http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0422498/

Quoted

http://www.london.gov.uk/priorities/art-culture/storyoflondon/blog/digital-london-confronts-its-analogue-past?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4cacb50a9d7bc440%2C0

The Bill (1984-2010)

'We've all got it coming son, today's your turn.' Detective meadows uttered to the last caught murder suspect on the final episode of what would sadly be the end of 26 year old 'The Bill', one of the longest running series in British TV history. The end for a great show is always sad but some are inevitable...they will end...most things do. However in the case of 'the bill', it's end was more to do with change destroying it, as oppose to cutbacks.

'The bill' was originally a half an hour slot, like most TV shows into the 90's, an hour was now the standard format and so it followed. With it's initial first line 'okay Carver, let's do it.' The ending titles sequence of the police officers feet walking down the street, was always pictured as it official image, even after it was dropped for a more upbeat, uptone, "modren" title sequence. 'The bill' was about police officers, the law and their work. The bill may have had storylines over the years with certain characters but essentially the bill was not a soap, which made it stand out from all other British TV programmes.

I throughly enjoyed watching it over the years, I always knew I could come back to watching it after a long period, not worried about missing any huge continous plotline, because there usually wouldn't be one. I was tuning it for a gripping story, based on people living in London, a crime, suspects, investigation, solved, end. No gimmicks, no music to disguise the reality, in fact using ambience sounds to their advantage, creating high realistic drama.

The most remembered and favourite TV year of the bill for me is quite recent with 2008, in which they had a very ambitious and extremely successful eight parter titled 'witness', which focused on knife and gun crime within young children on a council estate. 'Witness' was unrelentless, gripping, powerful and thoughtful drama. Later that year, a two parter 'Hold me tight' tackled the murder of a eight year school girl and the main suspect a young boy around the same age. In the end, the boy was convicted of the crime after confessing but the officers were not sure weather to file the crime under murder, accidental or manslaughter. 'Over the limit' focuced on PC Sally Armstrong, who drunk a bit too much at a nightclub and crashed her car into another, the episode focused on three of the officers as they attempted to avoid anyone else at the station finding out about the incident and Sally being involved. The episode ends with Sally not being found out. As the bill carried onto other episodes and other storylines, this was never referred to again, PC Armstrong never got her comeuppance, noramally forbidden in the TV world.

The bill changed it formats over the years, adjusted to the times, sadly it was change that brought about it's demise and sudden lowered viewing figures. The change was to happen in September 2009, in which the format changed the gritty cinematography to glossy, from handheld to dolly. With a title sequence, devoid of it's original music of 26 years, now replaced with a confusing other track, murky ambience and pointless fast images. It was a sadly a matter of time, as the Bill now, was no longer gripping, exiciting, relevent or interesting. With an ambitous final steadycam one shot through the station, moving outside the station, crane shot up and end credits, the final epsiode entitled 'respect' dedicated it's long TV run to the men and women of the Metropolitan police force, past and present, as the final words of detective Meadows echoed...

'Today was one of the good days.'

The bill, ordinary people in a uniform, taking a responsibily for society.

R.I.P. You're nicked!

French film-maker Claude Chabrol dies

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/sep/12/claude-chabrol-dies

When does it end? You decide!

In the great words of George Constanza 'It's a show about nothing.'

On the 14th July 2000, after the milluenium didn't crumble the world away, TV was about to take a leap into another direction and would never look back. Orwell's 1984 created the name for what was deemed originally as a social experiment, ten people unknown to each other, entered what was only known as a house back then, and were watched by the curious small public of audience over a half an hour slot, six nights a week. The show rattled along, people drinking tea, dinner, breakfast, taking care of the chickens, running around naked, playing games, arguements, flirting, likes and hates. It wasn't until the cheating scandal that rocked the nation and the front pages of the newspapers then, in which Nick Bateman manipulated hosuemates to vote his way by writing housemates names on pieces of paper, a house quickly became a big brother house and the reality TV show was born.

You could argue that without Nick Bateman, there wouldn't have been a funeral and a celebration for Big brother at it's demise on the 10/09/10. At the end of series one, the winner Craig Philips donated his winning prize of £70,000 to his Down's syndrome friend Joanne Harris to help pay for her heart and lung transplant in America. This all made it seemed so important, like the show had a purpose, that people had been watched, examined, judged, reflected on, and in the end, a hero was chosen and a life was saved. Watching it at the time, it changed the way I saw soaps, I stopped watching Eastenders, I was instead enjoying 'reality.' The editing of the show was incredible, how they mangaged to create narratves through hours of nothing, each day, for every night's show.

