Leeds Film Festival!

Currently looking at the festival programmes, and will be updating with links and blogs of the particular ones I find interesting and hope to see!


 http://www.cherrykino.blogspot.com/

Double Tide. Directed by Sharon Lockheart

Utterly hypnotic and spell-binding, Sharon Lockhart’s minimalist exploration of landscape and labour as a female clamdigger works the low tides of dawn and dusk. Shot in only two takes with a static camera, we are lulled into meditation by the calm repetition of her (arduous) task in the mudflats, surrounded by the rolling mist and rosy orange hues of sunrise and sunset. Perhaps it’s also political comment: ‘There is something so primal about clamming – the act of reaching into the earth, the dependence on the rhythms of nature. All this struck me as indicative of a pre-industrial time and type of labour, so different from the industrial rhythms of a workplace.’ – S. Lockhart


Read more: http://www.leedsfilm.com/film/double-tide/#ixzz122ehwBYQ

Rituals. Directed by various.

The idea of journeys, rituals, trips is present in a lot of wondermental cinema. This selection of work from contemporary artist filmmakers delights in explicity tripping – from a gorgeous Super 8 ritual shot in the Lithuanian countryside, to a man’s search through a tropical forest for the god Apoekoe, a ritualistic camera dance with flowers, a (literally!) gutsy ritual of a taxidermist, a visionary journey through a metaphorical tunnel, a trip inside the body of film, and many more. Featuring well known and lesser known artists alongside each other, this screening will largely be on 16mm film, with an open atmosphere and a bar. With work from Garbštienė, Doing, Lowder, Gent, Cogan, Fleisch, Brundert, and others.

Read more: http://www.leedsfilm.com/uncategorized/rituals/#ixzz122kQI25b




 All That I Love. Directed by Jacek Borcuch

Set in Poland in the early ‘80s, this is a beautiful film about love, rebellion and coming of age. Janek, 18, is the lead singer in a punk band and Basia is the girl he falls for. But when her socialist father is arrested by the police, she wants nothing more to do with Janek, whose father is part of the oppressive regime that imprisoned him. Struggling with his own growing rebellious spirit and the duties of being a son, Janek makes a decision with huge implications for the people he loves. But his father sees a spark in Janek that also lies deep within himself…
Read more: http://www.leedsfilm.com/film/all-that-i-love/#ixzz12GqGwLJk

Animal Kingdom. Directed by David Michôd

The best thriller of the year with echoes of Scorsese’s early crime dramas, comes from first-time Australian writer/director David Michod. Set in the Melbourne underworld, 17 year old Joshua moves in with his estranged family after his mother’s death from a heroin overdose. His doting grandmother and her three criminal sons, ‘the Cody boys’ are on the run from renegade detectives and Joshua is about to get caught up in a cold-blooded revenge plot that turns the family upside down. Suspenseful, moving and enriched with a real psychological depth, Michod is a filmmaker to watch.

Read more: http://www.leedsfilm.com/film/animal-kingdom/#ixzz12Gqr4peS

Bad Family. Directed by Aleksi Salmenperä

This Finnish treasure from the acclaimed director of Man’s Job (a favourite at LIFF 2008) is sure to delight as a fantastically dark and tragicomic tale with stunning performances throughout. Mikael is a respected judge, yet his dominating and aloof character alienates him from his wife and children. When the utterly mesmerising Tilda (his estranged daughter from his first marriage) turns up and bonds perhaps a little too closely with the brother she has only just found out exists, Mikael finds it increasingly difficult to keep his icy control against his children’s blazing independence. Deliciously unique and bold, and not to be missed!

Read more: http://www.leedsfilm.com/film/bad-family/#ixzz12H3dHt5q

A little more portraiture

The thrill of asking strangers for their photograph, and finding out a little about them or their day really brightens my day! - may be a little sad I know but it's better than sitting in lessons!
So here are a few more that I took this week.

 men in flat caps

An American couple who had just had lunch at Piccolinos. They have friends who recently visited Ilkley and recommended it to them, they loved it too!

Above right is a retired headmaster, who went to the same university as a teacher at my school. It seemed as though he'd had a good life the way he spoke of his past.

This,left, is John, when I asked him if I could take his
portrait he told me a story of when he was walking
in the park and a man asked him to look at a camcorder,
the next week he saw himself on TV. He was just so friendly!

LONDON!

28th September, we had an art trip to London. Unfortunately we were only there for just over 24 hours due to the ridiculous price changes of train tickets depending on the time of day you travel. So we had to jam pack everything into on afternoon and the next morning, which didn't leave me much time to take photographs :(
But it was very inspiring. The National Portrait Gallery was especially useful, with Jason Bells exhibition of An Englishman in New York, and Dmitri Kasterines' 20th Century Portraits.

So yeah, these are the only pictures I took, of the friends I was going around London with.
But the night I came home, there was a beautiful sunset, it was unreal! I opened the curtains after catching up on the TV I had missed, and I thought my eyes had gone weird, everything was a beautiful yellowish tint. So in the last 5 minutes before sunset I raced up onto the moor with my camera and took a few photos. Speed bumps have never been such a blag!
I didn't edit the last 3 because I just wanted the natural light of the photo to show through. But the top one I changed the midtone brightness as the foreground was too dark to make out.
Location: Cow and Calf Rocks, Ilkley

Portraiture

One morning at school, I had a double art lesson, so went down into town and took photographs of people, for research into my portraiture project. I was with 2 of my friends who were doing the same thing, so it wasn't too bad to go up to people and ask to take their photo, but then we did come out with all the same people, but with different shots. I took around 250 photographs, so I've selected a few favourites to upload.
I wanted to get photos of people in the situation they were in before I interrupted them, however some simply are slightly posed photographs of the subjects looking into camera.

It's been far too long

and I've been far too busy these past 3 weeks! Pretty much non-stop, and I haven't even stopped now, I've got work in 2 hours so just a quick start on the things I've been up to!
During the first week of my absence, my brother returned from his summer in America, and only had a week at home before he went back to uni, so chilled with him mainly, and then on the Saturday when we took him back up to Newcastle, we picked up our two puppies! Well, they're around 16 weeks old or so, so not little tiny puppies, but still just as lovely. Hopefully going to take a few better shots of them, once they're camera trained xD

They're lilac boarder collies, called Kerrie and Leila, the individual shots are of Kerrie, and I'm soon to get some of Leila, then hopefully the two will sit still together for me to take both of them.