 2012. Only two were convicted of rape as a war crime. Fiona Lloyd-Davies has produced a documentary on both the aftermath of the rapes in 2012 and the trial that will be broadcast on BBC Newsnight on Monday 9 June 2014.
While the seeds show that there is a way forward and a glimmer of hope, its clear that there’s little justice for these women at present. Masika believes that until there is peace in DRC there will be rape: “Whenever there is fighting there is rape.” Despite the recent Minova trial, prosecutions are rare and impunity still prevails. The battle against an endemic rape culture is far from over.
Senator Mobina Jaffer said: “Seeds of Hope conveys unimaginable pain, but also the hope and strength of the women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It further portrays a British filmmaker, Fiona, reaching out to portray the pain of her Congolese sister, Masika.”
This film takes us deep into the lives of women and children who are rarely given a voice and rarely seen on screen. Seeds of Hope shows how one woman’s enterprise helps thousands of Congo’s rape survivors find healing and independence through farming. As one of the women explains, “we are always very happy when we have our seeds, because seeds are our hope”.
-ENDS-
Notes to Editors:
To attend the screening of Seeds of Hope and reception please contact Siobhan at Connor PR. There will be a Q&A after the screening, moderated by Anneke Van Woudenberg, Human Rights Watch, Senior Researcher Africa Division.
Fiona Lloyd-Davies is available for interview.
Please contact Siobhan at Connor PR siobhan@connorpr.com Tel: 07966 177025
What: Screening of Seeds of Hope at the Summit Fringe followed by a Q&A.
When: 10 June 2014 at 6.30pm.
Where: ExCel Centre, Docklands, London.
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/seedsofhopestudio9films?fref=ts
Twitter handle:@Studio9films #seedsofhope
Photography
Images are available on request.
http://www.studio9films.co.uk/photography.html
http://instagram.com/seedsofhopefilm
Previewers
To watch the film please click on the following link
password: seedsofhopescreener
A short preview can be viewed on: http://www.studio9films.co.uk/films_new.html
Film synopsis
Seeds of Hope documents the extraordinary story of Masika Katsuva, who, with just a small patch of land, commitment and passion, has helped thousands of women and children who have suffered physical and sexual violence come to terms with the nightmares they have lived through.
Every hour, 48 women are raped in Congo. Eastern Congo has been called the ‘rape capital of the world’ by the UN Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict. This is the most dangerous place in the world for women.
The women and children farm the land together, providing them with an income, a sense of stability and a form of therapy. Through donations, Masika and her team have expanded the centre, but the battle against an endemic rape culture is far from over. Since launching the project, Masika has been raped three more times.
The film also reveals the motivations of some of the perpetrators. They are not just foreign militia groups, but are members of the Congolese National Army. These are the soldiers whose duty it is to protect the women they are now brutally violating.
Filmed over three years, Seeds of Hope takes us deep into the lives of women and children rarely seen, offering up a vision of transformation through one woman’s mission to bring healing to women traumatised by rape and in turn, stability to their children born as a result.
Links relating to Seeds of Hope
https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/sexual-violence-in-conflict
TEDX
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmSzkMIRLS8
Film Festivals
St Louis International Film Festival November 2014
http://www.cinemastlouis.org/seeds-hope
Africa World Documentary Film Festival
http://www.africaworldfilmfestival.com
Selected for International Festival “A Film for Peace”
http://www.unfilmperlapace.it/admitted2014.html
Studio 9 Films
Studio 9 Films Ltd is a company led by award-winning producer/director/self shooter and photojournalist Fiona Lloyd-Davies. They have produced films for BBC, Al Jazeera, Human Rights Watch and REDRESS. Studio 9 Films’ production, “Justice in Action”, chronicling six young woman’s journey to Bosnia 20 years after the war won the Best Documentary International at the People’s Film Festival in 2013. The film “Seeds of Hope”, which tells the extraordinary story of Masika Katsuva, a multiple rape survivor who has helped thousands of women and children in war-torn eastern Congo premiered at the Pulitzer Center Film Festival “Global Crises, Human Stories” and was officially selected for the St Louis International Film Festival 2013.
