Speak Up

  • Films by Abel Ferrara, Alex Gibney, Vanessa Redgrave and More on 2017 New York Film Festival Spotlight on Documentary Lineup

    [caption id="attachment_24059" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]Jane Jane[/caption] The  Spotlight on Documentary lineup for this year’s 2017 New York Film Festival features new films by Abel Ferrara, Alex Gibney, Vanessa Redgrave’s directorial debut, and more Selections include three documentaries spotlighting acclaimed writers, including the World Premiere of Griffin Dunne’s Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold; returning NYFF filmmaker Rebecca Miller’s tender portrait of her father, Arthur Miller: Writer; and the World Premiere of Myles Kane and Josh Koury’s Voyeur, capturing the investigations explored in Gay Talese’s book The Voyeur’s Motel. Other notable documentary subjects include Jean-Michel Basquiat, who commands the downtown NYC scene of the late ’70s and early ’80s in Sara Driver’s BOOM FOR REAL The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat; and Jane Goodall, whose original expedition to contact a chimpanzee population is brought back to life via 50-year-old National Geographic footage in Brett Morgen’s Jane. Additional selections by NYFF alums are Travis Wilkerson’s Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?, in which Wilkerson confronts his family’s white supremacist roots; the North American Premiere of The Rape of Recy Taylor, Nancy Buirski’s passionate film about the 1944 case of a black woman who was raped by several white men; Joshua Bonnetta & J.P. Sniadecki’s El mar la mar, a 16mm meditation on the dangerous trek from Mexico to the U.S. through the Sonoran Desert; the North American premiere of Abel Ferrara’s Piazza Vittorio, a charming snapshot of Rome’s largest public square; and three music films by Mathieu Amalric: C’est presque au bout du monde, Zorn, and Music Is Music. Other highlights of this year’s Spotlight on Documentary section include Vanessa Redgrave’s directorial debut, Sea Sorrow, an expertly crafted call for Western aid to the global refugee crisis; Barbet Schroeder’s The Venerable W., which confronts an Islamophobic Burmese Buddhist monk; and Alex Gibney’s No Stone Unturned, a critical investigation into the 1994 Loughinisland massacre in Ireland.

