London Short Film Festival into final week
The projector with teeth continues at the ICA in London through to the weekend. What's more, tomorrow night's panel debate with Asif Kapadia, features free (as in free software) beer..
6pm – Curzon Soho C’mon, it’s the VX Auteur Theory 3A showcase of the next generation of D.I.Y auteurs for whom filmmaking is a more rounded, personal process as apposed to clear-cut, traditional film making roles, for those who produce, write, direct, shoot and edit or written the music and acted in it too! Created by Lucia Helenka, a London based artist and filmmaker and supported by Vauxhall, the competition will showcase undiscovered, talented filmmakers with a strong personal vision and hands on approach to filmmaking. This third VX Auteur Theory invites and challenges cross disciplined filmmakers to prove they are the ones to watch, following in the footsteps of last year’s winners Simon Ellis with his film A STORM AND SOME SNOW and Greg Butler with his film A MOUSE FUNERAL. The judges for the 3rd VX Auteur Theory will include actress Natalie Press (MY SUMMER OF LOVE, WASP, NIGHTWATCHING) and filmmaker Asif Kapadia (THE WARRIOR, FAR NORTH). The award ceremony will take place in the Curzon bar immediately following the screening, and tunes will be provided by Hannah Missinthemix. Ticket stub will entitle you to a Vedett beer!
6pm, Curzon Soho, 99 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1
Tickets: £5.50 0871 703 3988 www.curzoncinemas.com
The programme:
THE BARTER – Gustavo Arteaga * BEING THERE – Matthew Murdoch * FLORA & THIEVES - Xanthe Hamilton * JOYEUX NOEL - Ben Adler * MAGNETIC MOVIE – Semiconductor * PETER & BEN – Pinny Grylls * PROCRASTINATION - Johnny Kelly * SHH - Ben Slotover * SURRENDERING SEAMEN – Marco Espirito Santo * TRA-LA-LA – Magali Charrier * UNPOSSIBLE – Robin King
And of course, there’s still 5 and a half days left to go!!! Still to come: music vids at The Roxy * docs at The Roxy * Shorts International, Dazzle ShortFilmLabel & Bitesize Cinema guest screenings * Howling Feedback panel sessions * Teenage Britain * DepicT! * Soundtracks live music-to-film event * UK Film Council shorts * Lo-budget Mayhem * American Hardcore * Club des Femmes & Kathy Acker * Radar Festival * Darryl’s Hard Liquor & P0rn Film Festival * Asif Kapadia & Far North * filmmakers-in-bands
Tues 8 Jan
6pm – Curzon Soho new shorts 9: In the Directors Chair
Four short films not directed by Harmony Korine, Terence Malick, Andrei Tarkovsky, or John Cassevetes but the influences of these auteur filmmakers can definitely be seen and felt in the powerful and original four films on show in this programme. Sean Conway’s ALEX AND HER *RSE TRUCK takes us on a surreal journey with nymphomaniacs and drug dealing lesbians, while Scott Graham’s SHELL takes us to the wide open remote spaces of Scotland in a story of loneliness and escape. Jonathan Stewart’s MIRRORS gives us a lone man’s pained journey across an empty landscape to redemption, while Jason Yi’s FLATSHARE comes on like an improvised loose riff with a group of bickering students in low rent accommodation.
From 7pm – Roxy Bar & Screen Music Film Nite
A film night featuring the best in new music videos and short films. Free entry!
