22nd
30th APRIL
PArtners
funding bodies
WELCOME TO THE EAST END FILM FESTIVAL
Sponsors
Music Sales Film&TV
org uk
Across almost thirty different venues, the East End Film Festival, run by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, brings nine days and nights of screenings, panel discussions, parties, live music, art installations, premieres and (new for 2010), a pub film trail and memorabilia swapshop to London’s East End.
CONTENTS p.1 Welcome p.3 Awards p.4 Patrons p.6 Festival Branding p.9 Events p.9–11 Spitalfields p.10 Jack the Ripper p.12 Heritage Film Trail p.13 The Rime of the Modern Mariner p.14 Rock Against Racism p.17 Visionäre p.18 Nitin Sawhney Interview p.19 Filmmakers Centre p.21 Kino Live Challenge Grits‘n’Gravy Sunday p.23 Youth Events p.28 Calendar p.30 Archive Cinema p.31 Features A–Z p.47 Shorts A–Z p.52 Festival Poem p.54 Map p.55 Venues and Booking Information p.56 Credits and Thanks
media partners
Aesthetica
Our growing focus on bringing audiences the best new cinema emerging from Eastern Europe and Russia has borne fruit and we are thrilled to offer an entire strand of feature films and premieres from Russia, welcoming both Igor Voloshin and Oxana Akinshina to present Igor’s second feature I Am alongside Russian heavyweight Alexey Balabanov for a double bill of two recent masterpieces Cargo 200 and Morphia. Also new for 2010, we’ve added films from East Asia with debut features from Laos, Tibet and the Philippines, alongside unique feature films from the rest of the world including our Grits‘n’Gravy Sunday, a jampacked day of FREE Bloody Marys, Hog-roast from s&m and wall-to-wall films from the good ole US of A. Closer to home, we’ve added a new state-ofthe-art venue courtesy of Weiden + Kennedy dedicated to our growing local and visiting community of filmmakers, practitioners, artists and musicians. Join us for free drinks, wifi, networking and masterclasses with great British talent, including new faces –Tom Harper (Scouting Book for Boys) and Paul Andrew Williams (London to Brighton, Cherry Tree Lane) to the more established artistic royalty of Michael Nyman and Nitin Sawhney. Following record-breaking submissions across both short and feature films from the UK, we present, with the support of s&m, a series of screenings of the best new UK short and features films including, at the Barbican
Cinema, Marc Isaacs’ new documentary Men of the City and Jez Lewis’s powerful film Shed Your Tears and Walk Away. Each year we watch scores of impassioned, beautiful, heartfelt and sometimes angry films about violations and atrocities committed across the world. Continuing our partnership with Amnesty International we present a series of films + Q&As relating to human rights issues from countries as diverse as Slovenia to Mexico. And what good is raising awareness without action? This year we are very proud to host films, exhibition and events that celebrate the power of art to effect political and social change. Visit the Vibe Gallery on Brick Lane to see a unique repository of graphic and photographic material which revisits the energy of the Rock Against Racism (RAR) movement of 1976 – 1981. We also present two very different features sharing very common ground – SUS, an adaption of Barrie Keefe’s 1979 drama about Stop and Search laws, followed by a Q&A with journalists and representatives from Liberty, and Who Shot the Sheriff, tracking the rise of racism and the National Front in Britain during the 70s – and how a generation, black and white, fought back with music. Celebrating the roots of the East End and film heritage is again a central focus of the EEFF with a special screening of East End Heritage and an archive film-trail across many of our local much-loved watering dens. Back in cinemas, catch East End Lives 2 the second part of Phil Maxwell and Hazuan Hashim’s moving image document of the diverse community living in East End homes. The festival presents several opportunities for audiences to come and get involved, to dance, network and party, with special events on every 3
AWARDS
MAN ONWIRE EYES WIDE SHUT THIS IS ENGLAND BRICK LANE CHILDREN OF MEN LOST HIGHWAY THE CONSTANT GARDENER THE READER THE LIVES OF OTHERS NATURAL BORN KILLERS THE HOURS EYES WIDE SHUT Music publishing, music composition, music supervision, music consultancy... SON OF RAMBOW With every conceivable style of popular song and some of the most AN EDUCATION inspiring music from the last hundred years, Music Sales Film &TV is an THE KILLER INSIDE ME indispensable resource. We make finding and licensing MOULIN ROUGE! music simple, quick and easy. THREE COLOURS BLUE FOUR WEDDINGS & A FUNERAL Music Sales PRICK UP YOUR EARS 14-15 Berners StreetFilm&TV LondonW1T 3LJ Telephone: 020 -7612 7400 THE ENGLISH PATIENT E-mail: media musicsales.co.uk www.musicsales.com/filmandtv VOLVER A5 flyer:Layout 4 19/3/10 14:44 Page 1 Is the music of today’s great movies trying to tell you something ?
night in several unique locations across East London throughout the festival. St. Anne’s Church in Limehouse plays host to what promises to be a truly unique night of film and live music with The Rime of the Modern Mariner, a contemporary exploration of the culture, community and folklore of the London Docks. At Spitalfields Market, enjoy a free outdoor archive screening of The Lodger with live soundtrack by Minima, A/V delights and club nights at Village Underground as well as a medley of daytime workshops, swapshops, education events and live filmmaking challenges.
£100 off!!
BEST INTErNATIONAL FIrST FEATUrE
Supported by the East End Film Festival As a leading showcase for international first features, we are proud to once again present the EEFF award for Best International First Feature. This year, we have over 20 films from countries as diverse as Estonia to Nepal, each one a unique contender. In 2011, we will welcome the winner to the East End Film Festival as director in residence.
BEST UK FIrST FEATUrE
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In conjunction with the East End Film Festival, Excel are offering all new customers £100 off their first months invoice. Please call our dedicated team on 020 7536 7178 for more information on this special offer, please quote reference EEFF2010. Offer Ends 30/06/2010
Also available: crew vehicles, on location vehicle shoots, pre & post production couriers, same day, overnight and international services
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2009 Trophy by: georgina@forwoods.org
Supported by CPH PIX Feature Film Festival Once again the festival hosts several impressive UKdebuts from tomorrow’s rising stars of cinema. From feature-documentary to political drama, romance to slightly scarier fare, we welcome all of this year’s new British talent to the festival. The winner will receive full accreditation, travel, accommodation and the chance to present their work at CPH PIX 2011.
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Enjoy! The Festival Team
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As Jan says in our festival poem, Tide, “This is not where the East Ends, this is where it begins…” and we couldn’t agree more.
With so much going on around the festival, we’re sure you’ll find something that appeals and maybe something unexpected or new too. We believe that great film is about
@
£100 off!!
risk-taking, collaborating, exploring and experiencing as much as you can, so don’t forget to check our website – www.eastendfilmfestival.com – or sign up for our daily bulletin for the latest information, surprise events, ticket offers and exclusive news during the festival week.
BEST DOCUMENTAry FEATUrE
Supported by Sheffield Doc/Fest To recognise the most unique, human and arresting stories presented to us this year, we are pleased to partner with Sheffield Doc/Fest to support new documentary work that celebrates cinematic form. The winner will receive a full festival delegate pass and automatic shortlisting for their next project to the 2010 Doc/Fest MeetMarket , the leading European marketplace for seed funding and development of documentary ideas.
BEST FEATURE SOUNDTRACK
Supported by Music Sales Integral to the process of a film’s emotional journey is the music within the story. Recognising the essential part that musicians and composers play in creating cinematic works of art, we are pleased to introduce this award, new for 2010. The winner will receive a gratis festival / TV licence from the Music Sales catalogue, use of the Music sales recording studio and mentoring from a Music Sales composer as part of the award.
BEST UK SHOrT FILM
Supported by SAE This year we were overwhelmed with a record breaking 100% increase in short film submissions, proving that UK new talent is alive and well. From suburban stories to experimental snapshots, road trips to romance, this year we had the pleasure of watching an unprecedented number of excellent new films from all across the UK. The winner will receive a year-long diploma scholarship, worth £12,000 from SAE UK, a global network of digital film, audio, multimedia, and animation colleges. SAE is a partner in Middlesex Skillset Media Academy.
SHOrT FILM AUDIENCE AWArD Festivals may have programmers, juries and directors but it’s the audience who really counts. Let us know your opinion after any of our shorts screenings and cast your vote for this year’s festival favourite! The winner will receive a VIP pass to the 2011 edition of EEFF and a goody bag of luxury gifts from our sponsors. 5
patrons
patrons
OUR PATRONS
Q&A with Jeremy Wooding The EEFF is an involving, informal, all inclusive, community festival which celebrates the rich history and diversity of cultures that have made the area so special for so many artists. We asked EEFF patron Jeremy Wooding about his relationship with the area.
Thankyou to all our patrons for their continued support: Danny Boyle Parminder Vir OBE Nitin Sawhney Jeremy Wooding Pawel Pawlikowski Stephen Woolley Steven Berkoff Tony Grisoni Jason Solomons Asif Kapadia Joe Wright Michael Nyman We were saddened last year by the death of our patron Simon Channing-Williams. A long standing supporter of the Festival and a hugely important voice in, and champion of, UK film. His death was a great loss to many people and he will be sorely missed by the Festival.
JAIME WINSTONE We are delighted to welcome Jaime Winstone to the East End Film Festival as a new patron for 2010. An actress known for her excellent choices working with new British talent, across both short and feature film roles – Jaime’s career started with the award winning short film, Love Letter by director Richard Fenwick, which led to featured roles in Bullet Boy and the hugely successful Kidulthood – Jaime has fast established herself a key figure in tomorrow’s UK film industry. Feature films Daddy’s Girl, Donkey Punch and Boogie Woogie followed and then the juvenile lead in the multi-award winning series Dead Set for E4. Last year Jaime filmed Dagenham Girls with director Nigel Cole, a guest lead
Supporting the Festival’s growing emphasis on live arts and collaboration, you can catch both Nitin Sawhney and Michael Nyman live at our Filmmakers Centre in EEFF2010, giving us a rare chance to learn more about their methods of working and their lifelong relationships with visuals and sound.
Nitin Sawhney masterCLass Filmmakers Centre, Saturday 25 April, 7.45pm See p.19 for further details.
Michael Nyman masterclass Filmmakers Centre, Wednesday 28 April, 7.45pm See p.19 for further details.
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on Poirot and made an amazing stage debut as Sherbert in the revival of Philip Ridley’s play The Fastest Clock In The Universe at Hampstead Theatre, drawing incredible reviews and a best newcomer nomination from Whats On Stage Awards. Jaime has just completed filming on the BBC’s production Five Daughters with director Philippa Lowthorpe, a sensitive portrait of events surrounding the discovery of five young women tragically murdered in Ipswich in 2006. Head of the jury for our 2010 Best UK First Feature Award, Jaime is the perfect new addition to our well-loved list of patrons and we are grateful for the injection of energy and enthusiasm that she brings to Festival.
Why do you think it is that adverse and diverse social conditions seem conducive to the best art? Well I think it goes back to having a variety of stories to tell and for that you need a selection of characters and histories for those characters which the East End has in abundance. Dickens wrote about the tradition of class and financial warfare between the different communities. Obviously there are also a lot of stories brought from distant homelands into this area and subsequently new, insightful stories are formed by the clash of those different cultures. Many great artists appear to have had a somewhat morbid fascination with the East End, but what was it about the area that attracted and inspired you? I made a short film in 1989 which was a contemporary view of London through the poetry of William Blake, and whilst researching it I discovered a wealth of interesting architecture and several layers of history which resonated with the film. Since discovering the East End with that particular project, it remained somewhere I wanted to constantly return to and learn more about. It’s amazingly inspiring for a filmmaker because you realise that you can start to tell your own stories within that social and historical context.
Q&A with ASIF KAPADIA
The EEFF gives much needed exposure to grassroots talent and boosts the profiles of up and coming filmmakers. We asked our filmmaking patron, Asif Kapadia about his journey to success. When was your ‘big break’ and how did it come about? There is no short cut. I had written and directed many short films and studied for years at University and film school. I’d been working on films and making shorts for about 10 years when I made my graduation film at the Royal College of Art, a short film called The Sheep Thief and it really opened doors for me. It was screened at film festivals, won some awards, got me an agent and eventually gave me the chance to make my first feature film TheWarrior. What advice would you give to a newcomer with few resources, no budget, and no industry contacts? Just do it! Come up with a simple script, beg or borrow a camera, pull together some friends and go out and make a film. You don’t need money, or need to know anyone in the industry, you just need an idea and the determination to follow it through until the end. It’s important to finish a project and to not give up halfway through.
Are there any artistic works featuring the East End that you especially admire? The Long Good Friday, because it captured this area when it was in transition to become what it is now. The actors who were in it, Helen Mirren and Bob Hoskins, were definitive of their time. More than anything, it was very inspiring to see somebody making a movie about London which had contemporary resonance because people hardly made movies at that time unless it was James Bond. What does it mean to you to be a patron of the East End Film Festival? My career as a filmmaker owes a lot to this area. It’s great to be able to still be involved with film culture here and also to be able to inspire some other people to pick up a camera or write a script based in the East End. I get inspired and reinvigorated every time the festival comes round, by the selection of films, meeting new filmmakers and seeing the buzz that has grown around the festival over the years. It really does connect into grassroots filmmaking and filmmakers in the East End were always dreaming of a film culture which would create an energy and a drive that didn’t need the gatekeepers of the film industry fortress. We just wanted to do it on our own. Interview by Hayley Wright and Declan Giles.
Jeremy is currently developing and working on three independent micro budget films.
There are various routes into the art world, e.g. Specialised training, working from the bottom up, transferring from another area, and having contacts in the industry. Would you particularly recommend any of them? I think it’s important to do a bit of everything. I got into filmmaking by working on films and working my way up from being a runner. Once I realised this was what I wanted to do, I chose to study cinema at university to learn about more its history and the great filmmakers of the past. Film schools are great as they give you a budget, equipment, crew and most importantly, deadlines. The digital revolution is making it possible for anyone to showcase their work to the world. However, do you think that the absence of quality control and the ability to stand out is ultimately helping or hindering new artists? I think good work and talented filmmakers will always come through. Interview by Hayley Wright and Declan Giles. Asif is currently working on his next film, a documentary about Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna. 7
Festival branding
Festival branding
TRAILING THE WAY Photograph by Phil Maxwell
Inspired by the collection of images from East End Heritage (see p.12) by local photographer Phil Maxwell, filmmaker Alan Miles teamed up with editor John Brown to produce this year’s Festival trailer. Miles explains the process behind the piece: “Thinking about the line from Jan Noble’s poem (see p.52) I spent some time on Google ‘Street View’ matching up the original pictures with Cheshire Street as it is now. That gave me the idea of actually mixing the old with the new. I wanted characters from the photos come to life. I spent a day in the area with my camera rigged to my open topped car. As I drove around the area, my aim was to capture a sense of movement through Brick Lane, Cheshire Street and the surrounding area as it is now. I also rigged the camera to the back of the car so when I reversed the footage, it appears as though we are moving forwards through time but things in the shot are moving backwards” “Editor and graphic artist John Brown cut out characters from Phil Maxwell’s original pictures and using camera tracking software was able to bring the characters to life as we move through the new footage. Objects and people from the original photos appear to be in the same place now as they were all those years ago and I think that fits nicely with the last line of Jan Noble’s poem... “this is not where the east ends but where it begins...” Alan Miles: www.militantentertainment.co.uk John Brown: www.thepopularsociety.co.uk
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Photograph by Declan Giles
THE STORY OF THE EAST END FILM FESTIVAL TRAILER 2010
THIS IS NOT... WHERE THE EAST ENDS, BUT WHERE IT BEGINS… This year’s Festival branding was inspired by an excerpt from ‘Tide’ a poem by Hackney poet Jan Noble, a specially commissioned piece for the East End Film Festival. (You can see the full version of the poem on p.52) The imminence of the 2012 Olympics has shaped cultural representations of the East End of late, driving the creation of art and community projects that address notions of home and belonging, histories and futures. The regeneration of East Hackney and Stratford have prompted communities to fight for land and for threatened values idiosyncratic to this particular corner of the city.
Jan’s interest in history is evident in his unquenchable thirst for factual film. This need for understanding and his great empathy, enable him to write with compassion about a diverse local population in relation to the changes it has faced over the years. Working in the Mental Health sector for over a decade has meant that Jan’s relationship with the East End has been shaped directly by the experiences of others and their own relationships with the area. Certainly, it has been a humbling occupation, perhaps explaining the predominance of characters other than himself that occupy the lines of Jan’s work to date.
For Jan Noble, it is this idiosyncrasy that grounds him to his long-term home of Stoke Newington; a few square miles of cultural contradiction and possibility. Drawn to the area by family connections, Jan’s interest in the histories of the area’s people is well rooted. He is a storyteller whose integrity is bound with his genuine fascination and respect for his inspiration; the Hackney cafe owners, barflies and endless other souls like himself, that find the borough a solace in an otherwise alienating world.
The presence of Jan’s poem Tide, on this year’s festival posters is pertinent to the changing face of the East End in the run up to 2012, but also in its recognition of the past. The concept of evolution is not new to the area and a poetic reminder that the diversity and polarities found here enrich a charmingly peculiar and culturally thriving part of the world sits well within the community led ethos of the East End Film Festival. By Abi Wheeler.
Assuming that real life is reflected in your work, does it work the other way round: does your poetry influence other areas of your life? I’ve taught creative writing and poetry in schools, prisons and on psychiatric wards. I love what it does, how people react to poetry and how they choose to use it. A guy I met on a locked ward in Homerton read a poem he’d written in a group. The nurses were amazed. He hadn’t spoken for two weeks. It took a poem to bring him out of himself.
