Southbank Moving Image Festival 2008
The films shown at the Southville Centre on 10 and 11 May 2008 are diverse. They include animations, documentaries, short films, comedies, dramas, work by professionals and amateurs, children and adults. Hopefully everyone will find something to excite, delight and inspire in this moving image programme.
PG: All films have been viewed and deemed suitable for viewing by children with a parent present. No child should be left unaccompanied in the screening room.
The programme begins at 12 noon and runs until 5 pm each day. The complete screening lasts 2 hours, 8 mins, 29 sec and will be repeated twice during the day.
1. Poem for Knowle West
(Knowle West Media Centre) short film.
Fed up with widespread bad publicity and negative stereotypes surrounding their neighbourhood, two teenagers produced this promotional film to challenge existing views and share their own perspectives. This film captures the very best of the area and the result is an upbeat and uplifting short.
2. Poppy
(Director: Esther May Williams, Writer: Kam Gandhi, Cinematographer: Zac Nicholson) short drama.
Shot on a shoestring in India with funding from South West Screen and the UK Film Council, Poppy explores grief in a lyrical, mature film.
Sangeeta has travelled to be with her husband; on arrival in the UK she discovers that he has taken a lover. Betrayed and alone in an alien world, she struggles against barriers of language and culture. Finally retreating into memories of India and home, increasingly distanced from the world around her, she relives a past in the hope of changing her future.
3. Pushkar Pilgrims
(George Coulsting) short documentary.
A short recounting of a two day visit to the Hindu holy town of Pushkar in the Rajastan Desert in India. Life is very exposed in India.
4. Monkey Business
(Alex Donne Johnson) animation.
Monkey Business is the story of one small monkey's determination to build an idol he can adore and worship.
5. Still Waters Run Deep
(Written and directed by Wilkie Branson) dance, animation and poetry.
Still Waters Run Deep is a film about Wilkie Branson and his daily struggle to fit into the world that he sees around him. Unable to walk free from his deep held insecurities he observes life around him with a longing endearment. Still Waters Run Deep delves beneath the withdrawn surface of Wilkie and takes a journey through to his depth where inner struggle frustrates and condemns. Only from these depths can the world outside be seen from the eyes of someone that sees beauty in its every detail.
6. Dockside Cranes
(Paul Matson and Ruth Ander) docu-animation.
Dockside Cranes was commissioned as part of Electric Pavilion in 2005. The resulting animated film is based on photographs from the Port of Bristol Authority archive. They recorded interviews and created an edited narrative about working life on the cranes. Selected photos from the thousands available in the archive were then animated. The film has also been presented on the 90 Second Challenge website.
7. Safe and Unsafe
(Knowle West Media Centre) animation.
A plasticine Ringo Starr presents this award-winning safety short, featuring demonstrations from his model mate Paul McCartney and various pigs, to explore the safe and unsafe way to carry out non-everyday activities.
Knowle West Media Centre's film club 'Digital Fish' worked with professional mentors throughout the production process to make this short animation.
8. Characteristics of Japan
(Neville Smith) travelogue.
Haunting sounds with fleeting moving and still images of a Japanese city.
9. Vampires at Noon
(Director: Francis Gallop, Writer: Roy Gallop, Actors: Harry Green and Josh Francis) drama-documentary.
Recollections of a 1950s boyhood adventure on the Mendip Hills.
10. The Demon Barber of Bedminster
(Paul Matson) documentary.
Paul first read about Charlie Stevens a few years ago while looking into local history. It surprised him that such an amazing individual and his story was not more well-known and celebrated. As Paul lives in Bedminster, he returned to him for his digital story. In researching the film, Paul first went out to photograph present-day barbershops in Bedminster. None of these seemed to fit with the story, but other story-makers suggested Mr Swanton's in Park Place, Clifton. His shop is full of curious antiques and hairdressing-related artefacts. By a strange coincidence, Mr Swanton happened to have a painting at home of Charlie Stephens himself, dating from 1912. This is featured several times in the story and was a fortunate stroke of serendipity. Made on a Bristol Stories Network training workshop held at Watershed Media Centre. The story is adapted from www.brisray.com/bristol/bemmy6.htm. Many thanks to Mr Swanton's Barber Shop, Clifton, Bristol.
11. Green Ideas
(Knowle West Media Centre).
Animation by young people from the Knowle West area.
12. Animation by Jean-Nicholas Arnaux, a student at UWE's Three Month Animation Course.
13. Animation from Emiliano Lorenzo, a student at UWE's Three Month Animation Course.
14. Marvellous Boy
(Director: Hazel Gower, Producer: Lee Cox, Original music: Edward Williams) drama/animation.
This drama/animation imagines the last night in the life of the 18th century poet Thomas Chatterton. He was born and brought up next to St Mary Redcliffe church and absorbed the imagery he found there as a child, writing many of his poems in the voice of a medieval monk. He died in London aged 17 having left Bristol to seek his fortune.
15. Pistol to Me
(Roger and Ruth Whiter) animation.
An animated version of the song by Tracy and the Hindenberg Ground Crew. '”It was only his proof of insurance, but it looked like a pistol to me….”
16. Green
(Film by Gregory Metcalfe, Music by Message to Bears) music video.
A video for Message to Bears' track “Green”. Gregory attempted to match image to sound, creating visuals to suit the peaceful, ambient nature of the music. He also attempted to draw visual comparisons between rural and urban landscapes.
17. Wills Girls
(Paul Matson) docu-animation/short film.
Created for electricdecember.org 2002, pupils from Luckwell Primary School were invited to interview local people about their memories of the Wills tobacco factories in South Bristol (UK) - once the largest employer in the area. Using contemporary and archive photographs, Paul created this online story based on those recollections.
18. Monotone
(Alex Dunne Johnson) animation.
“Monotone” is the story of one small speaker's quest to find acceptance in a surreal world set against an intriguingly colourful backdrop. Will he find his soulmate in a world where everyone else is marching to a different beat?
19. A Short Collection of Hilary Flamingo's Dream Vocations
(Written, directed and performed by Harriet Fleuriot, Produced by Calling the Shots) comedy drama.
A dissatisfied factory worker escapes into a delicious selection of cake-fuelled fantasies...
Winner: Southwest Screen Audience Award at Encounters 2007