GFT

GFT looks forward to the holidays this July and August with Summer Daze, Studio Ghibli Forever, and music festival themed Sound & Vision

The full GFT July/August brochure is available to view here.

This July and August, GFT celebrates the arrival of summer with three seasons which embrace the holiday spirit. The Sound & Vision strand continues with a number of new releases and classics which will provide the soundtrack to your summer, Summer Daze proves that you don’t need to be outdoors to enjoy the warmer months, and Studio Ghibli Forever caters for all the family with a selection of Miyazaki’s classics. Big new releases in July and August include The Legend of Barney Thomson, Amy, Love & Mercy, and 45 Years. A number of GFF15 titles also return over the summer, including Still the Water, P’tit Quinquin, The Choir, The Salt of the Earth,The Wonders, Eden, Marshland, Theeb, 52 Tuesdays, and The Treatment.

Summertime is festival time for music fans: the sun shines, the days are long and the music is loud. The same is true inside the cinema, as GFT gears up for the summer with the Sound & Vision programme. New releases include Asif Kapadia’s portrait of Amy Winehouse Amy, Brian Wilson biopic Love & Mercy, and The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson, which will include a Q&A with director Julien Temple. Martin Scorsese’s tribute to The Band’s final concert, The Last Waltz screens in July, and Rob Reiner’s brilliant directorial debut This Is Spinal Tap and nostalgic coming of age tale Almost Famous both screen on 35mm. Tickets are also now on sale for September’s Roger Waters The Wall, which will be followed by a live satellite Q&A with Roger Waters and Nick Mason.

The full Sound & Vision programme can be viewed here.

In August, Summer Daze will feature a programme of films which visit the most summery times in cinema – from an idyllic American town on Amity Island to the lush Provençal countryside. Films include Grease Sing-a-Long, Jaws,The Virgin Suicides, a double bill of Jean de Florette and Manon des sources, and Die Hard with a Vengeance and Do the Right Thing on 35mm.

The full Summer Daze season can be viewed here.

Although master filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki officially retired in 2013, his cinematic legacy will live on forever. To celebrate his enchanting and influential works, Studio Ghibli Forever will include such classics as Spirited Away,Princess Mononoke, Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbour Totoro, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. To make these wonderful works accessible to audiences of all ages, GFT will screen two versions of the films – one with English dubbing, and the other in Japanese with subtitles.

The full Studio Ghibli Forever season can be viewed here.

Presented by LUX Scotland, July’s Crossing the Line is Over Our Dead Bodies, followed by a Q&A with London-based artist Conal McStravick and researchers Ed Webb-Ingall and Laura Guy, who will discuss the contemporary legacy of this material. August’s Crossing the Line includes two separate screenings of films by experimental filmmaker Josephine Decker: her debut feature Butter on the Latch, and Thou Wast Mild and Lovely, which will be followed by a Q&A with Josephine Decker.

More information on Crossing the Line screenings can be found here.

Other highlights in July and August include a special preview screening of Song of the Sea, Tomm Moore’s first feature since his Oscar-nominated debut The Secret of Kells, with free tickets available through Eventbrite. The life and work of the late Christopher Lee is commemorated with The Wicker Man: The Final Cut, and in anticipation of Harper Lee’s sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird, GFT screens the 1962 Oscar-winning adaptation starring Gregory Peck. 

July brings a new digital restoration of Le Grande Bouffe and, in August, the new digital restoration of Man with a Movie Camera will feature a new score by Alloy Orchestra. Summer late night cult classics include The Mist introduced by comedian Robert Florence, and The Fog, introduced by actor and comedian Greg Hemphill. GFT also celebrates the centenary of Orson Welles with new digital restorations of The Third Man, Touch of Evil, as well as the new documentary from Academy Award-winning director Chuck Workman, Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles,

GFT continues to develop its equalities programme in July and August, with a number of accessible screenings.July’s Access Film Club is a screening of Adventureland and August’s is The Darjeeling Limited. Both screenings will be followed by a representative from Scottish Autism. July’s Visible Cinema is a captioned screening of Love & Mercy, and August’s is a subtitled screening of Marshland.

Sound & Vision @ GFT

Untitled mix #2 from The Vile Arts on 8tracks Radio.

‘Film festivals have struck upon a rich seam with live music, so expect to see many more such events creep into upcoming programmes. But they won’t get much better than this’

– Nick Mitchell, WOW 247, on GFF event A Night at the Regal



Following on from its success at Glasgow Film Festival, Glasgow Film Theatre has incorporated the Sound & Vision strand into its year-round programming with major events and screenings taking place throughout April and May, including live performances from Mercury Prize nominees Field Music and legendary 90s synth-pop pioneers Saint Etienne. Glasgow Film Theatre will also become a venue as part of Stag and Dagger presents Live at Glasgow 2015, with film screenings during the all-day multi-venue music festival, including a special preview screening of the new Elliott Smith documentary Heaven Adores You.

I didn't realise Saint Etienne were still going: last time I looked, their main man was writing articles for The Guardian. Still, I'm at that age when their cover version of Only Love Can Break Your Heart  is a magical memory of a beautiful youth.


GFT will team up with Monorail Music to host a special late night Record Store Day screening of the ultimate 90s independent music store cult classic Empire Records, and a one-off screening of My Secret World, a documentary about the famed Bristol-based record label Sarah Records, with founder Clare Wadd in attendance. GFT will also be screening the all-new Curt Kobain documentary Cobain: Montage of Heck, a devastatingly insightful documentary about the troubled icon that features a previously unheard 12-minute acoustic track by Cobain.

