This spring, the Flatpack Film Festival will return to Birmingham for its 11th year. For years, the festival has been attracting people from far and wide for its “magnificently eclectic” films, performances and installations. Overtaking venues all across Birmingham. The festival embraces animation, documentary, ground-breaking shorts, and really, any kind of film you could think of.
A crucial event for LGBT communities, the BFI Flare Film Festival returns this year with a plethora of groundbreaking and captivating works from a diverse multitude of filmmakers from across the globe. The BFI’s annual showcase of LGBT cinema, Flare has encouraged fresh stories, different approaches and new filmmakers for over 30 years.
Currently screening in over 20 cities around the world, Human Rights Watch selects approximately 40 films to be shown worldwide for its Film Festival. 16 of those 40 will screen at the London HRW Film Festival this year. Dedicated to defending and protecting human rights, these films all highlight the importance of tolerance and change, bringing to light matters of great importance, as well as demonstrating artistic quality.
Back again for it’s 14th edition, the London Short Film Festival (LSFF), with it’s sizeable programme and unusual offerings, can be a daunting festival to delve into. We select five treats you might want to look towards.
From across Underwire’s mixed, interesting programmes this year, a selection of some of the best short documentaries included in this year’s festival, some of which are viewable online.
The London International Animation Festival (LIAF) have unleashed their programme for this year’s edition. Tickets for the festival are on sale now. From the 2nd through 11th of December, the LIAF will be showcasing a spectrum of creative animation at the Barbican, with additional programmes at The Horse Hospital, Close-Up Cinema, and The Whitechapel Gallery. The LIAF is a year-round celebration of animation and will be a 10 day comprehensive, up-to-date overview of the international indie animation scene encompassing every style,…
The latest in Albert Serra’s series of imaginative retellings of the legends of historical or literary figures might be his best yet, and is certainly his most accessible. The Death of Louis XIV was conceived initially as a performance piece, commissioned by the Centre Pompidou and due to take place over 15 days there, and elements of this form remain. Starring a 71-year-old Jean-Pierre Léaud as the near-terminal Sun King, Serra’s film takes place entirely within the royal chamber, ensuring…
Eglantine, the first feature from artist and filmmaker Margaret Salmon, is full of love – love for nature, love for the family, love of earth and love of the land. A warm and sensuous film, Eglantine could best be described as “a healing film” – one that, as it radiates with calmness and purity, restores the senses and the soul through the viewing of it.
Arriving fresh from TIFF, Barry Jenkins’ three act identity tale Moonlight comes eight years after his feature debut Medicine for Melancholy. Other than being about relationships and the complicating factors that distance people from each other, this new film bares little resemblance to that mumblecore debut, especially stylistically. The style of Moonlight however, may be more familiar to those who have seen some of the shorts Jenkin made in the period between the two features. In particular, two commercial commissions (Tall…
From the ages of 18 to 23 I worked as the part-time manager of a small secondhand DVD shop. Located in one of the more deprived areas of Brighton, the shop was a repository for the material detritus of local street drinkers, young mums and decrepit old men, who would exchange stacks of fag smoke infused DVDs for hard cash. There was little of much cultural value amongst the mountains of merchandise we bought except for a once a week…