BEST OF ENEMIES, directed by Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon, is the winner of the 2015 SummerDocs Audience Award. The award-winning film chronicles the groundbreaking series of televised debates between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, Jr., during the 1968 presidential conventions. The film was released by Magnolia Pictures this summer.
Directed with consummate skill by filmmakers Robert Gordon and Academy Award-winning Sundance Film Festival alum Morgan Neville (Twenty Feet From Stardom), Best of Enemies unleashes a highbrow blood sport that marked the dawn of pundit television as we know it today. In the summer of 1968 television news changed forever. Dead last in the ratings, ABC hired two towering public intellectuals to debate each other during the Democratic and Republican national conventions.
William F. Buckley Jr. was a leading light of the new conservative movement. A Democrat and cousin to Jackie Onassis, Gore Vidal was a leftist novelist and polemicist. Armed with deep-seated distrust and enmity, Vidal and Buckley believed each other’s political ideologies were dangerous for America. Like rounds in a heavyweight battle, they pummeled out policy and personal insult—their explosive exchanges devolving into vitriolic name-calling. Live and unscripted, they kept viewers riveted. Ratings for ABC News skyrocketed. And a new era in public discourse was born.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzgfQvB2dvAFilms
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BEST OF ENEMIES Wins 2015 SummerDocs Audience Award | TRAILER
BEST OF ENEMIES, directed by Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon, is the winner of the 2015 SummerDocs Audience Award. The award-winning film chronicles the groundbreaking series of televised debates between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, Jr., during the 1968 presidential conventions. The film was released by Magnolia Pictures this summer.
Directed with consummate skill by filmmakers Robert Gordon and Academy Award-winning Sundance Film Festival alum Morgan Neville (Twenty Feet From Stardom), Best of Enemies unleashes a highbrow blood sport that marked the dawn of pundit television as we know it today. In the summer of 1968 television news changed forever. Dead last in the ratings, ABC hired two towering public intellectuals to debate each other during the Democratic and Republican national conventions.
William F. Buckley Jr. was a leading light of the new conservative movement. A Democrat and cousin to Jackie Onassis, Gore Vidal was a leftist novelist and polemicist. Armed with deep-seated distrust and enmity, Vidal and Buckley believed each other’s political ideologies were dangerous for America. Like rounds in a heavyweight battle, they pummeled out policy and personal insult—their explosive exchanges devolving into vitriolic name-calling. Live and unscripted, they kept viewers riveted. Ratings for ABC News skyrocketed. And a new era in public discourse was born.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzgfQvB2dvA
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Pharrell Williams + Daft Punk Documentary DAFT PUNK: UNCHAINED to Screen at Doc’n Roll Film Fest
Doc’n Roll Film Festival will screen the French documentary Daft Punk: Unchained, directed by Hervé Martin Delpierre, and the first film to be made about the pop culture phenomenon.
The often elusive duo have sold 12 million albums worldwide and won awards around the globe without ever compromising their vision or sound. Between fiction and reality, magic and secrets, future and reinvention, theatricality and humility, The Robots have built a unique world. The documentary shows Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel Homem-Christo on their permanent quest for creativity, independence and freedom. Unchained has unprecedented access and combines rare archive footage and exclusive interviews with their closest collaborators including Giorgio Moroder, Pharrell Williams, Nile Rodgers, Michel Gondry, Pete Tong, Skrillex and Leiji Matsumoto.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5EofwRzit0
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Dustin Guy Defa’s Short Films to Get 1 Week Run at Film Society of Lincoln Center
The Film Society of Lincoln Center in NYC will feature a one-week run, from October 14 to 20, of short films by filmmaker Dustin Guy Defa under the theme Local Color: The Short Films of Dustin Guy Defa.
“Good short films don’t get the attention that they deserve, which is all the more grievous as there are some terrific short films being made—and Defa is making many of them,” wrote Richard Brody (The New Yorker) in admiration of the director’s Person to Person, an official selection of last year’s New Directors/New Films and part of Local Color. “Put ’em together and it’s almost a feature release, which is what these richly thoughtful yet ultra-low-budget films merit.”
In addition to Person to Person, Local Color: The Short Films of Dustin Guy Defa also includes Family Nightmare (2011), Declaration of War (2013), Lydia Hoffman Lydia Hoffman (2013), and Review (2015), an official selection of the 53rd New York Film Festival.
LOCAL COLOR: THE SHORT FILMS OF DUSTIN GUY DEFA
FILMS & DESCRIPTIONS
Declaration of War
Dustin Guy Defa, USA, 2013, digital projection, 7m
Defa takes the piss out of Bush-era foreign policy as our then-President’s declaration of the War on Terror is met by an unrelenting standing ovation.