Assuming there is not a very good reason why that track has remained unheard, this is like a trawl through my back pages, when music meant something to me, in the way that celibacy and theatre do now...



FULL EVENT DETAILS

Saint Etienne are one of the most important British bands of the past two decades and Glasgow Film Theatre is delighted to welcome them for this extra special limited-capacity event. The core band consists of the trio Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs, who have been making innovative left-field pop together since 1990. 

For this event they will be joined by 5 other

musicians, making an 8-piece band that brings to life the evocative images on screen. The band will play their live score to Paul Kelly’s film How We Used to Live; a woozy, poignant and telling document of London’s past from 1950s to 1980s. 

Using only colour footage from the BFI archives, the film charts the early days of the welfare state up to the opening days of Margaret Thatcher’s reign. This event is in partnership with Monorail Music and will take place on Tuesday 19 May (19.30).


Stephen McRobbie (perhaps better known as Stephen Pastel) of Monorail Music said:

‘We have a long and happy association with both Heavenly Films and the GFT. We are extremely proud to be involved in the screening of Paul Kelly’s newest film, How We Used to Live; a mesmerising, occasionally brutal but always poignant elegy to a disappearing London. With a live music score by our friends Saint Etienne, this is truly unmissable.’


In 2013, Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival commissioned one of the most critically acclaimed bands to emerge from the North East of England, the Mercury Prize nominated Field Music, to compose a new cinematic score to accompany seminal silent documentary Drifters, by John Grierson. The band will now restage that hugely acclaimed event at Glasgow Film Theatre, with the band’s original line-up of brothers Peter and David Brewis playing with Andrew Moore. This event will take place on Sunday 31 May (20.00).


David Brewis of Field Music said:

‘It's incredibly exciting to be given the opportunity to tour Drifters as writing and performing the original commission for Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival in 2013 was a true pleasure, culminating in a wonderful evening. We are delighted that we can do it all again at some truly lovely cinemas and art spaces around the country.’


On Bank Holiday Sunday 6 May, Glasgow’s most popular city-centre music venues will be taken over for a one-day festival of live music presented by Stag and Dagger called Live at Glasgow. As part of the festival, Glasgow Film Theatre will be hosting a series of screenings, including a special preview of the new Elliott Smith documentary Heaven Adores You. 



Paul Cardow of PCL says:

‘Given our history of working with the incredible talent that was Elliott Smith – having hosted memorable shows for him in Scotland – we are extremely proud to have this opportunity to be involved with the GFT in screening this special tribute to his career, as part of our multi-venue festival Live at Glasgow. It's especially fitting to have this film involved, as Elliott's music was hugely influential to many of the artists that have performed at the event over the years, with this year being no exception.’


In much the same way as independent cinemas like GFT offer a haven for film-lovers, independent record stores are a highly treasured cultural touchstone for lovers of music. 

Glasgow Film Festival announces winner of first-ever Audience Award, closing dates and 2015 admissions

As the 2015 Glasgow Film Festival comes to a close with the UK premiere of  Force Majeure, the organisers are delighted to announce the winner of their inaugural Audience Award, as well as 2015 admissions numbers, and the dates for 2016’s event. The directors of the festival paid tribute to the 2015 audience and described this year as their ‘best ever’.


AUDIENCE AWARD

The winner of GFF’s first-ever Audience Award was Radiator, a beautiful and moving low-budget British film created by writer/ first-time feature director Tom Browne, and shot in the Cumbrian house of his deceased parents. 

Radiator features a pair of astonishing, career-best performances from veteran British actors Richard Johnson and Gemma Jones as elderly hoarders Leonard and Maria. Johnson and Jones, with Browne, were among the visitors to the festival this year. 

The Audience Award was voted on by the GFF audience from a selection of ten films made by first or second-time directors. Over 1100 votes were cast. The Audience Award runner up was the documentary Tender, directed by Lynette Wallworth. Both Radiator and Tender are currently seeking distribution.

Radiator writer/director Tom Browne said:
‘Receiving the Audience Award has made us all terrifically happy - thank you! Radiator has an unfashionable theme and was made on a tiny budget. Unsurprisingly it is taking a while for the film to find a place within the film industry so to receive this award is very significant for Radiator's future. Richard, Gemma and I had a great time in Glasgow - we were treated so kindly and were touched by the engagement of the audiences evident in the Q and A sessions.’


Glasgow Film Festival Co-Director Allan Hunter said:

‘We've always known that our audience has the best taste and now they have proved that all over again. The GFF audience has

enthusiastically embraced the responsibility of picking their favourite film from a list of ten contenders and deciding the winner of the festival's first Audience Award. They couldn't have picked a more worthwhile winner than Radiator.

Tom Browne's deeply autobiographical film resonates across the generations as it deals with the dynamics of family relationships and the challenges we will all face in our final years. It is funny, touching and told with a fearless truth and beautifully judged performances from Gemma Jones, Daniel Cerquiera and the magnificent Richard Johnson. I only hope distributors will take encouragement from the public passion for Radiator and the Audience Award and bring the film to the wider audience it clearly deserves.’



AUDIENCE NUMBERS
Despite fielding 23 fewer events this year due to unavailability at long-term venue partner Cineworld, the festival has still managed to reach over 40,000 admissions for the second year in a row at time of going to press.  45% of the events in the programme sold out completely; 61% of screenings sold 75% of their tickets.