I have been thinking about words in public places around the East End e.g. posters, public notices, are there any locations that come to mind? Some one wrote ‘do not forget me’ very carefully in the dust on a window of a an empty shop in Hackney. It stayed there for ages. I’ve met quite a few people who saw it and were moved by its simplicity. It had a kind of quiet intimacy, not a screaming headline or clever brand strapline.
I’ve read about the NotYour Average Type publication that you edited, was it your idea initially? Do you prefer it when different art forms such as poetry & photography come together? It was and is a collaborative project. Initially a culmination of 10 years of poetry at Core Arts in Hackney, it’s not just about poems but about the poetic and text-based responses to mental health. We even did some guerilla gardening - planting the word SEEDATED in grass in front of the psychiatric unit.
The past decade has seen films about Sylvia Plath, Dylan Thomas,Wordsworth, Coleridge and now, with the release of Bright Star, John Keats: what is your opinion of such films? Its difficult but often the end product is more about packaging the person in an appealing portrayal rather than the reality of their life and work.
Have you got any favourite films that are set in the East End? They are not set in the East End exclusively but films as diverse as Oliver! and Derek Jarman’s Last of England visit its dark underbelly beautifully. I also love the newsreel footage of the dockers lowering their crane’s booms over the Thames at Churchill’s funeral. It says much about the end of the working docks as it does about the passing of a statesman.
And finally: three words that describe the East End? A bit pretentious but there is the Latin inscription on the sundial of the mosque on Brick Lane. “Umbra Sumas”, meaning we are shadows. So I guess that could be your three words: We Are Shadows. Interview by Stephen Bunce
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EVENTS: Spitalfields Market
EVENTS: Spitalfields Market
The London Palestine Film Festival
Spitalfie1ds Market 65 Brushfield Street London E1 6AA
30 April – 3 May 2010 The largest festival of its kind in Europe; with a selection of vital documentary, fiction, art and animation work by, about and from Palestinians and their country.
Festival Sponsors: Mrs. Jenny Hall
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EVENTS SPITALFIELDS MARKET OLD AND NEW
Spitalfields, like much of the East End, has been in a constant state of flux from the time of its existence. Originally a large Roman extramural cemetery, the area became known as Spittle Fields after The New Hospital of St. Mary was founded in 1197. In 1539, Henry VIII demolished the priory, granting the precincts to the south to the Fraternity of the Artillery to be used as their exercise ground. Samuel Pepys recorded a visit to Spitalfields: “20 April 1669. In the afternoon we walked to the Old Artillery Ground near the Spitalfields, where I never was before, but now by Captain Deane’s invitation did go to see his new gun tryed, this place being the place where the officers of the Ordnance do try all their great guns.” It was only in 1682 after The Great Fire had destroyed much of the city, that Charles II granted John Balch a Royal Charter that gave him the right to hold a market on Thursdays and Saturdays in or near Spital Square. Since then various waves of migration have populated and changed the landscape of the area. Most notably, the Huguenots who fled France after The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes brought their considerable silk weaving skills to the East End and made the market a great success. Unfortunately, as a result of the industry’s long decline during the Victorian era, Spitalfields became synonymous with the poverty and deprivation which became the backdrop for Jack The Ripper’s brutal mutilations in the surrounding streets. By this time, Jewish refugees who were escaping pogroms in Eastern Europe had been attracted to the textile industry and remained in the area throughout the market’s extension in the 1920s and 30s, before moving on and being replaced by Bangladeshi settlers in the 70s. Since 1991, the fruit and vegetable element of the market has been situated in Leyton, while ‘old’ Spitalfields remains and is now the place to go for trendy independent shops and rare items.
Supported by
barbican.org.uk/film
Photograph from London Collection, Bishopsgate Library
Photograph from London Collection, Bishopsgate Library
do something different
The City of London Corporation is the founder and principal funder of the Barbican Centre
Brought up not far from Spitalfields in Leytonstone, East London, Alfred Hitchcocks 1927 silent film The Lodger, seems a fitting choice for our live Silent Cinema. Interestingly, Hitchcock wanted to create an ambiguous ending, but the studio refused to allow any implication that Ivor Novello might actually be the murderer. Of course the film also contains the first of Hitchcock’s obligatory cameo appearances as a newspaper editor and he is thought by many to be standing in the crowd later on watching the arrest. Made at Gainsborough Studios, The Lodger is considered by most to be Hitchcock’s first film in terms of the stylistic and thematic elements which would go on to epitomise his much loved American suspense thrillers. However, despite his resounding success in the talkie era, Hitchcock always believed that the ability to convey narrative information in purely visual terms was the true art of being a filmmaker. By Hayley Wright.
SILENT CINEMA: THE LODGER + MINIMA
Saturday 24 April, 8.00pm. FREE Wrap up and join us for the free outdoor screening event of the year. After last year’s amazing silent screening of Nosferatu, the East End Film Festival returns once again to Spitalfields Market with acclaimed soundtrackers Minima performing a live accompaniment to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 silent film The Lodger. One not to miss! See full details on p.39. See p.11 for more events at Spitalfields.
This year’s EEFF is proud to return to Spitalfields with a series of activities including an interactive art installation and free outdoor screening with live musical accompaniment. 11
EVENTS: Spitalfields Market
EVENTS: Spitalfields Market
‘Give & Take’ at the East End Film Festival!
JACK THE RIPPER By KIM NEWMAN Kim Newman is probably best known for his work as contributing editor for Empire Magazine. However, as well as being a much esteemed reviewer and critic with a particular fascination for Horror, Science Fiction, and Gothic films, Kim is also an award winning novelist and short story writer. In The January Man (1989), a serial killer whose crimes are tied in to Neil Sedaka’s song ‘Calendar Girl’ (!?) is caught: a profiler (Kevin Kline) is asked ‘who was he?’ The answer, which should give the lie to a whole industry of Ripperology, is ‘nobody – that was his problem.’ Uncaught-killers – and Jack the Ripper is the most famously uncaught of them all – are not nobodies, but monsters. They are who we need them to be. In 1888, the press and public and Queen Victoria needed the Whitechapel Murderer to be a foreigner, a Jew, a sailor passing through, a savage unloosed in the heart of Empire. Now, that’s changed, and our current prejudices need him to be a Victorian bourgeois, a titled society surgeon or Royal hanger-on or famous painter stalking through the fog with a top hat and a Gladstone bag full of knives. Because he was not caught, though the murders stopped, early films about the Ripper were less interested in debatable solutions to the mystery than in the myth figure. Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lodger is subtitled ‘A Story of the London Fog’, and its killer is a phantom, a shadow of the innocent man (Ivor Novello) accused by the Mob. German Expressionist films like Paul Leni’s Waxworks and G.W. Pabst’s Pandora’s Box have contemporary, 1920s settings but assume the East End is still a gaslit, cobblestoned Victorian slum inhabited by the knife-murderer. In the sound era, the Ripper became more complicated pyschologically – a doctor with a grudge against ‘actresses’ – but an even more remote figure. John Brahm’s The Lodger (1943), with Laird Cregar as the man with the knife, turns Jack into a screen fiend, closer to the Phantom of the Opera or Mr Hyde than, say, real-life serial killers John George Haigh or Peter Kurten. Sinister turns from 12
Valentine Dyall (Room to Let) and Jack Palance (Man in the Attic) compounded this image. In the 1960s and ‘70s, the mystery became more convoluted – in line with reallife Ripperology – and the films more fantastical: Sherlock Holmes pursued the case (twice) in A Study in Terror (a rare film featuring Barbara Windsor and Judi Dench) and Murder By Decree (which sets out a theory elaborated in the near-remake From Hell); the Ripper’s spirit possesses a daughter in Hands of the Ripper; and the killer is transported to the present day in Time After Time (with David Warner as one of the cinema’s great mad surgeons) and Bridge Across Time. The Ripper has been on ‘Star Trek’, ‘Babylon 5’, ‘Goodnight, Sweetheart’ and ‘Fantasy Island’ – and in books and comics has met (or been) Sherlock Holmes, Batman, Sooty, Rasputin and Dracula. The cobbles have been well and truly trod, and Amazon Women on the Moon skewers a certain cracked mode of conspiracy thinking by asking ‘Was the Loch Ness Monster Jack the Ripper?’, complete with a ‘recreation’ in which a bowler-hatted giant reptile looms over a cockney trollop. Copycats abound, often committing murders on anniversaries, from Jack’s Back through Jill Rips to the recent TV serial ‘Whitechapel’. If Laird Cregar and David Warner are the best screen Rippers – with an honourable mention for Klaus Kinski in Jesus Franco’s Jack the Ripper, which recreates Whitechapel in Switzerland – then who is the most convincing? You have to look to the quirky, not terribly successful comedy Deadly Advice (1994), in which a lonely woman (Jane Horrocks) gets dating tips from the ghosts of famous murderers: here, Sir John Mills creeps onscreen as a rare, credible suspect - a vicious, but unassuming little nobody (a barber) rather than a moustache-twirling, cape-swishing monster.
Old Spitalfields Market, 105a Commercial Street, E1 6BG Daily Monday 26 –Wednesday 28 April The latest craze to hit the streets comes to Spitalfields courtesy of The East End Film Festival. Cinephiles, Spitalfields regulars, budding artists and eager bargain-seekers are invited to bring along their unwanted clobber from 4.00 – 6.00pm, then be ready at 6.00pm sharp to rummage through the array of treasures and waltz away with a handful of FREE goodies. Yes, your money is no good here. It’s that simple. First come first served, every man for himself!
Day 1: FILM Monday 26 April (Give: 4.00 – 6.00pm; Take: 6.00 – 7.00pm) Bring out your DVDs, videos and film memorabilia, film books and mags, soundtracks, posters. You could even dig out that old super 8 camera. If it’s film-related and you think someone would want it, it’s in!
Cinema Sirens Pop-up Hair Salon Courtesy of Hair & Jerome and Leon Restaurant 3 Crispin Place, Spitalfields Saturday 24 April, 5.00pm – 9.00pm. FREE Prior to and during the screening of The Lodger, East End’s finest award-winning boutique hair salon, Hair & Jerome will be on hand to work their artistry on your tresses in our free pop-up hair salon hosted by Leon Restaurant. Sample first hand the exquisite talent of the Hair & Jerome stylists and have your treasured tresses transformed into 40s Hitchcockian works of art. No appointments necessary, just pop into Leon Restaurant from 5.00pm for your free stylist session. For bespoke hairdressing at its best, contact: Jerome Hillion and Cecile Hillion-Le Borgne. T: 0207 375 0044 www.hairandjerome.co.uk
Day 2: Art & Design Tuesday 27 April (Give: 4.00 – 6.00pm; Take: 6.00 – 7.00pm) Freshen up your walls and shelves and re-vamp your décor. We want your unwanted wall art, art prints, photography, art & design books and the rest. If you’re a local artist, why not join in, donate homemade pieces and spread your works of art into the world. Sketches, sculptures, paintings, ceramics, glass, metal etc (you could even have business cards at the ready to supply with your work) are all welcome.
Day 3: Freestyle Wednesday 28 April (Give: 4.00 – 6.00pm; Take: 6.00 – 7.00pm) De-clutter those wardrobes, kitchens, attics, sheds and every other nook and cranny you have great gear gathering dust for the Give&Take grand finale. From cool kitsch and fabulous clothing, to granny linen and collectables. Crockery, china sets, home accessories, kitchen gadgets, old cameras, lamps, books, bric-a-brac, plants... the list goes on and on.
Local(eyes) installation
23 – 30 April, 10.00am – 6.00pm daily. FREE A year on from our 3D timelapse exploration of East London, we return to Spitalfields with another innovative art installation – and this time it’s interactive. Running (or cycling!) for the duration of the festival, our specially commissioned interactive film installation Find us at Old Spitalfields Market where the East End Local(Eyes) gives us a unique peek around the streets Heritage screening will provide an enchanting backdrop to of East London from the perspective of a cyclist. the latest recession-busting, pro-recycling, feel-good craze Fitted with bespoke software, the remarkable pedal to hit the streets. Look out for EEFF competitions and powered projection allows us to share the view of local giveaways daily. artist and keen cyclist Mila Lipowicz as she pedals The small print: All items must be in good condition and be easy through the East End streets. for people to carry home. No electrical items accepted. East End Film Festival 2010 promoting the three R’s: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. 13
EVENTS: The rime of the modern mariner
EVENTS: Heritage film trail
Photograph from Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives
THE RIME OF THE MODERN MARINER Photograph by Barnaby Bodoano
Photograph by Declan Giles
UK |2010 World Premiere St. Anne’s Church Friday 23 April 7.30 pm
HERITAGE FILM TRAIL On the 9th of March 1966 Ronnie Kray calmly walked into The Blind Beggar and shot rival gang member George Cornell while he was sitting at the bar. Some years earlier, during The Autumn of Terror in 1888, Jack The Ripper was said to have led at least two of his victims, Annie Chapman and Mary Kelly, from The Ten Bells to their horrific demise. If only those walls could talk, they would surely have the most fascinating stories to tell. Of course much has changed for these establishments and indeed the area as a whole since those dark and dingy times. Any pub that is still standing must be considered lucky, as the number of pubs on Whitechapel Road alone has dwindled from thirty-three in the late Nineteenth Century
to just five today. The main culprit appears to be sanitation. In the Victorian era beer was seen as a necessity in the battle against the raging cholera epidemics which rendered water supplies unsafe to drink. Tea, as the only other real alternative, was heavily taxed and most people could not afford to buy it. Therefore, there must be something special about the remaining East End pubs. Over the years some have changed and adapted to the area’s varying demographic, attracting skinny jeans and suits; others have stubbornly remained almost exactly the same as the day they opened, content to be the ever faithful old man’s boozer.With their tumultuous, gruesome, strange and sometimes notoriously rich histories, these much-loved pubs are the perfect venues to host our Heritage Film Trail.
This event kick starts our Heritage Film Trail.
Heritage Film Trail
Heritage Film Trail launch event and premiere screening
The Water Poet, 9–11 Folgate Street, E1 6BX Monday 26 April, 6.30pm FREE. Over thirty years of photographs are intercut with time-lapse video footage to produce a poignant and unique observation of London’s East End in East End Heritage. Phil Maxwell and Hazuam Hashim’s latest work is a beautiful visual document of the lives and changes that have occurred in the meeting places, houses, streets and communities of East London. 14
Water Poet 9–11 Folgate Street, E1 6BX Kings Stores 14 Widegate Street, E1 7HP The Gun 54 Brushfield Street, E1 6AG The Golden Heart 110 Commercial Street, E1 6LZ The Ten Bells 84 Commercial Street, E1 6LY The Princess Alice 40 Commercial Street, E1 6LP INDO 133 Whitechapel Road, E1 1DT The Grave Maurice 269 Whitechapel Road, E1 1BY The Blind Beggar 337 Whitechapel Road, E1 1BU The White Hart 1 Mile End Road, E1 4TP
Photograph by Barnaby Bodoano
Photograph by Phil Maxwell
Taking place in ten of East London’s oldest and best public houses. All the pubs on the route will screen East End Heritage and a selection of Hazuan and Phil’s other works. 26 – 30 April, 6.30pm until closing. FREE
Director: Mark Donne (First Feature) + live music score performed by composer Anthony Rossomando and very special guests. The Rime of the Modern Mariner is a new artist documentary that explores the culture, community and folklore of the London Docks. Directed by journalist Mark Donne and narrated by musician Carl Barat (The Libertines, Dirty Pretty Things), the film’s unfurling narrative reveals the decaying architecture, music, and native languages that remain etched in the masonry and bloodstream of this unique quarter. For hundreds of years the London Docks were the watery capital of a maritime nation and the largest port on earth – when they were closed in the late 1960s, and an entire way of life was sucked into a vacuum. Amazingly, a handful of Dockers, and a residue of those who sailed to the seven seas from London can still be found, huddled in dilapidated social clubs and the only remaining seaman’s mission, recounting a catalogue of extraordinary memories. With fantastic words, angry appeals and quiet laments ringing in their ears, the audience is taken on a deep sea voyage on a modern container vessel from where port activity was transferred – Felixstowe – around North Africa and Europe, back home to the same old maritime nation, to discover what governance of spirit is still employed to guide people devoted to the seas away from the black hours and infinite horizons of loneliness inherent in these voyages. The conclusion – come hell or high water – is sinking. The film is set to an atmospheric score which samples bell ringing from East London dockside churches and field recordings including a creaking hull, hammering cargos and engine room rhythms from a container ship voyage. The screening will be held in the unique setting of St. Anne’s Church in Limehouse, and will include a live performance of the dramatic score by composer Anthony Rossomando and ensemble including Rose Elinor Dougall and some special guests. See p.55 for venue information. Tickets cost £12.50 for the event. To book in advance online, please visit www.wegottickets.com/eeff
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EVENTS: rock against racism
EVENTS: Rock against racism Several of the screenings and events in EEFF 2010 explore the issue of racism and culture in London during the 1970s and early 80s including:
style debate. Panelists include Gurinder Chadha, Tom Robinson and Jerry Dammers.
A Riot Of Our Own
For tickets go to: www.wegottickets.com/eeff
RAR London, where the movement originated, based its operations in the East End. It was a collection of black and white political activists, reggae and punk musicians, artists, graphic designers, photographers, actors, writers, fashion designers, and fans who came together to pool their energies and talents in the fight against the growth of racism and the National Front. Through such a formidable collaboration RAR members took on the orthodoxy through five carnivals and some 500 gigs throughout Britain.