As Big Brother continues a year later, BBLB was born, a pre show to the main show, there was an episode of the main show on now everyday of the week, and once again, people sat around and mainly did nothing. Big brother would continues onto his most sucessful series three in 2003 and into it's least sucessful four, at which point it all changed. The idea of people doing nothing, suddenly wasn't so interesting anymore and big brother had become dull. A revamp was born, the evil big brother, where everything and everything was thrown at the show, like a overloaded garden shed.

Back in the days of 'the word', the greatest talk show ever created, where a section titled the hopefuls where indidivuals would do anything to be on TV, was now what Big Brother had become. BB was now an event, a show where people's lives were edited and played with, to create an entertainment. The show became a platform to gain instant fame, get your magazine deals, do a few TV jobs, some other reality TV shows, including making small appearances on shows related to big brother such as big mouth. Social quickly turned into ego, followed by hungry, followed by freaks. It's quite fitting that for the last series of the show, the house was created and decorated as a circus.

In January 2007, Big Brother would make world headlines and be at the front of what is ignorance and what is racism. The infamous race row, detroyed the career of the most famous housemate to come out of Big brother and challenged the public and disturbed ofcom in weather they were right in what they were broadcasting and how. Big Brother would later start to donate a part of the viewers phone phone call votes to charity, to show some charity.

As the old saying goes, all good things come to an end but let's not forget one thing. If someone says, 'I don't watch reality TV', they are sadly mistaken, as Big brother spawned all that defined the genre of what is considered to reality TV. From the farm, to I'm a celebrity, get me out of here, masterchef, the apprentice, survivor, come dine with me, love island, X factor, Britain's got talent, Big Brother created the idea of putting individual strangers together in front of cameras, the rest continues to dominate the TV ratings.

With it's brilliant advertising for the final season, in which past housemates bury the diary room chair from the first series, the show has ended on a rather simple note, celebrating what it once was and is today. BB, the show that changed the way TV is watched and made, whether you like it or not, the father of new genres, always goes first. The social experiment is over

R.EYE.P. Big Brother is no longer watching

But you have alot of friends...

That's the first thing she said...as Anamaria Marinca stood there in the corner of the Young Vic stage in July 2009, dressed in jeans and a white vest top, standing against a background of a wall with two narrow exits each side ,nothing more, nothing less. And so 4.48 Psychosis Psychosis began...my first experience of watching a one person stage play. I had loved Anamaria Marinca in '4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days', was surprised to see her pop up in the brilliant 'five days of heaven' and found it to be great pleasure when I got to meet her at the 2009 world cinema awards, as she gave a heartfelt thank you speech as herself and Cristian Mungiu accepted the best film award. At first I thought she was nervous and didn;t know what to say as she followed Cristian's speech with 'this film is for all the lost ones...we shall never forget you.' I ran into her during Berinale 09 a few months later, at an incredible Romanian party!

4: 88 Psychosis kept my attention, I throughly enjoyed it. After about an hour and fifteen minutes straight performance, she never moved from her one spot on the stage. It was a truely challenging and fantastic role to see her in.

My first stage play to be written with a one person would only come recently, as it coincided with me seeing Meera Syal act it alone in 'Shirley Valentine', a very talented woman whom I always enjoy watching, it was fantastic.

The one person stage play is a challenge...I plan to see more and hope that my first one person stage play, is the first of many more to come...

2 days in Paris

Marion: "It always fascinated me how people go from loving you madly to nothing at all, nothing. It hurts so much. When I feel someone is going to leave me, I have a tendency to break up first before I get to hear the whole thing. Here it is. One more, one less. Another wasted love story. I really love this one. When I think that its over, that I'll never see him again like this... well yes, I'll bump into him, we'll meet our new boyfriend and girlfriend, act as if we had never been together, then we'll slowly think of each other less and less until we forget each other completely. Almost. Always the same for me. Break up, break down. Drunk up, fool around. Meet one guy, then another, fuck around. Forget the one and only. Then after a few months of total emptiness start again to look for true love, desperately look everywhere and after two years of loneliness meet a new love and swear it is the one, until that one is gone as well. There's a moment in life where you can't recover any more from another break-up. And even if this person bugs you sixty percent of the time, well you still can't live without him. And even if he wakes you up every day by sneezing right in your face, well you love his sneezes more than anyone else's kisses. "

Chequered History

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/sep/22/fashion.middleeast

Somewhere in-between sunrise and sunset

'Memory is a wonderful thing, if you don’t have to deal with the past…'

My mate took a girl to his place for a date once, whilst we were at uni, to watch Before Sunrise. I had never seen it up until to this point. My mate told me 'oh you'll love it, it's just two people walking around a city and talking.' Sounded great to me!