Glasgow Film Festival Co-Director Allison Gardner said:
‘This year might just have been the best Glasgow Film Festival ever. It’s certainly been the most fun I've ever had. From ballroom dancing to roller-skating, from coming together in rapt appreciation at classic festival films like Wild Tales or

Mommy, giving a standing ovation to legendary Scottish writer William McIlvanney, or queuing for tickets for the Internet Cat Video Festival, our audiences have been generous, committed, passionate and open-minded. 

And they’ve all got fabulous taste in fancy dress costumes, which we have asked them to wear in some form almost every night. We’re also absolutely delighted that we've broken 40,000 admissions for a second year running, despite working with a smaller programme. Thanks so much to our wonderful audience: you make all the hard work worth it.’









2016 DATES
Glasgow Film Festival 2016 will run from 17-28 February.

GFT: January and February

VALENTINE’S DAY AT GFT
GFT celebrates Valentine’s Day this February with four brilliant films which explore the strange and mysterious ways in which love can bring even the unlikeliest couples together.

Reissued for its 70th anniversary, Brief Encounter screens on Saturday 14 & Sunday 15 February. Directed by auteur David Lean and adapted by Noël Coward from his own stage play, this is a poignant and beautifully crafted love story which hasn’t aged since its debut seventy years ago.

A new digital print of George Cukor’s 1940 classic The Philadelphia Story (Friday 13 – Tuesday 17 February) also returns to the silver screen in time for Valentine’s Day.

Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart and Cary Grant star in this screwball comedy about 1930s Philadelphia high society.

Mike Nichols' landmark hit The Graduate (Saturday 14 & Sunday 15 February) provides the perfect Valentine’s Day viewing with its unconventional tale of true love surviving and flourishing despite the direst of circumstances.

Following its preview at Glasgay! in October, Love Is Strange returns to GFT Friday 13 – Tuesday 17 February. Veteran screen actors Alfred Molina and John Lithgow star in this beautifully observed tale of true love in the Big Apple.

Check out the full Valentine’s Day listings here.

INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM LIVE

IFFR Live is a series of film premiere events broadcast simultaneously to cinemas across Europe from the 44th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). A live Q&A in which audiences will be invited to participate via Twitter with members of the cast and crew will follow all films. Films in this season include screenings of transcendently beautiful high seas adventure Atlantic.; the intense and evocative Speed Walking from the director of the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; and contemporary drama about the bombing of Belgrade in 1999, The Sky Above Us.

International Film Festival Rotterdam Live takes place at GFT from Saturday 24 – Wednesday 28 January.The full festival details can be found here.

GLASGOW YOUTH FILM FESTIVAL

Glasgow Youth Film Festival returns this February (Fri 6–Sun 8) for a stellar set of films, workshops and events. This year most of the child-friendly programming has been integrated into the main Glasgow Film Festival Modern Families strand, meaning the festival's dynamic young programming team – it is the only film event in Europe totally curated by 15-18 year olds – have focused the festival into an audacious, weekend-long youth cinema showcase. The three-day line-up is a full-on teen takeover, with a jam-packed programme taking in everything from cutting-edge sci-fi premieres, late-night cult classics, a special pop-up closing gala, and a stellar set of films, workshops and events throughout.

Highlights include opening film sci-fi spectacle The Signal, as well as hard-hitting and thought provoking international films such as Supernova, Korso and, winner of the Best Film award at the 70th Venice International Film Festival, Class Enemy.

Young programmer Sean McInally, 16, said, ‘Working on the GYFF team has been a fantastic insight into film festival programming, events organization and the film industry itself, while producing the trailer has given me great filmmaking experience. I'm delighted that we've a great film like The Signal as our Opening Gala – I think 2015’s GYFF is going to be the best so far!’

For full details of all GYFF events and workshops please visit http://www.glasgowfilm.org/gyff

GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL

Glasgow Film Festival is delighted to announce that tickets are now available for the first six events from its 2015 programme. In their 2015 programme, GFF will return to Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery for a very special live dance show and screening of Strictly Ballroom, and also take over the atmospheric, Gothic surroundings of Pollokshaws Burgh Hall, as composer Irene Buckley premieres a brand new soundtrack to 1928 classic The Fall of the House of Usher on the Hall’s original Wurlitzer Cinema Organ. Comedy legend Paul Merton and award-winning silent film pianist Neil Brand have teamed up to pay tribute to another legend, Buster Keaton, with a hilarious live show. GFF is delighted to host the Scottish premiere of British Sea Power’s hugely acclaimed film/live score project From The Sea To The Land Beyond. The phenomenal French bassist Renaud Garcia-Fons and his live band create an Eastern-Western fusion score to Lotte Reiniger’s magical 1926 animation The Adventures of Prince Achmed, while GFF brings Walker Art Center’s famous Internet Cat Video Festival to the UK with a premiere at GoMA.

On Monday 26 January (17.45), GFF taster event Charlie’s Country & Meet the Programmers provides a chance for audiences to learn about the newly released programme, see trailers, and hear why the programmers selected certain films. Followed by a screening of Rolf de Heer’s (The Tracker) new feature Charlie’s Country, a powerful story about Australia’s treatment of Aborigines starring veteran Australian talent David Gulpilil(Walkabout, Rabbit-Proof Fence).

For full details of all GFF events, please visit http://www.glasgowfilm.org/festival/whats_on

MORE JANUARY/FEBRUARY HIGHLIGHTS

On Sunday 11 January, LUX Scotland presents Absences and (Im)possibilities as part of GFT’s Crossing the Line season of films. This programme of experimental Irish film curated by the Experimental Film Club features films from the Lumiére brothers, Samuel Beckett, Vivienne Dick, Dónal Ó Céilleachair and Jesse Jones.