Family Nightmare
Dustin Guy Defa, USA, 2011, HDCAM, 10m
Defa delves into his family’s home-movie archive for this by turns bleak and funny but always moving Bosch-esque group portrait, an act of personal exorcism on VHS.
Lydia Hoffman Lydia Hoffman
Dustin Guy Defa, USA, 2013, HDCAM, 15m
After being dumped by her fed-up boyfriend (Josh Safdie), a young woman (Hannah Gross), allows an alluring stranger (Dakota Goldhor) to crash at her place, unwittingly opening a Pandora’s Box of insecurities and paranoia.
Person to Person
Dustin Guy Defa, USA, 2014, HDCAM, 18m
The morning after hosting a party, record-store clerk Benny (Bene Coopersmith) finds a stranger (Deragh Campbell) passed out on his floor; upon waking, she refuses to leave. A New Directors/New Films 2014 selection.
Review
Dustin Guy Defa, USA, 2015, digital projection, 4m
A young woman recounts a story to a group of friends who listen on with rapt attention, but the tale sounds very familiar… An NYFF53 selection.
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Studio Ghibli to Receive 2015 Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award
The 20th Busan International Film Festival selected Studio Ghibli as the recipient of the 2015 Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award. The Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award is presented to an Asian filmmaker or a group that has significantly contributed to the development of the Asian film industry and Asian culture.
Studio Ghibli, celebrating its 30th anniversary, was founded in 1985 by animated film directors Takahata Isao and Miyazaki Hayao who are well known for significant achievements in animated film history. Miyazaki Hayao consolidated the status of Japanese animated films, especially with Spirited Away (2001) which won with the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival and the 2002 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film at the 2003 Oscars. He was awarded the Golden Lion for Career Achievement at the 2005 Venice International Film Festival. Takahata Isao also led in the golden age of Japanese animated films by directing Grave of the Fireflies (1988), Only Yesterday (1991), Pom Poko (1994), and the Oscar-nominated feature The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013).
Studio Ghibli has produced numerous masterpieces with an extended production period, providing a stable production system as well as training successors for the development of animations. The studio has also left a significant mark through activities concerning environmental protection, peace, and the future of children.
In celebration of Studio Ghibli as the Asian Filmmaker of the Year, the Busan International Film Festival will screen Miyazaki Hayao’s My Neighbor Totoro (1988) in the Open Cinema section and Takahata Isao’s Only Yesterday (1991) in the Wide Angle – Animation Showcase section. A chairman and a producer of Studio Ghibli Suzuki Toshio will attend the award ceremony for The Asian Filmmaker of the Year. The Busan Cinema Center will also screen another 18 masterpieces of Studio Ghibli under the ‘Spotlight on STUDIO GHIBLI’ from September 21 (Mon) to September 27 (Sun). For more information, please visit the Busan Cinema Center website.
Studio Ghibli Inc. / Animation Film Studio/ Japan
Studio Ghibli was founded in 1985 by animated film directors Takahata Isao and Miyazaki Hayao, and has produced twenty-one feature-length films. Most Studio Ghibli films ranked number one at the box office in Japan in the year in which they were released. Spirited Away, directed by Miyazaki Hayao and released in 2001, is the all-time highest grossing film in Japan, earning 30.4 billion yen at the box office. The Studio’s Spirited Away (2001) and Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) are among Japan’s top 5 grossing films. Studio Ghibli films have garnered numerous awards and critical acclaim from film critics and animation specialists around the world. Spirited Away was awarded the Golden Bear as the Best Feature Film at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival and won the 2002 Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature Film at the 2003 Oscars. In October 2001, Studio Ghibli, in conjunction with The Tokuma Memorial Cultural Foundation for Animation, founded the Ghibli Museum, Mitaka, designed by Miyazaki Hayao. Studio Ghibli released two films in 2013, The Wind Rises, written and directed by Miyazaki Hayao, and The Tale of The Princess Kaguya, directed by Takahata Isao, that earned consecutive nominations for the 2013 and 2014 Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature Film. The latest film, When Marnie Was There, opened in Japan on July 19, 2014.