I don't recall the frist time I saw the film...I think it was on videotape, perhaps the same one my mate used for his date...uni is a strange time, framented in places. A few years later, I heard about a sequel, Before Sunset, much to my sickness. A film which is originally about two people finding something in each other, the bravery of trust, the magic one night can bring and what really is love. In the end, is love a few hours spend together, leave it at that, make love, share and say goodbye, cut all strings loose?

And so Before Sunset seemed like it was to cut all this away, as it intruduced with the tagline...'what if you had a second chance, with the one that got away.' Before Sunset became the most commercial of the two films, confusing new audiences over which one film came first (America entitled the second one, Before Sunset 2) I remember the first time I saw Sunset, I had just finished my degree and gone back home, from Farnham, to London. My house was in a decorated mess, I had no bedroom, nowhere to really work, no job, only a laptop and a library down the road currently with an offer of free DVD's. As I watched Sunset, something came over me, as I ended up watching the film five times in a week. Was it the joy of seeing two people having the chance to be happy, did I just fall in love with Julie Delpy's character, was it the city of Paris, did it encourage optimism for love within me?

Being in a relationship at the time, I showed it to my girlfriend, who had not seen the first one. After watching it, she said...'it's not real.' What did she mean? Can two people not find such chemistry as is shown in the film or did she mean the film is so polite about the idea of chance, romance, chemistry?

I recently showed both the films on a date...perhaps if the date was the bit better, I might have got a better response than the one I got, which was that 'the first one was better.' It was at this point that I knew this date was over, perhaps I have the 'Before' films to thanks for this realisation.

When I saw Julie Delpy's on a panel discussion in Berlinale 2008, an audience member said to her, 'before sunrise and before sunset are two of my favourite films of all time, will there be a third one?' Julie Delpy was currently promoting her directing debut 'two days in Paris', a film which attempts to capture what a real relationship is like, can be argued in a more pessimist way, she replied to the audience member 'well, you're a romantic.' Perhaps that said it all...why I watched the second one five times in a week and why I'm writing this blog...

To end...

Jesse: Oh, God, why didn't we exchange phone numbers and stuff? Why didn't we do that?
Celine: Because we were young and stupid.
Jesse: Do you think we still are?
Celine: I guess when you're young, you just believe there'll be many people with whom you'll connect with. Later in life, you realize it only happens a few times.

London Recut

It was the middle of June, I had recently had a blast for a week in Hamburg at the film festival, I had a week left before I was to head off to Edinburgh for their film festival. With piles of work for me to do, I always have a bad habit of adding more work to my palette (I never want to miss an opportunity) which London Recut was indeed. I found out about the competition (funded by both Film London and UK Film Council) on my way to work one morning, whilst reading the Metro. I immediately became excited at the prospect of working with footage which has made up the city I've grown up in and love to this day.

That same week on a Friday evening, I got to work, sifting through the footage, searching for a direction. My initial thoughts were to make a film connecting me and London. With footage ranging from 1900 through to the 1970's, being of a first generation here in London, I found this quite difficult to achieve. I started to look through the underground footage, a mode of transportation which has been a huge part of my life, going to school, going to work, travelling within London and began to attempt to construct a film. At this point, I had only images but no links, no subject, no idea. I didn't know what I was making and I wasn't sure I was going to get anywhere.

With time being a constraint, I suddenly clicked on the London at war folder. I didn't know it that evening (it now being sometime after 10pm) at the time but the human spirit seen clearly in the footage, is what inspired me to make the film 'Air.' A few hours later, (2am) half of the film had suddenly disappeared (the online editing program had some faults but essentially it was a good simple program) However, the fact that I had lost half of the work suddenly, was exactly why I was still up editing that night. I decided not to rely on technology, to keep going and finish the film I had in my mind, not thinking about the next day or how much sleep time I had left. I finished and successfully loaded the film online at around 4am (maybe later than that?)


As I jetted off to Edinburgh, I was very pleased to be shortlisted and of course, told by the producer Kerry McLeod towards the end of the festival that the Jury's decision was unaimous in choosing 'Air' as one of the four winners of the competition. As the journey continued with 'Air', meeting with Kerry, putting together the publicity, editing the film at Mosaic studios, looking at all possibilities for where the final version of the film could go and finally the having the screening. Andy Robson was extremely helpful with his archival knowledge, Anton Califano brought alot of ideas to the final edit of the finished film and Kerry kept the project on track, they were all a pleasure to work with. In all, I loved every moment of it.

At the screening, I finally had the chance to meet the other three winners (me being the only guy) and of course, having the pleasure to view all their films.

In my interview about the process of making the film, I was asked what would I say to someone if they were going to fund a project similar to this, I replied that I think it's very important not to ignore archive material, as time moves on, the past disappears and begins to seem less real but with a photo or a moving image, it reasures us that it was there, that it did happen, for happy and sad occasions. Preserving archive material is crucial, allowing others to view it and work with it is very important, as all this material helps us understand the world we live in more today.