Photograph © Syd Shelton
RIOT, RACE & ROCK AND ROLL
The carnival was the high point of an extraordinary protest by RAR and the Anti-Nazi League (ANL) in response to the turbulent racial politics of the late 1970s. Today, it is standard for musicians to espouse anti-racist sentiments. At the time however, the carnival organisers weren’t sure they would find an appreciative audience. They were hoping to attract 20,000 people to Victoria Park with acts including the Clash, Steel Pulse, the Tom Robinson Band and X-Ray Spex. They were delighted when more than four times that many came. “Black bands and white bands appeared on the same bill for the first time,” says RAR originator Red Saunders, “It was part of an enormous change in society that is still going on – multiculturalism from the roots up”. What did Rock Against Racism mean to you?
Peter Hain ANL co-founder, now Secretary of State for Northern Ireland “The carnival was a complete watershed, a fusion of popular culture and politics that had not been achieved before and that has only since come close with the Free Nelson Mandela concert at Wembley a decade later. 16
Vibe Live Monday 26th April, 7.30pm The RAR movement’s enduring symbol was the monster 1978 march to and gig in East London’s Victoria Park which featured The Clash, Tom Robinson, Steel Pulse, and many more.
Tom Robinson One of the headline acts at
Victoria Park, now a broadcaster on BBC 6 Music “People who previously felt isolated realised that thousands of others felt the same and it gave them the strength to go back to their schools or workplaces and confront the racists and their gut-wrenching jokes. In 1977 and 1978 there was a great danger of the NF becoming a credible political party, and if things like the RAR and ANL carnival had even a small effect in countering them, it was worth it.”
To celebrate this and to discuss how cultural politics can defeat the far right, the East End Film Festival are bringing together an audience with RAR veterans, musicians and filmmakers. Chaired by comedian Mark Steel, this cream of the punky-reggae generation alongside stars of representing the best of today’s “militant entertainment” will present their arguments and take questions from the floor in this ‘Question Time’
Billy Bragg Singer-songwriter “I was 19 at the time and came across from Barking, where the National Front was very active. It really made me think what the whole event was about, because the fascists didn’t just hate black people, they hated anyone who was different. So that day I took a pledge to be different, to question authority, to dress the way I wanted to and write songs I wanted to.”
Re-edit: UK 2010 | Alan Miles | 60 min Vibe Live Wednesday 28th April, 7.30pm Featuring footage from the infamous 1978 Carnival in East London’s Victoria Park, Who Shot the Sheriff? tells the story of one of the most exciting mass movements in British history. Full details on page 46. This screening will be followed by a live gig from the ‘All Stars’, a band comprising of a medley of well-known musicians headed up by Sam Duckworth of Get Cape .Wear Cape. Fly. For tickets go to: www.wegottickets.com/eeff
ALL THE YEARS OF TRYING UK|2009|Dom Shaw|75 min Whitechapel Gallery Saturday 24 April, 3.00pm + panel event Part music documentary, part concert film, Dom Shaw’s film explores the world of ‘lost’ late seventies punk poet Patrick Fitzgerald (RAR carnival opening act). Full details on page 32. A panel discussion will follow the screening featuring director Dom Shaw and special guests, plus live music from Milk Kan. For tickets go to: www.wegottickets.com/eeff
SUS
UK|2010|Robert Heath|96 min Rich Mix Saturday 24 April, 8.00pm + panel event Written in 1979 by Barrie Keefe (The Long Good Friday) and set on the eve of Margaret Thatcher’s election based on a true story, SUS is a powerful cry against institutional racism. Full details on page 44. Following the screening there will be a panel discussion, in association with human rights charity Liberty, with guests including Doreen Lawrence, Stephen Kamlish QC, David Akinsanya, Pennie Quinton and Shami Chakrabarti. For tickets go to: www.wegottickets.com/eeff
Don Letts DJ and filmmaker
“Racism was totally in-your-face then. If I wasn’t being chased by the National Front I was being stopped by the police using the ‘SUS’ laws. The Clash and the Sex Pistols grew up with black people living next door and I bonded with those guys as friends through our love of black music. We came together through an understanding of our differences. So punk and RAR were immeasurably important at street level because they created a mutual respect.”
Photograph © Syd Shelton
ROCK AGAINST RACISM Rock Against Racism, the mass movement which inspired Live Aid and helped forge multicultural Britain, is documented in the world premiere re-edit of Who Shot The Sheriff? directed by Alan Miles at this year’s East End Film Festival. On the 30th of April 1978, more than 80,000 people took part in a Rock Against Racism (RAR) carnival in Victoria Park, East London. They were protesting at the rise of the far right National Front, which was then making headway in the polls and on the streets. It proved to be a seminal moment, drawing many white youngsters away from racist propaganda, radicalising a generation, and paving the way for concerts such as Live Aid.
RAR – A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION
Who Shot the Sheriff?
Photograph © Syd Shelton
Photograph © Syd Shelton
Curator: Carol Tulloch|Design: Graphicsi Vibe Gallery Saturday 24 – Friday 30 April, (daily) 12noon – 6.00pm FREE A Riot of Our Own is the feature exhibition of the East End Film Festival. Revisiting the energy of the Rock Against Racism (RAR) Movement, 1976– 1981, the exhibition showcases the personal archive of Graphicsi – Ruth Gregory and Syd Shelton who were RAR (London) committee members. The archive is a unique repository of graphic and photographic material on this pivotal period in British political activism.
The evening will end with RAR Celebrity DJ sets and surprise guests.
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EVENTS: village underground
VISIONÄRE/VILLAGE UNDERGROUND Over two days, Village Underground will play host to the Festival’s very first pop-up cinema Visionäre, a theatrical exploration where underground music documentaries meet alternative music, audio-visual showcases and live performances. Visionäre is sponsored and produced in collaboration with The East Room Members club, and features an afternoon Festival chill-out space before morphing into the evening’s film and live music. Village Underground is a collective of Shoreditch, Berlin and New York filmmakers, music promoters, VJs, DJs and musicians who have come together in this vast Victorian vaulted and brick-arched warehouse.
GRAFFITI/ POST GRAFFITI Sunday 25 April A testament to street graffiti entering the hallowed grounds of major art galleries and institutions in the early 80s featuring Basquiat and his New York contemporaries. New York New Wave at PS1 – this seminal show, curated by Diego Cortez features the work of Robert Mapplethorpe, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat and interviews with Kurt Hope and Diego Cortez. 2.00pm – 4.00pm
DOWNTOWN CALLING US | 2009 | Shan Nicholson | 75 min Narrated by Debbie Harry, Nicholson’s film – and European premiere – looks at the creative music and filmmaking explosion that occurred in downtown New York in the late 70s, particularly the birth of hip hop, and features reminiscences from DJ Arthur Baker, graf artist Fab Five Freddy, ESG, and Wild Style filmmaker Charlie Ahearn.
David Byrne Night Monday 26 April An evening of all things David Byrne, ex Talking Heads leader, filmmaker and champion of Brazilian music, with film and live music. 6.30pm – 8.00pm
True Stories
US|1986|David Byrne|90 min True Stories is Byrne’s visit to a fictional Texas town to meet local colourful characters with a unique homegrown, Americana-style surrealism and folk-art. 8.00pm – 2.00am
ÎLé AIYé (THE HOUSE OF LIFE)
US|1989|David Byrne|54 min Îlé Aiyé is Byrne’s breathtaking impressionistic docu-poem on Candomblé, the Brazilian spirit cult of the Bahia region with its life-affirming rituals, rhythms, music, dress and culture. The evening also sees live performances by Dalston’s mischievous four-piece Django Django with their Talking Heads and ESG inspired psychedelic art pop, and by Camden based singer-songwriter Mat Motte whose on-stage persona owes a little to Byrne. For up-to-date information and tickets for all Visionäre events, go to: www.wegottickets.com/visionare
4.30pm – 2.00am The evening sees a live performance by Exotica and Balearic tastemakers Quiet Village, premiering the visual side of their Silent Movie release, a mix of film-inspired electronica and psychedelia. Plus a visual and audio showcase by Jigoku, aka Lovely Jon and Cherrystones, inspired by classic exploitation cinema. Followed by UK innovator and special guest international DJ Andrew Weatherall playing a special post punk/ no-wave set. 18
19
EVENTS: FILMMAKERS CENTRE
interview
FILMMAKERS CENTRE Supported by SAE and Wieden+Kennedy W+K Platform: The Cole – Filmmakers Centre 16 Hanbury Street, E1 6QR Open daily 10.30am – 6.00pm £5 day pass available on the door, £10 week pass available online. All evening events are priced at £6.50 available online. Visit: www.wegottickets.com/eeff
Supported by SAE, and housed in the state-of-the-art W+K Platform: The Cole, the Filmmakers Centre hosts workshops, masterclasses, networking drinks, in-person events and screenings and even free tea and coffee throughout the festival. Come meet friends over a bite from s&m, find new collaborators, develop your projects, make films or simply chill out before screenings.
WEEKDAY DAYTIME PROGRAMME
EVENING EVENTS & MASTERCLASSES Nitin Sawhney Masterclass Saturday 24 April, 7.45pm A musician, producer and composer, Nitin’s criticallyacclaimed work combines Asian and other worldwide influences with elements of jazz and electronica and often explores themes such as multiculturalism, politics and spirituality. (See our interview with him on p.18) We welcome him to our Filmmakers Centre to discuss his views on music, film and creativity.
Morning surgeries daily 11.00am – 1.00pm Whether your question is artistic, legal, technical, editorial, financial or a combination of all five, book yourself in for an up-close and personal mentoring session with one of our Industry experts. Confirmed specialists include:
Photograph by Declan Giles
Jon Croker UK Film Council Development Fund Charlie Philips Marketplace producer, Sheffield Doc/Fest David Wilkinson MD Guerilla Films David Castro Independent Producer/ Screen South Afternoon workshops & panel discussions 2.00pm – 5.00pm Throughout the afternoons, the Filmmakers Centre will be hosting a series of Industry talks, workshops and panel discussions aimed at exploring all the latest developments in the film world.
NITIN SAWHNEY INTERVIEW The Guardian rightly says of Nitin Sawhney that, ‘It would be easier to jot down what this man can’t do than what he can.’ As a world class producer, songwriter, DJ, multi-instramentalist, orchestral composer and film scorer he is probably best known for his eclectic mix of musical genres and worldwide influences. When I meet with him he is just about to rehearse a performance of his score for the silent 1933 Japanese film Yogoto No Yume live at The Barbican, and considering Nitin’s unique style, it’s intriguing to find out how his fusions complement each very different project that he takes on. “I’m not really crazy about the word ‘fusion’,” he says, “mainly because it starts from the premise that everything is separate, whereas I tend to think about how I create an emotional or psychological narrative, particularly with film scoring. It’s about building up an individual vocabulary and musical language for each separate project. Working very closely with directors involves a lot of psychology as well as an understanding of their vision, ensuring that you give a cohesion and a sense of movement and development to the way in which the subtext works for any given film.” It seems pretty clear that Nitin does not see himself as an adaptor or a manipulator of one particular style; he is simply a musician who refuses to recognise any boundaries between what would normally be classed as contrasting genres. “I’m always thinking what sounds, what flavours, what feelings, are going to work with a particular emotion,” he says. “Effectively music is the language of emotion, particularly in film. So you’re really trying to find the emotional narrative and it’s important to actually find the spaces. I’m not really into underscoring scenes that already have enough of what you need. I don’t really like the idea of simply emphasising action 20
if the action and the acting are already strong enough. I’m much more into finding a sense of additional narrative that I think comes out through the subconscious and the way in which you feel when watching a movie.” Reading Nitin’s biography is truly staggering. Aside from the aforementioned accolades, his scoring extends to short films, television, documentaries, adverts and even video games. He appears to relish the challenge of transitioning from one medium to another, and is keen to quash the notion that video game soundtracks are still little more than the badly synthesised melodic musings of a basement geek. “There are a lot of technical challenges which involve failure and success paths,” says Nitin “you need to be able to account for the idea that at any given moment the [video game] player could completely fluff whatever they’re doing and fail, or they could be really successful and therefore want to have some kind of sonic reward to feel triumphant in what they’re doing”. Of all the patrons, Nitin epitomises the cross-over between different media which the EEFF so fervently promotes. “I think more and more that it’s been useful being diverse in terms of what I do,” he says “I never used to have a strong opinion one way or the other, I just enjoyed working on different projects because I found it more challenging and more interesting to vary my days.” And we’re certainly glad that he did. Interview by Hayley Wright.
Nitin Sawhney will give a live masterclass on film composition and his creative process at the Filmmakers Centre on Saturday 24 April, at 7.45pm, see opposite.
Music Sales Film&TV
We’ve partnered with a range of industry partners to bring local filmmakers the most useful workshops and events - from production accounting to a focus on digital technology, directing actors to new ways to distribute and promote your work, there’s an entire programme of daily activity to support filmmakers experienced and new. Filmmakers Centre partners include: London Film Academy; Tigerlily Films; 4 Corners; BAFTA; Skillset; Inition and more to be announced. The full schedule of workshops, plus list of ‘experts’ meeting slots will be available online and from the filmmakers reception desk during the Festival. Networking Drinks 5.00pm – 6.00pm Join fellow filmmakers, colleagues, festival guests and partners for informal networking, a quick glass of wine and talk before heading on to the evening’s entertainment. We’ll be hosting at least three of these short networking sessions during the Festival; dates to be announced after 23 April with details available from the Filmmakers Centre reception desk and online during the Festival.
Tom Harper + Ivana MacKinnon in Conversation Sunday 25 April, 7.45pm Join director Tom Harper (Cubs [short], Misfits [TV], and Scouting Book for Boys) in conversation with collaborator and producer Ivana MacKinnon (Scouting Book for Boys, The Descent, Slumdog Millionaire) for an insight into the working relationship, highs and lows of these two exciting new faces of UK cinema. Barry Adamson Screening and Masterclass Tuesday 27 April, 7.45pm Barry Adamson was the bass player in post punk band, Magazine between 1978 and 1982, before becoming a founder member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds in 1984. He has since carved out an extensive solo career, which includes film composition, most notably for David Lynch’s Lost Highway. We are delighted to be screening the World Premiere of his film Therapist (see p.44) and welcome Barry to discuss his film, his music and his influences. Michael Nyman Masterclass Wednesday 28 April, 7.45pm One of our most outstanding contemporary composers Michael Nyman is responsible for some of our most treasured soundtracks of all time. His prolific portfolio straddles operas, string quartets, film soundtracks and orchestral concertos. Join this performer, conductor, band-leader, author, musicologist, photographer and filmmaker for a rare insight into his methods of working, the sources of his inspiration and the reasons for his lifelong relationship with visuals and sound. Paul Andrew Williams + Ken Marshall in Conversation Thursday 29 April, 7.45pm Paul and Ken formed Steel Mill Pictures to produce London to Brighton in 2006, before going on to create the Cottage (2008) and more recently, Cherry Tree Lane (to be released 2010). Join the pair in conversation at our Filmmakers Centre and find out why and how they managed to create a sustainable creative and business partnership in increasingly volatile times. Tickets for all evening events are available via: www.wegottickets.com/eeff or on the door (subject to availability) and cost £6.50.
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EVENTS: FILMMAKERS CENTRE
EVENTS: Spitalfields Market WEEKEND EVENTS: Kino Live 72-Hour Film Challenge Launch Saturday 24 April, 12noon – 5.00pm. FREE + Tuesday 27 April, 7.00pm Screening at Vibe Live Please pre-register your interest via sam@kinolondon.com to book a place.
Kino London return to the festival with their unique screening of sight-unseen Guerilla shorts on Tuesday 27 at Vibe Live, but this time with an EEFF twist. Filmmakers of all talents and experience are invited to take part in the EEFF/ Kino challenge, kicking off with the Kino production meeting at midday on Saturday 24 April at the Filmmakers Centre.
All participants – filmmakers, actors, technicians, musicians – should attend the production meeting, where they can either announce their own projects or get involved with others. The Kino team will help participants to form filmmaking teams where necessary, and assist with filling people’s crewing and casting needs. The Kino team will maintain a presence in the Filmmakers Centre from Monday to Tuesday to offer support and advice to filmmakers before the screening on Tuesday at our Vibe Live venue. Filmmakers will also be able to bring down their laptops to edit in the buzzing environs of the Centre.
The completed films will screen at Vibe Live on Tuesday 27 April, with free entry for all participating filmmakers (normal ticket price £5) and post-screening networking on the night.
The launch event on Saturday is FREE and open to anyone who wants to take part – although signup is essential. Please pre-register your interest by emailing: sam@kinolondon.com to get on the list. Tickets for the Tuesday screening cost £5 and are available on the door at Vibe Live.
Grits‘n’Gravy Sunday
3.00pm
°
Sunday 25 April, 11.00am – 5.30pm. £6.50 Join us for a FREE Bloody Mary and beat the Sunday blues with a whole day of home-cookin, deep-southern, bloodymary infused brunchtime films hailing from the deepest, wildest, warmest deep south of the US of A. With a hogroast on the roof garden and an unforgettable programme of soon to be cult classics in the main hall, it’s the perfect way to work through the Sunday after the night before. 11.00am
As a precursor to tonight’s Johnny Knoxville produced documentary at Rich Mix: 4.40pm
US|2008|UK Premiere|93 min Director: David Pomes (First Feature) An excellent drama about the horrors of meth addiction in rural America, and following the story of a family going through complete meltdown into full-blown addiction, and how it affects their 6-year-old daughter.
