Raindance Film Festival Kicks off this Week

Wednesday sees the opening of the 14th Raindance Film Festival, with the Tony Grisoni-penned conjoined twin punk film Brothers of the Head. Other festival highlights include a Stanley Kubrick retrospective, a music documentary filmed a few days before Johnny Ramone's death, discussion panels and the infamous Live!Ammunition! pitching event. 

From the festival press release

The festival opens on Wednesday 27 September with the London premiere of Brothers Of The Head. Having previously directed various making-of films, this is directing duo Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe’s debut feature. Based on a story by sci-fi writer Brian Aldiss, and with a screenplay by Tony Grisoni, it’s a dark and twisted mocumentary that follows a 1970s music promoter as he plucks conjoined twins Tom and Barry Howe from obscurity and grooms them into a freakish rock’n’roll act. It took top honours at last month’s Edinburgh Film Festival where it won the Michael Powell award for best new British feature film, so you won’t want to miss its London debut.

Another British highlight is Mark Hammond’ s Johnny Was. Starring Vinnie Jones as Johnny Doyle, a man whose efforts to escape a violent past in Ireland by lying low in Brixton are thwarted when a former mentor (Patrick Bergin) breaks out of Brixton Prison. Questioning race, morality and loyalty, this gangsta flick features a Rastafarian reggae pirate radio station, Yardie crack dealers, a brilliant soundtrack, and an eclectic cast that includes former ER star Eriq La Salle, boxer Lennox Lewis, actress and pop star Samantha Mumba, former footballer and TV presenter John Fashanu, and The Who’s Roger Daltry.

Rock music has long been an integral part of Raindance, and this year is no exception with a handful of music documentaries that supplant some of the decades most significant live performances onto celluloid. Too Tough To Die: A Tribute To Johnny Ramone is a rocumentary capturing an unforgettable benefit concert that took place on September 12, 2004, just two-and-a-half days before Johnny Ramone’s death. Joined onstage by a group of musicians and friends – including Deborah Harry, The Dickies, X, Eddie Vedder, Joan Jett, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers – the concert was staged to celebrate The Ramones 30th Anniversary and to raise money for cancer research. This world premiere screening, sponsored by HMV, will be introduced by Marky Ramone, followed by a Q&A with Marky and Mojo’s Kieron Tyler.

When Neil Young played Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium in August 2005, after successfully undergoing lifesaving surgery to remove a brain aneurysm just months earlier, his performance was captured by Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme. The resulting feature, Neil Young: Heart Of Gold, is a unique collaboration that has its UK premiere at Raindance. Another UK premiere is Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man, a biographical snapshot of one of the greatest poets of popular music. Taking the recent “Came So Far For Beauty” tribute concert as its starting point, the film splices live performances of Cohen’s songs by artists like Nick Cave, Beth Orton, and Rufus and Martha Wainwright, with behind-the-scenes interviews that reflect Cohen’s quietly gripping presence and dry humour.

Taking its name from the bands key philosophy, There Is No Authority But Yourself is a documentary following British anarcho-punk band Crass from 1977 to 1984 and through to the present day. This screening will be hosted by Penny Rimbaud and Gee Vaucher. Unauthorised and Proud of It: Todd Loren’s Rock’n’Roll Comics examines the life and death of publisher Todd Loren, who spearheaded unauthorised comic book biographies of rock, pop, and rap stars. Beginning with Guns & Roses in 1989, he was famously sued by New Kids On The Block, and more famously murdered in 1992 – the principal suspect being serial killer Andrew Cunanan who later murdered Gianni Versace.

The 14th Raindance Film Festival is privileged to celebrate the work of maverick director Stanley Kubrick with a 35th anniversary screening of what is possibly his most notorious work, A Clockwork Orange. Festival filmgoers will also have a rare opportunity to see Kubrick’s sci-fi masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey on the big screen. Rounding off this Kubrick retrospective is the acclaimed documentary Stanley Kubrick: A Life In Pictures, which will be hosted by the films director Jan Harlan – also Kubrick’s long-time executive producer and brother-in-law.

>From Australia comes the subversive and sexually explicit documentary Liberty In Restraint, which follows fetish photographer Noel Graydon as he explores the BDSM community via rope artists, adult babies, electro-torture, and blood play enthusiasts. The result is a provocative, erotic, and graphic exploration of sexual desire and freedom of expression.

