THE WRITERS BLOCK CLOSE ‘HOME SPUN YARNS’

THE Writers’ Block, a new initiative looking at Storytelling for Film, Television and Theatre have just closed ‘Home Spun Yarns’, the first conference on Writing from 24 to the 26 May 2001.
The conference included talks on the different ways of telling stories, the influences that have prompted Northern Ireland writers to tell their stories in their own unique way, screenings and performed readings of scripts.
‘Home Spun Yarns’ is the first conference of its kind in Northern Ireland opening the discussion on writing for Film, Television and Theatre.
The Writers’ Block intends to set up an experimental centre for writing, initially focused on Film and Television. The project plans to enable writers to tell better stories by exposing them to different methods of storytelling, to look at what makes a good story and to sharpen their storytelling skills.
The weekend opened on 24 May at the Edge in Belfast with a rehearsed script reading of the feature film ‘Baby Baby’ by Scott Morgan, introduced by writer Sean O’Hagan with a talk on Soul Music.
The conference was divided into day time sessions at Fountain House in Belfast’s city centre and evening sessions at the Holiday Inn Express on Friday night and the Edge on Saturday night.
Key speakers at the conference included Eoin McNamee, the writer of ‘Resurrection Man’, Damien O’Donnell, director of ‘East Is East’, Lab Ky Mo, Writer and Director of ‘Nine Dead Gay Guys’, still in post production and well known local playwrights Marie Jones and Martin Lynch.
The organisers of the conference expect this to be the first of many such events throughout the year. (CD)