Presented in glorious Scope 35mm, Psychotronic Cinema present Terry Gilliam’s outrageous, unhinged adaptation of Hunter S Thompson’s infamous novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on Wednesday 21 January.

Other highlights include a new digital print of the Marx Brothers’ comedic 1933 masterpiece Duck Soup onSunday 18 & Tuesday 20 January, and a new digital print of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1940 tale of love in the Hebrides I Know Where I’m Going, which will screen on Sunday 25 January to celebrate Burns Night.

The GFT Access Film Club continues throughout January and February with two films which have been voted for by the public. On Tuesday 13 January, the screening will have a ‘Scottish’ theme, and on Tuesday 10 February a ‘True Stories’ theme. Organised in association with Scottish Autism, the screenings provide a welcoming and relaxed environment for those with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Glasgow Film Festival! 18 February – 1 March

In an attempt to beat the rush, here's a few comments on Glasgow Film Festival...

This year, they have divided the programme into clear strands: this makes it much easier to plan my programme, and to write about films collectively...


Glasgow Short Film Festival: 11–15 March
Scotland’s leading short film festival returns, this time in March and extended to five sublime days of screenings devoted to petite and perfectly-formed movies. Alongside a wealth of exciting new talent competing for the Bill Douglas Award for International Short Film and the Scottish Short Film Award, GSFF will stage unique events and parties in venues across the city, including a celebration of Finnish underground film and music, and a guerrilla cinema walking tour screening films in some of the city’s overlooked public spaces. The full programme will be announced in January 2015, with some special events announced in December.

Glasgow Youth Film Festival 6­­­–8 February
GYFF has a new look this year. Now one weekend-long, the festival will focus exclusively on films which look at teenage and young adult life. As the younger child-friendly films graduate into GFF’s Modern Families strand, the youth programming team (all aged 15-19) are pulling together an issue-based programme. Industry insiders (and a few starrier teen heroes) will offer masterclasses and advice to young people who want to make a career in film or TV. GYFF are also venturing into pop-up cinema this year, with a mystery closing event at a yet-to-be disclosed location as part of Glasgow’s Green Year 2015. Full programme announced early December,


New programme strands for 2015


Strewth! As Glasgow hands over the Commonwealth Games to the Gold Coast, we celebrate Australia’s home-grown film industry, from some old favourites to a showcase of the excellent new films coming up from Down Under. The duality between broad, empty outback and the increasingly sleek metropolis, ever-present racial tensions, particularly as they relate to land ownership, and jet-black humour that occasionally veers into a gritted-teeth sense of camp, are themes that run through the last three decades of Aussie cinema, and come together in the films in this strand. Ripper, mate.


Modern Families Packed with gorgeous films which have found new, imaginative ways of telling stories to and about children, and their families. The festival has been somewhat remiss in catering to younger audience members in the past: with family-friendly screenings throughout festival weekends we’re hoping to make up for that. This strand will offer a range of perspectives on the tricky business of growing up, in animation and live action: you don’t have to bring a child with you to enjoy them, either!


Nerdvana Hey, remember when Judge Dredd creator John Wagner came to GFF? When Joss Whedon charmed three cinemas’ full of loved-up fans and the gigantic signing queue outside? When comic book legend Mark Millar took on gamer icon Robert Florence in a battle of the fans, or that time the red carpet was packed with Game of Thrones cos-players out to meet the Hound? Yeah, Glasgow Film Festival’s geeky streak is at least a mile wide. Nerdvana is a new programme consolidating all of our alt-culture interests, from gaming to comics to cult film, in one handy strand.



Cinema City The culmination of our four-year Cinema City project, this strand celebrates Glasgow’s enduring relationship with the flicks. In the 1930s, the ‘cinema city’ had more cinemas per head of population than any other in the world; and now it regularly acts as a backdrop for Hollywood blockbusters. Films and events will look at both the history of cinema-going within the city and notable Glasgow-set films. The centerpiece of this strand is our Cinema City exhibition, to be held at the Mitchell Library, comprising of memorabilia, archive footage, and oral testimony from film lovers across the city, aged from 19-92, about their memories of the movies.


Pioneer GFF has been steadily gaining a reputation as the place to catch the best filmmakers of tomorrow. We’ve screened early work by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, the 2014 Cannes’ Palme D’or winner for Winter Sleep, Ben Wheatley, Lena Dunham, Niels Arden Oplev (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), and Palme D’or nominees Zhangke Jia, Xavier Dolan and Asghar Faradi, to name but a few. Pioneer celebrates emerging filmmakers – directors and writers on their debut or second feature who we think might go on to do even greater things.

CineMasters Previews and premieres of new works from the biggest names in international cinema.

Here’s Looking At You, Kid On the centenary of her birth, GFF’s retrospective strand celebrates the luminous Ingrid Bergman, tracing her career through ten of her best films. Bergman is now most famous for Casablanca (1942), but she carved a singular figure throughout sexist, code-neutered Hollywood, tending to play serious, intelligent roles: career women (psychologists, Mother Superiors), political figures (revolutionaries, spies); women of honour and decency like Joan of Arc or Casablanca’s Ilsa Lund. This strand follows her from her early days in Sweden, through three Oscar wins, to the last cinema film she made before her death in 1982.

Magic Moments... Made for Sharing

Here is my weekly list of five really cool things that I saw, heard or thought while I was about being a critic. Plus two rubbish ones, just from life, really.