Studio Ghibli Filmography
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
Castle in the Sky (1986)
My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
Only Yesterday (1991)
Porco Rosso (1992)
Pom Poko (1994)
Whisper of the Heart (1995)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999)
Spirited Away (2001)
The Cat Returns (2002)
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
Tales from Earthsea (2006)
Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (2008)
Arrietty (2010)
From Up on Poppy Hill (2011)
The Wind Rises (2013)
The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013)
When Marnie Was There (2014)
* Past Recipients of the Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award
12th (2014): Ann Hui (Director, Hong Kong)
11th (2013): Rithy Panh (Director, Cambodia)
10th (2012): Wakamatsu Koji (Director, Producer / Japan)
9th (2011): Tsui Hark (Director, Producer / Hong Kong)
8th (2010): Tsai Ming-Liang (Director / Taiwan)
7th (2009): Yash Chopra (Director, Producer / India)
6th (2008): Gulnara Sarsenova (Festival Director of International Eurasia Film Festival / Kazakhstan)
5th (2007): The late Edward Yang (Director / Taiwan)
4th (2006): Andy Lau (Producer, Actor / Hong Kong)
3rd (2005): NHK (Broadcasting Station / Japan)
2nd (2004): Hou Hsiao Hsien (Director / Taiwan)
1st (2003): Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Director, Producer / Iran)
via release
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San Francisco Film Society to Present 2015 Taiwan Film Days Series with Spotlight on Director Hou Hsiao-hsien | TRAILER
The San Francisco Film Society will present the 2015 Taiwan Film Days, from October 12 to 13, showcasing Taiwanese cinema to Bay Area audiences. This year’s 6th edition of Taiwan Film Days features a very special spotlight on master filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien, who received the Best Director prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and is expected to attend the series kickoff event.
Taiwan Film Days kicks off with a special early look at Hou Hsiao-hsien’s latest film The Assassin, then continues with the documentary Flowers of Taipei: Taiwan New Cinema, which delves into the history and legacy of the Taiwanese New Cinema movement, and wraps up with a newly restored version of Hou’s timeless classic The Boys from Fengkuei.
The Assassin
Hou Hsiao-hsien (Nie Yinniang, Taiwan 2015)
To open the sixth installment of Taiwan Film Days, the series presents one of the most heralded films of 2015 — winner of the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival — master filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Assassin. Set in ninth-century China, the film centers on Nie Yinniang (played by a smoldering Shu Qi) a female killer appointed to slay corrupt government officials by her master, Jiaxin, a nun who raised her from the age of ten. When Yinniang displays mercy by failing to kill during her duties, Jiaxing punishes her with a ruthless assignment designed to test Yinniang’s resolve. Written by Hou Hsiao-hsien, Chu Tien-wen, Hsieh Hai-meng, Zhong Acheng. Cinematography by Mark Lee Ping Bing. With Shu Qi, Chang Chen, Zhou Yun. 105 min. In Mandarin with subtitles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bqNyl72eBw
Flowers of Taipei: Taiwan New Cinema
Chinlin Hsieh (Guangyin de gushi: Taiwan xin dianying, Taiwan 2014)
The Taiwanese New Cinema movement of the 1980s and ’90s captured the imaginations of audiences and filmmakers worldwide. This comprehensive documentary features interviews with leading critics, curators and filmmakers mixed with glorious archival clips from some of the most beloved and inspiring films of the era. Pitch perfect, Flowers of Taipei is an ideal introduction to and celebration of one of the most vital film movements of our time. Cinematography by Olivier Marceny. 109 min. In Mandarin and English with subtitles. Print provided by Ablaze Image.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EyPN-L3SCQ
The Boys from Fengkuei
Hou Hsiao-hsien (Fengkuei-lai-te-jen, Taiwan 1983)
Hou Hsiao-hsien’s beautiful fourth feature-length film follows three bored teenagers who move from the small island of Fengkuei to the port of Kaohsiung. Elegantly recalling the excitement, confusion, anxiety and directionless possibilities of youth in transition to adulthood, the film reveals director Hou in a transition of his own to a canny naturalism that will mark his films for a decade. Restored at the Cinémathèque Royal de Belgique in collaboration with Hou Hsiao-Hsien and the Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project.Written by Chu Tien-wen. Cinematography by Ch’en K’un-hou. With Doze Niu, To Tsung-hua, Lin Hsiu-ling. 100 min. Print provided by Cinematek Belgium.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpVRXV36o2s
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Denzel Washington-Produced SHAME Added to 2015 Urbanworld Film Festival
The world premiere of Shame has been added to the lineup for the 19th Annual Urbanworld Film Festival. Tyrese Gibson and Academy Award® winner Jennifer Hudson star in Shame, a Paul Hunter film produced by Denzel Washington.
In the short film written by Gibson, up-and-coming soul singer Lionel Jacobs (played by Gibson) is working the nightclub scene, trying to climb to the top of the charts while married to his background singer Bobbi Ann (played by Hudson). He wants to do right by his wife and their children but, his struggle with drugs and alcohol test the strength of his fidelity and their relationship. A conversation with Gibson will follow the screening.