Finally...here is where you view and edit archive footage, read about all the winners, as well as watch the films.

http://www.londonrecut.co.uk/

Special thanks to Mosaic Films for this opportunity, it's something I would love to do again.

Your screenplay sucks

http://yourscreenplaysucks.wordpress.com/

Red Riding

In June 2009, I had the great pleasure of meeting the screenwriter Tony Grisoni, for the second time. The first time had been a few years before at the eat our shorts festival at the BFI. As we got ourselves a drink, we got onto talking about the Red Riding Trilogy, in which Tony adapted all three screenplays from which the books are based.


Tony asked for my opinion, concerning my viewing of the three films, with not so great results. At that point, I told him how I found it very hard to watch the first part in the trilogy, as I didn't believe the main character of Eddie Dunford played by Andrew Garfield. Tony listened with great interest before descending into black humour regarding my lack of taste, as I wasn't able to watch the other two films as a result. As we discussed the joys of being a screenwriter, the conversation ended with me wanting to give the trilogy another go, this time seeing all three of them through, and here is the result...

1974: I was pleasantly surprised at as I watched it this time. I was throughly interested, as opposed to my first outing with it, which I was so distant from. My feelings about the main actor's performance, him not convincing me, wasn't as bad this time and I suddenly became intrigued by this story about police corruption and child abductions.

1980: I was really excited to getting around to watching this second installment, with both Considine and Clarke as the main leads. This second part I felt was quite an amazing piece of filmmaking. Through incredible cinematography and thoughtful direction, this was a fascinating piece to watch and probably, for me, the best in the trilogy, in many ways.

1983: David Morrissey's performance in this final installment, blew me away, he was simply masterful in this role. This last film had an eerie edge to it, as the missing girls over the years were shown in portraits before the Red Riding title card. I thought it was a fitting end to a large story that had alot to say.

All together, I think that the Red Riding trilogy was a very, very dark piece of British drama, that I haven't seen on British primetime TV in a long time, unless there's something I've missed. This was about topical issues and subjects, that have been going and are still going on today. Extremely intelligent, not spoonfeeding the audience but challenging them until the very end. I loved it, am throughly impressed and am thrilled to have seen it.

Move over Cannes

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/aug/18/festivals1

BBC to launch new TV drama for Bangladesh

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/23/bbc-new-tv-drama-bangladesh

EIFF 10 (hair of the dog)

EIFF 09 was quite a year, it was my first time in Scotland, my first time showing a film made by myself and Alex Barrett at the film festival, I was there the night Michael Jackson died, I met many great people, fell in love with the city and saw the most diverse, most exciting range and some of the best films I had ever seen in one week, so EIFF 10 had alot to live up to...

On arrival, it all came back to me, the warmth of the delegate centre, welcomed by the lovely volunteers (the best people you'll meet at any film festival, as I've mentioned before) queuing for the computers and attending the hair of the dog (networking with plenty of drinks) My hostel turned out to be great, situated near the castle, with a 45 degree staircase to climb each night back to the my dorm. My room was entitled the underwear room and the bed I was sleeping in was entitled panties. (don't ask)

On my first evening, I relaxed and got into the mood for the week ahead (okay, okay, I was trying to find out where the party was) As I caught up with old friends, I eventually found out that the party for Saturday night was the ceilidh. which was my first time witnessing the famous dance, which I found a joy to watch and...I ate haggis, for the first time (I loved it!!!)

With my usual routine of partying into the night, sleeping little, waking up early, finding any spot to eat, the festival was in full swing and started with the film Cigarette girl, an interesting parellel story about libel laws in a world between two cross sections titled the smoking and non-smoking section, where cigarettes are sold on the black market. As I said all week at the festival...I've seen worse films...

As I go into the rest of the films, I shall give brief reviews of the films, until I decide which one deserves more attention...

Act of Dishonour, not very convincing, I felt no emotion to the story or cared much

Au revoir Taipei, a quirky, off beat, funny, entertaining, sweet, engaging, story

Kick off, not rememorable enough, but had some good photography and some good performances

Street Days, not very good

My son, my son, what have ye done? Unsual, strange, good story, enjoyable.

Kawasaki's Rose, I have no idea what this was...

Superhero me, very good for a first documentary, full of enthusiasm and passion for the subject, only one small ten minute section is dull and all in all, it could have been more fun, but edited well, Steve Sale has a great presence and the film deals with a subject relevent today.

The dry land, soppy, sad, not so engaging but Ryan O Nan and America Ferrera are very good, basically through, this is no Jacob's Ladder...

