A 16-year-old schoolgirl from Birmingham has turned star reporter for a day for education charity FILMCLUB, when she interviewed Hollywood star Dustin Hoffman about his directorial debut film Quartet, which premiered at the prestigious 56th BFI London Film Festival last night.
Zara Rahim on the red carpet
Zara Rahim, who attends King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls and is a member of the nationwide FILMCLUB programme, attended the red-carpet premiere of the new British film in Leicester Square where she spoke to Hoffman (Tootsie, Rain Man, Hook, Kramer vs. Kramer, The Graduate). She also chatted to some of the film’s stars including Billy Connolly (Gulliver’s Travels, Brave, Mrs Brown), Pauline Collins OBE (Shirley Valentine, Albert Nobbs), and Tom Courtenay (Last Orders, Billy Liar, The Golden Compass) about their roles in the movie, which is set in a home for retired opera singers.
Earlier that day the teen also hosted a ‘FILMCLUB Live’ webcast for the charity’s 220,000 members interviewing actress Hada Yaron whose film Fill The Void features in the prestigious film festival.
Zara said of her experience: “It was amazing. I was bit apprehensive about reporting on the red carpet but everyone was so lovely. The film was so amazing it made it completely natural to ask questions because I was genuinely interested. Dustin Hoffman was so lovely and genuinely seemed to have an interest in what I was asking which was good. I couldn’t pick a favourite interview out of Pauline, Billy and Dustin…they are all so talented so to get the opportunity to speak to any of them was amazing.”
Zara got this opportunity as part of the charity’s FILMCLUB Talent Development programme, which enables members of FILMCLUB pupils with an exceptional passion for film to more fully experience behind-the-scenes elements of the film industry whilst opening up opportunities and broadening horizons. The youngster had previously been on the red-carpet for FILMCLUB at the 2011 BAFTA Awards. Zara’s interviews will feature on the FILMCLUB website.
FILMCLUB is a nationwide charity, which help schools set up and run film clubs for young people to watch, discuss and review a wide range of films from past and present, encouraging learning through an informal environment. The charity are inviting more schools to join the scheme, and are hosting free start-up sessions for education professionals interested in setting up a film club in their school. For more information visit: www.filmclub.org/register or call 0207 288 4520 for further information.