Gibson will also serve as the ambassador for this year’s festival. “I’m honored to serve as the ambassador of the 2015 Urbanworld Film Festival and to premiere my short film Shame in such a creative and exciting environment. I strive to create art across all mediums that supports and showcases our diverse landscape and Urbanworld is the perfect partner as they actively and significantly do the same. I’m thrilled to join the filmmakers showcasing their projects at the festival as we inspire, encourage and excite others through film.” says Gibson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9capxlmuh4
Also confirmed to participate in the festival, ABC News Correspondent Deborah Roberts will moderate the
panel discussion with prima ballerina Misty Copeland and Nelson George from the closing night film A
Ballerina’s Tale on Saturday, September 26, 2015.
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Award Winning Indie Film SWEATY BETTY Sets Fall 2015 Release Date | TRAILER
The acclaimed docu-drama SWEATY BETTY, from first-time directors Joseph Frank and Zachary Reed, which made it’s world premiere at the 2015 South by Southwest Film Festival and went on to win Best Feature Film at the 2015 Brooklyn Film Festival, will be released in the Fall via Breaking Glass Pictures.
Breaking Glass is planning a theatrical release for SWEATY BETTY in New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. on November 27. An iTunes, Amazon Instant, Xbox, and VOD release will follow on December 8.
In the film, a big dream and a pig dream takes place in a low income neighborhood on the outskirts of Washington D.C. Joseph Frank and Zachary Reed co-wrote SWEATY BETTY with the film’s lead actors Seth Dubois, Floyd Rich, and Rico S.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrOLvo1yegU
In a cramped row house on the border of Washington D.C., two stories of big dreams take place. Floyd and his family have raised a 1,000-pound pig in their backyard, and are determined to turn her into the team mascot for the Redskins football team. Floyd puts his plan into motion, but the pig, named Miss Charlotte, draws unwanted attention. A few blocks away, Rico and Scooby, two TEENAGE single fathers and best friends, are hanging around the neighborhood. As they scheme up a plan for a better life for themselves and their children, they are presented with an unexpected opportunity.
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Drafthouse Films to Release Danish Comedy MEN & CHICKEN in 2016 | TRAILER
Anders Thomas Jensen’s bizarre familial comedy feature, Men & Chicken set to make its acclaimed North American premiere at Toronto International Film Festival, will be released in the U.S. via Drafthouse Films. Men & Chicken will open in a theatrical release across North America in 2016.
Written and directed by Jensen, described as one of Denmark’s most prolific cinematic voices (whose work includes the 1999 Oscar®-winning short film Election Night, plus scripts for the 2010 Academy-Award® Best Foreign Language Film winner In A Better World and Sony’s upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower), Men & Chicken is the story of two brothers who, through meeting their long-lost family, also discover a horrible truth about themselves. On full, carnivalesque display here are Jensen’s inimitable darkly comedic stylings, as can be seen in his earlier films Flickering Lights and The Green Butchers, both featuring star Mads Mikkelsen. Men & Chicken was recently announced to be on Denmark’s shortlist for the Best Foreign Language category at the 2016 Oscars as well as the Danish entry to the European Film Awards.
In his boldest role to date, Mikkelsen (“Hannibal,” Casino Royale, The Hunt) reunites with Jensen to deliver an unforgettable––and, for North American fans mostly familiar with his dramatic work, wholly unexpected––comic turn as bumbling and harelipped Elias, alongside the equally against-type David Dencik (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, both The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo films) as his loathsome and harelipped brother Gabriel. Together, they venture to a sequestered island where they meet the harelipped Franz (Soren Malling, A Hijacking, Denmark’s “The Killing”), the harelipped Gregor (Nicolaj Lie Kaas, The Idiots, The Absent Ones) and the harelipped Josef (Nicholas Bro,Nymphomaniac, War Horse). What follows is a genre-wrenching spectacle that encapsulates all types of comedy, from grand slapstick to biting wit, coalescing in an astounding exploration of “Denmark’s most twisted family tree since Hamlet” (Variety).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag1miLsTpeQ
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THE OVERNIGHT Starring Jason Schwartzman , Taylor Schilling on DVD on September 15th
THE OVERNIGHT starring an outstanding ensemble cast including Adam Scott (“Parks and Recreation”), Taylor Schilling (“Orange is the New Black”), and Jason Schwartzman (The Grand Budapest Hotel), will be released on DVD September 15th. From executive producers Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass and Adam Scott and produced by Scott’s wife, Naomi, THE OVERNIGHT “pushes past the limits other comedies have observed for years” (Yahoo! Movies). THE OVERNIGHT was released on Digital and On Demand September 8, 2015.