And so to A spanking in paradise produced by Andy Mass, whom I met at the festival last year, with a short film in competition. Spanking has many great things about it, Uncle Rab's (Simon Weir stories, told in long takes, lasting almost ten minutes, with hardly any cutting away at all. With an unusal setting in a brothel and a great array of characters, this was a film proud to be set in Edinburgh and was full of energy. Whilst the story is fast and made by a young crew of filmmakers with a young lead Andrew Hawley, who holds the film together well, the film has a surprisingly, relatively slow pace. The film was shot in only three weeks and finished just under a week before it was first shown at the press screening. I spoke to Andy about the next festival for the film, to which I heard something I have never heard before...

'Forget the next festival' he said, 'we're going to make the next film.' In fact, Andy penned out to me the next five projects that he and his crew were planning on making over the next few years. As I found this surprising, I also found it refreshing, that this group of filmmakers were not interested in looking back, only forward. I admire this, at their panel discussion talk, they spoke of the word development and how it can go on, as opposed to just going out and making the film.

So back to the list...I saw some great short films within the black box 2 section, put together this year again by the Kim Knowles, notably movement #1 and abstract? Other great shorts I enjoyed included Polish short Echo, Arnica, Barber's dozen, the poetic Ashura and the stunning Crook and the highlandman.

The 40 second animation, The tail gunner, short and sweet.

The final programme, psychedelic, fun, entertaining, iconic central performance by Jon Finch.

Long shot, film within a film type of thing.

Made...poetry of a endless time

The Days of Desire, whilst my friend and collaborator of the short film we had screened at EIFF 09 thought this was a masterpiece, I thought it was conventional, almost trying to be a Hollywood film, a film overpowered by music, amongst nice cinematography. The film does however, have a great central performance by Orsolya Schefcsik.

After seeing Postales, I spoke to the director, John Hyde, about something which intruged me. Most young, new, indie, hip, whatever you want to call it filmmakers, most of the time, deal with adult issues in their films, at an adult level. Postales however, has a very family feel to it, a sense that it was appealing to all. I can't remember if ever, I last saw a film like this calibre at a film festival. Josh's reaction was one of great interest, as he spoke of his immense detail and thought around making the film, including all the elements he looked into, in and around the film. The filmmkers were all great people and I look forward to seeing them again and indeed, viewing their next project.

And so to the film, which mostly blew me away...Police adjective, alot to say, or maybe nothing to say at all...with time, this could become one the greatest films I have ever seen, even though I didn't fully realise it whilst I was watching it. Nothing happens...the plot is shown to be complex to the audience, when it is in fact, so simple, a challenging, thought provoking, demanding, riveting, clever and powerful film from Romania. Purely incredible.

Until I had seen this, I felt quite disappointed with the array of films I had seen this week, nothing had really blew me away. Normally I go with the flow, take it easy, I don't read what the film is about, I think that's the best way. As the last day ended with me attending the 81/2 foundation screening, Mark Cousins and Tilda Swinton's new charity to inspire chidren at the age of 8 and a half with cinema, before we watched the magnificient the white balloon, Tilda ended with saying...

'Thank you so much for coming this afternoon, especially when you had absolutely no idea what was going to happen.'

And as they pointed out at the beginning of the screening, not knowing what you're about to see in cinema, that's what it's all about...

Positive tube strike guy (Remembering)

To the beautiful, lovely, sweet lady I met at the back of the 74 bus, on the second night of the tube strike, May 2009. You asked me when Marble Arch was the next stop, as the bus stood still in limbo.

Orange top, grey skirt, multi coloured belt, ginger blonde.

Laugher ensued us, the tube strike situation being the main topic of conversation.
I suggested you were having a great time, sitting on the crowded bus, going nowwhere fast.

We were both lucky to have seats...next to each other.

'It's different' a positive remark from you in regards to the strike situation.

4 hours of travelling a day it was costing you, in need of a bottle of wine later tonight

Wish you hadn't had got off the bus...

Remembering


Positive tube strike guy

11/6/09

26th in Hamburg, going on 27th and more

International, no budget, three minute quickies, what do all these words have in common? Whatever you're thinking, stop! They're all sections from the 26th international short film festival, which I was lucky enough to attend this year, in the wonderful town of Hamburg.

In town for a short film, made by myself and Alex Barrett, Paintbrush: The Epitaph received a welcome and warm reception, as I was offered a drink by the barman in the very characteristic Lichtmeb cinema, only to be told to put my money away, after being told it was a super film.