US|1991|UK Premiere|40 min Director: Jacob Young Introducing us to Jesco White, a hard-living, tap-dancing Boone County resident whose repeated run-ins with the law have interfered with his dream of becoming as renowned a ‘mountain dancer’ as his late father, D. Ray White.
COOK COUNTY
1.00pm
GHOST BIRD
Platform is a creative experiment. We are hand picked talent from all over the world. We have backgrounds in the arts, sciences and technology. We tackle business problems with our hands. We are a research lab, prototyping unit and craft workshop. If you have a problem you want us to tackle then contact sam.brookes@wk.com 22 us on Twitter and Facebook @wkplatform and at platform.wk.com Follow
FEARLESS FREAKS
US|2005|UK Premiere|103 min Director: Bradley Beesley A documentary on the evolution of the Oklahoma band The Flaming Lips and an insight on what it’s like to be a rock star.
US|2009|UK Premiere|85 min Director: Scott Crocker A documentary about a small town in Arkansas, an extinct giant Ivory-billed woodpecker and everybody looking for the Holy Grail of birding, while examining the meaning of hope, faith and the limits of certainty in the quest to resurrect this lost bird!
DANCING OUTLAW
Tickets for the full day at the Filmmakers Centre cost £6.50 and are available online at www.wegottickets.com/eeff or on the door (subject to availability). Continue the theme with the UK Premiere screening of The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia, showing at 6.30pm at Rich Mix later in the evening. (see p.46) Please note the Filmmakers Centre & Roof garden is not accessible by wheelchair. 23
EVENTS: youth
EVENTS: Spitalfields Market
YOUTH EVENTS BISHOPS CHALLONER SCHOOL SCREENINGS Bishop Challoner Catholic Collegiate Girls School, Hardinge Street, London E1 0EB Hundreds of children will be attending special screenings of films made in Tower Hamlets schools on the theme of the environment and recycling. The special screening premieres will be shown over two days at Bishop Challoner CC School in Stepney on April 26 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 27. The films will be packaged onto a DVD and distributed free to schools in September as an environmental learning resource. Young film
makers have produced a range of films that communicate an environmental message using different techniques. Accompanying the screenings will be a display of environmental campaigns produced in all the participating schools. Monday April 26, 10:30am and 2.00pm Tuesday April 27, 10:30am and 2.00pm By invitation. There is a small guestlist for educators and young people who wish to attend â&#x20AC;&#x201C; please email: film@eastendfilmfestival.com
Easter Holiday Film-Making Project
In collaboration with Rich Mix and Find Your Talent Are you under 16? Do you Like movies? This April you can have a go at making your own film, in a two-day workshop run by professional filmmakers. At the end of the workshop you will leave Rich Mix with a DVD of the film that you wrote, directed, edited and even starred in!
Places are limited so early booking is advised. Tuesday 13 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Wednesday 14 April (for ages 7â&#x20AC;&#x201C;12) 11.00am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 4.00pm, Venue 2, ÂŁ10 Thursday15 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Friday 16 April (for ages 13 â&#x20AC;&#x201C;16) 11.00am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 5.00pm, Venue 2, ÂŁ10
Location, location, location Stretching 26 miles from the Thames through East London, Essex and Hertfordshire, our award-winning heritage sites, parklands, gardens and VSRUWV YHQXHV DUH LGHDO ÂżOPLQJ SKRWR shoot and unit base locations. Plus we have hundreds of events and great days out for all the family. :K\ QRW ÂżQG RXW ZKDW ZH KDYH WR RIIHU" Lee Valley Regional Park is proud to support the East End Film Festival.
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08456 770 600 www.leevalleypark.org.uk
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EVENTS: Spitalfields Market
EVENTS: Spitalfields Market
S R E T O SHO
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EEFF
Shooting People
congratulates all its members screening at
East End Film Festival 2010 Shooting People is the international networking organisation dedicated to the support and promotion of independent filmmaking
shootingpeople.org SP_EEFF_A5_hires.indd 1
16/03/2010 16:53:19
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Firehouse Creative Productions in association with The New Diorama Theatre present
EVENTS: Spitalfields Market
ELEVATOR
by Gabriel Pintilei
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FILM FESTIVAL Copenhagen 15-25 April 2010
Weekly Magazine, www.cooltura.co.uk
The New Diorama Theatre 15-16 Triton Street London NW1 3BF
POLISH RADIO LONDON
DAB and Internet Radio, www.prl24.net
4 - 22 May 2010 Tue â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Sat, 7.30pm (Sat matinee 3.30pm)
www.cphpix.dk
*preview dates 4 - 5 May Main Sponsors
Portal for Poles in the UK
13:29:57
Photography by Nick Rutter www.nickrayrutter.co.uk
CPH PIX IS A PART OF COPENHAGEN FILM FESTIVALS
15/03/2010 16:17 4youk_105x148.indd 1
â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;A day in the life of Danâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;
3/18/2010 2:26:12 PMCommissioned
by The Royal British Legion, Directed by Ben Moore, 2010.
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Official contributors
kordian@elondyn.co.uk www.elondyn.co.uk
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Media partner
tel: 020 8846 3615 ext. 256 fax: 020 8741 9490
25/3/10
Unit 6, King Street Cloisters Clifton Walk, Hammersmith London W6 0GY
OBL_festival_ad.pdf
â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;A day in the life of Danâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (DILOD) is one soldierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s story that embodies the very essence of The Royal British Legion -- a modern charity caring for the Afghan generation of the British Armed Forces, while providing life-long support to the ex-Service community from previous conflicts. This film speaks to the hardships and adjustments made by soldiers leaving the Armed Forces after operational tours in Afghanistan. DILOD is a video diary of Dan Hinxmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time serving as an officer in the British Army on tour in Afghanistan. Shot on his own digital camcorder Dan gives us a unique insight into the realities of army life in Afghanistan which span from routine daily chores to dramatic close contact shoot outs with enemy forces. Running parallel to this, we see Danâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s video diary back in London as he goes about his new life at a City hedge fund, trying to adjust to life as a civilian and as a veteran. www.britishlegion.org.uk
PULL OUT AND KEEP CALENDAR Genesis
Rich Mix
thursday / April 22
Opening Night Gala 7.30pm Bronco Bullfrog
friday / April 23
6.30pm East End Lives
6.30pm Skid Row
6.45pm Bank Robbery
6.30pm Shorts Programme Peccadillo: Boys on Film
8.45pm Piggies
9.00pm I Killed My Mother
Rio Cinema
W+K The Cole: Filmmakers Centre
Cineworld West India Quay
Amnesty
Barbican
sunday / April 25
7.30pm Rime of the Modern Mariner St. Anne’s Church
3.00pm Russian Shorts
1.30pm Shorts Programme Life on the Olympic Edgelands
12noon Kino Live Launch
6.00pm The Cost of Love
5.00pm I Am
3.45pm For a Moment Freedom
7.45pm Nitin Sawhney Masterclass
8.00 pm SUS
11.30pm Julia + Short
6.30pm Bilal 8.30pm Metastases
1.00pm Be Calm and Count to Seven 3.15pm Francesca
6.30pm Manila
6.30pm Shorts Programme Adventures in Urban Experiments
8.30pm Shorts Programme East End Tales
6.15pm Shorts Programme Documents 2: UK True Life Stories
6.00pm We Don’t Care About Music Anyway
(Daily) 26 – 30 April Morning surgeries & afternoon workshops, please check website for full listing
6.30pm Shorts Programme Documents 3: International True Life Stories
2.00pm Visionäre pop-up cinema Graffiti/ Post Graffiti Downtown Calling Village Underground
5.00pm Tibet in Song
4.30pm Visionäre pop-up cinema Quiet Village, Jigoku and Andy Weatherall Village Underground
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7.00pm Shorts Programme New UK Talent 2: Sons & Daughters
6.30pm Shorts Programme Focus on Eastern Europe 4 x Documentary 8.30pm The Border + Short
3.00pm REDaesthetics and the art of RAW, please book through Four Corners
6.00pm Lost Times
6.30pm Lives of the Artists
6.00pm Today is Better than Two Tomorrows
11.00am Surgery: distribution; music licensing 2.00pm – 5.30pm Digital Flux for Producers 5.30pm Four Corners networking event 7.45pm Michael Nyman Masterclass
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6.30pm Buben Baraben
6.15pm Taqwacore
7.00pm I Am Yours
6.30pm Leaves + Shorts
6.15pm Russia88 + Short
11.00am Surgery: documentary 4.00pm Tigerlily at 10 7.45pm Paul Andrew Williams and Ken Marshall in conversation
7.30pm Roundtable discussion + DJ set
4.00pm – 7.00pm Give&Take Event Theme –Film Spitalfields Market FREE
6.30pm Archive Launch & Screening of East End Heritage The Water Poet (also launches screenings at participating pubs) FREE
6.30pm Men of the City 8.30pm Shed Your Tears and Walk Away
6.30pm – 2.00am Visionäre pop-up cinema David Byrne night Village Underground --------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------
7.00pm Kino Screening
11.00am Surgery: script development 2.00pm Liberating the Image: camera technology workshop 4.00pm 3D workshop 7.45pm Barry Adamson screening + conversation
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8.30pm Crush
friday / April 30
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2.30pm Lonely Pack + Shorts
6.30pm BAFTA networking event
6.30pm Shorts Programme New UK Talent 3: Tales from the Youth Side
8.00pm Land Gold Women
thursday / April 29
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Grits‘n’Gravy Sunday 11.00am Cook County 1.00pm Ghost Bird 3.00pm Fearless Freaks 4.40pm Dancing Outlaw
3.00pm LFA workshop
8.30pm Now and Forever
wednesday / april 28
5.00pm – 9.00pm Cinema Sirens Pop-up Hair Salon Spitalfields Market FREE
4.00pm Ana Begins
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6.30pm Shorts Programme New Pathways
3.00pm All the Years of Trying Whitechapel Gallery
7.45pm Tom Harper and Ivana MacKinnon in Conversation
8.30pm Shorts Programme Adventures in Experiments
tuesday / April 27
24 – 30 April (daily) 12noon – 6.00pm A Riot of Our Own Exhibition
2.00pm Shorts Programme New UK Talent 1: Comedy Light & Dark
8.00pm The Lodger + Minima live Spitalfields Market FREE
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8.30pm Slovenian Girl
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1.00pm Shorts Programme Focus on Eastern Europe: 4 x shorts 3.00pm Shorts Programme World Cinema Shorts 5.00pm Cargo 200 6.30pm The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia 8.00pm Morphia
23 – 30 April, (daily) 10.00am – 6.00pm Local(eyes) Spitalfields Market FREE 23 – 30 April, (daily) 12noon – 6.00pm Palimpsests Exhibition Four Corners FREE
3.30pm Firaaq
6.00pm Mall Girls
monday / April 26
6.00pm RAR Exhibition Preview
6.30pm Shorts Programme Documents 1: East End True Life Stories
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3.30pm Cowboys in India
All other venues
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saturday / April 24
Vibe Live & Gallery
4.00pm –7.00pm Give&Take Event:Theme–Art & Design Spitalfields Market FREE
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6.15pm Disco and Atomic War
7.00pm Shorts Programme New UK Talent 4: Family Affairs
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7.00pm Presumed Guilty
7.30pm Who Shot The Sheriff + Gig
4.00pm –7.00pm Give & Take Event:Theme–Freestyle Spitalfields Market FREE
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7.00pm Shorts Programme Docheads Short Documentaries Monty’s Bar FREE 8.30pm Erasing David Stratford Picture House
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11.00am Surgery: tbc 2.00am Lifestyle Pictures: Shorts to Features
Award Ceremony and Closing Night Gala Party Whitechapel Gallery www.shutterbox.tv/east
Features A–Z Photograph byTower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives
Photograph byTower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives
Archive cinema
ARCHIVE CINEMA Tower Hamlets has a long history of varying forms of entertainment, with the cinema playing an important role in the lives of East Enders since it’s inception in the early part of the 20th century. The interest in moving pictures was so great that a number of small businesses tried to capitalise on the craze by converting their premises into small cinemas showing silent films, including many on Commercial Road, like the Kings Electric Theatre and the New Electric Theatre (which was previously a greengrocers). Their days were numbered however with the opening of purpose built cinemas in the 1930s and 40s. The Mile End Empire had seating for over 1,800 people, the Rivoli in Whitechapel and the Mile End Odeon over 2,000 and The Troxy a capacity for over 3,200. This was the golden age of cinema, however, during the 1950s the number of attendees began to fall and by the 1960s only a handful of cinemas continued to operate in Tower Hamlets. In 1978 there was only the Empire operating as a mainstream
cinema. Other smaller cinemas showing Asian films like the Naz on Brick Lane (formerly Mayfair) and the Palaseum on Commercial Road closed. The Empire, renamed The Coronet, continued on until 1988 when an attack of vandalism forced them to shut, leaving the Borough, which 50 years previously had at least 20 cinemas, with none. In May 1999 the Genesis cinema on Mile End Road, the site of the old Paragon, Empire, ABC and Coronet cinemas, was opened to allow people in Tower Hamlets the chance to see mainstream films in their borough for the first time in 11 years. The Genesis this year will hold the opening night of the East End Film Festival with a screening of Bronco Bullfrog and joins the Rich Mix, Rio, Cineworld, Barbican and Stratford Picturehouse cinemas in hosting the festival programme of short and feature films. By Declan Giles. Information gathered at the Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives.
FEATURES OPENING NIGHT GALA UK|1969|86 min Premiere of BFI Digital Restoration Genesis Cinema Thursday 22 April, 7.30pm £10 (price includes entrance to aftershow party)
Great British Films supported by Great British Grub!
BRONCO BULLFROG Director: Barney Platts-Mills Del Quant is a 17-year-old welder’s apprentice who lives in London’s East End. He and his friends have little money, nothing to do and nowhere to go. They get their kicks robbing from the local café, bragging about their friend Bronco Bullfrog who is on the run from Borstal, and dreaming of girls and criminal adventures. Del eventually befriends Bronco, and meets Irene, a 15-year-old schoolgirl whose father is in prison for armed robbery and whose mother is determined that she will rise above her surroundings. British East End working-class youth are realistically portrayed in this cult film that’s become a mod classic. With a great sixties soundtrack by The Audience and atmospheric
black and white photography, a sharp ‘mod’ and ‘swinging sixties’ feel and a kitchen-sink sensibility, it’s like ‘the first film Mike Leigh should have made’. The East End Film Festival presents a brand new HD screening, in collaboration with the British Film Institute’s Flipside, which discovers and brings back to life lost gemst from British cinema. We also look forward to welcoming on stage some of the original cast and crew from this classic film. The Mod madness continues after the film, so join us at the post-screening party at The Brickhouse on Brick Lane with Great British Grub courtesy of s&m and fabulous free cocktails courtesy of Courvoisier.
CLOSING NIGHT GALA AWARD CEREMONY AND CLOSING NIGHT PARTY
Join us at the Whitechapel Gallery for our sound-raving-art-braving-film-craving-awardwinning closing night celebration hosted by Shutterbox on Friday 30 April.
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For up-to-date details and tickets, visit: www.shutterbox.tv/east
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Features A–Z
Features A–Z UK|2009|61 min Whitechapel Gallery Saturday 24 April, 3.00pm
ALL THE YEARS OF TRYING
Iran|2009|89 min UK Premiere Rio Sunday 25 April 1.00pm
BE CALM AND COUNT TO SEVEN (ARAM BASH VA TA HATF BESHMAR)
India|2009|89 min Genesis Sunday 25 April 6.30pm
BILAL
Director: Dom Shaw Part music documentary, part concert film, Dom Shaw’s (Rough Cut & Ready Dubbed) film concerns ‘lost’ late seventies punk poet Patrick Fitzgerald, a big influence on the likes of John Cooper Clarke, Billy Bragg and more recently, King Blues. Born in 1956 in Stratford, East London to working-class Irish immigrant parents, he began performing and recording his acoustic bedroom anthems during the punk rock explosion of 1977. Kicking against the punk orthodoxy by performing waif-like and vulnerably alone with an acoustic guitar and a tattered book of poems at the height of the punk revolution, his anthem ‘Safety Pin Stuck in My Heart’ struck a chord that’s been felt into the next generation of singer songwriters. The film mixes archive footage, interviews with Fitzgerald’s contemporaries and culminates with his recent live performances in London and as part of a Patrick Fitzgerald festival in Norway. A panel discussion will follow the screening featuring director Dom Shaw and guests, plus live music from Milk Kan.
UK |2008|80 min UK Premiere Cineworld West India Quay Saturday 24 April 4.00pm
Estonia|2009|93 min UK Premiere Genesis Friday 23 April 6.45pm
ANA BEGINS
Director: Sourav Sarangi (First Feature) At first glance, Bilal is a normal 3 year-old kid. He goes to school; he plays with other kids in his neighborhood; he teases his younger brother. But dig beneath the surface and there’s something a little bit special about Bilal. Looks can be deceiving, you see. In fact, they can be totally redundant. Bilal and his brother can see perfectly well, but both their parents are blind. All four live in a 12’ x 8’ room in central Kolkata. It’s a tiny, tangible universe. Independent filmmaker Sourav Sarangi spent the best part of a year filming in this absorbing environment. The result is Bilal, a documentary that’s rightly proving one of this year’s big successes on the international festival circuit.