The pas de deux between Mina and her husband (Dracula @Tramway). 

Another good bit(e)

Mark Bruce is big on the 'pas de deux equals people having sex' equation, and never more so than when Mina and Jonathan have their honeymoon night together. Capturing both characters' tentative intimacy, while establishing their sense of alienation even in the act of love, it encouraged the dancers to stretch themselves (literally and metaphorically) to present a sensual, hesitant union.  When the other characters came back on stage, it felt like they had barged into the bedroom. 

Guy Veale's soundscape (OOG @ The Arches).
Despite its reputation as a venue for alternative performance, The Arches is a tough space to work: the rumbling of trains overhead can be distracting. Veale's soundscape for Al Seed's exercise in physical precision was both tough enough to conquer the rumbles, and porous enough to incorporate them into the overall atmosphere. Switching between My Bloody Valentine, ambient (and probably illbient) numbers and a jaunty spot of old time jazz, Veale lent Seed's post-apocalyptic soldier an immersive, daunting dark atmosphere.

Putin's Photograph on the wall (Leviathan @ Glasgow Film Theatre).
A Russian take on The Book of Job was never likely to be a chuckle-fest, but the subtle pointers to the corruption of the ruling elite through Leviathan made it as much political satire as theodicy. In a key scene, when the corrupt mayor is confronted by the over-sexed lawyer (no-one is innocent in this film), a framed portrait of an anemic looking Putin is just above their heads throughout the scene, making it clear that evil is one thing that does work in trickle-down economic theory.

Victor Zarallo and Sophie Martin (Scottish Ballet Up Close @ Tramway).
At the risk of being another critic whom Sophie Martin has to arrange a restraining order, the brief pas de deux Jealousy by James Cousins in SB's mixed mixed bill was another reminder of how she is becoming one of the most exciting dancers in Scotland, meshing contemporary energy with classical technique. Bathed in red light, and teetering between the erotic and the despairing, Cousin's choreography gave both dancers a showcase that insists on ballet's ability to explore emotional extremes without compromising on its rigorous physicality.

The Words on the Body (Autumn Nerve Dance @ Old Hairdressers).
Paul  Michael Henry is always good for a bit of butoh inspired action, but Prof Lavery (academics - if you tell me, I'll steal it) pointed out a layer to this dance. Henry's use of projected cut-ups covered his body, emphasising the failure of words to express whatever Henry's movements were trying to manifest - but their disappearance left Henry's body bare and vulnerable. Not just some funky moves, Autumn Nerve Dance posed a question about how words might shape our identities, even if they are merely reflections on the surface of our bodies...

And here's the rubbish...

That Bloke In Front of Me (Autechre @ The Art School).
When he turned round and said in a loud voice that 'this was the most abstract thing ever made,' I wondered whether his comment on Autechre's electronic lesson in history (I'll get to it) was profound or just a stupid bit of showing off that revealed an ignorance of, say conceptual art  or Xenakis' compositions. I was pondering what he meant when he followed this up with 'and there is only one sound going on at a time', which was audibly wrong. 

Him wearing a comedy sanitary towel fancy dress on Halloween (Total Fucking Nightmare Walk Home @ Sauchiehall Street). 

The internet proves this is not an
isolated activity. Thanks, internet.

While it was a bold move to challenge the hegemony of the 'sexy' halloween fashions (I was more conservative and went for 'sexy William Burroughs), the man who was wearing a big bloody tampon wasn't committed enough to the feminist subtext to really pull it off. Actually, given that halloween is supposed to be about monsters (even 'sexy nurse' had a bit of blood on her - either because she was being top beat combo Nurse with Wound ((c) Lorna Irvine) or she'd cut herself on her nasal accent), wearing a towel suggests an innate fear of menstruation. 

There is, of course, another joke about where these towels are usually found, and what this makes him, but I think that's going into misogynistic territory. 

Royston Maldoom OBE Retrospective and Gwen's Place and Ray Winstone

EDINBURGH CHOREOGRAPHIC PROJECT presents

Royston Maldoom OBE Retrospective

Following an extremely successful collaboration in 2013, the Edinburgh Choreographic Project presents an evening of modern dance devised by the international choreographer Royston Maldoom OBE.

Black Earth 

this haunting music composed by one of Turkey’s best-known classical composers Fazil Say, choreographed originally for the Ballet San Marcos in Lima, Peru in 2011.


The Confession of Isobel Gowdie 

set to Scottish composer James MacMillan’s dynamic score, “The confession of Isobel Gowdie” is dedicated to the memory of the last woman to stand trial for witchcraft in Scotland in 1662.


Adagietto No.5 

the slow movement of Mahler's 5th Symphony, was Royston’s first attempt at choreography, originally presented at a Royal Ballet Open Workshop in the mid seventies.


Hook

Created for Ballet San Marcos in Lima, Peru, Hook is a very energetic, light hearted work redesigned for Edinburgh Choreographic Project’s Tour. It is set to the music of Graham Fitkin, from his album of the same name.


Edinburgh Choreographic Project is known for its high caliber of dancers. Through connection with the widest possible communities, it aims to bring an awareness, understanding and enjoyment of contemporary dance.

