Margaret Hodge's
DCMS diary

I arrived at the world’s most famous film festival just as Harrison Ford was due on the red carpet for the premier of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. La Croisette was packed with thousands of fans - a surprising number of them in leather fedoras - who’d been lining the streets for hours for a glimpse of the action hero.

The atmosphere was enough to shake off any lingering fatigue from the previous night’s ‘Moonwalk’ – a fantastic annual fundraiser for breast cancer research which starts at midnight and takes you all through central London.

My first stop was a reception to celebrate the London Film Festival. It’s a crucial event in the festival season, a great showcase for British talent and a true celebration of international film. Like Greg Dyke, I have real ambition to see the LFF grow into a first choice for filmmakers and industry, and also to see audiences continue to grow.

I twice had the thrill of walking up the red carpet, attending the world premieres of Gomorrah, a challenging Italian film dealing with the difficult issue of the mafia, and the altogether more light hearted ‘Two Lovers’, starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Joaquin Phoenix. There are few times in life when you really get a taste of the world of the glamorous and famous and this was an experience to savour.

But aside from the glamour, Cannes is a really busy film market with a lot of business being done. This festival is not just about the parties, extravagant though they may be. It’s about selling. It doesn’t matter if you’ve made the next Citizen Kane if nobody gets to see it, so this really is an opportunity for film makers to secure the best international distribution they can.

Spending time with sales agents, producers, directors and other industry representatives, there were some common themes being discussed. There is a real confidence across the film business that the UK truly has world class talent on either side of the camera. But at the same time there are concerns about the impact of piracy on the financial future of film. I hear time and again from creative businesses that copyright theft is a major threat, which is why we put fostering and protecting intellectual property at the heart of our strategy paper, Creative Britain. In meetings with film Ministers from the other European Union countries, it was clear that it’s an issue that’s exercising minds throughout Europe.

Breakfast with the team behind Better Things, a British film attracting a lot of favourable attention after appearing in the Critics’ Week competition at Cannes was enlightening. Director Duane Hopkins is making a name for himself now, but was frank with me about the tough road it takes to get there. I want to make things easier for new talent to break through, and was interested to hear the thoughts of this successful team on what more we might do to support new and independent film makers.

I also had the great pleasure of meeting Terence Davies, an original and distinguished British talent whose film Of time and the city drew admiration from all quarters. I will be sure to see it as soon as it reaches the UK. It is especially exciting that this successful project has come out of Liverpool’s tenure as Capital of Culture, which has proved itself to be a real catalyst for high quality creativity. Terence’s film impressed the international cinephiles in Cannes, just as the Klimpt exhibition has set pulses racing across the art world.

Posted by Margaret Hodge at 01:09 PM | Permalink

One of the joys of the new job is to see and experience new things which would have passed me by in the past. Dance used not to be a top priority, but now I’ve grown to love it.

This month I saw a great variety. Carlos Acosta at the Coliseum is living proof of the extraordinary power and athleticism of dancers as well as their beauty and expression. Moon Water, performed by The Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan was a beautiful performance set to some lovely Bach cello compositions which fired the soul.

And ACE Dance’s performance at the Purcell Room on the South Bank was also great. The six dancers came from South Africa, Italy and the UK, and they performed two pieces, one choreographed by a Japanese choreographer, the other by an African.

I was hugely impressed by the taut control of the first half of the show which contrasted vividly with the energy and the pace of the second half. Afterwards I met the dancers, Marcia Edwards, Keisha Grant, Gwyneth Noot-Griffiths, Thoko Seganye, Luyanda Sidiya and Elena Zaino together with their artistic director Gail Parmel and her husband. It was great to see this enthusiastic and relatively young company bringing so many traditions together for the audience.

I also saw Wayne MacGregor’s rehearsals for his new show Entity. Seeing the collaborative work between the choreographer and the dancers was fascinating. He’s just the right person to be our first Youth Dance Champion, wholly committed to dance, bursting with energy and full of ideas on how to inspire our young people. I’m so pleased we’re committing an extra £5.5 million to Youth Dance England to get even more young people interested in dance. Did you know it’s the second most popular activity at school after football? Maybe we can look forward to a generation of home grown Carlos Acostas.

