Eden Court Theatre, 19-23 November 2008

Tokyo Sonata

SINCE reopening in November 2007 the refurbishment of Eden Court Theatre – including two state of the art cinemas – has greatly expanded the possibilities for film exhibition. Fortunately for the region’s cinema-goers, this expansion and improvement of facilities is equally matched by a commitment to imaginative and innovative programming.

Throughout 2008 a consistently strong and extraordinarily diverse programme has continued to evolve. Access to current, retrospective and rare cinema releases are now part of the area’s cultural landscape all year round. In addition smaller independent festivals such as Tilda Swinton’s Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams have significantly raised the profile of film in the Highlands and beyond.

Opportunities for budding filmmakers such as this month’s Scottish Digital Shorts launch, Eden Court’s Digital Artist Residency and ongoing education programme in filmmaking and animation are encouraging signs of support for the creative development of cinema in the area.

2008 has been a great year for film culture in the Highlands. Celebrating the best in Highland, Scottish and world cinema, this year’s Inverness Film Festival presented an inspiring selection of special events and screenings. It began with a gala screening of Sally Potter’s Orlando, introduced by Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton, and featured eleven Scottish premieres, including The Silence of Lorna, Tokyo Sonata, Involuntary, North Face and Genova.

IFF’s central theme of Imagined Communities touched on the most essential ingredient in all great cinema, a quality discussed by guest artist and silent film pianist Neil Brand when he described the vital connection between human experience in the audience and on screen. The choice of films and events this year brought into focus the intersection between our everyday lives and the worlds of our imagination.

There were many highlights and much to engage with on different levels. Whatever your interest in film there was something for everyone, with content that was challenging, thought-provoking and entertaining. ANTIX Youth Theatre’s abridged multimedia performance of the 1933 classic King Kong and Neil Brand’s live show The Silent Pianist Speaks were an absolute joy. It was wonderful to be in a room full of laughter and the most fun I’ve had in an auditorium in ages.

Neil Brand provided a fascinating insight into the art of silent film and improvisation. What he conveyed to the audience was his passion for music and film. This was completely infectious as he accompanied clips from the silent era, taking his cues from the rhythm of action on screen. Anyone who believes that silent film is about boring crusty old prints and little old lady’s clunking keys on a badly tuned upright would have had their eyes well and truly opened.

The best element in the show was its comedy, which is absolutely timeless. Brand’s artistry and skill as a musician are obvious, improvising to previously unseen footage and engaging the audience in a guessing game of what came next in a screening of Billy Wilder’s People On A Sunday (1928), set in a Berlin Park. The baseline here was the very human emotional connection we have in response to the moving image. Neil Brand will be returning to Eden Court next year for a live show with Paul Merton, an event which lovers of film, music or comedy should not miss.

Co-directed by Paul Taylor and Matt Lloyd, the Inverness Film Festival has continued to develop its own identity in recent years with an ongoing commitment to Scottish and Highland filmmaking past and present. Mitch Miller’s illustrated talk The Ghost Show: Scotland in the Past presented archival images from the earliest days of cinema exhibition in the UK.

Miller explored the popularisation of film through music hall, travelling shows and circus, investigating the lives of showmen and women who first brought cinema to people in Scotland’s cities, towns and villages. Miller also screened current work-in-progress towards a feature-length documentary recording the experience and oral histories of contemporary travelling showpeople.

The screening of two locally produced shorts, Last Man Dead by John Haydock and The Wishing Well by Douglas McDowall as part of a selection of Scottish shorts showed great promise. Haydock’s six-minute short, shot around Loch Ness, achieved the Director’s aim of “conveying mood through music and image”. It was refreshing to see Highland light and landscape juxtaposed with contemporary subject matter without a hint of clichÈd tartan in sight.

Filmed in Inverness and on the Black Isle, Douglas McDowall’s The Wishing Well (13 mins) explored the interesting subject of Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy, with cinematography by Caroline MacMillan. Each shot was well composed and it will be great to see further development from all three emerging filmmakers at future IFF screenings.

It is always exciting to see ongoing creative development in short filmmaking, and Johnny Barrington’s Terra Firma represents a distillation in terms of style, narrative and emotional depth. The progression from previous films such as Shell, Trawler and Trout is clearly visible, and movement to feature films seems inevitable.

IFF feature highlights included Kenny Glenaan’s exploration of youth, friendship and loss in Summer (featuring an award-winning performance by Robert Carlyle), Eran Riklis’s beautifully observed depiction of life on the border between Israel and the West Bank (and winner of the Audience Award at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival), Lemon Tree, and the exquisitely understated Tokyo Sonata by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

Winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, Kurosawa’s film is a superbly crafted depiction of an individual, family and society in turmoil. When Ryuhei Sasaki is made redundant he begins to lead a double life in order to hide the shame of unemployment. In complete denial he spins an elaborate lie and as the family begins to disintegrate Kurosawa takes his characters and the audience on a journey from despair to hope and transformation.