BBC FILM NETWORK NEW MUSIC SHORTS
BBC Film Network, Electric Proms and New Talent challenged filmmakers to make original new films inspired by new music tracks. They partnered with Domino Records, 679 Recordings, Big Dada and Warp Records, who provided some of their latest release tracks, and Warp Films, who produced the selected films with the directors. The five new filmmakers received a budget of up to £5,000 to create a new innovative film. The five films feature music by Lightspeed Champion, The Earlies, Wiley and Gravenhurst. Filmmakers will be on hand for a post-screening Q&A. www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork
THINKSYNC FILMS
Founded in 2005 and now in it’s third year, ThinkSync Films brings together independent filmmakers with independent record labels & publishers through it’s annual short film competition where entrants are invited to submit short films which incorporate one or more tracks that are downloadable free of charge. Tonight’s selection will be supported by a Q&A with some of the filmmakers www.thinksyncfilms.com
SEABUZZARD filmmaker focus
A special retrospective with videomakers Sarah Sea and Fay Milton, known collectively as SeaBuzzard. Since 2005 they’ve been working on music videos and short documentaries with Foals, The Mystery Jets, Kieron Hebden, and The Noisettes, plus The Mighty Boosh backstage antics and their independent documentary on the Austin Texas SXSW Festival. All will be on show tonight and Sarah & fay will be on hand for a Q&A. www.myspace.com/seabuzzard
Weds 9 Jan
4pm – Curzon Soho bar (free entry) Howling Feedback 3: Shooting People presents Primordial Soup
Collaboration is one of the key skills needed in filmmaking, yet it is rarely discussed. Festivals may provide the perfect meeting ground for likeminded directors, writers and producers to meet, but when that spark flies at the post-screening drinks how do you ignite a project and create a team? Chaired by Shooting People’s uber-networked creative director James Mullighan and filmmaker Ben Blaine, this event will cover strategies from initial networking, to how to put a crew together and most importantly how to communicate and creatively involve the people you work with.
6pm – Curzon Soho C’mon, it’s the VX Auteur Theory 3
A showcase of the next generation of D.I.Y auteurs for whom filmmaking is a more rounded, personal process as apposed to clear-cut, traditional film making roles, for those who produce, write, direct, shoot and edit or written the music and acted in it too! Created by Lucia Helenka, a London based artist and filmmaker and supported by Vauxhall, the competition will showcase undiscovered, talented filmmakers with a strong personal vision and hands on approach to filmmaking. This third VX Auteur Theory invites and challenges cross disciplined filmmakers to prove they are the ones to watch, following in the footsteps of last year’s winners Simon Ellis with his film A STORM AND SOME SNOW and Greg Butler with his film A MOUSE FUNERAL. The judges for the 3rd VX Auteur Theory will include actress Natalie Press (MY SUMMER OF LOVE, WASP, NIGHTWATCHING) and filmmaker Asif Kapadia (THE WARRIOR, FAR NORTH). The award ceremony will take place in the Curzon bar immediately following the screening. www.vxcollective.co.uk
6.30pm – ICA Cinema 2 guest screening: Shorts International
Shorts International is the world's largest distributor of short films across multiple platforms, including television, iTunes, Sony PSP and mobile phones. Here they present a selection of the work they represent and will answer your questions.
8.30pm – ICA Cinema 2 guest screening: Bitesize Cinema Winter 2008
Bitesize Cinema scour the world of short film for award winning original work from the hottest new movie making talent. Each quarterly programme features genres and styles to suit all palates.
From 7pm – Roxy Bar & Screen FourDocs + new shorts 10: docs
FOURDOCS present THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF FOOTBALL free entry!