>From China comes the intriguing Little Red Flowers by Yuan Zhang, this years Director In Residence. The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, and took home the C.I.C.A.E. award at Berlin. It follows four-year old Qiang, deposited in a kindergarten in post-1949 Beijing by his travelling parents. But the kindergartens sunny rituals and carefully organised regime, designed to train each child to be a good member of society, doesn’t sit comfortably with Qiang’s rebellious nature. Someone else who doesn’t fit in is Rodney Miller, the protagonist of offbeat American comedy Fat Girls. This shy and awkward school student in a small Texan town loves the theatre and dreams of being on Broadway, hence only his theatre teacher (played by award-winning documentary filmmaker Jonathan Caouette) understands him. This heartfelt and often very funny gay film was written, directed by, and stars 19-year old Ash Christian. This will be its international premiere.

A London premiere is Wristcutters: A Love Story, by debut director Goran Dukic. The film is set in a strange afterlife reserved for those who have committed suicide, and stars Patrick Fugit, Shannyn Sossamon, and rock singer Tom Waits. One of the most intriguing films to emerge from Eastern Europe is Serbian debut director Stevan Filipovic’s Sheitan’s Warrior. A group of secondary schoolchildren find an old esoteric book that can be used to summon a demon but, this being a dark Harry Potter-type tale, it falls into the wrong hands...

The festival closes on Sunday 8 October with the World premiere of British comedy Scenes Of A Sexual Nature. This debut feature from former Raindance film course student, Ed Blum, was shot in less than a month for a budget of under £500,000. Following seven couple as they explore love, sex and relationships one sunny afternoon on Hampstead Heath, the film boasts a stella British cast that includes Ewan McGregor, comedienne Catherine Tate, Oscar-nominated actress Sophie Okonedo, Adrian Lester, Andrew Lincoln, Douglas Hodge, Gina McKee, Hugh Bonneville, Mark Strong and Polly Walker. “I am so delighted that Scenes Of A Sexual Nature has been selected as closing night film of this year’s Raindance Festival which has always been a celebration of independent filmmaking, encouraging young filmmakers to live the dream,” says the films producer/director Ed Blum.

THURSDAY 28 SEPTEMBER
13:00 Only I Know
[Canada, dir Kire Paputts]
Doc about the gradual destruction and dysfunction of a family, using 21 years worth of footage

13:00 Floating Lamp Of The Shadow Valley
[Kashmir, dir Rajesh Jala]
Nine-year-old Arif supports his family, ferrying people across the Dal Lake

15:00 Dear Pyongyang
[Japan, dir Yong-hi Yang]
A Korean-Japanese daughter tries to understand her father’s sworn political loyalty to North Korea

15:15 What’s A Man Without A Moustache?
[Croatia, dir Hrvoje Hribar]
A young widow, an ex-alcoholic priest, a former emigrant and his German daughter fight the obstacles in their mind.

17:15 Bambi Bone
[Japan, dir Noriko Shibutani]
Two young friends in Tokyo hatch a revenge plot

17:30 Height of Sky
[USA, dir Morleigh Steinberg]
After moving from the lush greenery of Japan to the concrete aridity of LA, Butoh dancer, Oguri, finds himself transplanted to an alien environment

19:30 Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man
[USA, dir Lian Lunson]
Tribute to one of music’s most celebrated artists. Performances from Beth Orton, Rufus Wainwright, Nick Cave and U2 with Cohen himself

19:45 straight8 Showcase

21:45 Book of the Dead
[Japan, dir Kihochiro Kawamoto]
Animation, focusing on a young noble woman who is stalked by the ghost of Prince Otsu

22:00 5 and 1/2 Roofs
[UK/Austria, dir Sepp R Bruddermann]
An eclectic spectrum of inhabitants from six different London squats



FRIDAY 29 SEPTEMBER

13:00 Little Fugitive
[USA, dir Joanna Lipper]
Lenny is burdened with the responsibility of looking after his younger brother Joey

15:00 Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal
[USA, dir Kelly Duda]
Doc about how tainted blood was sold to patients in Canada, the UK and around the world during Clinton’s governorship

15:15 Penumbra
[Ireland, dir Gwynne Mcelveen]
Doc following Gwynne who travels from Ireland to Idaho to visit her penfriend Jim

17:00 Seven and a Half
[Serbia, dir Miroslav Momcilovi]
Seven stories from ‘the neighbourhood’ that also provide a mirror to the seven mortal sins

