[2] The East End Film Festival began in 2000, originally set up by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets as a platform to recognise local filmmakers.

[7] The program included City Rats, Elevator, British filmmakers Nicola and Teena Collins' debut film The End, Junior Eurovision Song Contest documentary Sounds Like Teen Spirit, discussion panel The London Perambulator, and Another Dimension And How To Get There.

[13] The festival kicked off on 22 April with a preview screening of Barney Platts-Mills' 1969 film Bronco Bullfrog (set in Stratford, East London, and starring local children) prior to its re-release that summer.

[14] Highlights included Mark Donne's The Rime of the Modern Mariner, narrated by musician Carl Barat;[15] SUS, based on the 1979 play about Margaret Thatcher's "stop and search" laws by Barrie Keeffe; and a series of events commemorating Rock Against Racism, the grassroots movement against the National Front in the late 1970s.

[14] There was also a free screening of Alfred Hitchcock's silent film The Lodger in Spitalfields Market, accompanied by an improvised soundtrack performed live by Minima.

[17] EEFF 2011 saw the launch of Movie May Day, a May Bank Holiday weekend film and cultural event with hundreds of free screenings, projections, live music, quizzes, filmmaking competitions, and site-specific installations across the East End.

[20] The 12th East End Film Festival ran from 25 June until 10 July, opening with the world premiere of Mark Donne's documentary The UK Gold at the Troxy.

The festival closed with a documentary by Marc Silver, on the aftermath of a tragic incident at a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida, which resulted in the death of 17-year-old Jordan Davis.

[citation needed] The festival also hosted the UK premiere of Daniel Florencio's feature debut, Chasing Robert Barker, about a photographer turned paparazzi caught in the downward spiral of a fabricated tabloid story.