1st Nov Lochgelly Centre, Fife, 7.30pm 01592 583 303

4th Nov The Platform Easterhouse, 7.30pm 0141 276 9696

6th Nov The Space, Dundee, 7.30pm 01382 434 940

7th Nov Craignish Village Hall, 7.30pm 01852 500 746

9th Nov Cottier Theatre, Glasgow, 8.00pm 0141 537 5825

10th Nov Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock, 7.30pm 01475 723 723

11th Nov Aros, Skye, 7.30pm 01478 613 750

14th Nov Nairn Community Centre, 7.30pm 01667 453 476

15th Nov Aberdeen Arts Centre, 7.30pm 01224 635 208

Canongate presents
Sexy Beast + Q&A with Ray Winstone
GFT
9th October 7pm £12

Famous for his uncompromising roles, Ray Winstone is the nation’s favourite “hard man" and a beloved British icon. To launch his autobiography, Young Winstone, Canongate have partnered with independent cinemas across the UK to show one-off screenings of two of his most celebrated films, alongside interviews with the man himself.

Sexy Beast was cited by Total Film as one of the top 15 films of all time and arguably Winstone's most acclaimed film to date. In it he plays "Gal" Dove, a happily married retired thief dragged back into London's underworld by a former associate psychopath Don Logan, played by Ben Kingsley who won an Oscar for best supporting role.

At this exclusive event, Ray will reflect on his early life and reveal how growing up in the working-class East End of London and a rebellious adolescence led him to become one of the most charismatic actors of his generation.

Miss Hill: Making Dance Matter

Apparently, there is another Martha who has helped define American dance. Martha Hill was the first director of dance at Juilliard (a school that has a dance ensemble good enough to get booked for the Edinburgh International Festival), and was part of the other Martha's company in the late 1920s and 1930s. 

At Julliard, between 1952 and 1985, when she retired, she had plenty of impressive students - check this list that I just ripped off from Wikipedia.

Paul Taylor, Muriel Topaz, Pina Bausch, Daniel Lewis, Lar Lubovitch, Dennis Nahat, Linda Kent, Bruce Marks, Mercedes Ellington, H.T. Chen, Martha Clarke, Susan Marshall, Jenny Coogan, Robert Garland, Mark Haim, Henning Rübsam.

Miss Hill: Making Dance Matter is a documentary that might bring Hill back into the limelight: she is pretty unknown outside of dance circles, but had a tremendous influence. And it is showing at the GFT this week...

Press release begins...

Martha Hill emerges as dance’s secret weapon, someone who fought against great odds to establish dance

as a legitimate artistic movement in America.

Through lively interviews with friends and intimates, plus rare footage of the spirited subject, the film explores Hills’s arduous path from her Bible Belt childhood in rural Ohio through the halls of NYU to her position of power and influence as Juilliard’s founding director of dance in the 1950s.

Peppered with anecdotal material delivered by dance notables who knew her, this revelatory story depicts her struggles and successes, including the battle royale that accompanied her move to the Lincoln Centre campus.
Director: Greg Vander Veer

USA 2014, 1h24m, N/C 12+

Claudia Lennear will attend the Scottish Premiere of 20 Feet From Stardom

The Glasgow Film Festival is usually good for uncovering parts of cinematic history that have been unfortunately ignored, as well as getting a first look at new films. 20 Feet from Stardom does both, kind of: it looks at the life of  the backing singers to the stars, including Claudia Lennear rumoured to be the muse for both The Rolling Stones’ Brown Sugar (1971) and David Bowie’s Lady Grinning Soul (1973). 

While the lyrics of Brown Sugar probably represent one of rock'n'roll's many low points in its attitudes towards both sex and race (Bowie's number is heavy on the objectification, too), Lennear is one of the many people who have made a mark on popular music without ever being recognised. And the GFF has got her to come along for a Q&A after the film. 

Press Release

Nominated for Best Documentary at the 2014 Academy Awards, 20 Feet From Stardom shines a spotlight on the untold true story of the backup singers behind some of the greatest musical legends of the 21st century. From award-winning director Morgan Neville, the film includes rare archival footage, a peerless soundtrack and intimate interviews with such musical legends as Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow, Mick Jagger and Sting.

Glasgow Gospel Choir will be singing songs from the documentary, as well as a selection of other hit musical numbers, before the film commences on Saturday 22 February at 15.20, in Glasgow Film Theatre’s Cinema 1. 20 Feet From Stardom will be released in the UK & Ireland on 28 March.

GLASGOW SHORT FILM FESTIVAL 2014: WINNERS ANNOUNCED

At the very moment, they are announced, The VileArts is proud to report on the short film festival winners. I am the fastest. Press release follows - I barely have time to make sardonic comments.


The 2014 Glasgow Short Film Festival is delighted to announce the four award winners in the 2014 international and Scottish competitions, and the winner of GSFF’s Euroshort nomination.

GSFF has enjoyed a record year, with a wide-reaching programme themed around the relationship between music and film. The Festival opened with the world premiere of PULSE, a collaboration between Grammy-winning classical composer Dobrinka Tabakova and Scottish filmmaker Ruth Paxton, a Royal Philharmonic Society commission. This was followed by a series of memorable performances from Alex Neilson (Trembling Bells), Michelle Hannah, Zoviet France and audio-visual artist Kon-Om-Pax. A public discussion on the potential impact of independence on the Scottish film & TV industry... and I was trying to get into The CCA, and can tell you, it was packed.

AWARD WINNERS, 2014
The Bill Douglas Award for International Short Film 2014
Named in honour of the great Scottish filmmaker Bill Douglas, the international short film award was created with the intention that the winning film reflect the values and qualities found in Douglas’ work: honesty, innovation and the supremacy of image and sound in cinematic storytelling. This year 35 films competed for a prize of £1000.


