Author: |Posted: 12:55 on 16/12/08
Category: festivals, theatrical documentary
Tis the season to be making jolly little lists, that show what you like. All the bloggers do it now, to show what they consumed, and thoroughly enjoyed.
I’ve split my list into two though. The first part is for films that I skipped out of and spluttered with superlatives because they resonated on me with such an immediate level of captivation. The second list is for clever documentaries that I found utterly brilliant, especially as I thought about them afterwards. The two lists are obviously not binary; some films could have made it onto both, and other documentaries are nowhere to be seen, but I still carry them round in my thoughts. Anyways, here it is, docs I’ve loved from 2008’s offerings, with links to what I’ve written about them.
PART 1
1. Mechanical Love
2. Severing the Soul
3. Japan: A Story of Love and Hate
4. Man on a Wire
5. American Teen
PART 2
6. Solitary Life of Cranes
7. The Doctor who hears voices
8. The English Surgeon
9. My Winnipeg
10. The Shock Doctrine
Author: |Posted: 12:36 on 11/12/08
Category: Uncategorized
Last night I headed over to the Prince Charles cinema to catch a screening of Ivo Gormley’s new documentary, Us Now. It was a free but pre-registered event, that I had failed to sign up to in advance.
Normally I am very confident and able to talk/slip my way inside places, parties and performances that I’m not ticketed out for, and the bitingly cold air against my bare ears was further impetus. However, the whole topic of the documentary and night was people coming together via the internet to organise themselves, so it seemed crass to crash the system of entry. Whilst I waited I saw lots of people from active social activism activity, internet pioneers and documentary fans. Then I got in legitimately, and felt much more adult-like.
I did miss out on being included within the great intro, where the names and professions of the attendants who had registered where illustrated in tag clouds. Paul and Sarah were the most common names, and pictures of bloggers (social heroes!) in the audience appeared, making people turn to check out their neighbours, and transforming the cinema into a social space. read more
Author: |Posted: 16:07 on 09/12/08
Category: 3 Minute Wonder, FourDocs competition, films found on the web, new talent
Holly Ross is the director of A Anderton Presenting, which was one of the winners of the My Family and Other Animals theme that aired on Channel 4 earlier this year. I asked her about herself, and this is what she sent me. [Make sure you check out her v cute pop video I Like Birds But I Like Other Animals Too.]
I am a film maker from Lancaster, which is a little historical city in the north west of England. At the moment I work as a producer/director for ITV Border in Carlisle making regional programmes for them but what I enjoy most is thinking of ideas for short films that I can film in my spare time and then making them!
I really really love making documentaries. What I love about documentaries is finding passionate and interesting people with amazing stories and putting their story and perspective on life ‘down to tape’. There are a lot of people in the world who are worth recording and in my work I hope to open up the door to these people’s lives and let viewers stand on the door mat agog! For me, it’s all about finding great people with spectacular stories, or filming the mundane in a spectacular way. Someone once said I was like the ‘Diane Arbus’ of television. I went red at that cos I really really like Diane Arbus.
Author: |Posted: 00:22 on 04/12/08
Category: festivals
Here’s the list of world competition docs included.
And taking a look at the list of shorts in the competition. Both Eva Weber’s Steel Homes , which just premiered at IDFA, and Finlay Pretsell & Adrian McDowall’s Ma Bar, which recently won a Scottish BAFTA for best short. Both films were made on the Bridging the Gap scheme earlier this year, so congrats!