Channel 4's online documentary Channel, FourDocs, takes you on a documentary journey into the heart of Yorkshire football culture. A mix of treats from the Yorkshire Film Archive and newer "user generated" fans' films, see just what the beautiful game means to those in the most beautiful county. From Bradford City's first trip to Bournemouth in the 1940s, accompanied by wicker baskets and fags, to Brian Clough and Don Revie's fractious 1970s local television encounter, to strange, devoted, quickly-assembled paeans to success and failure from the 21st century. The medium may change, but the passion of Yorkshire football has always been documented. Silent archive films accompanied by live piano. www.channel4.com/fourdocs
NEW SHORTS 10: docs
A themed 100 minute selection of short films from open submission into the 5th London Short Film Festival, which will culminate in the FourDocs Award for Best Documentary Short within this year’s Festival. From skateboarding in Southsea to mudlarking on the Thames, from being high up on London building site cranes to being on the lonely Yorkshire moors with just sheep for company. From the dark urban heart of Glasgow to the hard life of a stand up comedian trying to break the big time. Forget reality TV, all real life is here tonight…
Thu 10 Jan
4pm – Curzon Soho bar (free entry) Howling Feedback 4: Rushes presents The Future of Advertising
With a DIY aesthetic flooding the promo world, is YouTube dictating advertising? Does the death of virals mean the rise of serials? Now commercials and short films are increasingly merging, colliding and hybridising, where’s it all heading? And how can you get a piece of the action? As the Rushes Soho Short Film Festival rebrands its Title Sequences and Idents category to become the Broadcast Design Award, festival director Joe Bateman reflects on current trends in advertising format and content with guests from Imperial Leisure and Film Friends Forever. Plus Eoghan Kidney, who’s StreamLounge will be in the ICA bar later tonight.
5.30pm - Goldsmiths College Made in Poland
A screening of 3 shorts made in Poland, through the Lodz film school schemes. Following the screening director Martin Gavreau (AGNEISZKA 2039, POLAND NIGHTS) will be in conversation about his experiences filming in Poland. Free entry!
(Screen 1, Media Research Building, Goldsmiths College, New Cross London SE14)
6pm – Curzon Soho new shorts 11: Teenage Britain
Tales from the frontline of Britain’s youth in the 21st century; not for the fainthearted. Includes the Teenage Jury Award.
6pm – ICA Cinema 1 guest screening: DepicT!
"... a veritable treasure trove of tiny triumphs" The Guardian
Watershed's short filmmaking competition, part of Encounters International Short Film Festival, has been challenging filmmakers from across the globe to come up with a compelling, imaginative idea and distil it into 90 seconds since 1999. This cherry picked selection from the DepicT! vaults, along with the London premiere of the ten DepicT! ‘07 shortlisted films, offers a unique chance to experience an astounding range of work on the big screen and reflect on the endless possibilities of the ultra short format. Filmmakers will be in attendance for a Q&A following the screening.
“In a world where so many films outstay their welcome, these are films that get in and get out before you've swallowed your first mouthful of popcorn... the avant-garde of short films in the frenzied, instant satisfaction world of the 21st century.” Damien O'Donnell
6.30pm – ICA Cinema 2 guest screening: dazzle
dazzle, the UK's hottest independent short film label, handles the exclusive distribution, exhibition and sales rights for a selective catalogue of award-winning, critically acclaimed UK and international titles. From 90-second, digital micro-movies to super-35mm masterpieces, dazzle's bijou short film collection is often provocative, always original and sure to inspire.
From 7pm – ICA Bar StreamLounge
Formerly The YouTube lounge, this public audiovisual setup in keeping with tonight’s found-footage theme, allows a user to DJ / VJ between their favourite Internet videos from sites such as YouTube, Veoh, Stage6, Dailymotion or Google video. It is the perfect opportunity to showcase your own favourite online videos and an excuse to express yourself through the creation of a live mash-up of audio and video, creating and rearranging works into a live video stream controlled by a single user that evades rational analysis, but allowing subtle new meanings emerging from the chaos of Youtube's immense video library. The Streamlounge was first set up at the 2007 Darklight Symposium in Dublin, and has since shown up at night in Dublin pubs and, more surprisingly, on stage at the Reading and Leeds festivals.
8pm – ICA Theatre Soundtracks – found-footage vs. post-rock
Live: LADYSCAPER vs. Max Hattler + BLOOD STEREO vs Ben Rivers + THE EXPLOITS OF ELAINE vs Sarah Wood + film programme
There is a long history of artists working with found footage, and recently interest has been revived and encouraged by the new BFI Mediatheque and the Prelinger Archive. Award winning filmmakers Sarah Wood, Ben Rivers and Max Hattler are using archive and found footage to create short films and visuals sets to screen tonight, to be accompanied by live music from three of the most experimental avant-garde outfits around. The event is supported by Animate Projects http://www.myspace.com/animateprojects who explore the relationship between the visual arts and animation.
