2012 marks a significant milestone in the history of Inverness Film Festival which has emerged in recent years as a leading cultural event.

THE co-direction of Paul Taylor and Matt Lloyd from 2006-2008 and the vision of Eden Court Cinema Programmer Paul Taylor as director since 2009, have consistently raised the profile of IFF and of the Eden Court Cinema as a premier venue. Each November the quality and integrity of the Eden Court Cinema’s annual programme is further distilled into five days of the very best in local, national and international cinema with features and shorts unable to be seen anywhere else.

In celebrating this year’s 10th anniversary, IFF 2012 reflected the evolving language of world cinema from the silent era to the present day; featuring newly restored and hidden classics, special events bringing the earliest Scottish and Highland filmmaking to life and 20 Scottish premieres including; Amour, The Hunt, I Wish, Kaddish For A Friend, Final Cut-Ladies and Gentlemen, Quartet, Great Expectations, Seven Psychopaths, Safety Not Guaranteed and Sightseers.

Amour

Challenging subject matter and pure cinematic excellence defined IFF’s opening gala with the Scottish premiere of Michael Haneke’s Amour starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva and Isabelle Huppert. Nominated for 6 European Film Awards (to be announced in December) and the recipient of the Palme d’Or award at Cannes (2012), this is an intensely powerful and humane work, as emotionally affecting as it is confronting.

Austrian Director Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon, Hidden, The Piano Teacher, The Seventh Continent) delivers an unflinching study of unconditional love and mortality with extraordinary performances from Trintigant and Riva. Their portrayal of an elderly Parisian couple, George and Anne, succeeds in bringing the audience to awareness beyond the screen as we witness Anne’s inevitable decline after a series of strokes, cared for at home by her devoted husband. In a world in constant denial of ageing and death Haneke presents the audience with a mirror, enabling transference from the two main characters and their predicament by framing them as part of a concert audience in the opening sequence. With the camera pulled back the central protagonists are as we are within the crowd, and the music they hear performed, Schubert’s Impromptu Op. 90 No. 1 in C Minor with its tentative and singular melodic line, immediately establishes our inevitable participation individually and collectively in the unfolding narrative. The lone voice of the piano informs our reading of an audience dressed in uniformly grave tones and visually sets the tone of exploration for what follows.

What tempers Haneke’s characteristically bleak vision is human warmth within the intimate domestic space of George and Anne’s apartment, conveyed by subtle use of light and in the nuances of expression that allow us to witness George and Anne’s love for each other in all its hues. As we witness the sadness and humiliation of daily routines trying to cope with failing body and mind, the minute details of their relationship; her growing despair at the indignity of her condition and his tested devotion in the face of death, our conception of love on screen and in life is consistently challenged, bound as it is here to suffering rather than Romance or sentimentality.

With the possible exception of Caspar Noe’s Enter The Void, I have never seen an audience so utterly silent during and after the credits. In Amour, Haneke shows us ourselves; our fears, our loss of those we love and our own inevitable fate; thankfully he and his actors also powerfully convey what allows humanity to endure. In the midst of her decline whilst looking at photographs of their younger selves Anne remarks; “its beautiful – life – so long – long life” each pause poetic in its contemplation. As George seals up their interior life together and leaves the apartment, we know that while he still breathes Anne lives.

The final scene in which their daughter Eva (Isabelle Huppert) sits in her parent’s apartment ambiguously contemplating their absence, or perhaps her own, seems to speak of a generation. Throughout the film Eva’s dialogue; talking to the wall above her Mother about house prices, her shrug when she says that she thinks she loves her partner Geoff and her comment that her Mother needs more “efficient treatment” speaks of her concern, ultimately for herself. Never one to shy away from social critique, Haneke presents us with an image of a generation in George and Anne’s ineffectual daughter and the nurse who George dismisses for her lack of care.

Haneke’s acute way of seeing, the brutality and compassion distilled in Amour, creates a superbly crafted film of universal relevance with stunning performances from its two leads. Whilst easy crowd pleasing openers are the norm at most festivals, this bold choice was entirely justified by the audience reaction and the sheer quality of the production. There are films that populate the cinema and those that need to be screened and it is gratifying to see the latter given prominence as an opening gala, setting a benchmark for the rest of the festival.