    2017 New York Film Festival Spotlight on Documentary

    Arthur Miller: Writer Dir. Rebecca Miller, USA, 2017, 98m Rebecca Miller’s film is a portrait of her father, his times and insights, built around impromptu interviews shot over many years in the family home. This celebration of the great American playwright is quite different from what the public has ever seen. It is a close consideration of a singular life shadowed by the tragedies of the Red Scare and the death of Marilyn Monroe; a bracing look at success and failure in the public eye; an honest accounting of human frailty; a tribute to one artist by another. Arthur Miller: Writer invites you to see how one of America’s sharpest social commentators formed his ideologies, how his life reflected his work, and, even in some small part, shaped the culture of our country in the twentieth century. An HBO Documentary Films release. BOOM FOR REAL The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat Dir. Sara Driver, USA, 2017, 79m U.S. Premiere Sara Driver’s documentary is both a celebration of and elegy for the downtown New York art/music/film/performance world of the late 1970s and early ’80s, through which Jean-Michel Basquiat shot like a rocket. Weaving Basquiat’s life and artistic progress in and out of her rich, living tapestry of this endlessly cross-fertilizing scene, Driver has created an urgent recollection of freedom and the aesthetic of poverty. Graffiti meets gestural painting, hip hop infects rock and roll and visa versa, heroin comes and never quite goes, night swallows day, and everybody looms as large as they feel like looming on the crumbling streets of the Lower East Side. Cielo Dir. Alison McAlpine, Canada/Chile, 2017, 74m World Premiere The first feature from Alison McAlpine, director of the beautiful 2008 “nonfiction ghost story” short Second Sight, is a dialogue with the heavens—in this case, the heavens above the Andes and the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, where the sky “is more urgent than the land.” McAlpine keeps the vast galaxies above and beyond in a delicate balance with the earthbound world of people, gently alighting on the desert- and mountain-dwelling astronomers, fishermen, miners, and cowboys who live their lives with reverence and awe for the skies. Cielo itself is an act of reverence and awe, and its sense of wonder ranges from the intimate and human to the vast and inhuman. Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? Dir. Travis Wilkerson, USA, 2017, 90m How is it that some people escape the racism and misogyny in which they are raised, and some cling to it as their reason to exist? For 20 years, Travis Wilkerson has been making films that interrogate the malevolent effects of capitalism on the American Dream. Here he turns his sights on his own family and the small town of Dothan, Alabama, where his white supremacist great-great grandfather S.E. Branch once shot and killed Bill Spann, an African-American man. Branch was arrested but never charged with the crime. The life of his victim has been all but obliterated from memory and public record. “This isn’t a white savior story. This is a white nightmare story,” says the filmmaker, who refuses to let himself or anyone else off the hook. El mar la mar Dir. Joshua Bonnetta & J.P. Sniadecki, USA, 2017, 94m The first collaboration between film and sound artist Bonnetta and filmmaker/anthropologist Sniadecki (The Iron Ministry, NYFF52) is a lyrical and highly topical film in which the Sonoran Desert, among the deadliest routes taken by those crossing from Mexico to the United States, is depicted a place of dramatic beauty and merciless danger. Haunting 16mm images of the unforgiving landscape and the human traces within it are supplemented with an intricate soundtrack of interwoven sounds and oral testimonies. Urgent yet never didactic, El mar la mar allows this symbolically fraught terrain to take shape in vivid sensory detail, and in so doing, suggests new possibilities for the political documentary. A Cinema Guild release. Filmworker Dir. Tony Zierra, USA, 2017, 94m Leon Vitali was a name in English television and movies when Stanley Kubrick cast him as Lord Bullingdon in Barry Lyndon, but after his acclaimed performance the young actor surrendered his career in the spotlight to become Kubrick’s loyal right-hand man. For the next two decades, Vitali was Kubrick’s factotum, never not on call, for whom no task was too small. Along the way, Vitali’s personal life suffered, he drifted from his children, and his health deteriorated as he gave everything to his work. Filmworker is of obvious interest to anyone who cares about Kubrick, but it is also a fascinating portrait of awe-inspired devotion burning all the way down to the wick. Hall of Mirrors Dir. Ena Talakic and Ines Talakic, USA, 2017, 87m World Premiere In this lively documentary portrait, the great nonpartisan investigative reporter Edward Jay Epstein, still going strong at 81, takes us through his most notable articles and books, including close looks at the findings of the Warren Commission, the structure of the diamond industry, the strange career of Armand Hammer, and the inner workings of big-time journalism itself. These are interwoven with an in-progress investigation into the circumstances around Edward Snowden’s 2013 leak of classified documents, resulting in Epstein’s recently published, controversial book How America Lost Its Secrets: Edward Snowden, the Man and the Theft. One of the last of his generation of journalists, the energetic, articulate, and boyish Epstein is a truly fascinating character. Jane Dir. Brett Morgen, USA, 2017, 90m U.S. Premiere In 1960, Dr. Louis Leakey arranged for a young English woman with a deep love of animals to go to Gombe Stream National Park near Lake Tangyanika. The Dutch photographer and filmmaker Hugo van Lawick was sent to document Jane Goodall’s first establishment of contact with the chimpanzee population, resulting in the enormously popular Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees, the second film ever produced by National Geographic. One hundred hours of Lawick’s original footage was rediscovered in 2014. From that material, Brett Morgen (Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck) has created a vibrant film experience, giving new life to the experiences of this remarkable woman and the wild in which she found a home. A National Geographic Documentary Films release. Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold Dir. Griffin Dunne, USA, 2017,  92m World Premiere Griffin Dunne’s years-in-the-making documentary portrait of his aunt Joan Didion moves with the spirit of her uncannily lucid writing: the film simultaneously expands and zeroes in, covering a vast stretch of turbulent cultural history with elegance and candor, and grounded in the illuminating presence and words of Didion herself. This is most certainly a film about loss—the loss of a solid American center, the personal losses of a husband and a child—but Didion describes everything she sees and experiences so attentively, so fully, and so bravely that she transforms the very worst of life into occasions for understanding. A Netflix release. No Stone Unturned Dir. Alex Gibney, Northern Ireland/USA, 2017, 111m World Premiere Investigative documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney—best known for 2008’s Oscar-winning Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, and at least a dozen others—turns his sights on the 1994 Loughinisland massacre, a cold case that remains an open wound in the Irish peace process. The families of the victims—who were murdered while watching the World Cup in their local pub—were promised justice, but 20 years later they still didn’t know who killed their loved ones. Gibney uncovers a web of secrecy, lies, and corruption that so often results when the powerful insist they are acting for the greater good. Piazza Vittorio Dir. Abel Ferrara, Italy/USA 2017, 69m North American Premiere Abel Ferrara’s new documentary is a vivid mosaic/portrait of Rome’s biggest public square, Piazza Vittorio, built in the 19th century around the ruins of the 3rd century Trofei di Mario. The Piazza is now truly a crossroad of the modern world: it offers a perfect microcosm of the changes in the west brought by immigration and forced displacement. Ferrara, now a resident of Rome himself, talks with African musicians and restaurant workers, Chinese barkeeps and relocated eastern Europeans, homeless men and women, artists, members of the right wing movement CasaPound Italia, filmmaker Matteo Garrone, actor Willem Dafoe, and others, all with varying opinions about the vast changes they’re seeing in their neighborhood and world. The Rape of Recy Taylor Dir. Nancy Buirski, USA, 2017, 90m North American Premiere On the night of September 3, 1944, a young African-American mother from Abbeville, Alabama, named Recy Taylor was walking home from church with two friends when she was abducted by seven white men, driven away and dragged into the woods, raped by six of the men, and left to make her way home. Against formidable odds and endless threats to her life andthe lives of her family members, Taylor bravely spoke up and pressed charges. Nancy Buirski’s passionate documentary shines a light on a case that became a turning point in the early Civil Rights Movement, and on the many formidable women—including Rosa Parks—who brought the movement to life. Sea Sorrow Dir. Vanessa Redgrave, UK, 2017, 72m Vanessa Redgrave’s debut as a documentary filmmaker is a plea for a compassionate western response to the refugee crisis and a condemnation of the vitriolic inhumanity of current right wing and conservative politicians. Redgrave juxtaposes our horrifying present of inadequate refugee quotas and humanitarian disasters (like last year’s clearing of the Calais migrant camp) with the refugee crises of WWII and its aftermath, recalled with archival footage, contemporary news reports and personal testimony—including an interview with the eloquent Labor politician Lord Dubs, who was one of the children rescued by the Kindertransport. Sea Sorrow reaches further back in time to Shakespeare, not only for its title but also to further remind us that we are once more repeating the history that we have yet to learn. A Skin So Soft Denis Côté, Canada/Switzerland/France, 2017, 94m U.S. Premiere Studiously observing the world of male bodybuilding, Denis Côté’s A Skin So Soft (Ta peau si lisse) crafts a multifaceted portrait of six latter-day Adonises through the lens of their everyday lives: extreme diets, training regimens, family relationships, and friendships within the community. Capturing the physical brawn and emotional complexity of its subjects with wit and tenderness, this companion piece to Cote’s singular animal study Bestiaire (2012) is a self-reflexive rumination on the long tradition of filming the human body that also advances a fascinating perspective on contemporary masculinity. Speak Up Dir. Stéphane de Freitas, co-directed by Ladj Ly, France, 2017, 99m North American Premiere Each year at the University of Saint-Denis in the suburbs of Paris, the Eloquentia competition takes place to determine the best orator in the class. Speak Up (À voix haute – La Force de la Parole) follows the students, who come from a variety of family backgrounds and academic disciplines, as they prepare for the competition while coached by public-speaking professionals like lawyers and slam poets. Through the subtle and intriguing mechanics of rhetoric, these young people both reveal and discover themselves, and it is impossible not to be moved by the personal stories that surface in their verbal jousts, from the death of a Syrian nightingale to a father’s Chuck Norris–inspired approach to his battle with cancer. Without sentimentality, Speak Up proves how the art of speech is key to universal understanding, social ascension, and personal revelation. The Venerable W. Dir. Barbet Schroeder, France/Switzerland, 2017, 100m The Islamophobic Burmese monk known as The Venerable Wirathu has led hundreds of thousands of his Buddhist followers in a hate-fueled, violent campaign of ethnic cleansing, in which the country’s tiny minority of Muslims were driven from their homes and businesses and penned in refugee camps on the Myanmar border. Barbet Schroder’s portrait of this man again proves, along with his General Idi Amin Dada (1974) and Terror’s Advocate (2007), that the director is a brilliant interviewer, allowing power-hungry fascists to damn themselves with their own testimony. His confrontation with Wirathu—a figure whose existence contradicts the popular belief that Buddhism is the most peaceful and tolerant major religion—is revelatory and horrifying. A release from Les Films du Losange. Preceded by: What Are You Up to, Barbet Schroeder? (2017, 13m), in which the director traces the path that led him to Myanmar, a center of Theravada Buddhism, where racial hatred was mutating into genocide. Voyeur Myles Kane and Josh Koury, USA, 2017, 96m World Premiere Gerald Foos bought a motel in Colorado in the 1960s, furnished the room with louvered vents that allowed him to spy on his guests, and kept a journal of their sexual encounters…among other things. As writer Gay Talese, who had known Foos for more than three decades, came close to the publication of his book The Voyeur’s Motel (preceded by an excerpt in The New Yorker), factual discrepancies in Foos’s account emerged, and documentarians Kane and Koury were on hand to record some wild encounters between the veteran New York journalist and his enigmatic subject. A Netflix release. Three Music Films by Mathieu Amalric C’est presque au bout du monde (France, 2015, 16m) Zorn (2010-2017) (France, 2017, 54m) Music Is Music (France, 2017, 21m) These three movies from Mathieu Amalric are musicals, from the inside out: they move with the mental and physical energies of John Zorn, the wildly prolific and protean composer/performer/bandleader/record label founder/club owner and all-around grand spirit of New York downtown music; and via the great Canadian-born soprano/conductor/champion of modern classical music Barbara Hannigan. Amalric’s Zorn film began as a European TV commission that was quickly abandoned in favor of something more intimate: an ongoing dialogue between two friends that will always be a work-in-progress. The two shorter pieces that bracket the Zorn feature Hannigan nurturing music into being with breath, sound, and spirit. Taken together, the three films make for one thrilling, intimate musical-gestural-cinematic ride.