I never knew where the term “bluestocking” came from, but now, after popping into the National Portrait Gallery’s exhibition Brilliant Women, I do. The exhibition shows the portraits, writings and possessions of a group of late 18th century female writers and artists called the Bluestocking Circle. As I’m sure you’ll know by now if you’re a regular reader, I’m a champion of women’s rights, and I think it’s really important that we recognise the often unsung achievements of women from the past. And of course the portraits and objects are beautiful to look at too.

I was also able to pop along to the first event held by the Society of Antiquaries for women at Burlington House. It was good to be able to meet women at their first networking event and great to see women archaeologists of all ages, including one in her nineties, still actively engaged in digs to discover and explain more of our past

I also attended the opening of ‘For Your Eyes Only’ at the Imperial War Museum which celebrates the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth and his artistic creation in the context of the Second World War and the cold war period in which the books were written.

I particularly enjoyed the unexpected revelations and exhibits. Augustus John had an affair with Fleming’s mother and the exhibit included a delightful drawing of their daughter Amaryllis, half sister to Ian. Other pictures include a luminous and arresting portrait of Fleming’s wife Anne by Lucien Freud and a landscape of Goldeneye, Fleming’s Jamaican island retreat by Noel Coward. James Bond’s appetite for gourmet food was apparently not shared by Ian Fleming who preferred scrambled eggs on a pre–cholesterol scale – 12 eggs and 6oz of butter!

I went to see the Millennium library in Norwich. It’s fabulous. The library’s in a light filled building in the city centre that also houses a café and restaurant. Inside it’s buzzing. The children’s section is laid out perfectly for families, the displays of adult books are enticing and the library on a Tuesday morning was full of different people, including many young people not in education, employment or training for whom the library provides a haven. The success of the library is down to the energy, commitment and skills of the people who work there, and the building itself is great.

When I asked the librarian how she thought of new ideas, she said “When I’m stuck for ideas I go down to Tesco’s and have a look at what they’re doing!” And why not? Supermarkets know how to get people through the door and buy their goods, and cultural institutions are selling an experience like any other organisation. Anything that gets people reading and enjoying books is good as far as I’m concerned.

I went on my first visit to our National Archives in Kew. The Archives hold an amazing collection of records, from state documents dating back to Henry VIII, to papers on the transportation of convicts to Australia. Apart from my family records, I saw plans for an opera house on the Embankment and the menu for a grand dinner for James I. Fascinating. It really is the record of this country’s personal and public history and well worth a trip. It was especially meaningful for me as the archivists had uncovered my family naturalisation papers when we were first granted British Citizenship.

This has been a full month, I spent a week in the USA during recess, holding meetings with everyone from Microsoft and Google to Apple and Yahoo, talking to people in the Games industry and holding meetings with the Film Studios. Many people wanted to talk about the Byron report and our creative Economy Strategy and I was working to attract more investment to the UK.

Recess also provides more opportunities to see live performances, because there is no voting, so it was great to see Richard II at the Roundhouse, (I only wish I could have seen the entire King Cycle) Metamorphoses at the Lyric Hammersmith and God of Carnage at the Gielgud; and a powerful night at Covent Garden seeing the new Harrison Birtwistle opera, The Minotaur. No wonder people say this is the best job in Government.

Posted by Margaret Hodge at 04:49 PM | Permalink

It’s been another hectic period, seeing, experiencing and, for the most part, enjoying a great variety of performances. One highlight was the performance of Britten’s Peter Grimes at Sadler’s Wells by the Opera North ensemble. The third Britten I’ve seen in the last year and again an example of how Britten tackles difficult subjects in a very direct way, using music filled with poetry and human emotion. Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts in the central character had the ‘mission (almost) impossible’ of making us feel something beyond dislike and revulsion towards Grimes, and pulled it off with subtlety and aplomb. The sets were powerful and simple. There was lots of strong singing and acting and I left emotionally drained and uplifted. Well done to Opera North.