The Hunt

Winner of three awards at Cannes in 2012, including Best Actor for Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt explores the emotive subject of a nursery teacher falsely accused of child abuse. Mikkelsen gives a career best performance as the teacher at the centre of this complex and riveting drama which in its conclusion reveals much about human behaviour and contemporary society. The fears and assumptions of the audience are consistently put to the test with our judgement of innocence or guilt subject to the same paranoia infecting the town. There is also inner conflict between the wider inference of potential innocence and the acute need for justice.

When resolution comes it is as ambiguous as select moments in the film in which judgement is made by a look or a shadow of doubt, engulfing reason within a closely knit Danish community and in the audience as witness. Set against culturally specific rituals of Christmas and the rite of passage first hunt, Vinterberg’s treatment of the subject is broader than its immediate context. Whether a truth or a lie the scenario is sadly, entirely plausible and the truth an ever shifting mark. Although it is profoundly unsettling, this is a film which examines wider ramifications of its subject in terms of how we deliver justice, the nature of innocence and childhood denied by both the media and perpetrators of abuse.

The degree to which we are all complicit in some way is exemplified by the final scene in which the central protagonist’s life remains irreversibly damaged and we are left with the feeling that we’ve been holding a gun all along, either out of righteous protection, fear or paranoia. This is an extremely difficult subject but throughout the intelligence and sensitivity of Thomas Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm’s script prevails; innocence is championed – both that of the child and the falsely accused. The camera as our eye is beautifully directed by cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen and adds psychological weight to every frame of unspoken dialogue. The Hunt is both a thriller and a powerful work of social realism, marking a significant comeback from Vinterberg; one of the founders of the Dogme 95 movement and recipient of multiple awards including the Jury Prize at Cannes for his 1998 film Festen (The Celebration).

A consistently strong element of IFF is the screening of work by first feature directors which this year included Scott Graham, Shell (Scotland), Brandon Cronenberg Antiviral (Canada), Leo Khasin Kaddish For A Friend (Germany) and Tim Connery Easton’s Article (USA).

Shell

Based on his award winning short of the same name, Scott Graham’s Shell is an intense and promising debut. Filmed near Gairloch the story of the relationship between a teenage girl and her father living in remote petrol station combines the expansiveness of its setting with the intimacy of human relationships amplified in isolation. Shell feels internationally Northern and distinctly Highland in its aesthetic. Although the deer symbolism is laden and there is a feeling that international interest and perception of the region has had an influence on the creative trajectory in development, Shell is an accomplished piece of work and an important milestone for Graham as an emerging director.

Yoliswa Gärtig’s adept cinematography is suffused with light and a muted palette drawn directly from the landscape. The human figure within the frame is beautifully composed, at times compressed like a Schiele drawing allowing the viewer to feel the emotional centre of core relationships. The camera moves in such a way to allow us to linger on details of the domestic interior as a powerful psychological space. When Shell sits in the bath with just her hands in close up, they tell us all that we need to know about that moment of her being.

Although this is a distinctly interior and sometimes claustrophobic film, the way the central character embodies the surrounding environment is visually poetic and expansive; a scene in which she lies in a field, her body becoming another layer we read within the landscape or a moment of shifting light across a field after her ill fated encounter with Adam become self reflexive. Within the beauty of this imagery there is also an ambiguous edge. Shell’s comment at the dinner table that eating deer is “like eating your own flesh” turns the character and the environment in on itself. Stylistically Graham’s restraint and sensitivity as a Director is to be applauded. When Shell emerges from the petrol station to confront tragedy she is filmed from behind, we do not witness her reaction through the shock of facial expressions but feel it viscerally the moment she opens the door – hit by an icy blast that catches her hair and our breath at the enormity of her loss.