17:30 Shorts: Animated Display A

19:00 The Ballad of AJ Weberman
[UK, dir Oliver Ralfe & James Bluemer]
Doc chronicling the life, times and crimes of a notorious Bob Dylan obsessive

19:15 Neil Young: Heart of Gold
[USA, dir Jonathan Demme]
Neil Young’s two-night performance at the famed Ryman Auditorium in Nashville

21:30 A Clockwork Orange
[UK/USA, dir Stanley Kubrick]
35th anniversary screening of Stanley Kubrick’s most astonishing work

21:45 The Strange Saga of Hiroshi the Freeloading Sex Machine
[Japan, dir Yuji Tajiri]
Hiroshi lives off his single-mum girlfriend. He is drawn into the local cricket fighting craze and an epic showdown draws near.
Screening with Bitter Sweet
[Japan, dir Mitsuru Meike] A woman is hesitant about her approaching wedding, while the man she is sleeping with doubts his own marriage



SATURDAY 30 SEPTEMBER

11:30 The 600 Second Short Film Project

12:00 Shorts: Official Selection

13:15 Panel: Framestore, Panavision & New Tech

13:45 Fat Girls
[USA, dir Ash Christian]
Off-beat comedy following an atypical Texas student who dreams of being on Broadway
15:00 SAE Award Showcase

16:00 Moon & Cherry
[Japan, dir Yuki Tanaka]
Tadokoro’s sexual encounters with Mayama become serialised in a weekly men’s magazine

16:45 Vertigo Panel: Blurring The Lines

18:00 Johnny Was
[UK, dir Mark Hammond]
Johnny Doyle escapes a violent past in Ireland to lie low in London, until his former mentor Flynn breaks out of prison. With Vinnie Jones and Lennox Lewis

18:30 Shooting Nick
[USA, dir Daniel Yost]
A middle-aged loser is kidnapped by a manic couple

20:15 Wristcutters: A Love Story
[USA, dir Goran Dukic]
A strange afterlife limbo that has been reserved for people who have committed suicide

20:30 Texas
[Italy, dir Fausto Paravidino]
Northern Italy is supposed to be as boring as rural Texas. Not when a slacker has an affair with a married teacher

22:15 Liberty in Restraint
[Australia, dir Michael Ney]
Doc sbout S&M subculture that follows a fetish photographer’s quest for authenticity

22:30 Disorder
[USA, dir Jack Thomas Smith]
A schizophrenic tries to capture a masked killer



SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER

12:00 Taming Of The Shrew
[UK, dir Ljiljana Kojic-Bogdanovich]
A classical ballet interpretation

13:15 Who Gets To Call It Art?
[USA, dir Peter Rosen]
The New York pop art scene in the 1960s, as seen through the eyes of Henry Geldzahler

13:30 Dancing for Oliver
[UK, dir Suzanne Gielgud]
Doc about the dance scenes from Oliver Stone's Alexander featuring an exclusive and intimate interview with Stone.


15:30 The Wind
[Argentina/Spain, dir Eduardo Migogna]
A farmer travels to Buenos Aires to tell his granddaughter Alina about her mother’s death

17:30 Shorts: Intimate Fiction

18:15 A Stranger of Mine
[Japan, dir Kenji Uchida]
A devastated Miyata, a tired detective, a yakuza boss, a woman with a two-timing fiancé, and a con woman who twists men around her finger, cross paths

19:30 Gower Boy
[UK, dir Gee Vaucher]
A gentle, exploration of the Gower Peninsula in Wales, accompanied live in the cinema by jazz pianist Huw Warren

20:15 Little Birds
[Japan, dir Takeharu Watai]
Doc following a Japanese filmmaker who remained in Iraq once the US armed forces entered

21:30 Really
[UK, dir Daniel Mitelpunkt]
The exploits of Eleanor, who desperately wants to change her life

22:15 True, True Lie
[UK/ Romania, dir Eric Styles]
Released from a mental asylum after 12 years, Dana returns to the outside world, haunted by images of a disturbing past yet convinced she was never insane



MONDAY 2 OCTOBER

13:00 HDFest: Mars Underground
[USA, dir Scott J Gill]
Doc about the possibility of life on Mars