THE BORDER
Director: Ben O’Connor (First Feature) Ana’s husband has died, and she finds herself alone and isolated in her home on the outskirts of a rural village in North Devon, trying to start again during a cold, grey and wet February. Her neighbour Frazer is there as someone to lean on. But he is also lost, trapped in a marriage that died years ago. The older Frazer begins to fall in love with the young and beautiful Ana, and their relationship develops, but not without tension and guilt. Ana Begins is a subtle and intricate love story, and the directorial feature debut of British director O’Connor, who has worked in short film, documentary and drama. + Q&A with Director and cast
UK Premiere Amnesty International Human Rights ActionCentre Monday 26 April 8.30pm
Director: Jaroslav Vojtek A look at how political decisions on paper can have absurd, disastrous, effects on the ground. In 1946 a border between Czechoslovakia and the Ukraine was randomly drawn slicing the village of Slemence in half. Families call to each other over the fence to pass on the latest news and have to travel 150 km to get a visa for visiting. In 2008, during filming, an EU referendum made border controls even stricter; ironic given the 20th anniversary festivities of the fall of the Berlin Wall was celebrating living in a Europe without borders.
Poland|1989/2009 |29 min
+ EXIT
BANK ROBBERY (PANGARööV)
Russia|2009|105 min UK Premiere Genesis Thursday 29 April 6.30pm
BUBEN BARABAN
Director: Andrus Tuisk (First Feature) Hannes is bullied at school and lacks parental love. His uncle Madis, a tattooed former boxer and lifelong criminal, is just released from prison. With Hannes looking for a father figure, the two misfits link up and head off on a road trip into rural Estonia, leading Madis back to a life of crime. Hannes Kaljujärv plays Madis with brabric intensity, yet quite clearly all he yearns for is love. First time feature director Tuisk show us that life is harsh, and captures brutality here without resorting to gratuitous violence. Bank Robbery is a gritty film with some genuinely moving moments by Tuisk, resulting in an impressive debut.
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Slovakian|2009|72 min
Director: Ramtin Lavafipour (First Feature) Motu is the leader of a gang of young people who make their money by gleaning smuggled cargo from the sea, recovering abandoned and illegal merchandise. While their families are often part of the operation, Motu’s father vanished while smuggling illegal aliens, and no one knows where he is or even if he’s still alive. This lyrical portrait of a remote Persian Gulf fishing village highlights that the trafficking of consumer goods and people has changed the traditional way of life. A feature debut from Lavafipour, the dynamic cinematography catches the actions and moods of a changing world.
To book tickets for non-cinema venues, visit www.wegottickets.com/eeff
Director: Malgorzata Bienkowska-Buehlmann A fascinating archive document, recently recut, chronicling Polish refugees attempt to escape to the West in 1989.
Director: Alexei Mizgiryov Set in the late 90s in a small mining town in Russia, this distressing drama centers on Katya, 45, a local librarian who leads a solitary life, her only friend being her youthful colleague and neighbour. Unable to make both ends meet on her meagre and often delayed salary, Katya is forced to steal books from the library and sell them at the train station in disguise. But her life brightens up when a navy captain comes to town and she encounters a true love she’s been longing for years. In his second feature Mizgiryov presents an exemplary character study. Natalia Negoda as Katya delivers a brilliant performance as a woman who struggles with grinding poverty, anguish and the emptiness of her life.
For full programme information, visit www.eastendfilmfestival.com
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Features A–Z
Features A–Z Russia|2007| 89 min Rich Mix Sunday 25 April, 5.00pm
CARGO 200 (GRUZ 200)
Russia|2009|95 min UK Premiere Genesis Thursday 29 April 8.30pm
CRUSH (KOROTKOYE ZAMYKANIYE)
US|1991| 40 min UK Premiere
DANCING OUTLAW
Estonia|2009|80 min London Premiere Barbican Wednesday 28 April 6.15pm
DISCO AND ATOMIC WAR (DISKO JA TUUMASõDA)
Director: Alexei Balabanov This terrifying and absurdist film is set in Leninsk, a fictional provincial Russian factory-town, in 1984, during the Soviet War in Afghanistan. As the economy and the party are collapsing, and the bodies of slain Soviet soldiers, code-named Cargo 200, arrive regularly from the war, so the locals dance and drink their way to escalating depravity, as the film focuses on the abduction of the young daughter of a local Communist Party official. Balabanov’s vision plumbs near-comical depths of anti-Communist fury, as the characters, seem too tired to grasp what is happening to them. Critiquing the late-Soviet period, this brutal and fetid vision of sadism and political policy is a work of serious, modern social criticism that attempts to combat a growing Putin-fueled nostalgia for the Soviet era. “I show what filth we lived in,” the director has said. Balabanov is best known in the UK for his nineties Brothers films, but the East End Film Festival welcomes him to London to present his more recent work, and to attend a Q&A session after both this film and Morphia, screening later in the day at Rich Mix at 8.00pm (see p.41).
Screening as part of Grits‘n’Gravy Sunday. Please see p. 21 for more information
Directors: Petr Buslov, Alexei German Jr., Boris Khlebnikov Kirill Serebrennikov, Ivan Vyrypaev Crush is an anthology film joining five stories which become five directorial statements about love. The main characters are the marginal heroes of our time. They are lonely but struggle to express their feelings, although they all share an important quality of being open-hearted and not afraid of loving. in a unique dynamic collaboration, Crush brings together five leading representatives of a new generation of Russian filmmakers who share original insight on how people meet each other and fall (or not) in love in modern Russia. Director: Jacob Young
Director: Jaak Kilmi A documentary about growing up in the Soviet Union, but close enough to Finland to receive the forbidden fruit of Finnish television - a window to a world of dreams that the authorities could not block. Though Finnish channels were banned, many households found some way to access them leading to a strange kind of information war, where a totalitarian regime stands face-to-face with the heroes of popular culture, when it was possible for the erotic film Emmanuelle and JR in Dallas to bring down the Red Army! This personal deadpan-comic document shows how director Kilmi and other grade schoolers in early-80s Estonia had their lives altered, and has it’s tongue planted firmly in its cheek.
US|2008|93 min UK Premiere
COOK COUNTY
UK|2010|95 min World Premiere Genesis Saturday 24 April 6.00pm
THE COST OF LOVE
UK | 2010 | 30 min World Premiere Genesis Friday 23 April 6.30pm
EAST END LIVES 2
UK|2009|77 min Genesis Sunday 25 April 3.30pm
COWBOYS IN INDIA
UK |2009|80 min Stratford Picturehouse Thursday 29 April 8.30pm
ERASING DAVID
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Director: David Pomes (First Feature) Screening as part of Grits‘n’Gravy Sunday. Please see p.21 for more information.
Director: Carl Medland (First Feature) A modern love story that speaks to us all regardless of colour, sexuality or age, featuring diverse characters and the price they pay for falling in love. It’s not ‘boy meets girl’, ‘will they wont they’, and not even ‘boy meets boy’… far from it! Filmed on location in and around Canary Wharf and Greenwich, the story follows Dale (Christopher Kelham), a rent boy who specialises in fulfilling sexual fantasies, although his own dreams of a happy ending are complicated by the fact that he secretly loves his soon-tobe-married straight best friend Raj. Although the film will speak loudly to a gay audience, it has equally as many straight characters. With a comic upbeat feel married to more poignant moments, this film presents an honesty that exists in and around us all. + Q&A
Director: Simon Chambers Documentary filmmaker Chambers (Every Good Marriage Begins With Tears) visits Orissa, India, where tribal people fight with bows and arrows against multinational mining moguls from London, fighting to save a sacred mountain whose resources will supposedly bring prosperity to the people. Chambers, aided by two hopeless local guides, searches for answers amongst conflicting allegations, as the truth becomes more and more elusive, as accusations of murder and whether company-built hospitals and schools actually exist, land these investigators in bigger trouble than expected. A humorous film about a serious subject. + Director Q&A
Screening as part of Grits‘n’Gravy Sunday. Please see p. 21 for more information
US |2005 |103 min UK Premiere
Directors: Hazuan Hashim / Phil Maxwell Following on from the success of their documentary East End Lives, this second film will again explore life, culture and history of the East End through the eyes of a diverse group of characters. The second instalment includes a range of new and diverse characters including retired East End publicans, Les and Georgina, Imaan a young aspiring artist who is just starting at George Green School and Dilruba, a photojournalist who migrated to the East End over 20 years ago. Despite the changes that the film documents so well, the viewer is left with the overwhelming feeling that there is a constancy that binds East Enders together with a heritage drawn from so many different cultures. Followed by a Q&A with the Directors and real-life cast
Director: David Bond/ Melinda McDougall (First Feature) We live in one of the most intrusive surveillance states in the world. Filmmaker David Bond decides to find out how much private companies and the government know about him by putting himself under surveillance and attempting to disappear, which is a decision that changes his life forever. Leaving his pregnant wife and young child behind, he is tracked across the database state on a chilling journey that forces him to contemplate the meaning of privacy and the loss of it. + Live satellite Q&A
FEARLESS FREAKS
Director: Bradley Beesley
For full programme information, visit www.eastendfilmfestival.com
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Features A–Z
Features A–Z India|2008|101 min Genesis Saturday 24 April 3.30pm
FIRAAQ
US|2009|85 min UK Premiere
Director: Nandita Das (First Feature) Based on a thousand true stories, Firaaq follows the life of several ordinary people, some who were victims, some who were silent observers and some perpetrators, set one month after the 2002 violence in Gujarat. We meet Mohsin who is a young Muslim boy who has been orphaned during the massacre, but is still searching for his father; Aarti who is a middle-aged Hindu woman traumatised because she did not open the door to a Muslim girl being chased by a mob, and many others. Indian actress Das (Ramchand Pakistani) makes her flawless directorial debut here, and brings together some of India’s finest actors in a powerful piece of activist filmmaking that doesn’t shy away from the human psyche.
GHOST BIRD
Director: Scott Crocker
Screening as part of Grits‘n’Gravy Sunday. Please see p.21 for more information
Russia|2009|88 min UK Premiere Rich Mix Saturday 24 April, 5.00pm
I AM (YA)
Austria|2008|110 min UK Premiere Rio Saturday 24 April, 3.45pm
FOR A MOMENT FREEDOM
Director: Arash T. Riahi (First Feature) This is the powerful story of three groups of Iranian refugees who have all managed to escape from Iran and Iraq, now stuck in Istanbul in Turkey, in a dodgy hotel, hoping each day that their applications for asylum will be approved. Although freedom is within their grasp, they first have to wait. These people are heroes who have done nothing except to escape from their homes, when they realise that the struggle for their ideals could no longer be reconciled with any hope of survival. They have to flee merely to carry on living. They have made the decision to become refugees a reality. Young Austrian-Iranian filmmaker Riahi depicts the plight of people trying to flee their homeland and their curious, transitory state of asylum-seekers, with tragic comedy and great suspense. His film is a reaction to and commentary on the political and social situation in Europe today, where racism and hatred of foreigners has become acceptable to a frightening degree.
Director: Igor Voloshin A truly hallucinogenic story of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll set in a Russian psychiatric unit that centres on the generation destroyed by the collapse of the Soviet Union. The story concerns a playwright who admits himself into a psychiatric ward and tells tales of life inside; these range from the mundane to the strange story of a messianic rock star. The film’s visuals act as their own form of electroshock therapy! East End Film Festival welcomes both the director, Igor Voloshin, and lead actress, Russian superstar Oxana Akinshina, best known in the west for her stunning lead role in Lukas Moodysson’s Lilya4Ever, and in The Bourne Supremacy, for an extended Q&A following the film.
Poland |2009|105 min UK Premiere Genesis Thursday 29 April 7.00pm
I AM YOURS (JESTEM TWOJ)
Director:Mariusz Grzegorzek In times of pain and weakness, people sometimes give in to basic desires which have everlasting effects. Marta (played wonderfully by Malgorzata BuczkowskaSzlenkier), is a 30-year old doctor, who, in a moment of desperation falls into bed with Artur. Unbeknownst to her, Artur is an ex-con with dangerously obsessive tendencies that become worse when he finds out Marta is pregnant with his child. A film about unresolved jealousy, resentment and perversion, Grzegorzek never hesitates to pierce into the ugliest corners of the human mind. A stylistically tight and well crafted movie with strong emotions throughout.
Romania|2009|94 min FRANCESCA Rio Director: Bobby Paunescu (First Feature) Sunday 25 April Francesca, a young teacher from Bucharest, is eager to 3.15pm work in Italy. But her friends and family tell her horror stories about how Romanian immigrant workers are treated there, and although she tries to stay optimistic about her dreamed future, doubts creep in. She has a plan to have her boyfriend join her as soon as he closes his small business, but things take an unfortunate turn. This film ignited strong reactions when presented at the Venice Film Festival in 2009, and at the request of Alessandra Mussolini, it has been banned, but the ban was soon lifted after a court decision. Paunescu’s film is an attempt to bring about a need for a change. We welcome director Bobby Paunescu for a Q&A following the film.
Canada|2009|96 min Rich Mix Friday 23 April 9.00pm
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For full programme information, visit www.eastendfilmfestival.com
To book tickets for non-cinema venues, visit www.wegottickets.com/eeff
I KILLED MY MOTHER (J’AI TUé MA MERE)
Director: Xavier Dolan (First Feature) The semi-autobiographical tale of a young gay man coming of age while struggling with his tortured relationship with his mother. Their fights escalate until Mom decides Hubert will be shipped off to boarding school. Being banished to a mother-free zone might have seemed a good option for Hubert, but the move simply leads to an ultimate standoff between them. With his first feature, Dolan writes, directs and stars in I Killed My Mother. Combining assured writing, a confident directorial style, and a beautifully rendered performance, Dolan’s arrival on the big screen is an achievement that cannot be ignored. 39
Features A–Z
Features A–Z Russia|2008|102 min UK Premiere Rio Saturday 24 April 11.30pm
UK|2009|11 min
JULIA (YULENKA)
UK |2009|81 min Rich Mix Wednesday 28 April 6.30pm
Director: Alexander Strizhenov A university professor seeking a quieter life, moves with his wife and daughter to start a new job as a teacher in a small town girl’s school. But these girls don’t play with dolls; they play with human lives, and our teacher’s life and his family are soon jeopardized by something evil. With a nod towards The Omen, Strizenhov’s creepy, horror outing Julia projects an otherworldly air of menace, and has a standout performance by the young Darya Balabanova as Julia, who can give you serious goosepimples with a single creepy look that tells you she means business. + THE LAST BREATH Director: David Jackson A family group scuba-diving outing. An idyllic countryside lake. An unexplained catastrophic event and they are the only survivors - or so they think.
THE LODGER + MINIMA The East End Film Festival returns to Spitalfields Market with acclaimed soundtrackers Minima performing a live accompaniment to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 silent film The Lodger.
LAND GOLD WOMEN
Director: Avantika Hari (First Feature) Shot entirely on location in Birmingham, Land Gold Women follows the story of a British-Asian family caught between Eastern tradition, Western culture and political turbulence. Nazir Ali Khan is an immigrant Indian professor who teaches at a British university, and lives with his wife and their two teenage daughters, whom he loves and indulges their love for all things English while trying to keep the link to home strong. When his older daughter is found in an illicit relationship, Nazir is suddenly on the brink of a tough decision. At the core of this film is the relationship between father and daughter and how their dynamics play out when she decides to take her life into her own hands. This Anglo-Indian collaboration aims to highlight the problems of forced marriage and honour crime, which affect thousands of women in Britain and across the world. Following the screening will be a discussion with cast about issues raised in the film.
UK|16 min UK|19 min
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LEAVES
Director: Ian Waugh Arriving at an isolated farmhouse for a weekend holiday, David and Leah hope to fix their breaking relationship. David is distant, so Leah explores the surrounding woods alone taking photographs but captures the ghostly blur of a man watching her in the background. Leaves is that rare breed of a mid-length feature film, by Scottish filmmaker and photographer Waugh, with a brooding atmosphere about emotional disorientation. + THINGS WE LEAVE BEHIND Director: Andrew Brand Chris is clearing the country cottage of his missing father. + BACK TO NATURE Director: Guy Pitt A young woman finds out some unexpected truths about her partner whilst on a country cycling holiday. + Directors Q&A To book tickets for non-cinema venues, visit www.wegottickets.com/eeff
Director: Ross Cairns (First Feature) This film project documents the personalities of three of our own 21st century contemporary ‘artists’: The abrasive and dramatic British hardcore punk band Gallows on tour across the US; Freeride snowboarder Xavier de Le Rue in the incredible untamed wilderness of Greenland; Big wave surfers Tom Lowe and Fergal searching for the world’s ‘most perfect’ wave in Teahupoo, Tahiti. Filming for a year in some of the most dangerous, remote, inspiring and romantic places on earth, we witnesses the light and dark sides of these artist’s personalities, who push and suffer for their art as they search for fulfilment. + Q&A
UK |2009| 99min Genesis Wednesday 28 April, 8.00pm
UK|2009|58 min UK Premiere Rich Mix Thursday 29 April 6.30pm
LIVES OF THE ARTISTS
UK |1927|74 min Spitalfields Market Saturday 24 April 8.00pm
THE LODGER
Director: Alfred Hitchcock Based on the book by Marie Belloc Lowndes about a mysterious lodger who is suspected of being a local serial killer with a penchant for “golden curls”, with obvious references to the nearby Jack The Ripper legend around Whitechapel and Spitalfields itself. Made at Gainsborough Studios in Shoreditch, The Lodger is considered to be Hitchcock’s first thriller, bringing together those stylistic and thematic elements which would go on to epitomise his American suspense noirs. The Lodger’s critical acclaim quickly established Hitchcock as a name director, which is astonishing considering that the film was almost never released. The distributor told him: “Your picture is so dreadful, that we’re just going to put it on the shelf and forget about it.” Thankfully, this did not happen and trade journal Bioscope called it ‘the finest British production ever made’.
