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...