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  • 2017 Raindance Film Festival Unveils Lineup, Opens with OH LUCY! Starring Josh Hartnett

    [caption id="attachment_23914" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]Oh Lucy! starring Josh Hartnett Oh Lucy! starring Josh Hartnett[/caption] The 25th Raindance Film Festival will take place in London’s West End from September 20th to October 1st, 2017. The International Premiere of Atsuko Hirayanagi’s Oh Lucy! (USA), starring Josh Hartnett, will open the festival. The film is a drama-comedy and tells the story of Setsuko Kawashima, a lonely, chain-smoking office lady in Tokyo who is past her prime and adopts an American alter ego.

    The Feature Films

    In Competition

    Maya Dardel Directed by Zachary Cotler and Magdalena Zyzak (USA) A famous writer claims on NPR that she intends to end her life and male writers may compete to become executor of her estate. Men drive up the mountain and are challenged intellectually and erotically until one discovers Maya’s end game. Cast: Lena Olin, Rosanna Arquette, Nathan Keyes Mukoku Directed by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri (Japan) -UK Premiere Kengo Yatabe’s mother dies and his father is in a coma. He, like his father, was good at kendo. Those days are long gone and he now lofts around as a security guard and generally wastes time. Meeting the young Tooru, Kengo is inspired and decides to shape up. Cast: Atsuko Maeda, Jun Fubuki, Kaoru Kobayashi Noise Directed by Koichiro Miki (Japan) – European Premiere Eight years after the indiscriminate killing spree committed in Akihabara, two girls search for their role in life. Cast: Ayami Nakajo, Jun Shison, Yuta Koseki, Yosuke Sugino The Constitution Directed by Rajko Grlc (Croatia) – UK Premiere The story follows four people who live in the same building, but avoid each other because of the differences in their assets, sexual habits, nationality and religion. Cast: Nebojsa Glogovac, Dejan Acimovic, Ksenija Marinkovic Hello Again Directed by Tom Gustafson (USA) – UK Premiere Inspired by Arthur Schnitzler’s controversial 1896 play Der Reigen and the classic 1950 Max Ophuls film LA Ronde, in the early ’90s the Lincoln Center commissioned Broadway composer Michael John LaChiusa to create the musical Hello Again. This film adaptation explores 10 fleeting love affairs across 10 periods of time in New York City history, through 10 lust-fueled episodes. The Traveller Directed by Hadi Ghandour (France, Lebanon) – UK Premiere A travel agent who has never travelled is sent on a business trip to Paris, only to find himself confronted by temptations that he cannot handle. Swaying Mariko Directed by Koji Segawa (Japan) – International Premiere Mariko, a seemingly normal housewife, has been with her younger husband, Tomoharu, for six years but is dissatisfied daily. Despite having a son together, Tomoharu is often absent from home and she suspects that he might be having an affair. High & Outside: A Baseball Noir Directed by Evald Johnson (USA) – World Premiere In the streets of Los Angeles, a minor league baseball player recklessly claws to keep his dreams alive. Geoffrey Lewis, Phil Donlon, David Yow, Ernie Hudson, Jason Richter and Lindsey Haun star in this dark drama that explores the dangerous nature of living in someone else’s shadow. Black Hollow Cage Directed by Sadrac González-Perellón (Spain) – UK Premiere A girl who lives secluded in a house in the woods with only the company of her father and a wolfhound finds among the trees a mysterious cubic device with the ability to change the past. Djam Directed by Tony Gatlif (France) An emotionally charged storytelling style that spread from poor urban communities in Greece and Turkey to the islands of the Aegean.