MINIMA Minima’s music is an audacious 21st century interpretation of the images of silent films. Formed in 2006, Minima have since performed in a variety of cinemas and art centres, music festivals and unusual venues such as churches and railway arches, and including here at Spitalfields at the 2009 East End Film Festival where they accompanied silent horror classic Nosferatu. So, we welcome them back to the Festival for 2010; not to be missed.
Germany|2009|48 min UK Premiere Amnesty International Human Rights Centre Sunday 25 April 2.30pm
UK|24 min
UK|11 min UK|17 min
LONELY PACK [KLEINE WöLFE]
Directors: Justin Peach / Lisa Engelbach (First Feature) Following one day in the life of a group of street children in Katmandu, Nepal, whose lives are shaped by hunger and violence and filled with childlike moments of freedom. It’s a daily fight to survive, always on the prowl for food, drugs, and charitable tourists. With no narrator, music, or staging, the story is told by the kids themselves. + LAGUNA NEGRA Director: Michael Watts A documentary exploring the core values of a subsistence farming community in Peru threatened by large scale mining. + ECHOES Director: Rob Brown A female sex trafficker faces a moral dilemma. + NO WAY THROUGH Alexandra Monro / Sheila Menon A short drama highlighting the mobility restrictions imposed in the West Bank in Israel.
For full programme information, visit www.eastendfilmfestival.com
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Features A–Z
Features A–Z Hungary|2009|90 min UK Premiere Genesis Wednesday 28 April 6.00pm
Poland|2009|82 min Genesis Sunday 25 April 6.00pm
LOST TIMES (UTOLSÓ IDÖK)
MALL GIRLS (GALERIANKI)
Director: Katarzyna Roslaniec (First Feature) At 14 it’s important to feel accepted by your classmates, be part of a group, not feel an outsider. Alicja is an ordinary girl, a newcomer, one who looks her age, wears no makeup. She finds herself on the fringes of a trendy group of teenagers. Rude and crude they make her life hell before slowly inviting her to join their world, hanging round shopping malls hitting on guys who pay them for sexual favours with cash or fashion accessories. Popular at the box office in Poland and well received at festivals, where Roslaniec has won several awards for this debut feature, Mall Girls considers the fate of a generation that may have been exposed to too much too young.
Philippines|2009|90 min
UK Premiere Rich Mix Monday 26 April 6.30pm
Croatia|2009|82 min UK Premiere Genesis Sunday 25 April 8.30pm
Director: Áron Mátyássy (First Feature) Young car mechanic Iván lives in a godforsaken village in eastern Hungary, where he looks after his mentally disabled sister Eszter and earns extra money smuggling diesel oil from Ukraine. But, tragically, Eszter is raped and a police investigation gets under way. In the meantime, Iván’s lover, a girl from the village, wants to leave to go to city college. Iván plainly also wants to leave his old life behind him, but he finds a clue that might lead him to the rapist. With a neo-impressionistic palette and gauzy cinematography in intriguing contrast to this gritty story of bleak lives, this is New Hungarian Cinema with its elements of ‘magic realism’ at its best.
MaNILA
Directors: Adolfo Alix Jr. & Raya Martin (First Feature) Manila is divided into two sections. The day segment is the tale of drug addict William (played by Filipino superstar Piolo Pascual) following his escape from a brothel as he wanders around trying to re-connect with the world. The night segment is a noirish thriller focusing on Philip (again played by Pascual) who is a bodyguard for the local mayor’s son, but on the run from the police after an incident.
UK | 2009 | 15 min
METASTASES (METASTAZE)
Director: Branko Schmidt Four young junkies without jobs, future or any kind of perspective, spend their time drinking, fighting, shoplifting, stealing, fanatically cheering for their local soccer club, and drug smuggling. Metastases can be described as a Croatian Generation X or Trainspotting, with it’s depiction of recent social problems in Zagreb. It explores the ‘illnesses’ that plague modern Croatia in the wake of war, and reflects the petty hatreds, violence, prejudices and moods hanging over the country with no cure in sight. + DIEGO’S STORY Directors: Alex Garcia / Wayne Yip Diego becomes victim to a terrifying ordeal when returning home from work.
Russia|2008|110 min Rich Mix Sunday 25 April, 8.00pm
MORPHIA (MORFIY)
Director: Alexei Balabanov This film is based on the semi-autobiographical short stories by Mikhail Bulgakov, best known for his novel ‘The Master and Margarita’. Morphia takes place in 1917 when a young Russian doctor arrives at a remote Siberian village hospital, having freshly graduated from medical school. As the only doctor in the rural district, he works hard, but after an allergic reaction to a vaccination he has his nurse give him morphine and gradually slips into addiction. Through this powerful and bizarre tale of the slide into the abyss of drug addiction as the country around slides into the horrors of civil war, one can feel a dread presence in every scene. Bulgakov is considered Russia’s greatest and most controversial author of the 20th century, and the film is strongly recommended for anyone who enjoys Dostoevsky and classical Russian literature. Balabanov is best known in the UK for his nineties Brothers films, but the East End Film Festival welcomes him to London to present his more recent work, and to attend a Q&A session after both this film and Cargo 200, screening earlier in the day at Rich Mix at 5.00pm. (see p.34)
Featuring a star-studded roster of past and present stars of Philippine TV and cinema, we see the dark and unforgiving underbelly of Manila, while paying tribute to the Philippines’ most influential directors Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal.
UK|2009|60 min London Premiere Barbican Monday 26 April 6.30pm
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MEN OF THE CITY
Director: Marc Isaacs This new feature documentary by Marc Isaacs was filmed over two years in the Square Mile of the City of London. The film focuses on four main characters, ranging from a high-end hedge fund manager to the man that holds the sandwich board outside the station, as we experience the financial crash through their journey and the effects it has on each of their lives. Those people who work in the City either make money out of money, or from their proximity to money. But what do they feel about their jobs, particularly in the current financial situation? Isaacs gives us a raw, yet poetic and very real insight into these very different men rubbing shoulders to earn a living in London’s financial capital. + Q&A
To book tickets for non-cinema venues, visit www.wegottickets.com/eeff
Poland|2008|94 min UK Premiere Rich Mix Tuesday 27 April 8.30pm
NOW AND FOREVER (TERAZ I ZAWSZE)
Director: Artur Pilarczyk (First Feature) Marcin, a University Sports Education student, is going to be a mountain rescuer. He is in his element climbing. Marcin likes his fellow student Marta, but despite his efforts, the girl doesn’t seem to notice him. One day Marcin goes to a church meeting. This event changes his life completely... A story about faith, the unusual experiences that accompany it, and the price one pays for believing. The film is Pilaczyk’s first feature and has won several awards in Poland. In 2008, at the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, Now and Forever was considered as a Polish candidate for Best Foreign Language Film for the 2009 Oscar Awards. + Q&A
For full programme information, visit www.eastendfilmfestival.com
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Features A–Z
Features A–Z UK |2010 World Premiere St Anne’s Church Friday 23 April 7.30pm
Poland|2009|94 min UK Premiere Genesis Friday 23 April, 8.45pm
Director: Robert Glinski Tomek is 14 and a good student. He’s interested in astronomy and plays football to please his father. But then he meets Marta at a disco and falls in love with her. He starts to think up ways of earning money in order to keep her interested. Set in a poor border town plagued by unemployment, just across the river lies Germany with all its relative affluence, Tomek approaches a local pimp who seeks out local boys for his German clients. The topic of child prostitution is one of the hardest to grasp in the cinema, but Piggies is a surprising human portrayal of such a harrowing industry. Glinski spent months looking for teenagers to cast in the film’s most crucial roles, and the nonprofessional actors he chose bring to Piggies an appropriate rawness. And screenwriter Joanna Didik has lived for 20 years in the town where the story is set.
UK/ Mexico|2009|85 min London Premiere Amnesty International Human Rights Centre Thursday 29 April, 7.00pm
Photograph by Barnaby Bodoano
PIGGIES (SWINKI)
UK|2009|90 min Barbican Monday 26 April 8.30pm
SHED YOUR TEARS AND WALK AWAY
US|2007|80 min UK Premiere Rich Mix Friday 23 April 6.30pm
SKID ROW
Directors: Roberto Hernández / Geoffrey Smith The heart-wrenching story of a man who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. On a December day in Mexico City in 2005, José Antonio Zuñiga was pointed out by a boy from a police car, and he was subsequently arrested then charged with murder. 48 hours later he was sent to prison. A judge who never heard him speak sentenced him to 20 years on the testimony of a single, shaky, eyewitness.
Mexican director Hernández has teamed up with UK documentary maker Geoffrey Smith (The English Surgeon) to show courtroom scenes chillingly similar to Kafka’s absurd The Trial. Turning the lens on this dysfunctional legal system, Hernández and Smith show just how difficult it is to achieve any sort of justice. At a time when there is a strong push for the death penalty in Mexico, Presumed Guilty is important not only as a document of the system’s flaws but as a vehicle for change. + Extended Q&A with director Geoffrey Smith and Amnesty UK Director Kate Taylor 44
To book tickets for non-cinema venues, visit www.wegottickets.com/eeff
Director: Mark Donne (First Feature) The Rime of the Modern Mariner is a new artist documentary that explores the culture, community and folklore of the London Docks. Directed by journalist Mark Donne and narrated by musician Carl Barat (The Libertines, Dirty Pretty Things), the film’s unfurling narrative reveals the decaying architecture, music, and native languages that remain etched in the masonry and bloodstream of this unique quarter. We are pleased to present this world Premiere + live music score performed by composer Anthony Rossomando and special guests (see p.13).
Russia|2009|104 min RUSSIA 88 (ROSSIYA 88) Rio Director: Pavel Bardin Thursday 29 April Bardin’s controversial debut tells a fictional story of 6.15pm a Moscow skinhead gang called “Russia 88” who make propaganda videos and distribute them via the Internet. When their leader discovers that his younger sister is involved with a man from the Caucasus, drama turns into a tragedy. His use of authentic interviews with Moscow inhabitants openly espousing racist views, and the genuine Nazi gear and propagandistic records in the film were legally purchased in Moscow shops and on-line. The true-life facts of murders, pogroms and terrorist attacks all come from the police reports, bringing a frightening reality to Russia 88. UK |11 min + YAEL Director: NJSilva Yael is a Jewish freedom fighter who is captured and tortured by the Nazis in Hungary in 1944.
PRESUMED GUILTY
Mexican lawyers recruited local filmmakers to follow Zuñiga with a camera in what seemed a hopeless quest to get the case re-tried, but through this one man’s extraordinary two-year struggle to regain his freedom, Presumed Guilty documents the contradictions of a judicial system that presumes guilt, where prisons are full of people serving time for crimes they didn’t commit.
THE RIME OF THE MODERN MARINER
Director: Jez Lewis (First Feature) The small and pretty Yorkshire town of Hebden Bridge, where filmmaker Jez Lewis grew up, is a beautiful and quirky rural idyll. But while it is paradise to many, it is purgatory to others. In the twenty years since Lewis left, dozens of his old friends have died young, through overdosing on drugs or suicide. Beginning with a personal quest for understanding, but moving into a year-long drama of human tragedy and redemption, Lewis re-bonds with his oldest friend Cass, who is attempting to lift himself from this cycle of self-destruction. Part documentary, part personal intervention, Lewis filmed among friends with unrestricted access, to give a searing, authentic portrayal of a marginalised and overlooked people.We welcome director Jez Lewis for a Q&A session following the film.
Directors: Ross Clarke / Niva Dorrel / Marshall Tyler (First Feature) A documentary that chronicles Grammy-winning Fugees rapper Pras Michel’s 9-day experiment as a homeless man in downtown Los Angeles. Skid Row in Los Angeles is an area where poverty runs notoriously rampant, with the largest homeless population in the entire United States. For those 9 days Michel struggles to find food and shelter but gradually gets to know the men, women, and children who call the sidewalks their home, and hear their tragic and heartfelt stories of survival. We welcome UK-based director Ross Clarke for a Q&A session following the film.
For full programme information, visit www.eastendfilmfestival.com
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Features A–Z
Features A–Z Slovenia|2009|90 min SLOVENIAN GIRL (SLOVENKA) Director: Damjan Kozole Genesis Alexandra is a student studying in Ljubljana, and working Monday 26 April as a prostitute under the name ‘Slovenian Girl’, to enable 8.30pm her to live in nice uptown apartment and to earn extra money to get her life heading to where she wants it to. She can make a lot of money from European diplomats and businessmen who are in Ljubljana during Slovenia’s E.U. presidency. But one of her diplomat clients dies from a heart attack while in her company in an anonymous hotel room. There is a remarkable debut performance by Nina Ivanisin who is in virtually every scene. Her relentless pursuit of money is a clever metaphor for the dubious values of capitalism and personal gain that have spread fast through the new Eastern Europe.
Canada|2009|80 min London Premiere Rich Mix Thursday 29 April, 6.15pm
TAQWACORE: THE BIRTH OF PUNK ISLAM
UK|2010|96 min World Premiere Rich Mix Saturday 24 April, 8.00pm
SUS
Director: Robert Heath It’s 1979 Election Night, as Thatcher comes into power. SUS takes place in a police interview room on that very night, where Delroy (Clint Dyer) is being questioned over about his pregnant wife who has been found dead in a pool of blood. With the evidence stacking up against him Delroy continually refuses to confess. He suffers a night of callous humiliation at the hands of two racist coppers (Ralph Brown and Rafe Spall), both high on the impending Conservative landslide victory, and more concerned with the outcome of the election than establishing the truth. Written in 1979 by Barrie Keefe (The Long Good Friday) and based on a true story, SUS is a powerful cry against institutional racism which is as relevant today as ever. Instead of SUS (Suspect Under Suspicion) there is now Stop and Search under Section 44 of the Terrorist Act of 2000. Following the screening there will be a panel discussion, in association with human rights charity Liberty, with guests including Doreen Lawrence, Stephen Kamlish QC, David Akinsanya, Pennie Quinton and Shami Chakrabarti.
UK|2010|40 min World Premiere Filmmakers Centre Tuesday 27 April 7.45pm
THERAPIST
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To book tickets for non-cinema venues, visit www.wegottickets.com/eeff
Director: Barry Adamson From cultural saboteur Barry Adamson we are pleased to present the World Premiere of Therapist. Unashamedly an artists film, the story follows Monika, a Polish immigrant searching for her sister, who encounters both tragedy and destruction. But is her story real or the metaphor for another man’s emotion, a story straight from the therapist’s couch? A truly metafictional experience, the film, with it’s looping narrative and world within a world structure, focuses on our experience-asreality and the contradiction between memory, fantasy, truth and the experience of life itself. We are pleased to welcome Barry for an extended discussion after the film.
Director: Omar Majeed (First Feature) Boston’s The Kominas belt out an anthem for a new generation of young Muslims in a basement of a decrepit Chicago punkhouse, with a mob of like-minded Islamic misfits sneering along. In the summer of 2007 these Pakistani punkers have arrived at the last stop of their U.S. tour and are celebrating with tourmates and fellow bands: Vote Hezbollah featuring an Iranian kid from San Antonio; the all-girl Secret Trial Five featuring a Pakistani lesbian from Vancouver; Al-Thawra who pound heavy metal beats into Arabic drones, plus East London’s own Riz MC who gives his Taqwacore support. At the centre, pumping his fists in the air and shouting, is a white American convert named Michael Muhammad Knight; the Islamic punk music scene would never have existed if it weren’t for his 2003 novel, ‘The Taqwacores’, in which Michael imagined a community of Muslim radicals such as Mohawked Sufis, riot grrrls in burqas, and skinhead Shi’as. Although the book and its characters were entirely fictional, the movement they inspired is very real. The film follows Michael and his real-life kindred spirits on their first U.S. tour, where they incite a riot of young hijabi girls at the largest Muslim gathering in North America, then travels with them to Pakistan where The Kominas, bring punk to the streets of Lahore. UK filmmaker and Journalist Hammad Khan will chair a panel discussion following the screening, looking at issues raised in the film.
US | 2009| 85 min UK Premiere Amnesty International Human Rights Centre Sunday 25 April 5.00pm
TIBET IN SONG
Ireland|2009|75 min UK Premiere Rio Wednesday 28 April 6.00pm
TODAY IS BETTER THAN TWO TOMORROWS
Director: Ngawang Choephel (First Feature) In Tibet, a country the size of Western Europe most of which still remains under the harsh Communist Chinese rule, folk songs serve as connecting tissue, a crucial historical link ,passed down through the years. China’s ‘patriotic re-education’ of Tibetan citizens through its dissemination of nationalistic pop songs is designed to wipe out Tibetan culture through a rigid system of control. Tibet In Song examines what happens when filmmaker Choepel, a Tibetan native who fled to India, returns home to capture the music of his people before all is lost to history. His arrest in Tibet on charges of espionage by Chinese authorities in 1995 and sentence to 18 years in prison, serving nearly 7 before his highly publicised release in 2002, forms part of the narrative.
Director: Anna Rodgers (First Feature) This coming of age documentary follows Leh and Bo, eleven-year-old cousins who leave their home on the banks of the Mekong River to find a better life in the temple city of Luang Prabang, Laos. Leh enters the Buddhist monastery as a novice monk whilst Bo travels to a new home two hours away to attend a run down school. Both dream of a better future away from the hard toil of the rice fields. First conceived when she was a young backpacker and four years in the making, Rodgers has created a meditative and fascinating insight into a unique culture. Shot with no crew, no funding and no onlocation translator, this is an outstanding debut. We welcome director Anna Rodgers for a Q&A session following the film.