14:00 Shorts: Surreal Encounters

15:00 HDFest: Shorts

16:30 Shorts: Mystery Tales

17:00 HDFest Panel: Digital Special Effects

18:30 Stanley Kubrick: A Life In Pictures
[UK, dir Jan Harlan]
Pictures, clips, old home movies and commentaries including Jack Nicholson and Scorcese. Followed by Q&A with Jan Harlan

18:45 HDFest: Expiration Date
[USA, dir Rick Stevenson]
Charlie Silvercloud III’s grandfather and father were killed on their 25th birthdays by milk trucks. He turns 25 in eight days time

20:45 Next: A Primer on Urban Painting
[Canada, dir Pablo Aravena]
Doc exploring graffiti as a worldwide cultural phenomenon

21:45 Octopus Alarm
[Austria, dir Elizabeth Schrang]
Doc following Alex, identified as male on his birth certificate, by age two reassigned as a girl



TUESDAY 3 OCTOBER

13:00 The Last Monk
[India, dir Sudipto Sen]
Newly-married Swapna is mesmerised by a mystical culture

13:15 Unauthorized and Proud of It: Todd Loren’s Rock & Roll Comics
[USA, dir Ilko Davidov]
Doc about murdered controversial publisher

15:00 Suruwat
[Nepal, dir KP Pathak]
The problems with the caste system in a remote rural village

15:15 Shorts: Documentary

17:15 The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief
[Japan, dir Jake Clennell]
The extraordinary world of Osaka's Café Rakkyo

17:15 Shorts: Battle Zones

19:30 Live!Ammunition! Followed by party

19:15 Hounded
[Germany, dir Angelina Maccarone]
A middle aged probation officer is drawn into an S&M relationship with a teenage boy

21:15Get Thrashed
[USA, dir Rick Ernst]
Doc tracing the rise, fall and impact of thrash metal bands

21:30 Night People
[UK, dir Adrian Mead]
A journey across the city of Edinburgh on a cold October night



WEDNESDAY 4 OCTOBER

13:00 Yahaan
[India, dir Shoojit Sircar]
A love story amidst the death that visits the Kashmiris everyday

13:00 Karaula
[Croatia, dir Rajko Grlic]
A lieutenant discovers he has a sexually-transmitted infection and so declares a state of national emergency

16:00 Not a Photograph: Mission of Burma
[USA, dir Jeffrey Iwanicki & David A Kleiler Jr]
Doc charting the the seminal post-punk band

15:00 The Mozambique Poo Tour
[UK, dir Phil Turner]
Doc following bands Massukos, and Empty Boat, touring sanitation projects in Mozambique

18:00 Tiscali Award Showcase [and drinks]

17:00 Shorts: Pulp Fictions

19:15 Welcome Home
[Spain, dir David Trueba]
Young Samuel struggles at a magazine company, while girlfriend Eva harbours a secret: Samuel’s son

19:00 Too Tough to Die: A Tribute to Johnny Ramone
[USA, dir Mandy Stein]
September 2004, two days before Johnny Ramone’s death from cancer, a group of musicians and friends stage a benefit concert. Followed by Q&A with Marky Ramone

21:30 Cocaine Angel
[USA, dir Michael Tully]
A grinding and tragic week in the life of a drug addict

21:45 The Heirloom
[Taiwan, dir Leste Chen]
James inherits a property twenty years after the inexplicable mass suicide that took place in the Yang Household



THURSDAY 5 OCTOBER

13:00 Huldufólk 102
[Iceland/USA, dir Nisha Inalsingh]
Beneath the quiet veneer of Iceland lies an invisible nation of hidden people: its elves

13:15 Shorts: Canadian Bacon

15:00 Gradually
[Iran, dir Maziar Miri]
Mohmoud learns that his mentally unstable wife has gone missing, so he leaves his factory job and goes to find her

15:00 Tomorrow Morning
[Serbia, dir Oleg Novkovic]
An émigré’s return to Belgrade to get married becomes the occasion for drunken reunions

17:15 Rahil’s Secret
[Italy, dir Cinzia Bomroll]
Rahil walks balancing on the railroads in the direction that will carry her to become a woman

17:00 Shorts: The Best of UK

19:00 Kodak Cinematography Masterclass

18:30 2001: A Space Odyssey
[UK/USA, dir Stanley Kubrick]
Kubrick’s masterful exploration

21:15 Uprooted
[France/USA, dir Donia Mili] Doc exploring issues of resistance in the permanent war zone of the West Bank and East Jerusalem