    Best Documentary Feature

    The Family I Had Directed by Katie Green and Carlyle Rubin (USA) – UK Premiere In The Family I Had, a mother recalls how her brilliant teenage son came to shatter their idyllic family through one horribly violent and shocking act. Now left to pick up the pieces, the survivors test the boundaries of their newly defined reality in the moving true crime exploration of the nature and limits of familial love. Cast: Charity, Paris, Ella, Kyla RiverBlue: Can Fashion Save the Planet? Directed by David McIlvride and Roger Williams (Canada) – UK Premiere RiverBlue follows internationally celebrated river conservationist Mark Angelo on an around-the-world journey by river that uncovers the dark side of the fashion industry. Infiltrating one of the world’s most pollutive industries, and speaking with fashion designers and water protectors world-wide, RiverBlue reveals stunning and shocking images that will forever change the way we look at the clothes we wear. Cast: Jason Priestley On Yoga The Architecture of Peace Directed by Heitor Dhalia (Brazil, USA) – UK Premiere On Yoga: The Architecture of Peace is based on Michael O’Neill’s book of the same name. This project tells the story of the 10 years the author spent photographing Yoga’s great masters. By posing very human questions from our current perspective, and mixing it with elements of movement and experiential sound, the film results in a new view of the art of Yoga. Michael O’Neill, Edie Stern, Deepak Chopra, Mooji, Elena Brower Bluefin Directed by John Hopkins (Canada) – European Premiere Endangered giant bluefin tuna have returned to Prince Edward Island, Canada in surprising abundance after a disappearance from overfishing. But something strange is going on. With stunning cinematography, filmmaker John Hopkins’s acclaimed documentary explores the mystery of why normally wary bluefin tuna no longer fear humans and turning into pets. Cast: Dr. Carl Safina, Brian Skerry, Dr. Boris Worm, Capt. Jamie Bruce, Capt.Jeff MacNeill Speak Up Directed by Stéphane de Freitas and Ladj Ly (France) – UK Premiere Every year, at the University of Saint-Denis, a competition is held to decide “The Best Orator in the 93”. Any student can participate and many prepare with the help of professional advisors. Armed with new-found knowledge, Leïla, Elhadj, Eddy and the others face off in a bid to become the best orator in the 93. Cast: Leïla Alaouf, Souleïla Mahiddin, Eddy Moniot, Elhadj Touré

    The Discovery Award – Best Debut Feature

    A Trip to the Moon Directed by Joaquin Cambre, Argentina, UK Premiere Tomas is an outcast young teenager trying to pass an exam. His family is constantly pressing him and his mother forces him to take antipsychotic drugs. In his need to escape, Tomas plans an intriguing trip to the moon. In this particular journey where reality and fiction mingles, he will disentangle an old family secret. Cast: Ángelo Mutti Spinetta, Leticia Brédice, Germán Palacios, Ángela Torres, Luis Machín I Still Hide To Smoke Directed by Rayhana Obermeyer, France Fatima, a strong-minded woman, is the lead masseuse of a hammam in Algiers. This is 1995 and the situation is tense in the capital. The day ahead promises to be hectic for all, and for Fatima in particular. Already, while walking to her place of work, she is the distant witness of a terrorist attack. At the hammam, Fatima should feel better, but the atmosphere proves electric in her small enclosed world, she has great difficulty in maintaining order. Scaffolding Directed by Matan Yair (Israel, Poland) – UK Premiere 17-year-old Asher has always been the wild troublemaker at school. While his oppressive father sees him as a natural successor to his scaffolding business, Asher forges a special connection with Rami, his new literature teacher, and begins to glimpse new possibilities for himself. That is, until an unexpected tragedy occurs, and changes everything. Cast: Asher Lax, Ami Smolartchik, Jacob Chen Children of the Night Directed by Andrea De Sica (Italy) – UK Premiere Giulio, a seventeen-year-old from a well-to-do family, is sent to a boarding school. In this isolated place in the Alps, where iron-clad rules limit all contact with the outside, he makes friends with Edoardo, who is rather odd. Their friendship is sealed by frequent escapes at night, when the surveillance of the students seems to lapse. The Story of a Satellite Directed by Sonia Albert-Sobrinoa and Miriam Albert-Sobrino (Spain) – European Premiere Almost 20 years after losing his father to a freak satellite-related accident, Rafael, an undertaker, realizes that his whole life has been orbiting in the wrong direction. With the help of his own “Sancho Panza”, Melito, Rafael will begin a transformational journey that he could never have anticipated.