As I enjoyed the luscious weather walking around town, I carried my trusty map and most importantly, the pocket size film festival schedule. With an array of short films, in sections that included home grown Hamburg short films and German, the festival also offered a children's film festival, entitled the mo&friese, now in it's 12th year. Within this section, were films considered to be suitable for children, made by adult filmmakers and films made by children themselves. This being my first children's film festival, I would love to see more of them around the world, as I saw a collection of delicate, creative and well made films


To mention a couple, a film entitled Herzschmerz (Heartache) an animation made with lego by thirteen year old Lennart Dohle, a film which deals with two characters who share the same feelings of lost and loneliness. When Hildegard's handbag is stolen by a thief, new friend Tim is at hand to the following consequences that follow, with a story that carries many old tradition values. So moving, it's hard to write, let alone think about this film again as I was lucky enough to see it twice. Jeremy Philip's Milchzahm und silberhaar (Milk tooth and silver hair) deals with a grandfather's story of the past to his grandchild, thoughtout camerawork and an easy to follow story, made this a simple and effective film.


One of this year's special programmes was films from Thailand, which I was lucky enough to see one film from, shown in the opening ceremony. A very interesting piece, which may have been only the beginning for a great array of short films which I'll sadly never find out, the unfortunate and always way of life with so many great things to choose from, you can't have it all.



With my many hightlights of the week, around meeting wonderful people from around the world, filmmakers, team members of the festival, natives and of course the lovely volunteers, (whom I have always enjoy meeting at all film festivals, of which are some of the greatest people I am still lucky enough to have today in my life)



I now have to mention the open air night. Situated on the top floor of a car park, in the parameters of Rathaus and Willy Brandt-Strabe, unsual short films from the three minute quickies and of the past, were introduced and screeened in the heart of the city, with an astonishing view, food and two euros bottled beer. At the end of the night, people started to fold and carry their chairs. Me and Alex sat confused, as to whether the chairs were owned by each person or was a tradition that we were about to insult. Mixing into the crowd seemd the best bet as we we picked up our chairs and followed the crowd, as we all walked down the car ramp from the seventh floor, of the kitchsy entitled park deck kino. Never done that before!!! I'll never forget it. Here is a picture, courtesy of Simone Werder, whom we met going down the ramp.








Rather than make this whole article about only the film festival, I would like to mention my wonderful hosts, Steffen and Frajo, who welcomed me and made me feel at home in their apartment, greatly located in a lovely part of the city. To you both, Ich danke Ihnen!

The city of Hamburg I have fallen in love in, people ride their bikes like they're stirring sugar into their tea. As my flight flew in, ready to land, I could see how stunningly beautiful the city was and on arrival, it became even more gorgeous with it's amount of greenery, warm people, relaxed way of life, great venues, shops, bars and casual atmosphere. In Hamburg, I felt like people were enjoying their lives, taking it all for what it is, something I myself value and appreciate, it's nice to see.


And so...with an endless list of parties, a range of contacts, fond memories, many beers, quick meals, not much sleep, awards given out and some last minute dancing, the festival bittersweetly came to a close. But like the director of Camerimage once told me, as me and other friends sat around with miserable faces in the club, on the last night of festival, asking what was wrong. We told him with sadness, 'it's over.' Marek replied with joy and positivity, 'Don't worry, they'll be another camerimage next year' and so...they'll be another international Kurz film festival in Hamburg...




I'll be waiting...

Those residents, however, are willing to shell out the hefty sum of 30 to 50 toman for the hottest bootleg in Iran: LOST

So after six years, each series declining lowers in episodes, the show that had millions worldwide hooked, finally comes to an end. The question everyone is asking ,was it worth it? In my case, yes but not for the reasons many would think.

Firstly, let me begin by saying that the show's last two hour finale was disppointing, not as exciting as LOST was over the years and definately a very average episode as opposed to the other series finales.

LOST was entertaining, it had mystery, it had great characters, it had flashbacks, action, humour, multicultural people, subtitles. It was new, exciting, it was thinking outside of the box.

I'm not part of the group that declares LOST that greatest show ever made, I disagree with that entirely but it had elements that were striking, moving and very powerful at times. Most of this, stemmed from the fantastic charactisation of each character, we knew and found out nearly everything about everyone, from their past, through to their future. The attention to detail was impeccable, if only done in a mainstream way, which let's not forget, LOST was.

Whilst the show had any layers going on at the same time, the question was always the same, when will answers come. The genius of the show, as people know, lay in the answers never coming, right through to the penulitimate episode. Each series answered about one question in very fine detail and many viewers wanted the last episode rightly titled 'the end' to do this. Others just wanted a deserving end to a show they invested so much time into.

Me, I don't care about answers, I don't want answers and I never expected any. But this was not the problem with the finale.