A deeply thoughtful and poignant piece of work, the film’s subtlety and unpredictable path are its strength. Although the setting of modern Japan is culturally specific, heightening the central character’s response to his predicament, Tokyo Sonata captures beautifully the dominant climate of uncertainty characteristic of our times. It is impossible not to empathise with the characters or be affected by one of the most beautiful endings committed to screen. This is a film that stays with you long after the credits have rolled.

Ben Rivers approach to filmmaking, “shooting Black and white 16mm film on an old bolex winding camera and developing the results in the kitchen sink”, together with his subject matter are an inspiring combination. His interest in abandoned, isolated rural locations and outsiders reveal an ongoing concern with the relationship between human beings and nature.

Rivers often depicts the human element in his films through voiceover and their surroundings rather than through conventional documentary interview or portraiture. It was great to see a screening of four of the artist’s short films, including his latest work, as part of the festival.

Stylistically works like Ah Liberty (2008) evoke an earlier age of filmmaking, characterised by the immediacy of experimentation. Parts of the print in high contrast back and white appear solarised, and the sequences cut and spliced together combine a raw edged appearance with images that are intriguingly sophisticated. The images of children in primitive masks, pyres of rubbish, natural scenes of snow and sunlight through rain are strangely poetic. “Liberty is the absence of ideas”, spoken by a child, evokes a state of innocence and escape.

Gideon Koppel’s Sleep Furiously also combines documentation of the mundane and magnificent in his intimate portrait of a Welsh village and rural community in decline. The film’s accompanying soundtrack by Richard James (Aphex Twin) and Koppel’s own cinematography facilitate our empathy and identification with the beauty of a natural landscape that encompasses human memory and culture. Koppel’s constant shifting between the language of documentary and poetic fiction framed within the natural cycles of the year present a vanishing way of life which anyone living in the Highlands would immediately recognise.

Free education events for children and adults this year included Stage and Screen Combat, Create Your Own Special Effects, Beginners Creative Filmmaking, Acting for the Camera and Stop Motion Animation. In addition two Masterclasses presented in association with 4 Talent Scotland, The Role of the Cinematographer: From Script To Screen led by Scott Ward and Minttu M&aauml;ntynen, and The Role of the Sound Recordist presented by Becky Thomson, gave fascinating insight into the craft of filmmaking.

Ward and M&aauml;ntynens’ discussion of creative process in relation to the art of Cinematography was truly inspirational, not only for the wealth of experience between them but for the exciting and diverse range of creative experience assembled in the room. The festival is an important resource for bringing this creative energy together in a professional context; sharing knowledge, expertise and encouraging filmmakers at all levels of their development.

These kinds of connections are vital, particularly for artists working in a geographically vast area and in an art form which like theatre usually relies on collective skills to realise its vision. This session could well have been a whole day of exploration with application not just for budding filmmakers but anyone interested in creative process.

The practice of “Imaging the World” formed the basis of the discussion, including visual planning, communication with the director and crew and an exploration of style and aesthetics in order to realise the intent behind the work. Drawing on a variety of examples from their individual and collaborative work including documentaries and fiction, Scott and Minttu discussed the thought process leading to shooting, beginning with craft rather than the dictates of advancing technology.

Ultimately “the script does not hold all the ideas of a film”, and they conveyed beautifully an understanding of how images affect us, starting with the empathy of the filmmaker. Minttu commented that there is “no good or bad, no beautiful or ugly”, just the most appropriate imagery for a particular project, stressing the importance of not automatically “falling into your default mode of expression but to stretch your ideas beyond it” – sound advice for any artist regardless of their discipline.

This year’s festival was hugely enjoyable and I hope that with the proliferation of independent festivals in the Highlands the region will continue to develop the local audience for independent filmmaking. Eden Court’s ongoing cinema programme, annual Film Festival and further development of the Eden Court FilmLab are essential components of our growing cultural infrastructure.

Film production in the Highlands has enormous potential as a creative industry. Access to equipment, expertise and investment in education are a key to its development and an important introduction for would be filmmakers of all ages. The possibility of regular exposure to a wide range of cinema is now a reality and this is cause for celebration. In the context of Eden Court’s development of its cinema programme post refurbishment in 2008, this year’s Inverness Film Festival is the icing on the cake.

© Georgina Coburn, 2008

Links

• Inverness Film Festival