    Best UK Feature

    In Another Life Directed by Jason Wingard – World Premiere Our once beautiful homeland has become uninhabitable. Too dangerous to walk the streets, drive a car, visit friends. Many have already left Syria, risking their lives on the open water. Giving all we had to the ruthless opportunists who trade in the currency of human misery. Europe was meant to offer us hope. Cast: Mudar Abbara, Elie Haddad, Yousef Hayyan Jubeh, Toyah Frantzen Stooge Directed by Madeleine Farley – World Premiere Stooge is a feature documentary about Robert Pargiter, Iggy Pop’s No1 fan. It covers the three years leading up to his 50th birthday when he tries to track his hero down in a final absolution. His journey has taken him all over the world in search of redemption after years of struggling with addiction, and of celebrating the communal lust that is Rock’n Roll. Cast: Rober Pargiter, Pete Thellusson, Iggy Pop, Scott Asheton, Steve Mackay The Dark Mile Gary Love – UK Premiere “Deliverance” meets “Rosemary’s Baby” – The Dark Mile is a psychological thriller built around a strong central relationship of two very different yet sympathetic characters. A tense psychological horror-thriller, The Dark Mile blends The Wicker Man, Deliverance and Duel, to come up with a film rich in atmosphere and tension. London couple Louise and Clare (Rebecca Calder and Deirdre Mullins) book a sailing trip in the Highlands to recover from a personal tragedy. The location may be idyllic but soon they are tormented by a black industrial barge that follows them, and by the dysfunctional folk on board… Hints of the occult and paganism point to dark times ahead as tension mounts. Cast: Rebecca Calder, Deirdre Mullins, Finlay MacMillan, Paul Brannigan, Sheila Hancock Edie Directed by Simon Hunter Edith Moore (Edie) is a bitter, gruff woman in her eighties. Following her husband’s death, she decides to take herself off to the Highlands on a climbing trip that her father had planned for them many years before. Cast: Sheila Hancock, Kevin Guthrie, Amy Manson, Paul Brannigan Isolani Directed by R. Paul Wilson – World Premiere After witnessing a brutal murder, a young single mother becomes a pawn in a deadly game of deception. To protect her son and start a new life she must outwit an ambitious prosecutor, a corrupt detective and a desperate killer. Cast: Kate McLaughlin, Catriona Evans, Jim Sweeney, Gianni Capaldi, Atta Yaqub

    The Shorts

    Best International Short Film

    Game Directed by Jeannie Donohoe (USA) – UK Premiere A new kid in town shows up at the high school boys’ basketball tryouts and instantly makes an impression. Will talent and drive be enough to make the team? Cast: Rick Fox, Nicole Williams, Tye White, Jamie McShane, Charles Parnell Goddess Directed by Karishma Dube (India, USA) The film explores the reality of being a closeted lesbian in contemporary India. Tara, a feisty teenager begins to risks family and tradition as she pursues her attraction towards her housemaid, Devi. When they are caught together at a dinner party, Tara must suddenly define who she really is. Cast: Priyanka Bose, Aditi Vasudev, Tanvi Azmi Lethe Directed by Dea Kulumbegahsvili (France, Georgia) A lonely horseman wanders past the river of forgetfulness and through a rural Georgian village, where both children and adults explore life’s more instinctual pleasures. Cast: Dato Gogoladze, Vika Chocheva, Mikheil Gomiahsvili Mixtape Marauders Directed by Peter Edlund (USA) – International Premiere A nine-song visual mixtape following two young stoners into a world of mindless day jobs, petty drug deals and obsessive mixtape curation. Cast: Peter McNally, Ian Edlund, Emily Chisholm, Madeline Anderson Viola, Franca Directed by Marta Savina (Italy) – UK Premiere In 1965 Sicily, a 17 year-old girl single-handedly alters the course of Italian history with an unexpected act of defiance that causes a short circuit in her traditionalist community. Cast: Claudia Gusmano, Carlo Calderone, Ninni Bruschetta, Maurizio Puglisi

    Best UK Short Film

    Work Directed by Aneil Karia Jess is an 18 year-old from London balancing her responsibilities as a daughter with her ambitions of a career in dance. When she is confronted with just how cold and unjust life can be during a journey to work, her perspective of the world around her begins to shift. Cast: Jasmine Breinburg, Taurean Steele, Carl Prekopp Diagnosis Directed by Eva Riley – European Premiere Sally’s secretive evening job as a medical roleplay actress forces her to face up to feelings she thought she had under control. Cast: Charlotte Spencer CLA’AM Directed by Nathaniel Martello-White – European Premiere A dark, surreal comedy about a local man who becomes convinced that a vast conspiracy is behind the impossibly rapid gentrification in his London area. But is it all in his head, or is the truth even darker than he imagines? Cast: Joel Fry, Ivanno Jeremiah, Brian Bovell Wild Horses Directed by Rory Alexander Stewart Joan has been housebound with M.E. for most of her adolescence. Now in slow recovery, her urge for independence is causing friction with her mother. When Joan’s tutor encourages her to push herself she throws caution to the wind, leaving home in search of new experiences. And a horse. Cast: Emma Curtis, Emma Cater, Ainslie Henderson, Stephanie Compton 46.0 Directed by Joseph A. Adesunloye, World Premiere Friends Adam and Luke are the life of the party. When they decide that Luke should host a party at his house, what was meant to be a night of fun without responsibilities turns out to be a nightmare for Adam. Cast: Adam Strawford, Guetan Calvin-Elito, Michelle Tiwo, Amy Lynch

