April - 2019

REVIEWS

Apr 27, 2019

Rendez-vous with God [Kevin Van Doorslaer, Belgium, 2018] /// Predilection [Tabitha Walker, UK, 2017

Funerals gone wrong make for surprisingly common comic material. Death at a Funeral [Frank Oz, UK, 2007] and the continually unsung nineties classic Mousehunt [Gore Verbinski, US, 1997] both show that in some dark, twisted and sometimes touching way, corpses and comedy just go together. Kevin Van Doorslaer’s Rendez-vous with God is no different. Following the antics of two stoned siblings grieving their father the night before the funeral, this film is a morbidly witty tribut

Straange Attractors [Richard Paske, USA, 2018] /// Spremuta di Mostro [Daniel Mercatali & Michel

Sam Briggs

Apr 27, 2019

Straange Attractors [Richard Paske, USA, 2018] /// Spremuta di Mostro [Daniel Mercatali & Michel

When musician Richard Paske sat down on his piano in Minneapolis in 1998, it is unlikely that he envisioned the results becoming a computer composited experimental film twenty years down the line. The importance of never throwing away one’s finished work has never been more felt than it has for Paske, with a new life breathed into his original eleven bar blues. By passing his original live recording jazz ensemble piece through the Ableton Max for Live plug-in Oscilloscope v.2

Letters from Eniwetok [Ed Carter, USA, 2018]

Charlie Greep

Apr 24, 2019

Letters from Eniwetok [Ed Carter, USA, 2018]

Letters from Eniwetok is a 12-minute experimental short film from Boston-based British director Ed Carter. It tells the story of a young woman (played by Hazel Rodes) who discovers various objects buried at the beach near her home and the effect on her life this ritual has. Shot in evocative black and white with superb lighting, the short film is an effective little piece, which successfully portrays the intimacy of discovery. The plot’s events, as detailed above, are occasio

The Drone Master [Sébastien Duhem, France, 2018]

Jim Rogers

Apr 18, 2019

The Drone Master [Sébastien Duhem, France, 2018]

The year is 3049, humankind is finished, virtually bereft of existence, with the last man alive placing his own survival in the hands and will of a machine, relying on it to share and record his final days. The Drone Master's narrative is open and expansive, with nods and references peppered throughout for sci-fi fans. For instance, the drone’s recorded name is a direct reference to Alien [Ridley Scott, US, 1979] and, from the outset, there is a feeling and shape similar to c

Nivette [Gaëtan Boschini, France, 2018] /// A Great Fall [Jez Leather & Jonny Cola, UK, 2018]

Sam Briggs

Apr 18, 2019

Nivette [Gaëtan Boschini, France, 2018] /// A Great Fall [Jez Leather & Jonny Cola, UK, 2018]

Les Schini’s Company’s ability to deliver an extended piece of dance choreography that is both fantastically interesting and deceptively subtle is an achievement that should, under no circumstances, be downplayed. Gaëtan Boschini’s direction and Mélodie Cecchini’s choreography are both ludicrously strong. Nivette explores society’s attitude towards the elderly and its predominately pejorative outlook towards the processes of ageing and physical decay. As a piece of short form

First Impressions Can Kill [Eddie Bammeke, UK, 2017]

Chara Kitsaki

Apr 16, 2019

First Impressions Can Kill [Eddie Bammeke, UK, 2017]

Have you ever seen a movie and thought, "this actor is truly killing it"? Well, in Eddie Bammeke’s short film First Impressions Can Kill, that is exactly what the seemingly plain, loving and smiling Jane Higgins (Lynn Lowry) is doing. A lovely, middle-aged woman with a broad smile, shining blonde hair and a bubbling personality enters an empty audition room for a production entitled ‘Cockney Holocaust’. Jane is immediately portrayed as a passionate and ambitious actress, who

Apr 12, 2019

Beautiful Wotevers [Francesca Schweiger & Louis Gering, Germany/UK, 2018] /// A Cowardly Lot [Ti

“Life is a cabaret”, according to Sally Bowles in Cabaret [Bob Fosse, US, 1972], the hit musical with an unoriginal name. In their fantastic and hugely inspiring documentary Beautiful Wotevers, Francesca Schweiger and Louis Gering take us to contemporary London to show just how far the form has come from the days of Liza Minnelli and dodgy German accents. Held every Tuesday in the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, Bar Wotever is London’s only weekly queer variety showcase. This document

Unsent Letter [Christian Gordine, UK, 2018] /// Are You Volleyball?! [Mohammad Bakhshi, Iran, 2018]

Gabriella Florence Kumah

Apr 11, 2019

Unsent Letter [Christian Gordine, UK, 2018] /// Are You Volleyball?! [Mohammad Bakhshi, Iran, 2018]

Christian Gordine’s Unsent Letter imagines the story of a World War II serviceman as he recollects profound memories shared with a former lover. The narrative inventively transforms the original letter into a moving on screen performance, where Gordine personifies tumultuous themes of love, discontentment and idealism. The short opens with the ambience of surging ocean waves washing against a coastal shoreline. The audience is presented simultaneously with a brief written syn

Whose Dreamland? [John Barlow, UK, 2017] /// Payal Chawla: The Mind That Matters [Ajay Chitnis, Indi

Sam Briggs

Apr 10, 2019

Whose Dreamland? [John Barlow, UK, 2017] /// Payal Chawla: The Mind That Matters [Ajay Chitnis, Indi

Using the visual connectivity of national waterways, Whose Dreamland? collects filmed sequences from English seaside ports and towns, as well as constituencies along the Thames estuary, to give visual context to some of Britain’s staunchest euro-skeptic areas. Our visual journey down the quintessentially British Thames estuary into the most historically significant port of UK boarder defence, Dover, grounds the documentary’s account of regional attitudes concerning the EU. Th

Ford Mustang: Get in Line [Rick Peters, USA, 2018] /// Wear Your Emotions: Delight [Masaya Matsui, F

Charlie Greep

Apr 9, 2019

Ford Mustang: Get in Line [Rick Peters, USA, 2018] /// Wear Your Emotions: Delight [Masaya Matsui, F

This spec commercial from director Rick Peters is a slick and straightforward piece of advertising. The commercial starts with a Ford Mustang driving through a desert, kicking up copious amounts of sand and dust as it speeds across the landscape. Close-ups of the car’s wheels and grill both provide a sense of speed and show off the details of the product on sale. After making a doughnut in the sand, the Mustang stops and the driver exits the vehicle. He hands the keys to a wa