Most recent articles
Posted on 30 June 2016
Q&A with Daniel Fitzsimmons, dir. of Native, at the East End Film Fest
by Anne-Sophie MarieI gather your background is a mix of Liverpool and California? How have both environments influenced you and your work on Native? (And does Liverpool produce better alien beaches than LA?)
In my experience Los Angeles and Liverpool are generally open and welcoming to outside influences and people, but on this movie that is not the sort of environment we needed the characters to inhabit. I wanted to burden Cane and Eva with an insidious social claustrophobia that can either be a help or a (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 27 June 2016
The Darkest Universe - East End Film Festival 2016
by Anne-Sophie MarieFollowing a BAFTA nomination for their first feature film (Black Pond), Tom Kingsley and Will Sharpe return with an atmospheric story of troubled sibling relationships and mysterious canals.
Though very different from the world created in Flowers (Sharpe’s TV series, currently available on Channel 4), the characters here are as eccentric as the relationships are dysfunctional.
When the police give up searching for Zach’s sister Alice (played the very watchable Tiani Ghosh, who is also Will (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 26 June 2016
Short of the Week - Mother
by Abla KandalaftLara has always lived in the shadow of her mother. That is, until the morning of one life-changing decision that Lara knows must be made alone.
This week’s pick is Marc Hardman’s Mother, starring Jumaan Short & Miriam Margolyes, a moving, well-paced 10 minute drama.
The film is one of many entries in this year’s Women’s Voices Now festival. To view it and vote, click here. Voting is open until 1 (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 23 June 2016
Tales from the Two Puddings - East End Film Festival 2016
by Anne-Sophie MarieBased on its landlord’s memoirs (Tales From The Two Puddings by Eddie Johnson), Rob West’s documentary focuses on the iconic East End pub’s trend-setting quirks, its links to 1960s legendary characters such as the Kray twins, Harry Redknapp and David Essex, and its influence on the Barry Keefe classic The Long Good Friday.
Between super 8 footage and 60s tunes, the film ignites a common nostalgia 1960s Stratford, that we see deeply transformed within seconds, sad that we won’t be able to (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 21 June 2016
Chasing Robert Barker - East End Film Festival 2016
by Anne-Sophie MarieThis international production directed by Daniel Florenico follows David Pillard, a once talented photographer, now broken down paparazzi, as he himself chases a tabloid story. Before the film ends, David will find something quite different from what he was initially looking for.
Gudmundur Thorvaldsson is grippingly believable as the grieving and ailing photographer, as is Patrick Baladi who plays Olly, a classic London cad and David’s partner in tabloid crime.
Chasing Robert Barker - (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 21 June 2016
Love Is Thicker Than Water - East End Film Festival 2016
by Anne-Sophie MarieIn this contemporary London romance directed by award-winning director Emily Harris (Three Towers) and cult film veteran Ate de Jong (Drop Dead Fred), Vida, a young Jewish cellist from a wealthy background, falls madly in love with Arthur, a talented visual artist from a working class Welsh family. Will their passion for each other overcome the obstacles they face as they move in together and meet each other’s families?
Though the film may not give us a definite answer, the way its (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 18 June 2016
Sheffield Documentary Film Festival 2016 - Thoughts and recap
by Elizabeth Mizon"In that silent room, I heard two sounds. One high, and one low. Afterward I asked the engineer in charge why, if the room was so silent, I had heard two sounds. He said: “Describe them.” I did. He said “The high one was your nervous system in operation. The low one was your blood in circulation.”
– John Cage, on his experience in Harvard’s anechoic chamber
At this year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest I saw Stefan Sagmeister’s dick, live voguing, and more than one dead child. The massive range and power of (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 16 June 2016
Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model - East End Film Festival 2016
by Ryan OrmondeLondon-based performance artist Bryony Kimmings first came to public attention with 7 Day Drunk, a show put together under the influence of alcohol. The subject of new documentary Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model is another ‘real world experiment’ by Kimmings, who is now under the influence of her nine year-old niece, Taylor.
As an idea for a theatre show, this is brilliant: enough with Miley Cyrus! (That’s 2013 twerking Miley Cyrus, not 2015 gender queer activist Miley Cyrus.) Let’s (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 22 May 2016
Miles Ahead
by Coco GreenThe good news is that Miles Ahead, the Miles Davis biopic, has a lead actor (Don Cheadle) playing the title character that strongly resembles Davis (side eye, whilst still supporting, to you Zoe Saldana and David Oyelowo). The better news is that those wary of biographies which take you through a troubled childhood, discovery, downfall and comeback, highlighting little known facts of creative genius, will find none of that here. It was more a day-in-the-life-of in which Davis’s dialogue and (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 21 mai 2016
Les Huit Salopards
par PierreLES HUIT SALOPARDS
Se sentant apparemment à son aise dans l’univers du western, Quentin Tarantino nous propose, trois ans après sa relecture de Django, un nouveau western bien racé. Mais si son précédent western était une nouvelle déclaration d’amour aux années westerns spaghetti, l’influence majeur de ce nouvel opus est à chercher du côté du film d’horreur / fantastique.
En effet, à plusieurs reprises, le réalisateur américain a déclaré s’être inspiré du The Thing de John Carpenter pour créer Les Huit (...) Continue Reading »
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