The penulitimate episode ended as best as LOST had done over the years, I was excited, I was hooked, ready for the last chapter in the saga. What I was given was two hours of TV which meant nothing! It was like the creators had been away for so long, working on Fringe, Flash Forward, JJ on MI3, Star Trek and they both came back to pen the end, which fell flat on it's face. It wasn't moving, it wasn't very enjoyable and it just didn't work.

To say anymore would convince you all, that I wanted answers, that I'm in denial, that that's really my problem but infact I did get some answers...we all did.

So they have been living two parallel lives, so what? LOST had darkness in it, the idea that evil constantly lives amongst hope and faith.

Looking back on it, Desmond saved the show for me. His love for Penny was so strong that the creators would have been hunted down if either Desmond or Penny had been killed. In the fouth season episode, 'The Constant' the moment they speak to each other for the first time in over three years is one of the moving scenes from the entire show, the love these two characters had for each other was so real, strong and convincing, it bought hope to the old fashioned concept of 'love.'

So now what, some people will say it was the greatest show that ever lived. The great elements that the show had over the years, can never be taken away but every story must have a great end, one that makes sense to the entire story if not answering anything at all or not even being that coherent.

LOST sadly was not found, it sunk into an abyss, broke up in chunks and was never to be seen again. A sad end, for all the wrong reasons...but never forgotten...


Iran's secret obsession: Getting Lost in Tehran

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1958971,00.html

TV drama gains Islamic apporoval as 'Lost mania' grips Iran

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/13/lost-tv-drama-iran

Free Jafar Panahi

One of the most important filmmakers of the new wave, Iran and the entire world, needs you, please end your hunger strike.

Please find all the support you deserve right here...

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=341946171819&ref=ts

Sign the petition here...

http://www.petitiononline.com/FJP2310/petition-sign.html

Free Jafar Panahi, he has done nothing wrong

The First Movie

Part documentary, part essay, part contemporary memoir.

From watching short films within a film, from watching an young audience watch feature films for the first time on the big screen, Mark Cousins ‘the first movie’ is a multi-layered film, which creates a ‘real’ cinema experience for the viewer never seen before, in a very innovative way.

During the screening’s Q & A, a nine year old girl told Cousins, ‘I always thought of Iraq as a bad country but I will now be saying good things about it.’ Through his own presence on screen and in his own voiceover, Cousins begins his film with no titles to indicate location, to avoid stereotypical images which are most of the time created by the press, therefore allowing the audience to view the film freely without any preconceived images. Cousins talks of his original upbringing in Belfast but only for a ‘wee’ minute, rather than create a formulaic doc where the filmmakers life is similar to what he is witnessing, whilst cutting back and forth, Mark avoids this cliché approach and instead allows the images being seen around him and by the kids, in the small of Goptapa, to speak for themselves.

Whilst Cousins film may be about his own identity, to this small town and these kids, the film becomes an entirely selfless film, about so many other things. A child’s spirit in a country torn apart by war, as the children play with balloons, a scene more moving than watching a plastic bag dance in the wind. A child’s imagination as they talk the kind of stories and genres they would make films about, talking of comedy and love. A celebration of cinema as Cousins set up a cinema, showing them films that he considers to be the best children’s films ever made, amongst them Astrid Henning-Jensen's Danish film Palle Alone in the World (1949), about a little boy who wakes up in the world without grown-ups. The children stare in awe at the screen, laugh and attempt to touch images flying off the screen, as they are taken away into the world of storytelling.

Cousins gives three of the children he meets whilst filming, their own cameras to play with, one of which comes back with footage of a child playing with mud in water, for a duration of one minute and twenty two seconds, with a narration by the young boy filming him. The short instanteous piece of film is more incredible, moving, real and multi-layered than any filmmaker can ever truly imagine to achieve after years of preparation. Whilst Cousins film is uplifting, sad and moving, it never overplays any elements by being too over dramatic or oversentimental. The film movie is real, based on real lives, in a real town, within a real country all captured in a real, entertaining, simple, open-minded, open-hearted and thought provoking way.

'Is that my milk tray!!!!' shouted Mitchell

Is that my milk tray!!!!, a line I've always remembered from 'Claws', one of my favourite plays, along with 'Potentials', written my friend Dominic Mitchell (or Mitchell as I like to call him) The first conversation we ever had was on the second day of our university term, within the IT suite, meeting each other for the first time. Mitchell had a passion for film, like myself, and an eye to succeed with his creativity and intelligence, traits which to this day, still shine through.

His most recent play, 'Don't look back', performed at the Young Vic, surprised me with his ending. I liked the play, it was as mad as a Mitchell play normally gets, playing on a myth that's supposely true, I was only confused by the straight ending which he never does. For the first time, there was a much more sombre, peaceful, happy end, like everything is going to be alright. You see, Mitchell creates unusual worlds with his plays.