Alex (Scott), Emily (Schilling) and their son, RJ have recently moved to Los Angeles’ Eastside from Seattle. Feeling lost in a new city, they are desperate to find their first new friends. After a chance meeting with Kurt (Schwartzman) at the neighborhood park, they gladly agree to join family pizza night at their home. But as the night goes on and the kids go to bed, the family “playdate” becomes increasingly more revealing and bizarre as the couples begin to open up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWwvejn97lA
The Orchard and Gettin’ Rad Productions and The Duplass Brothers present THE OVERNIGHT. Starring Adam Scott, Jason Schwartzman, Taylor Schilling and Judith Godrèche. Director of Photography John Guleserian. Editor Chris Donlon. Production Designer Theresa Guleserian. Original Score by Julian Wass. Music Supervisor Chris Swanson. Executive Producers Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass and Adam Scott. Produced by Naomi Scott. Written and directed by Patrick Brice.
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Jeff Lipsky’s MAD WOMEN Sets Digital Release Date of October 10th | TRAILER
Jeff Lipsky’s controversial and critically acclaimed sixth feature “Mad Women” will be digitally released, for rent or download, on Amazon and Vimeo-on-Demand, on October 10th.
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2015 AFI Latin American Film Festival to Open with Lesbian Romantic Drama SAND DOLLARS | TRAILER
The 2015 AFI Latin American Film Festival taking place at the historic AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland from September 17 to October 7, opens with the romantic drama SAND DOLLARS, based on the novel “Les Dollars des Sables” by Jean-Noël Pancrazi. SAND DOLLARS is the fourth film by directors Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas (COCOCHI, JEAN GENTIL), and stars Geraldine Chaplin (DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, THE ORPHANAGE) as a wealthy foreign tourist who is head over heels for a much-younger local woman. The film was recently announced as the Dominican Republic’s Official Academy Award® Submission.
In the picturesque seaside town of Las Terrenas, French expat Anne (Geraldine Chaplin, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO) has fallen in love with the much younger local, Noeli (Yanet Mojica). But the feeling isn’t exactly mutual — Noeli makes a living scamming off the kindness of tourists. She shares her earnings with her boyfriend, whom she passes off to Anne as her brother. Things become complicated when Anne promises to take Noeli back to France with her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HeEPnn7ioE
The Closing Night film, TRASH, directed by Stephen Daldry (BILLY ELLIOT, THE HOURS) and written by Richard Curtis (LOVE ACTUALLY, WAR HORSE), follows three trash-picking boys from Rio de Janeiro who team up with two American missionaries, Martin Sheen (THE WEST WING) and Rooney Mara (THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, THE SOCIAL NETWORK), to uncover political corruption.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN08JrXZ9eM
Other highlights include MESSI, a docudrama about the world’s greatest soccer player; the U.S. premiere of Colombia’s ALIAS MARÍA, straight from its debut at the Cannes Film Festival; Kristen Wiig (BRIDESMAIDS) in NASTY BABY, a Brooklyn-set dark comedy from Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva; and WITHOUT WINGS, the first U.S. feature to be made in Cuba since 1959.
The complete schedule of the 2015 AFI Latin American Film Festival is available online.
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Doc’n Roll Film Festival to Host Preview Screening of Sleaford Mods – Invisible Britain | VIDEO
Doc’n Roll Film Festival which runs from September 25 until October4, at Picturehouse Central in London, will screen a special advanced preview of the crowd-funded new music documentary Sleaford Mods – Invisible Britain, a film shot on Sleaford Mods’ 2015 UK tour about the band, the fans and the state of modern Britain.
Directed by Nathan Hannawin and Paul Sng, Sleaford Mods – Invisible Britain follows Sleaford Mods on their recent tour of the UK and visits the neglected, broken down and boarded up parts of the country that most would prefer to ignore. Sleaford Mods – Invisible Britain aims to tell the story of how one of the most relevant British band in years became an unlikely success story through their expression of pent up rage and anger aimed at ineffectual politicians and the current state of affairs. Taking its cue from the likes of Patrick Keiller’s extraordinary Robinson Trilogy and the wanderings of Iain Sinclair, the documentary is a combination of raw footage of the band, interviews with fans, and a look at what individuals and communities are doing to resist so-called austerity measures. The filmmakers will attend the screening on 3 October for a post-film Q&A session. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pZc3UOG1y0