WINNER: The Questioning by Zhu Rikun
This short documentary traces the filmmaker’s own experience of an encounter with police while visiting human rights activist friends in China. He turned on the camera when the police knocked on the door of his hotel room.
 Jury Citation: ‘In limited space we witness a dense confrontation building to an almost unbearable point. In observing a specific event, this work questions the universal power of authorities.’
SPECIAL MENTION: How to Abandon Ship by Robin McKay
 Jury Citation: ‘Telling the story of a relationship using an unique animation technique, the filmmaker creates a compelling and entertaining balance between absurdly funny and real-life experiences.’
International Audience Award WINNER: Yak Butter Lamp, by Hu Wei
A young photographer and his assistant photograph a group of Tibetan nomads. As families appear to the photographer, he weaves unique links with each of the villagers. Voted for by the audience attending the festival.

Euroshort Nomination WINNER: Pandas by Matus Vizar
Glasgow Film Festival is delighted to be participating in the Euroshort network of film festivals. The work of a European filmmaker under 29 years old has been selected by the international jury for promotion by the international jury for promotion by the network. The five participating festivals will create a DVD compilation of selected films for circulation at international festivals and markets.www.euroshort.com
The Scottish Short Film Award winners over.

GSFF Director Matt Lloyd said: 
“At a time when Scottish film producers are forecasting an extremely bleak future for indigenous production, we can at least demonstrate that there is no shortage of emerging talent. We couldn't contain our selection within the usual four programmes - this year a mighty thirty two films screened across five programmes of new Scottish work.”


WINNER, Scottish Short Film Award 2014: Getting On by Ewan Stewart
Another day unfolds in an anonymous woman’s life, as she cooks and cleans for her uncommunicative husband and sullen grown-up children.
Jury citation: ‘Getting On blends the mundane and the unexpected with humour, sensitivity and a sophisticated, minimalist visual style. The filmmaker creates a balanced piece where the real and the implausible effortlessly and convincingly come together to recount a day in the life of a woman whose routines are gently interrupted by a rather extraordinary visitor.’

SPECIAL MENTION: No Hope For Men Below by Adam Stafford
A stark, minimalist retelling of the Redding Pit Disaster which claimed the lives of 40 men near Falkirk in 1923. Filmmaker and musician Stafford collaborated with Falkirk writer Janet Paisley on the film.
Jury citation: ‘No Hope For Men Below uses extraordinary sound design, stark imagery, and poetry to create a unique cinematic experience. This lyrical, expressionist retelling of the Redding Pit disaster of 1923 not only captures the poignancy of the literal event, but explores a multitude of wounds deep within the national psyche.

He used to be in the first band I ever reviewed live for The Skinny. I play his music quite a bit on the Radio Hour, too.

The jury also agreed that in a year when Glasgow Short Film Festival is celebrating the importance of music in film, they would like to applaud Fraya Thomsen for her sublime score to Sam Firth’s film Stay the Same.
Scottish Audience Award WINNER: Exchange & Mart by Cara Connolly & Martin Clark
Starring Ewan Bremner, and fresh from its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival, Exchange & Mart follows Reg, a lonely schoolgirl at a remote Scottish boarding school, who discovers she must fight, in the local woods. Voted for by the audience attending the festival.

CROSSING THE LINE AT GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL

Glasgow Film Festival... regular fixture... distinctive identity... year on year growth... strands of cinema... ah! There we are. Here's the bit I want to talk about...

Crossing the Line is the art film section of the Glasgow Film Festival - the stuff that won't really be shown in any other place around Scotland (unless Edinburgh's Cameo and Filmhouse pick them up...). It is a mixture of visual artists making film, experiments in cinematography and other good, alternative action. Let's see what the press release says...

In 2014 these unique artists take a radical look at who we are and how we live now as they reimagine the past to give it new meaning.

The innovative programme features world premieres of new commissions for GFF by Glasgow-based artist Rachel Maclean and cult author and filmmaker Chris Petit; the UK premiere of artist Ed Atkins’ surreal and disturbing programme Man of Steel; a celebration of the legacy of Margaret Tait; an examination of Scottish identity in the year of the referendum; and screenings of the latest works by visionaries Lav Diaz, Ben Rivers & Ben Russell,Mati Diop, Yervant Gianikian & Angela Ricci-Lucchi and Basma Alsharif.

Rachael Maclean has, rightly, been the darling of Glasgow's art scene for a few years now: her short films hide a profound disquiet beneath a glowing kitsch surface. Her entry in CTL  is this year's Margaret Tait Award. In the past, she has grappled with national identity, the corporate take-over of the subconscious and the mythic resonance of celebrity trivia. 

A Whole New World explores themes related to British imperial history and national identity in the anniversary year of the Battle of Bannockburn and the First World War and is “an elaborate combination of prosthetic make-up, historical costume and Union Jack-encrusted tourist tat”.

Chris Petit, best known for his classic road movie Radio On and cult novel Robinson, for a

fascinating evening of screenings and discussion around his current project the Museum of Loneliness. Founded in 2010 on the observation that modern life’s primary relationship is now with the screen, the Museum is an anti-pantheon driven by the idea of post-cinema, embracing everything from “dead TV and the vast electro-magnetic slums of audio and visual junk, to calls waiting, elevator announcements, Muzak and obsolete weather and traffic reports.” During the event Chris will premiere his new film Reverse Archeology (2014, 12m), specially  commissioned by GFF to explore the concepts behind the Museum.

Petit is one of those artists who seem to sit on the outside of the mainstream, yet get their work into well respected places. He harks back to the more anarchic artists of the 1960s and 1970s, fascinated by awkward juxtaposition and working in the margins of form and functionality. 