    The Virtual Reality

    Best Interactive Narrative VR Experience

    Life Of Us Directed by Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin (USA) Breathe fire, swim underwater, survive the Ice Age, and soar over volcanoes as you evolve through different creatures and a billion years of evolution in this action packed, multi-person VR adventure! Experience new voices, bodies, and special abilities before joining a post-singularity intergalactic dance party set to original music by Pharrell Williams. Created by Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin, with music by Pharrell Williams. A Within Original, produced by Chris Milk, Megan Ellison through her Annapurna Pictures, and Made with Unity. Manifest 99 Directed by Adam Volker and Bohdon Sayre (USA) – World Premiere Created by Flight School Studio, Manifest 99 is an eerie story about finding redemption in the afterlife. Set on a mysterious train, rambling through an unknown void, you assist four travel companions on their journey to their final destination. Using character engagement as a method of movement, Manifest 99 explores scale and navigation unlike any other interactive VR experience. Ray Directed by Rafael Pavón (Spain) – World Premiere Ray is a VR fairy tale created by Future Lighthouse. It combines 360º stereoscopic video, impressive visual effects and arresting soundtrack. Immerse yourself in Lucy’s room the night when Ray, a nosy beam of light, comes to play on her dreams. Ray is also an interactive experience where Ray is alive, and you can play with it using voice recognition and gestures. Cast: Laia Manzanares Treehugger: Wawona Directed by Robin McNicholas, Barney Steel and Ersin Han Ersin (UK) Treehugger: Wawona, the latest virtual reality installation from Marshmallow Laser Feast, reveals the secret life of the giant sequoia and never-before-seen inner workings of the world’s largest tree. Treehugger uniquely illustrates the sequoia’s immense scale and questions our relationship with the natural world at a time of crisis and change.

    Best Mobile Interactive VR Experience

    Horizons Directed by Yuli Levtov (UK) Horizons is a series of interactive VR music journeys where you control the music, and the music controls the world. Make an otherworldly jungle come alive with sound, or travel at breakneck speed through colourful hyperspace. Featuring music from Bonobo, Reuben Cainer and My Panda Shall Fly. In the Eyes of the Animal Directed by Robin McNicholas, Barney Steel and Ersin Han Ersin (UK) In the Eyes of the Animal allows you to explore the forest through the eyes of four woodland species. It is an artistic interpretation of how animals view the world and their living environment. The Unfinished Directed by Balthazar Auxietre (France) – International Premiere In the museum, at night, the statues come alive. Through flashbacks, the viewer is told the love story behind the unfinished statue in the center of the room, and gets to interact with it to finish the unfinished, and free the sculptures within. This majestic ballet in VR unfolds to the score of The Planets by Gustav Holst. Cast: Raphaelle Boitel, Pauline Journe, Tarek Aitmeddour Virtual Virtual Reality Directed by Samantha Gorman and Adam Veal (USA) – UK Premiere Created by Tender Claws, Virtual Virtual Reality is a meta-satire about VR in VR. Welcome to “Activitude”: Real Labor Like You’re Really There! Cater to the whims of A.I. clients, or put on VR headsets in VR to escape into Activitude’s layers of reality as Chaz, the A.I overlord, attempts to boot you out PERMANENTLY. Cast: Ted Evans, Jared Ramirez, Skip Pippo, Alice Winslow, Hugh Kennedy

    Best Cinematic Narrative VR Experience

    Alteration Directed by Jérome Blanquet (France) – UK Premiere Alexandro volunteers for an experiment carried out to study dreams in this poetic trip into the future. He can’t imagine that he will be subjected to the intrusion of Elsa, a form of Artificial Intelligence who desires to digitize his subconscious in order to feed off of it. Cast: Bill Skarsgard, Pom Klementieff, Lizzie Brocheré, Amira Casar Broken Night Directed by Alon Benari and Tal Zubalsky (USA) – UK Premiere A woman and her husband return home one evening to discover an intruder. As she recounts the events of that evening to a police detective, the viewer chooses which of her memories to follow. Exploring the nature of memory itself, Broken Night takes the viewer on a psychological journey to uncover the truth of what transpired. Cast: Emily Mortimer, Alessandro Nivola, Michael Nathanson, Josh Green The Tragic Story of Betty Corrigall Directed by Peter Boyd Maclean (UK) – European Premiere Abandoned by her whaler lover and left pregnant, Betty Corrigall drowned herself to escape her shame in the 1770s. Gather round the smoky peat fire to hear storyteller Tom Muir recall her tragic fate as Virtual Reality meets the centuries old tradition of oral storytelling. Cast: Betty Corrigall, Tom Muir, Barbara Scollay, Willy Sinclair, James Watson UTURN Directed by Nathalie Mathe and Ryan Lynch (USA) – European Premiere What happens when a young female coder joins a male-dominated floundering startup that’s deep in an identity crisis? UTURN is an immersive live-action VR comedy where viewers get to experience both sides of the gender divide. Cast: Sophia DiPaola, Steve Goldbloom, Marc Fong Jr., Wynton Odd, Shruti Tewari