Shell is a fascinating character for exploration; not understood by those around her, not a child but not yet a woman, living in an environment where passing customers are the only contact with a world beyond her own, intensifying the nature of her only constant relationship with her father. Despite her social isolation she is not naïve, there is an almost otherworldly knowing within the character and a longing misinterpreted significantly by the men she comes into contact with. Chloe Pirrie gives an exceptional performance as Shell, her awareness deeply embedded in her eyes, with excellent support from Joseph Mawle as her Father Pete, Michael Smiley as Hugh and Iain De Caestecker as Adam, conveying their character’s motivations with great economy and skill.

The modulation of Mawle and Pirrie’s performances are perfectly pitched as father and daughter, although the relationship is predictably fated in its dramatic conclusion. There is comparatively little dialogue but great exchange between sound and image; “I Love you” as words spoken proceeded by the sight of a frozen hook and chain hanging outside. The indifference of nature in relation to human scale and the film’s design; vaguely modern times but no particular era, gives a feeling of timelessness and universality to the story. With a second project in development we will hopefully see Graham’s next production at a future IFF.

Kaddish for a Friend

Selected and introduced by IFF Youth Programmers Laurie Paul and Alexander Scott, Kaddish For A Friend by Leo Khasin transfers the Palestinian conflict to Berlin in the story of the friendship between a 14-year-old Palestinian refugee Ali (Neil Belakhdar) and his elderly German/Jewish Neighbour Alexander (Ryszard Ronczewski). Ultimately it’s the human element rather than politics that is central to this touching and very enjoyable film. The two lead performances have natural ease and charm and although idealised the heart of the production is resoundingly aspirational.

I Wish

The feel good film of this year’s festival was I Wish by Hirokazu Koreeda (Nobody Knows, Still Walking), an uplifting, beautifully observed study of childhood in all its innocence, curiosity and exuberance. The humour in I Wish was an unexpected delight and the interactions between children and adults characterised by warmth and insight. In the hands of a less accomplished and empathic director the story of two brothers separated by their parent’s divorce could so easily have descended into melodrama and sentimentality, especially with the added promise of a miracle; but the miracles here are the blissful everyday things all around us if we would only pause long enough to perceive them and the moment of growth that Koichi’s wish embodies as two mythic/ordinary trains pass by.

Koki and Oshiro Maeda’s performances as the irrepressible Ryunosuke and his older, more introspective brother Koichi are a total joy to watch and the way that Grandparents and a school nurse are co-conspirators in their adventure is knowingly compassionate and humorous. I Wish is a rejuvenating experience that doesn’t subvert the difficulties of modern life in childhood fantasy, but presents the possibility of happiness and contentment in the smallest details of everyday life. Hopefully it will return in March 2013 when it is scheduled for national release.

The Pleasure Garden

New digital restorations of classic British films featured prominently this year, including David Lean’s grand epic Lawrence of Arabia celebrating its 50th anniversary, Alfred Hitchcock’s first complete silent film The Pleasure Garden (1925) and his final silent Blackmail (1929) (in its second version Britain’s first talkie) with live accompaniment from Australian pianist Wendy Hiscocks. It is always fascinating to see the evolving vision of a director unfold in their earliest work; from the morality tale of two dancers in The Pleasure Garden to the stylistic development in Blackmail which contains all the burgeoning seeds and obsessions of Hitchcock’s later and best known films.

From his first silent to his last, guilt and morality become progressively distilled in the heightened tonality of what would later define the psychological thriller. Hiscock’s live performance of The Pleasure Garden was seamlessly fluid, evoking the style and energy of the period, interpretative of the characters and their motivations without resorting to clichéd leitmotifs or the trappings of illustration. The expanded tonality of her playing is perfectly matched to the material and I would have loved to have seen her live interpretation of Blackmail which is arguably the more complex work of the two.

Aelita - Queen of Mars

A rare screening of Yakov Protazanov’s 1924 silent film Aelita: Queen of Mars with live music Minima also featured at this year’s festival; a curious hybrid of Soviet propaganda and Sci Fi fantasy whose design has influenced successive generations of artists and film makers. The rediscovery of this and other neglected gems was one of the great pleasures of IFF 2012, returning to the earliest surviving films as a wellspring of inspiration.

