We are into the fifth day of the Visions du Réel festival here in Nyon. On the whole there have been good turnouts from those prepared to sit and watch films inside, despite the tempting sun and hot temperatures outside. “First Steps” for young film makers After many of these film screenings, there have been debates which have taken place straight after the film. These have added an interesting dimension to the festival. This has been particularly true in the…

Visions du Réel – Nyon, Switzerland. This film festival, set in the town of Nyon just 20 mins from Geneva, takes place every April and attracts film professionals from all over the world. In many ways there couldn’t be a better venue for such an event. The town has a picturesque château at its centre with a drop dead gorgeous view of lake Geneva, the Alps and vineyards beyond.  Down by the lake side there are plenty of pavement cafés…

GFF ambassador Mark Millar held a workshop yesterday in the CCA, and was as ebullient and carefully indiscreet as he was open and forthcoming. It was an informative and entertaining hour and a half which contained plenty of straight-talking advice for ambitious young writers and a string of fun anecdotes for the casual observer. As the sold-out auditorium filled, Millar appeared standing in front of the podium set up for him, explaining that he was rejecting the planned set-up because…

Musician, engineer and producer Iain Cook and vocalist P6 are best known for their work with Aerogramme/The Unwinding Hours and Stretchheads/Desalvo respectively. With the legendary Goblin coming to town, they’ve been offered the perfect platform to debut their new project, OV. The duo talk to Rosie Davies about their love for all things horror, and the ‘ritual’ they’ll be performing this Friday… It’s the debut gig with new project OV and you’re supporting Goblin – one of the most legendary…

At the Heart of Everything a Row of Holes takes place tonight, Thursday 24 February (21.00), at GFT. Tickets are free. This article was written several weeks ago. With less than a month to go before the premiere and only screening of his site-specific commission at Glasgow Film Festival, Torsten Lauschmann is deep in the making process. At the Heart of Everything a Row of Holes is a continuation of his interest in the origins of modern technologies. It began,…

My first instinct after seeing A Distant Neighbourhood was that it was whimsical, or even a little twee (the minimal soundtrack by Air probably helped) but, on reflection, I realised that conclusion was premature. While the film is melancholy in tone and its conclusion might initially seem saccharine, Sam Garbarski’s film actually subverts expectations to produce a more mature and internally consistent reflection on fate, memory and wish fulfilment than any of the films it might bear superficial comparison to.…

Six days in and the festival continues to speed by, faster than a speeding bullet (yes, I still wish I’d had a ticket for Superman II). 23,000 tickets had been sold as of Monday, so that figure has probably gone up substantially by now. There’s been plenty to enjoy, starting with the second programme of No Wave films on Sunday evening, my personal highlight of which was Waiting For The Wind, James Nare’s 8-minute film which climaxes with a fantastic,…

It’s difficult to pinpoint one outstanding attribute of Meryl Streep that has distinguished her within a generation of actors, apart from that of sheer range. Her diversity within genre and her authoritative use of language and dialect, she is a performer who can run the gamut inside a single scene without once bordering on hammy. Within the GFF’s overall retrospective, we look back at her glorious formative years, which define her as one of the best character actors of her…

65days of static tell us why 1970s sci-fi holds such a special place in their hearts. There’s loads of ways I could dissect 1970s sci-fi movies and find reasons why I like it so much, but what it probably boils down to more than anything was that I grew up in the 80s, but before we got a video player, it was 70s movies that got shown on TV that really stayed with me (I love 80s sci-fi too –…

GFF opened last night with French comedy, Potiche, starring Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu. Armed with a tiny video camera, our man on the ground, Jonathan Melville, caught up with comics creator and GFF Ambassador, Mark Millar, and GFF Co-director, Allan Hunter, at the opening gala to find out what film fans can expect this year. Jonathan is a freelance digital editor, creating written, video and audio content for organisations such as STV and BBC Radio. During GFF he’ll be roaming…