Biography of Fiona Lloyd-Davies
Award winning filmmaker and photojournalist, Fiona Lloyd-Davies is one of the UK’s most experienced foreign documentary and current affairs journalists. She’s been making films and taking pictures about human rights issues in areas of conflict since 1992, working in Bosnia, Iraq, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and many other locations. Her film about Honour Killing in Pakistan, License to Kill for BBC2, brought a change in the law in Pakistan and was awarded a Royal Television Society award for Best International Journalism. She has also won a Royal Television Society award for Innovation for her work with Salam Pax on the Baghdad Blogger.
Justice in Action, Fiona’s film chronicling the journey of six young women exploring the path to peace and reconciliation in Bosnia won the Best Documentary International at the People’s Film Festival. Her work combines journalism with a strong visual style that she learnt as a graduate of the Royal College of Art. She is also a widely published and exhibited photojournalist in UK broadsheets and magazines such as the Guardian, The Observer magazine and the Herald. She films and edits much of her work herself, using the latest technology.
Fiona’s most recent work centres on sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She has gained unprecedented access to the soldiers implicated in the rapes in Minova on November 20, 2012. Ordered to Rape investigates the mass rapes and subsequent trial and will be shown on BBC Newsnight on June 9, 2014. Her film Seeds of Hope tells the extraordinary story of Masika Katsuva, a multiple rape survivor, who has helped over thousands of women and children will be shown at the Summit Fringe of the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict on June 10, 2014.
Fiona’s other Congo work
“Congo and the General” TX February 2014 Al Jazeera English
The first ever aggressive, intervention brigade of 3,000 men has been deployed to one of the world’s most complicated and volatile regions, Eastern Congo. It’s being led by a new force Commander, the Brazilian General, Carlos Alberto Dos Santos Cruz. He has one of the most difficult and dangerous jobs in the world. To prove that the UN can finally fulfill it’s mandate to protect civilians and win against rebel forces and militia men who, until now, have out manoeuvred the largest and most expensive peacekeeping operation in the world.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2014/01/congo-general-2014131116336818.html
“Congo’s Tin Idea” TX May 2013 Al Jazeera English
Control of Eastern Congo’s minerals has been a key driver in the savage fighting that’s killed over five million people. A new project may have the answer – to produce conflict free tin from a mine.
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/peopleandpower/2013/05/201
Connor PR working with Studio 9 Films, Connor PR working with Film Maker Fiona Lloyd-Davies, Connor PR and the premiere of Seeds of Hope, Connor PR working on the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict with Angelina Jolie and William Hague
Memorial held for TV globetrotter Alan Whicker
Memorial held for TV globetrotter Alan Whicker
Yesterday I attended the Memorial Service of my dear friend Alan Whicker at The Grosvenor Chapel in London’s Mayfair.
Sir Michael Parkinson and Monty Python star Michael Palin were among the guests.
Former BBC boss Michael Grade described Whicker as “one of the corner stones of the golden age of British television”.
Whicker died in July 2013 after a TV career lasting nearly six decades.
He was best known for Whicker’s World which ran from 1959 to 1988 on both the BBC and ITV.
He had… eyebrows that could speak a thousand words when raised slightly at the right moment.”
Lord Grade
“Alan Whicker belonged to that very exclusive club of gifted individuals who over so many decades consistently delivered memorable programmes for what is more usually such a transitory medium,” Lord Grade said.
“He had that unmistakable voice with its delicate inflections so easily mimicked, eyebrows that could speak a thousand words when raised slightly at the right moment… and an unerring instinct to know when to listen.”
Whicker’s dapper dress sense – which included his trademark smart blazer and tie – made him one of the most recognised figures on television.
Palin, who spoofed Whicker in a Monty Python sketch, said Whicker was “a towering figure” in the world of television.
He said Whicker had the “enviable ability to deliver introductions and summings up that were as crisp and precise as the clothes in which he delivered them”.
Palin recalled how he had been the fourth person the BBC had asked to present travel series Around the World in 80 Days, the first choice having been Whicker.