For full programme information, visit www.eastendfilmfestival.com
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shorts a–Z
Features A–Z France|2009|80 min UK Premiere Rich Mix Tuesday 27 April 6.00pm
UK |2010 |60 min World Premiere of re-edit. Vibe Live Wednesday 28 April 7.30pm
WE DON’T CARE ABOUT MUSIC ANYWAY
Directors: Cédric Dupire / Gaspard Kuentz (First Feature) From the radical turntablism of Otomo Yoshihide to the laptop music innovation of Numb, via the classical instrument hijacking of Sakamoto Hiromichi, Tokyo’s avant-garde music scene is internationally known for its boldness. While introducing some of the greatest musicians of the scene, this documentary offers a kaleidoscopic view of Tokyo, confronting music and noise, sound and image, reality and fiction. A masterfully choreographed tour-de-force through Japanese avant-garde art and music, this hypnotic work challenges the boundaries of the artistic, with concerts ranging from cacophonous industrial noise to energetic no-wave. Watch a group of originals, whose eccentric visions simply have to be seen on the big screen.
Who Shot the Sheriff?
Director: Alan Miles Featuring the infamous 1978 Carnival in East London’s Victoria Park, Who Shot the Sheriff? tells the story of one of the most exciting mass movements in British history. The film features interviews and unseen footage of artists from the Rock against Racism (RAR) movement of the 70s including The Clash, The Specials, Steel Pulse, Misty in Roots, X-Ray Spex and Sham 69. With rarely seen archive material from the punk and RAR era – It tracks the rise of racism and the National Front in Britain during the 70s and shows how a generation, black and white, fought back against the Nazi threat. Followed by a live gig from the ‘All Stars’, a band comprising of a medley of well-known musicians headed up by Sam Duckworth of Get Cape .Wear Cape. Fly.
SHORTS DOCHEADS
Monty’s Bar Thursday 29 April, 7.00pm
US|2009|86 min UK Premiere Screening as part of Grits‘n’Gravy Sunday. See p.21. Rich Mix Sunday 25 April, 6.30pm
THE WILD AND WONDERFUL WHITES OF WEST VIRGINIA
Director: Julien Nitzberg Shoot-outs, robberies, gas-huffing, drug dealing, pill popping, murders, and tap dancing! Just a few of the elements of being a member of the legendary White Family, known as much for their wild, excessive criminal ways as they are for their famous mountain dancing, which includes Jesco White, the star of the cult classic documentary Dancing Outlaw (see special events: Grits‘n’Gravy Sunday). Executive produced by Jackass star Johnny Knoxville, this documentary explores both the comic and tragic sides of life on the other side of the law; a stylish, fastpaced family portrait exposing the powerful forces of corruption, poverty, and West Virginia’s environmentally and culturally devastated coal mining culture that helped shape the White family, a dying breed of outlaws preserving a dying form of dance.
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To book tickets for non-cinema venues, visit www.wegottickets.com/eeff
ADVENTURES IN EXPERIMENTS (102 min)
ADVENTURES IN URBAN EXPERIMENTS (74 min)
Rich Mix Monday 26 April, 8.30pm
Rich Mix Monday 26 April, 6.30pm
A selection of work from artists, filmmakers and animators, exploring the limits of new form and creative expression.
Many artists work in city areas, creating work from their urban surroundings. This selection of urban-dwelling filmmakers turn a spotlight on the built-up areas that surround them to explore the city limits.
Mutant Season France | Delphine Chauvet / Jimmy Audoin | 5 min Vanishing Point UK | Rachel Wilberforce | 5 min Music Box UK | John Brown | 5 min Sea Front UK | Stuart Moore | 5 min The Human Body (Illustrated) UK | Sally Stevens | 8 min Stand And Deliver UK | Gus Alvarez | 10 min Cinetica Spain | Ana Cembrero Coca | 27 min Bernadette UK | Duncan Campbell | 37 min
We Only Talk At Night UK | Bella Fenning | 9 min Scene Not Seen UK | Nic Wassell | 3 min Endless Cities UK | Michael Faulkner / Matthias Kispert | 5 min Berlin Block Tetris UK | Sergej Hein | 1 min The Commute (El Tránsito) Spain | Elias Leon Siminiani | 12 min Beyond The Roundabout Ireland | Nick Larkin | 44 min
For full programme information, visit www.eastendfilmfestival.com
Docheads is a bi-monthly networking and screening event, that brings together professional documentary film makers, shows their films, gives them a drink and gets them to talk. Formed in 2009 as a means to get all filmmaking friends together, and increase collaboration between them, it has rapidly expanded to include a host of interesting and talented people from the Documentary world. It’s a film night where you actually talk to people you don’t already know. Doc heads is free, where its easy to meet new people, share ideas and get excited about what documentary filmmakers do. Tonight’s screening is a ‘best of’ selection, screening some of the best UK short docs from recent years. Tashtastic Tessa Morgan Peter And Ben Pinny Grylls Red Sands David Procter Felix’s Machines Tom Swindell Pockets James Lees I Am Thou Andy Mundy Castle The Day My Face Changed Tristan Anderson King Of Laughter Nick Hillel Steel Homes Eva Weber 49
shorts a–Z
shorts a–Z
DOCUMENTS 1: EAST END TRUE-LIFE STORIES (84 min)
Rio Friday 23 April 6.30pm
An area of London overflowing with personal stories and social issues, the East End offers new documentary filmmakers plenty of scope to tell essential stories in creative ways.
The Kamal Chunchie Story UK | Dr Geoff Bell | 17 min Nothing Is Impossible UK | Nina Duttaroy | 9 min Reg’s Patch UK | Gemma Atkinson | 7 min A Grumpy Old Man UK | Rachel Tracy | 8 min Mick UK | Oliver Clark | 5 min Finding Malcolm UK | Lucinda Afreixo | 3 min Mothers Day UK | Ana Tovey | 8 min Love Is UK | Ashton John | 7 min Bow Now And Then UK | Andy Porter | 16 min The Circle - River Thames London 2009 UK | Tsz Man Chan | 4 min
DOCUMENTS 2: UK TRUE-LIFE STORIES (111 min) Rio Monday 26 April 6.15pm
DOCUMENTS 3: INTERNATIONAL TRUE-LIFE STORIES (95 min) Rio Tuesday 27 April, 6.30pm
A varied programme of short documentaries from across the UK; from an abandoned village on the remote Scottish coast, to the strange custom of cheese rolling to men who ‘come out’ later in life.
A varied programme of short documentaries filmed around the world; from an Italian dating agency to the Indian female boxing scene, and much more in between.
On Stony Ground UK | Rehana Rose Khan | 9 min From There To Here: An Actors Tale UK | Nimer Rashed | 3 min Latecomers UK | Olivia Humphreys | 15 min Out Of Body UK | Susan Aldworth | 3 min An Eyeful Of Sound UK | Samantha Moore | 10 min Betty’s UK | Becky Bush | 2 min Families On Trial UK | Raj Yagnik | 20 min House 149 UK | Lucy Kaye | 5 min Pollphail UK | Matthew Lloyd | 10 min Ghost Village Project UK | Tim Daly | 11 min Cheese Roll UK | James Cronin | 7 min Gollop UK | James Harrison | 16 min
Hunter UK | Federico Urdaneta | 9 min Thorns And Silk UK | Paulina Tervo | 13 min Rani Of The Ring UK | Anita Sandhu | 19 min Lagos: The Fastest Growing City On The Planet UK | Christian Trumble | 28 min The Love Bureau UK | Caterina Monzani | 26 min
LIFE ON THE OLYMPIC EDGELANDS
Four varied dramas that showcase new writing and directing talent across Eastern Europe.
In the Stratford and Lea Valley areas of East London, the Olympic site expands as the 2012 Games get closer. But what’s it like for the residents, from the new influx of artists taking over the warehouses to the older generations that use the riverside walks of the River Lea and the football pitches of Hackney Marshes? These three films look at such issues, and will be followed by a discussion with the filmmakers.
Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre Monday 26 April, 6.30pm Four documentaries that show changes and human rights issues in a fast-changing Eastern Europe.
Rich Mix Sunday 25 April, 1.00pm
Caught In The Mist UK | Joseph Matthews | 25 min The City With A Dirty Face UK | Pete King | 14 min Trifun The Bomber Serbia | Sladjan Stojanovic | 12 min 2033 Km To The Eiffel Tower Ukraine | Alexander Ridge/ Alexander Balaban | 34 min
Half An Hour For Grandma (Pola Ure Za Baku) Croatia | Jure Pavlovic | 18 min Border [Hranice] Czech Rep | György Kristof | 5 min Who’s Afraid Of The Water Sprite? UK | William McGregor | 18 min Eight9 Poland | Pawel Jozwiak-Rodan | 30 min
Rio Saturday 24 April, 1.30pm + panel discussion
The Clays Lane Diaries UK | Zoe Flynn / Bo Chapman | 7 min Work In Progress On A Work In Progess UK | Margaret Dickinson | 9 min Edgelands UK | Sally Mumby-Croft | 16 min
(50 min) Genesis Tuesday 27 April, 6.30pm
Genesis Tuesday 27 April, 8.30pm
London’s East End is alive with stories and characters. Local filmmakers know only too well how to draw from that deep well to dramatise life in this vibrant part of London while turning their eye on more serious issues at stake.
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FOCUS ON EAST EUROPE : 4 x DRAMA (85 min)
NEW PATHWAYS FILM FUND 2010
EAST END TALES (108 min)
Whore UK | Fyzal Boulifa | 11 min Missing UK | Yousuf Ali Khan | 12 min Blame UK | Kolé Onile-ere | 12 min Seven P.M. UK | Anetta Jones | 7 min My Amulet UK | Leah Thorn | 6 min
FOCUS ON EAST EUROPE : 4 x DOCUMENTARY (85 min)
Heat UK | Debbie Tucker Green | 12 min Mistaken I.D. UK | Parmjit Singh | 11 min The Fall UK | Michael Chandler | 12 min Prick UK | Ryan Vernava | 17 min Wild Strawberries UK | Simon Hill | 4 min
To book tickets for non-cinema venues, visit www.wegottickets.com/eeff
The New Pathways Film Fund is a partnership between the London boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Newham, and is part of the London Borough Film Fund Challenge. This director led training programme is designed to take participants through the first stages of filmmaking, looking at new techniques and technologies and exploring alternative routes of exhibition and distribution.
Borderland James Norton | 7 min On the edge of the River Lea a solitary archaeologist discovers an Anglo-Saxon helmet which unleashes a haunting darkness. By Hook Laura Evers Johns | 5 min At the very edge of the ocean, a lonely fishmonger learns that he must take the bait to be with the one he loves. Open To Interpretation Phil Lewis / Jem Garrard | 6 min Two art-loving, booze-seeking 20-something regulars of the East London art gallery opening scene, expertly critique the art, the people and the free wine.
For full programme information, visit www.eastendfilmfestival.com
The Enduring Fascination With Jack The Ripper Rhiannon Jones | 6 min This documentary explores the fascination with a killer, and asks, who were the victims of Jack the Ripper? Physical Education Rohan Green | 8 min In pursuit of her Olympic dream, 15-year-old Casey Taylor strives towards finding the very essence of her sporting persona in order to confront her bullies. Young Blood Ben Riddell | 8 min A young man and a local boy are brought together through a silver pocketwatch. 51
shorts a–Z
shorts a–Z NEW UK TALENT 1: COMEDY LIGHT & DARK (84 min)
Cineworld West India Quay Saturday 24 April, 2.00pm
A showcase selection of films from across the country split into four parts. Part one is a selection of shorts that are equally uplifting and comedically dark in equal measures. Modern Life Is Rubbish UK | Daniel J Gill | 13 min The Double UK | Tom George | 13 min A Stitch In Time UK | Stephen Graves | 9 min The Pedestrian UK | Stuart Elliott | 7 min The Lonely Adventure Of George The Soundman UK | Christopher Pencakowski | 7 min Forgiving Your P.E. Teacher UK | Warren B Malone | 15 min A Film About Poo UK | Emily Howells/ Anne Wilkins | 2 min Monsters And Rabbits UK | Nicky Lanois | 10 min Mixtape UK | Luke Snellin | 2 min Junk UK | Kirk Hendry | 6 min
NEW UK TALENTS 3: TALES FROM THE YOUTH-SIDE (91 min)
NEW UK TALENTS 2: SONS & DAUGHTERS (108 min) Cineworld West India Quay Monday 26 April, 7.00pm
A showcase selection of films from across the country split into four parts. Part two looks at sibling relationships and growing up. Morning Echo UK | Hope Dickson Leach | 15 min Tortoise UK | Andy Bloom | 15 min Father UK | David Leon / Marcus McSweeney | 9 min Small Gifts UK | Brady Hood | 14 min Anna Chia UK | Sophie Windsor Clive | 2 min Looking For You UK | Cary Rajinder Sawhney | 12 min Storage UK | David Lea | 14 min My Dad The Communist UK | Lab Ky Mo | 17 min
NEW UK TALENTS 4: FAMILY AFFAIRS (94 min)
Rich Mix Tuesday 27 April, 6.30pm
Cineworld West India Quay Wednesday 28 April 7.00pm
A showcase selection of films from across the country split into four parts. Part three brings us stories from the frontline of 21st century youth. This selection tackles knife crime, bullying, and other serious issues; it may not be pretty, but it’s a powerful selection of new drama.
A showcase selection of films from across the country split into four parts. Part four takes into family life and relationships, both light-hearted and with a darker outlook.
Saline UK | Jessica Townsend | 15 min Antwacky UK | Hassan Mahdey Alsekafi | 8 min Cold Kiss UK | Nirpal Bhogal | 16 min Molly And Plum UK | Rupert Raby | 14 min Bullies UK | Kolé Onile-ere | 10 min Shame UK | Paul Makkar | 10 min Passing UK | Chris Bailey | 18 min
You And Your Sister UK | Jacqueline Rice | 8 min Bride And Gloom UK | Ronak Singh | 15 min The Summer House UK | Daisy Gili | 14 min And Another Thing UK | Zak & Dan | 2 min Still Life UK | Kuvera & Nelson Sivalingam | 14 min Driver UK | Stephen Fingleton | 10 min Lost Paradise UK | Waleed Akhtar | 14 min Scent UK | Darren Bolton | 17 min
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To book tickets for non-cinema venues, visit www.wegottickets.com/eeff
PECCADILLO presents BOYS ON FILM (99 min) Rich Mix Friday 23 April, 6.30pm
Peccadillo Pictures will screen a selection of gay-themed shorts, comprising of six acclaimed international films; from foot fetishes to grapple-fests, including the 1994 Oscar winning Trevor. Protect Me From What I Want UK | Dominic Leclerc | 14 min Heiko US | David Bonneville | 13 min Wrestling Iceland | Grímur Hákonarson | 21 min My Name Is Love Sweden | David Färdmar | 20 min Breath Holland | Margien Rogaar | 8 min Trevor US | Peggy Rajski | 23 min
RUSSIAN SHORT FILMS (109 min)
WORLD CINEMA SHORTS (77 min)
Rich Mix Saturday 24 April, 3.00pm
Rich Mix Sunday 25 April, 3.00pm
In partnership with Moscow ARTkino Open Festival of Short Films and The Moscow Big Cartoon Festival .
A chance to sample the delights of international cinema in shortened form, from small-time gangsters in rural Germany to coming-of-age in urban Madrid.
A selection of award winning short films by young Russian filmmakers. From ARTkino Festival come stories of young Russia from across the vast country, from urban centres to remote regions. Plus a selection of animated shorts by students and graduates of Moscow and St. Petersburg film schools whose various works were selected by the Moscow Big Cartoon Festival last year. Ochalan (Ochalan) Russia | Vladimir Kopush | 14 min Argentina Russia | Mikhail Mareskin | 35 min The End (Konets) Russia | Maxim Dotsenko | 11 min I Like Birds… Russia | Vladimir Posokhin | 3 min Like Mother, Like Daughter (Dochki-Materi) Russia | Alexandra Lukina | 7 min Swing (Kacheli) Russia | Elena Kurkova | 9 min Loof And Let Dime Russia | Roman Vereschyak | 3 min Dog Walking Ground (Sobachiya Ploschadka) Russia | Leonid Shmelkov | 8 min Other (Drugaya) Russia | Anna Shepilova | 12 min In Scale (V Masshtabe) Russia | Marina Moshkova | 7 min
Runners Spain | Marc Reixach | 12 min Live A Bit Longer (Vivre Encore Un Peu) Belgium | David Lambert | 17 min Ona Spain | Pau Camarasa | 10 min The Misunderstanding UK | Paul Fletcher | 4 min Last Communication With Laura Canada | Alexander Carson | 4 min The Package (Das Packet) Germany | Marco Gadge | 9 min The Unluckiest (Oweyangena-Ntlahla) UK | Justine Waddell | 9 min Stretching France | François Vogel | 5 min Homeland Spain | Juan de Dios Marfil | 7 min
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tide bY jan noble
tide bY jan noble
TIDE BY JAN NOBLE
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A dead pike entwined in fishing wire; lifeless white, its sides pecked out, rolls bloated like a ghost in the wet and black shadows. On the bank a boy shrieks and swears, throws stones, mocks the big fish as it drifts slowly East. East always East on the troubled current. East always East into the deep darkness fetching ahead into the dead distance for burial at sea or to retrieve another life, by chance: a second bite. And then, a little further down river the Thames becomes tidal and the one way water turns, sends this boy home with stories. Only minnows in jam jars as prizes ••• But this is not where our story begins, this is the point at which we join it, this is where we pick up on the conversation where we start paying attention, this is where the thread develops, where we enter... ... Head west and the river is for leisure and larking, regattas and sandwiches. Idyllic evenings, pleasant afternoons, punting and love, long dresses, short trousers, boating and jovial poetry where the water politely reclines, lies back and shows off its innocent pink belly under the flush and ruddy Oxford sky. Head East and you’re swimming with shadows ...
from Richmond to Stratford by overland Wimbledon to Whitechapel underground and along the A3 to the City this is known as the tidal excursion this is where it comes to make its fortune this is where the salt’s rubbed into its wounds, where the Oxford clay’s washed out of its shoes this is where it grows up rough ... and stumbles; balance is an art that’s achieved here in between standing up and falling down. Two lovers shored at forty five degrees propped on Wapping wall learning how to lean listening to the waters grappling and watching the slow tango of tides.