21:45 Sanctuary
[UK, dir Clive Collier]
Doc about film composer Lisa Gerrard (ex-Dead Can Dance)



FRIDAY 6 OCTOBER

12:45 The Cats of Mirikitani
[USA, dir Linda Hattendorf]
Doc about a homeless Japanese-American artist who regains his citizenship

13:15
Perpetual Movements
[Portugal, dir Edgar Pêra]
Doc homage to the late Portuguese guitarist Carlos Paredes, interspersing archival footage with the sound of his performances and interviews

14:15
Far-Off Town: Dunedin To Nashville
[USA, dir Bridget Sutherland]
Doc about David Kilgour, who joins his friends in the band Lambchop in Nashville

15:00 Bal Can Can
[Italy/Macedonia/UK, dir Darko Mitrevski]
An army dodger drives across the border to discover that his mother-in-law has perished

16:00 Shaitan’s Warrior
[Serbia, dir Stevan Filipovic]
A group of kids lay their hands on an esoteric book which can summon ‘Shaitan’s Warrior’

17:15 El Calentito
[Spain, dir Chuz Gutiérrez]
A young, innocent girl is drawn into the punk scene of 1980s Madrid while trying to lose her virginity

18:00 Starfish Hotel
[Japan, dir John Williams]
Mysterious atmospherics and strained sexual relations

19:30 There Is No Authority But Yourself
[NL, dir Alexander Oey]
Doc about the anarchist-punk band Crass, from 1977 to 1984 through to the present day

20:00 Alice
[Portugal, dir Marco Martins]
Every day Mário leaves home to repeat exactly the same steps he took on the day his daughter Alice disappeared

21:45 Rampage
[Australia, dir George Gittoes]
Doc about hip-hop in the forbidden zones of occupied Iraq and the badlands of Miami

21:45 Gruesome
[USA, dirs Jeff Crook, Josh Crook]
A college student is stalked and killed by a serial murderer but she awakes alive and well



SATURDAY 7 OCTOBER

12:00 London Games Festival

12:00 Bill Martell on Subversive Cinema

12:00 Sonic City Showcase

14:00 Page 3: Bollywood Explosion
[India, dir Madhur Bhandarkur]
A look at celebrity lifestyles through the eyes of a female entertainment writer

13:45 Under the Sun
[Germany, dir Baran bo Odar]
12-year-old Viktor is ignored by his aunt’s family and forced into extreme circumstances. Screening with The Visitors
[Germany, dir Ulrike Molsen]
Visitors turn a young woman’s life upside down

17:30 Cargo
[UK, dir Clive Gordon]
Brookes has lost faith in his capacity for good and seeks to destroy everything that might lead him to the redemption he craves. With Peter Mullan and Daniel Brühl

15:45 SUPRISE Screening!
18:00 London to Brighton
[UK, dir Paul Andrew Williams]
Two girls need to stay alive for 24 hours

19:30 The Trials of Darryl Hunt
[USA, dirs Ricki Stern & Anne Sundberg]
Doc about a man who spent 20 years in jail for a crime he did not commit

21:45 The Boys and Girls Guide to Getting Down
[USA, dir Paul Sapiano]
The vibe of the UK’s Human Traffic is transferred Stateside

20:00 The Right of the Weakest
[Belgium/ France, dir Lucas Belvaux]
Living in Liége, three friends look on impotently as their lives slip away

22:30 All Kindsa Girls
[USA, dir Cheryl Eagan-Donovan]
Doc about garage-punk, focusing on John Felice (ex-Modern Lovers) and the Real Kids


SUNDAY 8 OCTOBER

12:00 Bill Martell on Structural Freaks

12:00 The Making of Scenes Of A Sexual Nature
[UK, dir Ed Blum]
An in-depth documentary about tonight’s closing feature

12:00 Shorts: Animated Display B

14:00 Director in Residence:
Zhang Zuan followed by a screening of Little Red Flowers [China] A four-year-old rebel is placed in a minutely scrutinised kindergarten in post-1949 Beijing

14:00 My Country My Country
[USA, dir Laura Poitras]
Doc focusing on Dr Riyadh, who wants democracy in Iraq while opposing the US occupation

16:30 Shorts: Urban Tales

16:45 Mr Right
[UK, dirs David & Jacqui Morris]
A long hot London summer in the lives of four couples