Had a very busy couple of weeks, what with finishing making rinayang.com, starting a full time temp job, and attending some entertaining events at the London Short Film Festival.
straight 8 squared (9th Jan) showed some of the best films from straight 8 2011 side by side with some of the best from the last 10 years of straight 8, which meant that you had to choose which film to listen to on wireless headphones, silent disco style. Picnic on the Moon screened second to last and next to NZ film from straight 8 2010, Carrots and Spaghetti by Mooch & Dave. I really enjoyed watching the other films in this way and it was great to be able to be there for a screening of mine and Angus Johnstone’s film.
New Shorts #16 Music and Video showed some really inventive films - Ian Bucknole’s video for Ruarri Joseph’s Severed Dreams was funny and sweet, and Ninian Doff’s videos for Fulton Lights’ Staring Out the Window and Martin Brook’s Golden Tree cracked me up. I was very happy to hear that Prano Bailey-Bond’s music video for Cool Fun, House, won the Dirty Looks Award for Best Music Short. After enjoying the catchy Poltergeist last year at Whirlygig Cinema’s Hallowe’en film night Contains Mild Peril, House didn’t disappoint, and the creaky way the ‘dolls’ moved reminded me a lot of the taxidermic rabbit in Jan Svankmajer’s Alice.
Branchage Soundtracks… Serafina Steer & Sam Steer: This Side of the Moon was an event at the new Hackney Picturehouse on Friday 13th. Mixing live music with some beautiful films, it was a very pleasant evening all round.
Whirlygig Cinema’s Making Tracks took place on the 14th January and a packed out Rich Mix. Mine and Cassandra Vervoort’s newest film Inescapable Journey screened for the first time, to a live score by the Cabinet of Living Cinema which we had never heard before. We made the film specifically to enter Making Tracks, using a mixture of 35mm prints and digital image animation, and super 8 footage shot whilst I completed the first month of my farm work in Victoria last April. We enjoyed the score, and the other films were fantastic - Susannah Gent’s Thread and Layla Atkinson’s Hop Squad were two clever and amusing pieces, and Kayla Parker’s Unknown Woman showed a beautiful use of animation onto film which I feel struck a chord with my own work.
One more piece of news for now: Inescapable Journey will be screening at the International Student Film Festival London on the 3rd February, again as a part of Making Tracks to a live score by the Cabinet of Living Cinema. If you’re around in London and missed Making Tracks at LSFF, then come along to this really special film night.
