Reading Cloggies Film Fund

To record the highlights of each Festival, i.e. the varied performances by specially invited accomplished guests: groups or solo dancers; to record the vast differrences between the many clog and step dance traditions of the British Isles and other parts of the world; to record the dances, routines and styles of material taught at each year's workshops; the lecture by a specially invited guest of long standing accomplishment.

To raise money for the so-called Reading Cloggies Film Fund in order to "further research, document and record fast disappearing step and clog dance traditions." Sadly the money raised by the Festival incl. sales of the Festival videos was rarely used for this purpose, in fact was rarely, if ever, used at all. Indeed the Film Fund has been so jealously guarded by the Trustees - who remain obscure and uncommunicative - that none of the funds have been used for 20 years. There is and never was any formal process in place for applying for funding for any project, and the Film Fund itself is not even documented or audited. The latest project to issue an instructional DVD for the Flett's "Dirk Dance" was abandoned in the mid-2000. More recently it was proposed that professionally produced archival DVDs of the Festival recordings be made for EFDSS, B.F.I., and the B.L. Sound Archives be made. The urgency for this project was due to the ephemeral nature of the analogue recordings, and the 'professional' production company having apparently 'lost' or recycled some of the master tapes. This proposal was rejected, actually the proposal was met with a deafening silence. At the same time it was proposed to make personal DVDs of various performers who have since become seriously ill, incapacitated or passed way, as keepsakes for their close surviving relatives. This project too was rejected. Also too an urgent project would be a DVD of the recordings of the Reading Cloggies and their 'Campaign for Real Reels,' the latter largely defining the performing groups' repertoire until its demise in about 2002. An additional project in mind was the making of a DVD about Alex Woodcock, which no-one has yet got around to, and for whom a large amount of private footage is available. Note that some organisations are selling alternative copies of the Festival videos on VHS. Make sure that you know where your money is going before parting with your hard-earned cash. These should at least be available on high quality DVD disks.