From there to the BRITS where I was taken back to my youth by the great Paul McCartney. And a visit to the Brixton Academy to see Mika performing live. The place was full and he successfully got everybody filled with fervour, taking part and joining in with music and song. I came out with a much better understanding of the importance of trying to keep live music venues going – for the pleasure it brings to many and most especially, of course, the young.

Another good fun event was attending the Bird’s Eye Festival at the BFI. This was to mark International Women’s Day, and I got to see some pre 1930’s silent comedy film extracts directed by women: some great cinema in a great festival, put together by Rachel Millward and her team to celebrate women’s achievements in film. It’s pretty shocking, I think, to learn that fewer than 7 per cent of British films are directed by women, and only 12 per cent of scripts are written by women. We’ve got lots of enthusiastic and talented women waiting to break into the industry, and we’ve all got to do more to ensure they are given the opportunity to realize their potential.

Meanwhile, The Other Boleyn Girl which I saw in preview has drawn mixed reviews since opening at the Berlin Festival, with critics panning it as more soap opera than period drama. That’s sort of true but not, I think, any the worse for being so. A strong narrative, sparkling performances in the female leads and some gorgeous outside locations made it a treat for me. David Starkey, who is – let’s face it – better qualified than most to comment on this era, has criticised the film for not using British actresses in the main roles, I believe. A fair comment, of course, although we seldom turn up our noses when Brit actors take roles as North Americans, so I’ll keep out of that one.

And this thought was in my mind earlier this week as I prepared a speech for the IPPR about Identity and Britishness and the role of our cultural institutions. It’s an interesting and complex debate, although familiar territory, and not one I particularly expected to attract much media attention. Well, as John Lennon put it ‘Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans’ and, the press did their best to sensationalize and trivialize what I said – perhaps because they wanted to close down discussion on a devilishly difficult area.

But may I put the record straight? I love the Proms. I’ve been going for as long as I can remember. Indeed, sharp-eyed readers of this diary will recall that last September I wrote:

Monday saw me at The Albert Hall on a balmy evening to marvel at Daniel Barenboim and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performing Schubert’s 5th symphony and Bruckner’s 4th. It was a glorious evening which demonstrated yet again what a fantastic institution the Proms are. There’s a lot of fuss (rightly) made about the Last Night each year but for me it is the season as a whole that means the most. A wonderful part of summer in London, the Proms had the hang of broadening access decades before it became a Government staple.

So what was I trying to say this week? Well, the main point was that I believe that culture, history and heritage are really important when it comes to giving meaning to our shared values and common identity. Sport can work in the same way too. The Proms, though, are a really great example of this: a high-quality cultural experience that welcomes all without dumbing down, and really does have something for everyone. So my speech was not – repeat not - a plea to change them, or to row back on the access policies they have instituted.

It was, instead, an acknowledgement of a pretty widely accepted view: that if we want an inclusive British identity, our audiences need to reflect our multi-ethnic population. And at present the self-evident truth is that too many of our great cultural events do not attract mixed audiences. As a matter of fact, what I said about the Proms season is just as true of most professional football, and a great many of the big rock festivals.

And I don’t want to change them either.

What I want is for us all to work to ensure the audiences becomes more representative and really inclusive. Non of us in public life or the Arts can pat ourselves too warmly on the back until the mainstream arts and culture in this country are enjoyed - and seen to be enjoyed – by more than simply a sea of white faces.

Interestingly, public libraries seem (to my eyes at least) to be addressing this issue with great success. But the tumbling retail price of books and the proliferation of home computers, with their ready access to pretty well unlimited – and unregulated – information, present the public library service with a particular challenge if they are to stay relevant today to the many and varied people who use them. I was in Brighton last week kicking these issues around to an audience of London librarians. And I was at the Bodleian at the weekend talking to some of their founders about similar issues. I made the point that books and the written word were – and always ought to be – the ‘irreducible core’ of the library service. But I threw a few challenges in as well: thinking aloud which local council would be the first to introduce evening and Sunday opening, or home delivery services, or loyalty cards or tie-ins with commercial partners.

Needless to say the media decided to ignore what I had actually said, and I found myself accused of turning my back on books in favour of gimmicks and flim-flam. Sometimes you really can’t win. See you again soon.

Posted by Margaret Hodge at 03:30 PM | Permalink