festival

London and Leeds Film Festivals

/ Stephen / Leave a comment

Jake Baldwinson reports back from the London Film Festival and looks forward to Leeds annual film festival next month.

London Film Festival

Last Friday saw the launch of the Leeds International Film Festival programme. Now, I would normally spend the following weekend poring over the free guide, working out a schedule for my filmgoing highlight of the year. This time around, however, I was attending part of  the BFI London Film Festival. I ended up packing in 7 films over a hectic couple of days, including two that have been selected for the Leeds Film Festival this year.

What I find exciting about attending a film festival, even if just for a day or two, is experiencing a melting pot of different narrative voices in a short period of time. On my Saturday in London, I went to 4 screenings; beginning with a fiction feature set in Mexico, shot in an eye-catching circular frame using innovative techniques by the filmmakers. I then finished with a documentary about a culture under threat in Thailand and Burma, filmed in a collage-style using several different formats underwater and on land. These are the complementary screenings (or ones that intriguingly clash) that you would only find at a film fest. The former, entitled Lucifer, is screening a total of three times in Leeds as part of the festival in November, and I would really recommend it. Another from LIFF’s Official Selection that I caught in London was Jafar Panahi’s extremely enjoyable, Taxi, also showing three times (including once at The Hyde Park Picture House.)

Continue reading →

LIFF29 Planning

/ Stephen / Leave a comment

The 29th Leeds International Film Festival programme has now been out for nearly a week and no doubt many of you are making plans about what to see. With over 300 screenings and events, there’s an awful lot to choose from and the selection of trailers shown on Light Night made everything looks so great, or terrifying, or weird and often all of those things.

The Leeds Movie Fans Meetup Group have already started picking out some events to attend, you can find out more about these on their page.

I think I’ve just about worked out my own plan, you can find it over on Letterboxd (a wonderful website for film lovers) which is where you can also find a list of most of the LIFF29 films. I’ve also made a Google spreadsheet and Calendar which you may help your planning (please note these don’t contain accurate end times).

We were hoping to provide some previews and recommendations but we’ve been too busy poring over the programme, eliminating clashes and trying to come up with our own plans. If you have any recommendations or would just like to share your thoughts on the festival then please do get in touch and we’ll happily share them.

LIFF Launch at Light Night

/ Stephen / Leave a comment

Friday 9th October 6:30pm, Leeds Town Hall.

Light Night 2015
This Friday it’s Light Night Leeds and the launch of the 29th Leeds International Film Festival. With so many interesting things happening as part of Light Night it sometimes feels like a waste to be sat in the town hall watching films, but there’s also a great sense of excitement as the festival programme is revealed.

Once again there will be a showcase of trailers for the festival films, followed by a 45-minute showcase of legendary Scottish-born, Canadian experimental film artist Norman McLaren. The screening’s line up includes McLaren’s three personal favourites Begone Dull Care (1949), Neighbours (1952) and Pas de Deux (1968) as well as Opening Speech: McLaren (1960), A Chairy Tale (1957) and La Merle (1958).

As for the festival programme, we’ll just have to wait and see what the team have put together this year. Will we get to see Oscar hopefuls such as Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight, Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs, Cary Fukunaga’s Beasts of No Nation, Todd Haynes’ Carol, Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl or Lenny Abrahamson’s Room? Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise feels like a perfect fit for Fanomenon and could we see a virtual return of Kevin Smith with Yoga Hosers? Of course the real delight of the film festival are all the films you’d never heard of and are unlikely to see elsewhere. Usually we’re not too keen on trailers but they can be great for highlighting these gems and making everything at the festival feel unmissable.

What are you hoping will make the programme this year? Let us know in the comments below.

Manuscript workshop and The Secret of Kells

/ Stephen / Leave a comment

Anna Turner from Leeds University’s Medieval Society takes a look back at the first event at the Hyde Park Picture House as part of their International Medieval Film Festival

The Secret of Kells

Rainy Saturday mornings have a way of slipping away from you – lost somewhere between the duvet and the television. However, on this dull and grey Saturday morning a group of University of Leeds students gathered in Hyde Park Picture House to hold a small but effective protest against waste weekends. It’s not often that a revolution comes along in the form of a Medieval workshop and film screening – but there you have it. What could be more revolutionary than succeeding in getting a group of kids to part with their bed, teaching them about medieval print culture and having them sit silently through a beautifully animated movie about a unique artefact from Irish history, all before lunchtime?

I was one of three University of Leeds students lucky enough to be invited to lead a workshop about ‘The Book of Kells’, and medieval manuscripts more generally, as a sort of interactive introduction to their screening of The Secret of Kells. The event took place as part of the LUU Medieval Soc’s ‘International Medieval Film Festival’ – an offshoot of this year’s International Medieval Congress. The words ‘International Medieval Film Festival’ seem to conjure up images of stiff men in tweed jackets lamenting the lack of period-accurate armour in the latest Crusades docu-drama. Far from it!

Continue reading →

International Medieval Film Festival

/ Stephen / 1 Comment

Rose Sawyer from Leeds University Union’s Medieval Society is one of the organisers of the Medieval Film Festival taking place this week. We invited her to tell us more about the festival and medieval studies in Leeds…

Did you know that Leeds is a major centre for Medieval Studies?

No really, despite the fact that during the medieval period, Leeds (or Leodis as it was called) was the sort of town that existed solely because there is only so much land you can have before you have to have something else; nowadays, Leeds attracts medievalists like honey attracts hand drawn bears. This is partly due to the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University (so good that Oxford copied it), but during the summer the main draw is the International Medieval Congress. The IMC is the second largest medieval conference in the world and Europe’s largest annual gathering in the humanities. Over two thousand medievalists converge on Leeds to give papers and cadge free wine, usually they huddle in the familiar confines of the University, but this year they might just be tempted outside of the academic bubble….

This is because the inaugural International Medieval Film Festival will be taking place from Saturday the 4th to Thursday the 9th of July in order to coincide with the International Medieval Congress.

The LUU Medieval Society is working in association with the Hyde Park Picture House and the International Medieval Congress, as well as with Leeds for Life Foundation funding, to present six diverse and fascinating medieval films from around the world. The intention of the festival is to explore how the medieval world has been represented through the modern medium of film in the past century. Rather than point to anachronisms, the intention is to encourage discussion about these visual portrayals and how they influence the public perception of the Middle Ages. In particular, we want to emphasise the breadth and scope of international cinema and its ability to advance cross-cultural understanding.

Continue reading →