“I was later told – apocryphally I’m sure – that the reason he turned it down was that the BBC, in soliciting the great man’s services, had taken him out to lunch at the Pizza Hut in Shepherd’s Bush.
“Alan didn’t do Pizza Hut.”
Sir Michael Parkinson said Whicker had “inspired an entire generation of young journalists” to seek a television career.
“He never let celebrity cloud the business of being a proper journalist,” he added.
Whicker’s long list of famous interviewees included Peter Sellers, Joan Collins, the Sultan of Brunei and notorious Haitian dictator ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier.
Reference Tim Masters, BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-27606893
Connor PR expert in publishing PR, Connor PR expert in Travel PR, Siobhan Connor worked with Alan Whicker
‘The Only Way Is Essex’ TV Star Ferne McCann to launch St Nicholas Bar and Spa in Shrewsbury
‘The Only Way Is Essex’ TV Star Ferne McCann to launch St Nicholas Café, Bar and Spa in Shrewsbury, Shropshire
Ferne McCann, star of ITV2 show TOWIE, will officially launch the opening of St Nicholas Café, Bar and Spa on Tuesday 13th May.
Ferne joined the BAFTA-winning TV show in 2013 and became an instant hit with the press and public. Since joining the show Ferne has impressed with her refreshingly honest personality, humour and feisty ways. She’s a stunning and stylish addition to the show who doesn’t hold back with her opinions.
Ferne’s fashion is also gaining her recognition – she launched Ferne With Lasula in December 2013 and her second collection has recently been released.
Ferne kicked off 2014 as the new face of Caprice’s lingerie collection ‘By Caprice‘ and later in the year she will be going back to her hair styling roots and releasing a new hair colour range.
Shrewsbury’s Tootsies Beauty Retreat owners, Stephanie and Ben Smith, are the team behind Shrewsbury’s first Moroccan inspired Day Spa.
Located in the heart of Shrewsbury within an old converted church, St Nicholas dates back to 1865. Their philosophy fuses ancient expertise with modern innovation. A concept echoed throughout the contemporary Spa, bringing together the hugely beneficial rituals of Moroccan wellness and grooming, including Hammam, Rhassoul and Salt-Infused Steam Room experiences, with scientific advances in skin care and products to deliver tangible results.
Stephanie Smith said: “We’re delighted to have Ferne open St Nicholas, she’s fun, fashionable and is a great ambassador”.
St Nicholas Spa will be using the famous La Sultane de Saba range – a concept based on the ancient and precious beauty ritual of oriental women, which is transmitted from mother to daughter and from generation to generation. Through its authentic and original products, its thousands of flavours and colours, La Sultane de Saba has the vocation to make you dream and let you travel, discovering faraway horizons, towards the lands of the sun, where body and spirit come back to the essence of relaxation and wellness.
Stephanine Smith, Director of St Nicholas said: “We chose La Sultane de Saba not only for the quality of products and treatments but as a brand that clearly stood apart as offering something truly different and remarkable. Providing memorable experiences and a place where people wanted to return to was really important for us”.
La Sultane de Saba brings age-old remedies back to life. A combination of high-quality, pure, natural ingredients, which harness the powers of plants and spices, are used alongside specialist techniques to create exceptional treatments that heal mind and body. Therapists at St Nicholas Spa have been trained to mix and blend these recipes to offer customised treatments to suit individual needs. La Sultane de Saba products are made using rare and precious essences. The products are free from parabens, not tested on animals and do not contain any animal ingredients. All products adhere to strict laboratory testing.
In addition to the luxury spa, St Nicholas boasts a newly-renovated café offering a range of drinks and a host of delicious food. There are also various options available for private hire – it is the perfect location for any even from birthdays and weddings to corporate parties or christenings.
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Media Information
St Nicholas, 24 Castle Street, Shrewsbury, SY12BQ, Shropshire
www.stnicholasretreat.com
Media enquiries or to arrange a press trip: siobhan@connorpr.com / Tel 07966 177025
Photos from the event are available on request