In 'Claws', the focus draws from creating the idea that everything inside is safe inside and bad outside, as one of the children from the large age group, ages ranging from 6 to 18, returns back home after escaping weeks earlier. The older kids, named after looney tunes characters such as tweeny and bugs, tie him up and hang an anvil above his head. These are children who believe in Santa Claus and sing jingle bells as their prayers so when a homeless man, breaks into their home, dressed in a red suit, they beleive him to yours truely. The play was performed as a rehearsal at Polka theatre, I'm lucky to say I caught it but I'm sad to say that's the last time it was performed, as it remains one of my favourite plays.

As more Mitchell plays circled London, ranging from more rehearsals, to a few days perfomances, to one week runs, Mitchell was about to have a play entitled 'Potentials', which was about to have a run of just under three weeks at the Tristan Bates theatre. I'll add a link here so you can read more about this extraordinary play...

http://www.whatsonstage.com/reviews/theatre/off-west+end/E8831241782752/Potentials.html

The play blew me away, at the age of 27, the issues within it, had been central to most of my life and I think will always be even after the age of 30.

Mitchell's stories are a mix of the surreal, the shadows and the rawness within each of us, played out with political, social and dark humour. His characters look out towards what lengths a human being will really do and feel, given any time, place or situation, to any depths. Diverse, exciting, intense, revelant, Mitchell.

So what's next...well, Mitchell currently has a blog through writers room http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/writersroom/dominic_mitchell/

and is developing other projects, which I'm not sure if I'm allowed to talk about or not...either way, you'll hear from him soon.

But for now...'Is that my milk tray!!!!'

Solocypher

http://www.vocalswords.blogspot.com/


http://www.myspace.com/solocypherthevocalsword

LD 1

'Look, I'm not a cool guy or anything, I haven't been on a date in twelve years, but I would love to waste your time for a couple of hours. What do you think about that, can I do that, is it possible?'

Larry David

An innocent girl, a harmless drive. What could possibly go wrong?

'Buckle up, son! This is the real world out here!'

'License to drive', the never talked about 1988 film starring both Corey Haim, Corey Feldman and a then unknown Heather Graham, remains one of the funniest films of all time, whilst also representing the issue that a driver's license respresents individualism, liberation and freedom. This all may seem like an over exaggeration but when a film has a clear set out idea, that begins with Les Anderson, (before there was Mr Anderson in Matrix, who stands for so much less in comparison to Les) chained to a school bus and his attempt to escape this kind of future for his life, and his dream of getting the girl and the car. Because in life, without a license, you have nothing...

'Les, that license in your wallet, that's not an ordinary piece of paper, that is a driver's license, and its not only a driver's license, it's an automobile license, and it's not only an automobile license, it's a license to live, a license to be free, a license to go wherever, whenever and with whomever you choose.'

There's too much for me to say really about 'License to drive', for me it is a brilliant film, clear in what it is about, what it is trying to achieve in it's genre and style, it uses childish techniques at times, empathising certian sounds and edited cleanly with some old fashioned flip cuts in places. Whilst I might make it sound, as if the film takes itself too seriosuly (and maybe the filmmakers did) far from it coming across like that in the film, as the script is direct, funny and of course the performances shine through, with Corey Haim brilliant as the young kid with the American dream...a joy to watch everytime and a film which deserved to be known.

Of course, one of the most famous films of Haim's career is 'the lost boys' (1987) which displays the idea of being, acting and feeling differently to our parents and siblings, it is at the end of the day, essentially a good old fashioned, fun -vampire-killer-slasher film, made to better standards to ones in the genre today.

In 1986, 'Lucas' showed adolescene in one of the best possible ways as Roger Ebert once described...

"Haim ... does not give one of those cute little boy performances that get on your nerves," wrote Ebert. "He creates one of the most three-dimensional, complicated, interesting characters of any age in any recent movie. If he can continue to act this well, he will never become a half-forgotten child star, but will continue to grow into an important actor. He is that good."

I remember seeing it at a young age, (it was an after midnight fill-up-the schedule screening on ITV) I haven't seen it since but have never forgotten it, how much I felt for Lucas and what he was trying to acheive and prove, to himself, to the girl he lusted after and the world around him. It was a powerful film for me and I look forward to seeing it again.

As with many shocking deaths in life, they always leave at a point when there is so much left behind, his mother battling cancer and talk of a career comeback, to name a couple in Mr Haim's life. Corey Haim once said...

"I want to be the guy they talk about when they talk about comebacks," he said three years ago. "I want people to learn from me, see I'm human, and understand that I make mistakes just like they do, but it doesn't have to consume you. You've got to walk through the raindrops, and that's totally what I am trying to do."

R.I.P.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2010/mar/10/corey-haim-lost-boys