LADYSCRAPER
A laptop set by one of the UK’s most innovative and hardcore electronica artistes. His releases on Brighton’s Wrong Music label have veered into breakcore, gabba and drum n bass territory, but tonight could see some mellower musings alongside the insane bpm’s and soundtrack samples.
http://www.myspace.com/ladyscraper Award winning animator, visuals artiste and VJ Max Hattler brings his super 8 krautrock stylings and images from his laptop library to accompany the musical madness on stage.
BLOOD STEREO & guests
Brand new big-band line-up from Blood Stereo: The duo of Dylan Nyoukis and Karen Constance are joined by a bunch of screaming ladyfriends, including members of Brighton’s Leopard Leg. Bowed springs and strings, tortured vocals, tape loops, charged chasms of silence and the sudden rush of blood-pumping electronics, moving from huge steels of beautiful, slow-floating lung into fully charged slow-motion meat/brain spasms, making sound like some kind of hulking alien life-form breaking out of a rusty cryogenic deep-space chamber. http://www.myspace.com/bloodstereo
Filmmaker Ben Rivers says of his found-footage horror film TERROR!: "A love letter to the genre which got me into film in the first place; these films I’ve cut up in particular, which I saw when I was about 10 or 12, due to a dodgy video shop owner in my village who seemed to enjoy pushing these films onto our young minds. His shop, by the way, was in the basement of the Methodist church — I don't think they had any idea what was coming out of their cellar."
THE EXPLOITS OF ELAINE
Five young men from Nottingham and Leeds, occasionally joined by friends from elsewhere, who make music which speaks of a mysterious past and dreams of a better future. Organic, kraut-like experimentations with elements of folk poking their heads above their noise. Expect guitars, chord organ, jew's harp, violin, zither, synth, melodica, mandolin, glockenspiel, banjo, trumpet, wok, other amplified objects, voice and computer. http://www.myspace.com/theexploitsofelaine
Filmmaker Sarah Wood says of her found-footage film THE BOOK OF LOVE, that it’s “a found footage investigation into the psychosexual landscape of love. Love is never having to say you're sorry; love is soft as an easy chair. Is it? For decades scientists have worked hard to uncover the truth. THE BOOK OF LOVE reveals some of their findings.”
+ Found-Footage film programme: To kick off proceedings, a chance to see some of the classics of found-footage films: Thomas Draschan & Ulrich Wiesner’s YES? OUI? JA?, Anne McGuire’s THE WALTONS, Sarah Wood’s I WANT TO BE A SECRETARY, and People Like Us with WE EDIT LIFE. Thanks to LUX.
Fri 11 Jan
2.30pm – ICA cinema 1 guest screening: UK Film Council Digital Shorts
The New Cinema Fund has partnered with organisations in each region and nation of the UK to enable filmmakers to make innovative shorts using digital technology. The screening will be followed by a networking session in the bar.
6.30pm – ICA Cinema 1 new shorts 12: Love on the Road
A week on from last Saturday’s F*cked Up Love selection of new films comes a further collection of romance imbued short films, but this time set on our byways and motorways.
11pm– ICA Cinema 1 new shorts 13: Lo Budget Mayhem
Expect a raucous show with our regular and popular selection of films, from bad taste depravity to no-budget lunacy. Toronto’s Darryl’s Hard Liquor & P0rn Film Festival will be on hand to give an award.