Since graduating from the Slade School of Fine Art in 2009 artist Ed Atkins’ rise has been stratospheric, with solo shows at Tate Britain, Chisenhale and PS1 and commissions for the Venice and Lyon Biennales. Atkins’ mastery of CGI animation, surround-sound and poetic narrative is expanding the parameters of moving image. The artist brings his Man of Steel curated programme to GFF for its UK premiere, fresh from its world premiere at the prestigious Performa biennale in New York. Exploring the use of the alter ego in artists’ films, Atkins has put together a blackly funny and unsettling selection of work by other artists punctuated by new videos in which he sings through a variety of computer-generated, motion-captured avatars. A chimpanzee, Mrs Peanut and Betty Boop will all feature.

The first collaboration between two of the most exciting artist-filmmakers currently working – Ben Rivers (Two Years at Sea) and Ben Russell (Let Each One Go Where He May) – has resulted in the mesmerising ethnographic film A Spell to Ward off the Darkness, which eschews capitalist culture to offer three extreme alternative ways of living.

A little more on this film, taken from their website.

In depth film synopsis can be read as follows (via MUBI):

“A SPELL follows an unnamed character through three seemingly disparate moments in his life. With

little explanation, we join him in the midst of a 15-person collective on a small Estonian island; in isolation in the majestic wilderness of Northern Finland; and during a concert as the singer and guitarist of a black metal band in Norway.

Marked by loneliness, ecstatic beauty and an optimism of the darkest sort, A SPELL is a radical proposition for the existence of utopia in the present.

Starring artist / musician Robert AA Lowe (best known for his intense live performances under the name LICHENS) in the lead role, A SPELL lies somewhere between fiction and non-fiction – it is at once a document of experience and an experience itself, an inquiry into transcendence that sees the cinema as a site for transformation.”.

Cinema as a place where magical change can happen? There is always a danger that this will be two big shots talking the arse off reality, but it is a risk I am usually willing to take. I am not quite sure what the 'darkest optimism might be, though. 

In Place of Work – Margaret Tait Revisited, the pioneering Orcadian filmmaker’s legacy and influence on experimental filmmaking will be celebrated. Two Scottish-based artists Stina Wirfelt and Oliver Mezger have sensitively reinterpreted Tait’s work, underlining its continuing relevance to contemporary Scotland. Their new short films will screen alongside Tait’s own ‘film-poem’ Place of Work (1976, 31m) and will be followed by a discussion led by Tait expert Dr Sarah Neely.

Since she has a name in her honour, it is good to get a relatively rare chance to see some of Tait's work on the big screen.

Known to audiences for her stunning performance in Claire Denis’ 35 Shots of Rum, Mati Diop’s own formally adventurous films are a revelation. In A Thousand Suns, Diop merges fantasy and reality as she imagines the fate of the two lead characters from Touki Bouki, the classic Senegalese film made by her late uncle Djibril Diop Mambéty in 1973. Her beguiling film will be followed by a screening of Touki Bouki – this double bill offers a compelling insight into personal, national and cinematic histories.

Listings

A Spell to Ward off the Darkness

Glasgow Film Theatre, Sunday 23 (15.45) & Monday 24 February (12.45)

Directors: Ben Rivers, Ben Russell / France/Germany/Estonia 2013, 1h35m, N/C 15+

Margaret Tait Award: A Whole New World

Glasgow Film Theatre, Monday 24 February (21.30)

Director: Rachel Maclean Cast: Rachel Maclean / United Kingdom 2014, 32min, English/French/Arabic/Hindi/Cantonese/Zulu with subtitles.

Barbaric Land plus Farther than the Eye Can See
Glasgow Film Theatre, Tuesday 25 (18.45) & Wednesday 26 February (16.00)

Barbaric Land: Directors: Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci-Lucchi / France 2013, 1h5m, French and Italian with subtitles, N/C 18+
Farther than the Eye Can See: Director: Basma Alsharif / Jordan/United Arab Emirates 2012, 13m, N/C 18+

Man of Steel

Glasgow Film Theatre (21.00)
Event 1h30m approx, N/C 18+, Man of Steel first premiered as part of the Performa 13 biennial, organised by Performa Curator Mark Beasley.

Norte, the End of History

Cineworld Renfrew Street, 26 (18.30) &y (13.45)
Director: Lav Diaz, Cast: Sid Lucero, Angeli Bayani, Archie Alemania / Philippines 2013, 4h10m, Tagalog with subtitles, N/C 18+

Tae Think Again: Rethinking Identity in Contemporary Scotland 
Centre for Contemporary Arts, Wednesday 26 February (18.30)

Event 1h45m approx, N/C 12+, Tae Think Again was originally developed as a symposium co-commissioned by Edinburgh Art Festival and Edinburgh Printmakers.

Museum of Loneliness with Chris Petit

Glasgow Film Theatre, 
Event running time 1h45m approx, N/C 15+

Place of Work – Margaret Tait Revisited

Centre for Contemporary Arts, Friday 28 February (20.15)
Event 1h50m approx, N/C 8+

Touki Bouki plus A Thousand Suns

Glasgow Film Theatre, Sunday 2 March (13.30)
Touki Bouki: Director: Djibril Diop Mambéty, Cast: Magaye Niang, Mareme Niang, Aminata Fall / Senegal 1973, 1h25m, Wolof/Arabic/French with subtitles, N/C 12+
A Thousand Suns: Director: Mati Diop, Cast: Magaye Niang / France 2013, 45m, Wolof with subtitles, N/C 12+