    Best Documentary VR Experience

    First Impressions Directed by Francesca Panetta and Nicole Jackson (UK) Created by the Guardian VR team using the latest research in neural development and colour vision in infants, this 360º film allows you to experience and interact with the world from the point of view of a baby. It’s a period that none of us remember but is the most crucial stage of our development. Cast: Chetna Pandya, Natascha McElhone Iranian Kurdish Female Fighters Directed by Namak Khoshnaw (Iraq, UK) – World Premiere 17-year-old Aso Saqzi ran away from home in Iran to join the battle against the Islamic State. She is not alone. Hundreds of Iranian Kurds, many of them young women, have volunteered to defeat IS – and to fight for a Kurdish homeland. Songs of the Vine Directed by Maira Clancy and Blake Montgomery (USA, Peru) – European Premiere Songs of the Vine’ focuses on the healing modalities and medicine songs of the Shipibo, an indigenous group well-known for its tradition of plant-spirit shamanism and mastery of the visionary ayahuasca medicine. Through the immersion of VR, the film illustrates an ancient but increasingly relevant dynamic between humans and nature. Cast: Ynes Sanchez Gonzalez, Jose Lopez Sanchez, Lila Lopez Sanchez, Laura Lopez Sanchez, Damian Pacaya Rodriguez ¡Viva La Evolución! Directed by Fifer Garbesi (Cuba) – UK Premiere As American culture streams into Cuba for the first time in 50 years, DJ Joyvan Guevara struggles between the new opportunity for global success and a responsibility to the culture he helped build in the face of commercialization. Cast: Joyvan Guevara

    Best Animation VR Experience

    Arden’s Wake Directed by Eugene Chung (USA) – UK Premiere A young woman lives with her father in a lighthouse perched atop an Endless Sea. When he goes missing, she must descend deep into the post-apocalyptic waters previously forbidden to her, embarking on a thrilling journey of family history and self-discovery. From the creators of the magnificent Allumette, Arden’s Wake continues the elegant evolution of storytelling from Penrose Studios. Dear Angelica Directed by Wesley Allsbrook and Saschka Unseld (USA) -UK Premiere From Emmy Award winning Oculus Story Studio comes Dear Angelica, a journey through the magical and dreamlike ways we remember our loved ones. Entirely painted by hand inside of VR by artist Wesley Allsbrook, Dear Angelica plays out in a series of memories that unfold around you. An immersive, illustrative short story starring Geena Davis and Mae Whitman. Cast: Geena Davis, Mae Whitman Rain or Shine Directed by Felix Massie (UK) Rain or Shine is Nexus’ interactive 360° mobile VR short film made for Google Spotlight Stories. Directed by Felix Massie, Rain or Shine follows Ella, a charismatic young girl who loves being outside in the sunshine, but whenever she puts her sunglasses on all loveliness disappears – her very own raincloud appears above her head. Song of the Sea Directed by Jerrica Cleland and Tomm Moore (Ireland, UK, Denmark) – International Premiere The Song of the Sea Virtual Reality experience is inspired by our Oscar-nominated hand-drawn animated feature film Song of the Sea by Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon. Cast: Jon Kenny

    Best Music VR Experience

    Beethoven’s Fifth Directed by Jessica Brillhart (USA) A journey into interstellar space with a performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, First Movement by the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. Cast: Esa-Pekka Salonen Chapita: Mind Enterprises Directed by Eran Amir (UK) Chapita is brought to life in this VR experience combining an ambitious 360º storytelling experience with cinemagraphs and clonemotion technology. The result is an immersive narrative in which the dancer leads us into a multi-coloured world of choreographed dance loops, set against a backdrop of stark contrast that lends a sense of infinite space. Cast: Mimi Jeong Floating Points: Peroration Six Directed by Fabien Coupez (USA) – World Premiere Get blown away by the force of elements inside this stunning VR experience! Set in the middle of the iconic Utah desert, this mesmerizing live performance will take you on an incredible journey that will unleash the natural and supernatural elements. Cast: Sam Shepherd, David Okumu, Alex Reeve, Leo Taylor, Phillip Granell, Paloma Deike, Anisa Arslanagic, Magda Pietraszewska Reeps One: Does Not Exist Directed by John Hendicott and Gawain Liddiard (UK, USA) – UK Premiere Does Not Exist drops you into the centre of Reeps One’s first virtual reality beatbox performance – exploring the latest technology for VR and head-tracked 3D spatial audio. Working in 360º from the ground up, the track was composed to fully utilise the 360º sonic and visual space, creating a totally new style of music video. Cast: Reeps One  

    Best Branded VR Experience

    Manchester City – Match Day Directed by Adam May (UK) – World Premiere Get closer to the matchday action at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium in a new 360º fan experience. From the tunnel to the player, changing rooms to the grass being cut, experience a behind the scenes view of Etihad Stadium in full matchday action. A can’t-miss for football and sports fans across the world. Snatch VR Heist Experience Directed by Rafael Pavón and Nicolás Alcalá (Spain, USA) – UK Premiere Inspired by a real-life heist in London, Crackle’s new series, Snatch, centers on a group of twenty-something, up-and-coming hustlers who are suddenly thrust into the high-stakes world of organized crime. Cast: Rupert Grint, Phoebe Dynevor, Luke Pasqualino, Lucien Laviscount The Chainsmokers Paris VR Directed by Brynley Gibson and Russell Harding (UK) – European Premiere Go on an epic journey with Grammy-winning DJ Duo and The Chainsmokers as you travel through dreamlike environments. Influence new remixes of the hit song Paris based on the choices you make. Choose a new path each time you enter the experience, let the music engulf you as you lean into it, or simply lean back and enjoy the daydream. Cast: Drew Taggart, Alex Pall Welcome To Laphroaig Directed by Darren Emerson (UK) – World Premiere Created by VR City, this 360º film takes you on an epic journey into the heart of the historic Laphroaig whiskey distillery on the beautiful island of Islay.