11pm – Curzon Soho feature doc: American Hardcore (Paul Rachman, US 2006)
AMERICAN HARDCORE is a new documentary film about the history and origins of American punk rock music from 1980 to 1986. Generally unheralded at the time, the early 1980s hardcore punk rock scene gave birth to much of the rock music and culture that followed. There would be no Nirvana, Beastie Boys or Red Hot Chili Peppers were it not for hardcore pioneers such as Black Flag, Bad Brains and Minor Threat. Hardcore was more than music - it was a social movement created by Reagan-era misfit kids. The participants constituted a tribe unto themselves - some finding a voice, others an escape in the hard-edged music. And while some sought a better world, others were just angry and wanted to raise hell. AMERICAN HARDCORE traces this lost subculture, from its early roots in 1980 to 1986. http://www.myspace.com/americanhardcorefilm http://www.sonyclassics.com/americanhardcore/
Join us in the bar from 9pm for a pre-screening drink and some hardcore sounds from DJs Stevie Chick, Jamie Thomson and Tony Sylvester bringing in their original hardcore 7”s to wow the crowd. Supported by Visible Noise.
Sat 12 Jan
1.45pm – ICA cinema 1 new shorts 13: Women on the Verge
This selection of new films brings us femmes with attitude. Includes the Club des Femmes Award for Best Woman Character.
4pm – ICA Cinema 2 Club des Femmes presents Discipline & Anarchy: a celebration of Kathy Acker
VARIETY Dir Bette Gordon 1982
Described by the LA Times as “a feminist Vertigo”, VARIETY tells the sexually-charged tale of a woman’s journey of self discovery. Controversial for its time, Acker’s script upends feminist ideology by showing a woman who finds self-expression through an interest in pornography. Gordon’s powerful film is helped along by an impressive array of talent. Nan Goldin acts, Tom DiCillo films, Spalding Gray makes obscene phone calls and John Lurie scores the film to give it its unique sensual appeal.
6pm – ICA Cinema 1 Radar Awards
Radar create professional opportunities for emerging music video filmmakers worldwide. The Radar Awards present winners and showcase the best entries from this year's competitions held with record labels NinjaTune, Mercury, Parlophone, Mute, Gronland, Independiente, Adage and Warp. Featuring stunning animation, gorgeous graphics, excellent filmmaking and promos from weird to poetic to gripping to beautiful. The best new music video talent in the world! Followed by guest DJs in the bar.
6.30pm – ICA Cinema 2 guest screening: dazzle presents Lipstick Cherry
Short film sales agent dazzle returns with it’s strand highlighting unsung female technical talent behind the camera, focussing on cinematographers and editors as well as directors.
8.45pm – ICA Cinema 1 Club des Femmes presents Discipline & Anarchy: a celebration of Kathy Acker
Sex-Positive: a Night of Film and Fiction
Sit back and let Club Des Femmes take you on an Acker trip with a celebration of American experimental novelist, prose stylist, essayist, and sex-positive feminist, Kathy Acker. Short film in the spirit of Acker’s writing, including work by Betzy Bromberg, Tessa Hughes-Freeland, Clio Barnard and Jennifer Reeves & MM Seera, will be accompanied by readings from her work by Ali Smith and Kathleen Bryson.
From 7pm – Roxy Bar & Screen DARRYL’S HARD LIQUOR AND P0RN FILM FESTIVAL
Darryl's Hard Liquor and P0rn Film Festival is a COMEDY short film festival for adults only, based in Toronto, Canada. They’re with us tonight to showcase the best of their recent films. Part video showcase and part drunken bash, the show features short films and animations from Canada and all parts of the globe. There's no guarantee you will see any REAL P0RN. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you perverts. But audience participation and possible dressing up suitably for the occasion will be encouraged. http://hardliquorandporn.com Free entry!