And the rest of the ghosts that float in the tubes and sewers and streams that drift off the river from history. Alfred Henry Brandy. What of him now? Watchmaker at number 8 Chrisp Street. His meticulous movements and jewels, his precious mechanisms, and crystals, his rotors and chronometers stopped or just stuck? He knew time well enough to know Joseph Benjamin Piper, the butcher and his sons, after hanging his apron what did they decide or was it chosen? John Mann, bird dealer, his cage still open, sparrows bathing in the dust and the rest
But shadows are modern: a new light shines in the doorway of their supermarket Deniz and Pirus laugh over sweet tea, rocket and lemon on a clean white plate with a skip, kick an orange in the street. There’s a new light and there’s a new shadow sprayed on the butcher’s shop front BNP over the Halal sign in aerosol. This is where the meat is declared legal. Shadows fall on shadows fall on shadows this is where the blood gets muddy and mixed a light goes out, then on, then out again this is known as the tidal excursion it comes in currents, goes in trends, ebbs, flows.
It’s all fresh water back from Battersea but here the blood gets muddy and mixed this is where the trouble really begins this is where the excitement really starts this is where the shadows all step forward this is where we question what is real, what’s proper, straight up, kosher, authentic. The language is as quick as history. The accents are aromas, flavours, spice, the smell of burnt toffee over the docks, the smell of new money splashed in the wharfs. It is vulgar, obscene, brushed up and clean, it changes hands, moves on, is forgotten. But here even the words have shadows
of the tripe dressers and ale drapers ashmen, dairymen, chips and chandlers leather dressers and undertakers stand in the shadows. The names Harry Kosky, Isaac Slavotinsky, familiar and still in the filled in dockside darkness. The river redundantly lumbers on, the cranes of the old port of London gone. Canary Wharf winks an aerial eye, a business goes bust, assets liquefy and Robert Jones, a century ago calls from the shadows to someone he knows: Luigi, the greengrocer opposite and tells him his vegetables are rotten.
This is darkest England - and the way out washed up and down along the Limehouse Cut this is where the salt’s rubbed into its wounds watch it make a rush for the barrier, this is known as the tidal excursion gushing open mouthed now at Silvertown chasing out of the gate with history flashing in its silver tale, this is not its exit and not its final frame, this is not the point in the story where a boy grows up or where a dead fish swims, this is not where the East ends but where it begins, changes hands, switches reels, rolls, like a ghost in the shadows ... and grins.
... lost in the locks, or hiding out on the islands and aits and slipways and jetties, the flood water flows over the weir settles down in the basin or heads East, always East, swelling pregnant at the bank with a surge, not urgent but impatient; the runoff, casual, with a swagger with its history in its silver tale it rubs shoulders with rogues and royalty in Kingston and Hampton, is uncertain of whom it will meet on the next corner, around the twenty five bends it must take from Teddington into the estuary and what’s heading its way on the journey
What was The Hope is now The Victory; The Pride has become The Journey’s End. The Pump, The New Pump, now it’s The Fountain, and where the Old Oak once stood now I stand . - 20 Pall Mall, matches and a Mirror. I used to run from the church to the docks from The Prince to The King and back again (scratching a V in the brick for good luck). Remember The Spitfire? And the smoke in The Dog, and the muscle in The Arms? The points scored in The Compass, the result in The Roses? Rough as The Docker’s Knot! In The Wreath, these three fellas steal in like yesterday, gabardines and trilbies, drag this bloke by the hair into the gents and nearly pull the frown from his forehead. Then they punched a bar of soap down his throat. Well that was The Wreath. Now it’s The Comfort. Yer saw it all back then ... and plenty since. Changes mostly.
Out in paperback on 14 April 2010. Available online and at all good local bookshops. Published by Not Your Average Type
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Venues & booking INFORMATION
EVENTS: VENUES & Booking information
VENUES & BOOKING
Heritage pub TRAIL
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93–95 Mile End Road, Whitechapel, London E1 6LA Box Office: 0870 060 6061 www.genesiscinema.co.uk By tube: Stepney Green / Whitechapel By bus: 25 / 254 /205
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Silk Street, City of London, London EC2Y 8DS Box Office: 020 7638 8891 (9.00am–8.00pm daily) www.barbican.org.uk/film By bus: 4 / 56 / 100 / 153 By tube: Barbican
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Bishop Challoner School O St. Annes Church Q Cineworld West India Quay R
Hardinge Street, London E1 0EB Telephone: 020 7791 9500 By bus: D3 / 15 / 100 / 115 / 339 By tube: Shadwell DLR
149 Brick Lane, Shoredicth London E1 6SB Telephone: 020 7739 6828 By bus: 8 / 25 / 67 / 205 / 254 / 388 By tube: Liverpool Street / Aldgate East
I The Brickhouse
152c Brick Lane, London E1 6RU G Telephone: 020 7247 0005 By bus: 8 / 25 / 67 / 205 / 254 / 388 By tube: Liverpool Street / Aldgate East
5 Newell Street, Limehouse London E14 7HP To book tickets: www.wegottickets.com/eeff By tube: Limehouse DLR / Westferry DLR By bus: D3 / 115 / 135 / 15 M Stratford Picture House
Theatre Square, Salway Road, Stratford, London E15 1BX Box Office: 0871 704 2066 www.picturehouses.co.uk By bus: 25 / 86 / 69 / 257 / 308 / UL1 By tube/rail: Stratford P Vibe Gallery & Vibe Bar
The Old Truman Brewery, 91–95 Brick Lane, London E1 6QL Telephone: 020 7247 3479 www.vibe-bar.co.uk To book tickets: www.wegottickets.com/eeff By tube: Liverpool Street / Aldgate East
Rich Mix 35–47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA Village Underground D 54 Holywell Lane, Box Office: 020 7613 7498 www.richmix.org.uk/film London EC2A 3PQ By tube: Liverpool Street Telephone: 020 7422 7505 R Cineworld West India Quay By bus: 8 / 149 / 242 / 67 / 48 / 26 To book tickets: 9–11 Hertsmere Rd, www.wegottickets.com/visionare London E14 4AB By tube: Liverpool Street B Rio Cinema 107 Kingsland High Street, Box Office: 0871 220 8000 By bus 35 / 67 / 149 London E2 2PB www.cineworld.co.uk Box Office: 020 7241 9410 By tube: Canary Wharf / Poplar The Water Poet E 9–11 Folgate Street, London E1 6BX www.riocinema.org.uk DLR / West India Quay By rail: Dalston Kingsland Telephone: 020 7426 0495 F W+K Platform: The Cole By bus: 67 / 76 / 149 / 243 FREE. Seating for East End Filmmakers Centre Heritage is on a first come, first J Spitalfields Market & 91 Hanbury Street, served basis. Old Spitalfields Market London E1 6QR By tube: Liverpool Street / 65 Brushfield Street, To book tickets: Aldgate East London E1 6AA www.wegottickets.com/eeff By bus: 8 / 25 / 67 / 205 / 254 / 388 FREE. Seating for Silent Cinema K Whitechapel Gallery is on a first come, first served basis. By tube: Liverpool Street / 77–82 Whitechapel High Street, By bus: 8 / 25 / 67 / 205 / 254 / 388 London, E1 7QX Aldgate East By tube: Liverpool Street / To book tickets: Aldgate East www.wegottickets.com/eeff By tube: Aldgate East By bus: 5 / 15 / 15a / 25 / 40 / 67 / 78 / 254
For detailed information about our events, venues and programme, please visit www.eastendfilmfestival.com or call our information line: 020 7364 7925 open daily between 11.00am – 5.00pm during the festival
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Q St. Anne’s Church
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Commercial Rd
121 Roman Road, London E2 0QN Telephone: 020 8981 6111 www.fourcornersfilm.co.uk By bus: D6 / 8 / 309 By tube: Bethnal Green
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Human Rights Action Centre 17–25 New Inn Yard, Hoxton, London EC2A 3EA To book tickets: www.wegottickets.com/eeff By tube: Old Street By bus: 26 / 35 / 47 / 48 / 67 / 149
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Water Poet 9–11 Folgate Street, E1 6BX Kings Stores 14 Widegate Street, E1 7HP The Gun 54 Brushfield Street, E1 6AG The Golden Heart 110 Commercial Street, E1 6LZ The Ten Bells 84 Commercial Street, E1 6LY The Princess Alice 40 Commercial Street, E1 6LP INDO 133 Whitechapel Road, E1 1DT The Grave Maurice 269 Whitechapel Road, E1 1BY The Blind Beggar 337 Whitechapel Road, E1 1BU The White Hart 1 Mile End Road, E1 4TP
Bish opsg ate
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All venues are fully accessible for disabled visitors, except for the following areas: Rio viewing balcony is not accessible by wheelchair. Genesis Screen 1 is not accessible by wheelchair. W+K Platform: The Cole Filmmakers Centre is not accessible by wheelchair. 57
credits & thanks
CREDITS & THANKS CREDITS Artistic Director: Alison Poltock
Festival Producer: Annabel Grundy Festival Assistant: Lainey Richardson Festival Programming: Philip Ilson
Festival Programmers: Alison Poltock Philip Ilson Annabel Grundy Brian Gordon and Sarah Rimassa (Grits’n’Gravy) Sasha Spirchagova (Russian) Mila Lipowicz (Polish) Andrew Smith (East Asia) Hayley Wright and Declan Giles (Archive and Heritage)
Website and Marketing: Mila Lipowicz
Marketing Agency Organic Marketing
Production Assistant: Estelle Csillag
Submissions Assistants: Steve Harradine Anna Kautovaara
Print Transport: Dean Willcox Volunteer Coordinator: Liam Ryan Press and PR: Stuart Haggas
THANKS TO:
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Marketing Assistants: Katie Steed Paul Upson Print Design Kate Rogers
Special thanks to Stephen Murray, Head of Tower Hamlets Arts and Events and to Tower Hamlets for their continued support, Stephanie Pamment, Janet Triggs (London Borough of Tower Hamlets), Alan Miller, John Wright (Vibe Live), Tyrone Walker-Hebborn, Will Holland, Dawn Harding (Genesis), Ray Dervin, Georgina Godart-Brown, Toby Brown (Spitalfields Market), Negede Assefa, Claire Nouvel (Rich Mix), Andrew Sparrow (Ballymore/Old Spitalfields Market), Wellington market Company, Arthur Matikyan (Rossotrudichnestvo), Alison Willis, Sarah Ben-Tovim (Amnesty International), Nicola Sim (Whitechapel Gallery), Warren Humphries, Clare McCollum (Cineworld), Charles Rubinstein (Rio Cinema), Lyn Turner, Owen Thomas (Four Corners), Reet Remmel (Estonian Embassy), Alex Rowley, Tim Struthers, Nick Leese (Organic Marketing), Nanzi Cheng, Manon Cerdan (Rezo Films), Witold Iwaszkiewicz (Widark), Judit Koros (Hungarian Cultural Centre), Waltraud Strommer (Austrian Cultural Forum), Daniela Carr, Svtelana Adjoubei (Academica Rossica), Nick Herbert, Greg Hoy (Excel Couriers), Andy Millns, Don Eales (Inition), Zac Leyton (Pictureworks), Marlena Lukasiak (Polish Cultural Institute/Kinoteka), Steve Hartley (SAE), Jonathan Fren (Shutterbox TV), Charlie Phillips (Sheffield Doc/Fest), Tanya Gluckman (Courvoisier), James Mullighan, Helen Jack (Shooting People), Andrew Clough, Jon Hiller (Visionare), David Pope, Rebecca Knapp (Vision Pictures), Anna MacDonald (London Film Academy), Tom Hunter, Tom Butler (London Calling), Stefan Dickers (Bishopsgate Institute), Brendan Clarke (Insight Lighting), Christine Hartland (Mosaic), Rob Kleinberg, Jimi Mistry (The Brickhouse), Emma Watkins, Robert Rider (Barbican Cinema), Tom Ward (Leon Restaurant), Amy Durrant, Sonja Todd, Kirsty Merret, Rosie Wolfenden, Harriet Vine (Tatty Devine), Vicky Kington, Lucy Hose, Karen Lister, Stephen Bromberg (Lee Valley Regional Park Authority), Anna Kime, Anna Faithfull, Elinor Unwin, Paul Bowman (Film London), Jon Croker, Stephanie Little, Tina McFarling (UK Film Council), Sarah Trigg, Stephanie Akinyelure, Dan Simmons (Skillset), Kevin Finch, Kat Parker (s&m Café), Samantha Brookes, Donna U’Dell (Wieden+Kennedy), Lucy Bright, John Boughtwood (Music Sales), Paul Willey, James Rose, Sian Smith (Prime Focus), Benjamin Moore (Art Below), Simone (The Waterpoet), Ilaria Gomascara, Camille Rousselet (Wide Management), Tristan Primagi (Estonian Film Foundation), Mustapha Gundogdu (London Kurdish Film Festival), Helen de Witt, Michael Hayden (BFI), Sophie Scott, Zak Brilliant (Icon), Cary Rajinder Sahwney, Wade Alphonso Jacks (Happy Soul Festival), Samuel Hilton, Jamie Kennerly, Laura Schacham (KINO), Marcin Kobylarz (NiteLabs), Fiona Fletcher, Xanthe Hamilton (Branchage), Kara Collins (Carhartt), Simon O’Brien (Dower and Hall), Jerome Hillion, Cecile Hillion-Le Borgne (Hair & Jerome), Lizzie Gold (Yelp), Hannah Lack, Johanna Lacey (Dazed and Confused), Bryony Byrne (Aesthetica Magazine), Sheila Johnston, Kevin Sear (The Arts Desk), Matt Bochenski, Danny Miller (Little White Lies), Piotr Grzeskiewicz (Cooltura), Thomas Petit (les Films du Losange), Magda Stroe (Romanian Cultural Institute), Raisa Fomina, Dinara Blinova, Elena Smirnova (Intercinema), Simon Savory, Kahloon Loke (Peccadillo Pictures), Mark Truesdale, Nick Varley, Sarah Carlsson (Park Circus), Katie Spong (Erasmus), Anne Wiedlack, Arndt Roskens (M-Appeal), Rebecca Day (Bungalow Town Productions), Stanislav Babic (Telefilm), Margaret Deriaz, Christine Whitehouse, Ian O’Sullivan, Sarah Harvey (BFI Distribution), Rebecca Mark Lawson (Lifesize Pictures), Natasha Dack (Tigerlily films), David Wikinson (Guerilla Films), Ivana MacKinnon (Cloud8 Productions), Paul Andrew Williams, Ken Marshall (Steel Mill Pictures), Daniel Corba (Leon Productions), Manu Pandey (RISE Films), Vivek Avantikahari (A Richer Lens Productions), Geoffrey Smith (Eyeline Films), Daniela Fiori, Omar Majeed, Anuj Khosla (Eye Steel Film), Cedric Dupire (Studio Shapirod), Tristan Anderson, Gemma Atkinson (Docheads), Thure Munkholm, Riina Sporing Zachariassen (CPH PIX), Arvind Ethan David (Slingshot Studios), Zorana Piggott (011 Productions), Barry Adamson, Bradley Kulisic (Central Control), Alex Hogg, Mick Frangou, Adrian Smith (Minima), Tricia Tuttle (BAFTA), Kim Newman, Mateusz Jurowicz, Simon Hargreaves, Grant Keir, Jan Naszewski, Jo Seager, Rachael Castell, Billy Bragg, Tom Robinson, Mark Steele, Syd Shelton, Red Saunders, Jerry Dammers, John Brown, Alan Miles, Ruth Gregory, Carol Tulloch, Simon Green, Rev Gordon Warren, Hamad Khan, Tom Harper, Carla MacKinnon, Dom Shaw, Ramtin Lavafipour, Carl Medland, Ross Clarke, Michael Nyman, Nitin Sawhney, Jaime Winstone, Jesse Vile, David Castro, Clint Dyer, Jono Smith, Robert Heath, Barrie Keefe, Jason Wood, Jan Noble, Marc Isaacs, Sam Duckworth, Ben O’Connor, Mark Donne, Anthony Rossomando, Carl Barat, Gurinder Chadha, Phil Maxwell, Hazuan Hashim, Nigel Cross, Abi Wheeler, Jackie Sharpe, Charles Sharpe, Sourav Sarangi, Chris Fidge, Margarita Osepyan, Alissa Timoshkina, Phil Middleton, Poonam Thaker, Dali Kaur, Jake Walker, Tina Arena, Wayne Imms, Barney Bodoano, Hal Wheeler, Stephen Bunce, Joshua Eichen, Alex Moss, Roxane Ray, James Ranson, Elise Wouters, Johnny Cooper, Roxanna Holliman,Kings Stores public house, The Gun public house, The Golden Heart public house, The Ten Bells public house, The Princess Alice public house, INDO public house, The Grave Maurice public house, The Blind Beggar public house, The White Hart public house, Simon Chinn, Andrew Kotting.