    Best Sensual VR Experience

    Come! (Viens!) Directed by Michel Reilhac (France) Three women and four men, all naked, appear out of nowhere in the white, sunny space of a bright room outside of time. They meet, touch, share their energy, and are transformed spiritually, letting themselves become one with the world. Cast: Amador Jojo, Ayoti, Christophe De La Pointe, De La Fouquette, Flozif, Yumie Volupté, Fox In My Shoes: Intimacy Directed by Jane Gauntlett and Andrew Somerville (UK) In My Shoes: Intimacy is a 360º experience which explores the power of human connection. Put aside your inhibitions, let these strangers guide you through their impromptu, unconventional and intense moments of intimacy. Intimacy is a first-person documentary designed for two people to experience three encounters from six very different perspectives. Cast: Sarah Cowan, George Collie, Daniel James, Ellie Stamp, Neil Connolly, 
Stella Taylor Second Date Directed by Jennifer Lyon Bell, Netherlands (USA) – World Premiere Set on an Amsterdam houseboat, Second Date is a lighthearted, unscripted Virtual Reality portrait of two young people fumbling towards ecstasy. Trying to find common ground, their conversation veers from clumsy to joyous and back again – until they finally start connecting for real. Cast: Anne De Winter, Bishop Black Through You Directed by Saschka Unseld and Lily Baldwin (USA) Using dance to inhabit a common mortal story of love born, lived, lost, burned and seemingly gone forever, Through You is a live-action VR richly infused with an atmosphere of raw passion. Cast: Joanna Kotze, Amari Cheatom, Marni Thomas Wood

    Best Social Impact VR Experience

    42 Days Directed by Animal Equality (USA, Spain) Imagine you’ve just been born, but you have no mother to keep you warm. You are afraid. Just one chick among billions. And your life will only last until you’re big enough to slaughter. This is the stark reality for billions of young chickens around the world. Cast: Amanda Abbington Aftershock: Nepal’s Untold Water Story Directed by Catherine Feltham (UK) Two earthquakes. One lifeline. One man’s remarkable journey. This VR film follows Krishna, the only plumber in his district, as he works tirelessly to help repair his community’s vital water system which was damaged during the 2015 Nepal earthquakes. Cast: Krishna Sunuwar Munduruku: The Fight to Defend the Heart of the Amazon Directed by James Manisty and Grace Boyle (UK, Brazil) Combining cutting-edge Virtual Reality filmmaking and multisensory storytelling, Munduruku opens a window into the lives, stories and struggle of the Munduruku Indigenous People in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. You Are There. On the road to ending Polio Directed by Peter Collis and Vanessa Moussa (UK, USA, France, Switzerland) You Are There takes us to a Kenyan village to meet a nine-year-old boy, Job, infected with polio and Sabina, a dedicated vaccinator, on her travels to do whatever it takes to spare other children his fate. Cast: Ewan McGregor  

    Best Sound Design VR Experience

    Life Of Us Directed by Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin (USA) Breathe fire, swim underwater, survive the Ice Age, and soar over volcanoes as you evolve through different creatures and a billion years of evolution in this action packed, multi-person VR adventure! Experience new voices, bodies, and special abilities before joining a post-singularity intergalactic dance party set to original music by Pharrell Williams. Created by Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin, with music by Pharrell Williams. A Within Original, produced by Chris Milk, Megan Ellison through her Annapurna Pictures, and Made with Unity. Reeps One: Does Not Exist Directed by John Hendicott and Gawain Liddiard (UK, USA) – UK Premiere Does Not Exist drops you into the centre of Reeps One’s first virtual reality beatbox performance – exploring the latest technology for VR and head-tracked 3D spatial audio. Working in 360º from the ground up, the track was composed to fully utilise the 360º sonic and visual space, creating a totally new style of music video. Cast: Reeps One The Resistance of Honey Directed by Peter Boyd Maclean (UK) – UK Premiere Step inside the world of Bioni Samp, an urban beekeeper who makes honey–and music–from his bees. A fascinating, mind-expanding glimpse into the extraordinary world inside the beehive. Cast: Bioni Samp The Tragic Story of Betty Corrigall Directed by Peter Boyd Maclean (UK) – European Premiere Abandoned by her whaler lover and left pregnant, Betty Corrigall drowned herself to escape her shame in the 1770s. Gather round the smoky peat fire to hear storyteller Tom Muir recall her tragic fate as Virtual Reality meets the centuries old tradition of oral storytelling. Cast: Betty Corrigall, Tom Muir, Barbara Scollay, Willy Sinclair, James Watson

    The Web Series

    Best International Web Series

    The Adventures of A Broken Heart Directed by Ariel Martínez Herrera (Argentina) If the heart could talk, this would be its first television show. With the special appearances of Rabid Penis, Drunk Liver and Operated Kidney High Life Directed by Glen Dolman and Luke Eve (Australia) Genevieve, a very sensible, creative and overachieving 17-year-old student in a respectable, middle class family, seems to be having the perfect ride, until her sanity spectacularly unravels in her manic episode of Bipolar Disorder. Cast: Lily Hatwell, Ezekiel Simat, Di Adams The Break Up List Directed by Aaron Khoo (Singapore) When Luke Wong gets dumped by his girlfriend of 6 years, his whole world crumbles around him. Joe, his best buddy, is also abandoned by his girlfriend on the same day, leading the two set off on a journey to rebuild their lives and survive singlehood. Cast: Benjamin Kheng, Elliot Lucas Marcell Tan Jezebel Directed by Julien Bittner, France A mute musician in search of new inspiration after getting famous on the internet Cast: Hélène Kuhn, Martin Nissen Save Me Directed by Fab Filippo and Dylan Pearce (Canada) Save Me drops us into random lives, mid-sentence. We get to know people through storylines that unravel with humour and pathos and a built-in ticking time bomb – that one of them at some point will be blindsided by a medical emergency Cast: Fab Filippo, Amy Matysio, Suresh John Clash of the Narratives Directed by Robin Forestier-Walker Exploring what its like to be on two opposing sides of a narrative. Cast: Irma Inashvili, Tamara Chergoleishvili

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