Sun 13 Jan
2pm– ICA Cinema 1 filmmaker focus: Asif Kapadia
Hackney-born Kapadia originally studied graphic design before his interest in filmmaking led him to study at Newport Film School, the University of Westminster and the Royal College of Art. His graduate short from the RCA THE SHEEP THIEF shot in India with non actors, won many awards around the world including at Cannes and the Grand Prix at the European Short Film Festival. His first feature THE WARRIOR was shot in Rajasthan, India and won the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film & the Award for the Most Promising Newcomer at the 2002 BAFTAs and the London Film Festival’s Sutherland Trophy for the Most Original & Imaginative First Feature, the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Newcomer. His new film FAR NORTH premiered at the Venice Film Festival, stars Michelle Yeoh, Sean Bean and Michelle Krusiec and was shot on the archipelago of Svalbard, one of the most northern settlements in the world, two hours south of the north pole. Asif joins us today for a screening of both his own short film work and shorts that influenced him, followed by a Q&A session.
4pm– ICA Cinema 1 FAR NORTH (Asif Kapadia)
An exclusive preview of Asif Kapadia’s striking third feature. Michelle Yeoh stars as a woman struggling to raise her child in Svalbard, one of the northern most settlements on the planet, and Sean Bean is the mysterious stranger who enters her life. Majestic visuals heighten the tale which carries with it the resonance of myth. Asif will introduce the screening. In conjunction with cinematICA.
From 5pm – Amersham Arms CLOSING NIGHT EVENT: AWARDS & FILMMAKERS-IN-BANDS
This years awards ceremony takes place at this new New Cross venue, and is punctuated by rock n roll from bands featuring some of our favourite filmmakers. Free entry!
Economy Wolf (featuring visuals by Max Hattler)
Economy Wolf comprises 5 musicians from London and Paris. They bonded over a shared love for computer game music, French pop and very vast spaces, fascinated in what would happen if these disparate influences were brought together under a haze of droning guitars and feral analogues. Award winning animator Max Hattler has created two MTV2-featured music videos for the band, introducing Johannes ‘Your Highness’ Ender as a Bez-esque honorary dancing member. For this London Short Film Festival performance Your Highness will be present in person. Daniel Berio aka Enist, a graphic designer and programmer from Florence, Italy, is supporting Max’s visuals with his custom-made graphics engine that renders Your Highness into a computer games character. Tonight’s performance will be the second of its kind, since the now-legendary gig for Beck’s Fusions at the ICA earlier in 2007. http://www.economywolf.com / http://www.maxhattler.com
Sooks (featuring Joe Tunmer)
The members of Sooks met at a feral child relocation centre and since then have been playing stop start music in Brighton. They are now finishing their debut record and playing a series of chaotic live shows in Brighton, London and beyond. http://www.myspace.com/sookstheband
Bearcub (featuring Greg Butler)
One day in 2005 filmmaker Greg Butler was tinkering around with his musical equipment (a fire alarm, an acoustic pneumatic drill and a cheese grater). As time went by, he grew cold and needy in the solitary confinement of his solo project. Craving for the warmth and stability of an international rock act, he decided to visit his friend Will Fisk (formerly The Surgens / Plastic Hip), a notorious train robber from the Peterborough area. Once embedded into Will's seedy underworld (OMM), he was introduced to his authoritarian and frankly draconian brother, Ted (The Oliver Twist Project), who whipped him into shape quicker than you can say "You've stepped on my custard". Ted plucked his bass with such grace that he managed to mesmerise his new band mates into a performance that would be acceptable to the ear of the common man. The result of that fateful day, and many more to come, is 'BEARCUB'. Hear them roar!!!!...or something. http://www.myspace.com/bearcubden
The Reunionists (featuring Ben Blaine)
They sound like a fight in a lift. Not only does the band contain both director extraordinaire Ben Blaine and producer Zee Ahmad but the guitarist is the chief projectionist at the Vue in Leicester Square! All we need is to get some development execs to sing backing vocals and they'd be the whole damn industry. They grew up together in a greenish stretch of the world somewhere between North London and nowhere and although they always stop they always start again. http://www.myspace.com/whitecoffinclub
Full Festival details at http://www.a-to-m.com/lsff/