The documentary Extraordinary Voyage directed by Sege Bromberg and Eric Lange charting the twelve year colour restoration of George Méliès Trip To the Moon (1902) provided a wonderful introduction to Méliès as creator, the process of restoration and to the screening of the original work which followed. Restored by the Groupama Gan Foundation For Cinema and the Technicolor Foundation For Cinema Heritage with an original soundtrack by French band Air, Trip To the Moon like much of Méliès work is a mesmerising combination of film, theatre and magic, at a time when cinema was still in its infancy and special effects were created live on set.

Trip to the Moon

There is a naivety in Méliès which is enduringly appealing and it was wonderful to see the digital restoration preserve the imperfections of time and the brushstrokes of hand colouring in the final version, pieced together from 13,375 colour fragments and a comparative black and white print. What this film still inspires 110 years after it was made is the timeless wonderment of moving images; conjuring dreams, illusion and imagination out of fragile celluloid.

In the documentary Side By Side: The Science, Art and Impact of Digital Cinema, Keanu Reeves investigates photochemical film and digital production with interviews from cinematographers, film students, editors, exhibitors and directors including Steven Soderbergh, Christopher Nolan, Joel Schumacher, David Lynch and Martin Scorsese. With debate raging about the transition to digital both in the creation and delivery of cinema, director Christopher Kenneally presents the subject from all viewpoints, engaging with what we lose and gain in a period of accelerated technological change and consumption.

Significantly at this year’s IFF only two films were 35mm prints, the rest were in digital format reflecting this global transition. With a younger generation increasingly watching film in a myriad of ways, often in isolation or in transit, on computer screens or iPhones, the experience of popular culture feels very much like endless Google searching, never remaining on any one homepage long enough to delve too deep. With cheaper access to equipment, telling stories about ourselves has become a cultural norm; however, the democratisation of this technology without being tempered by visual literacy or an understanding of the crafting of moving images arguably produces quantity rather than quality, sensation rather than understanding.

Side By Side

It is really a question about the function of art and why we need cinema in the first place. This is well articulated throughout the film on both sides of the debate, raising essential questions about the nature of digital production. Contemporary life is a continuous bombardment of digital images so disposable and transitory that we haven’t actually stopped to conceive an adequate means of preserving them. While celluloid film stock could still capture and store images, maintaining the current trajectory, years from now there won’t be a trace of anything we’ve expressed digitally. The choice to use film because it is the most appropriate medium to tell the story you need to tell is rapidly disappearing, like oil painting being perceived as obsolete simply because watercolours are cheaper and generate a higher volume of profit.

While the creative possibilities of digital are incredibly exciting, expanding the visual toolkit, crucially “you still need the eye of an artist to create the code”. Artistry and technological innovation have always driven film as a means of expression, human aspiration and entertainment, sometimes creating work that is timeless and universally relevant, vastly outliving its maker. Martin Scorsese’s comment about the continuation of culture in relation to the next generation – “where do you go to go back to the well?” – feels particularly apt, and education will be vital in the future as a source of cultural renewal in the face of digital and corporate takeover.

In spite of an electrifying programme that revealed everything film is and can be, the element of education beyond screenings was largely absent from the festival and needs to be addressed in future programmes. The social and cultural phenomenon of going to the movies has fundamentally changed but our need for Art, from shadow play on cave walls to the latest digital release, has always been constant. We need stories to make sense of ourselves and of the world. In a secular society, a contemporary culture of “Me” and “Now”, we need those connections and imaginative space for reflection now more than ever.

The winner of the annual IFF Audience Award designed by Steve Dilworth was Final Cut – Ladies and Gentlemen, Hungarian director György Pálfi’s euphoric homage to cinema, with Amour second and The Hunt in third place as the most popular films. (Sadly it is unlikely that Final Cut will be shown again outside the festival; however, Amour will be screening again from the 30th November and The Hunt from the last week in December.)

Final Cut

Final Cut – Ladies and Gentlemen plays out the age old story of boy meets girl, editing clips from 500 existing films together from all eras of world cinema and stripping the Romance genre down to its barest elements. The film begins with awakening followed by the ultimate visual film quiz delivered in rapid succession to the unfolding fortunes of love found, gained, lost and rediscovered. More akin to a feature length You Tube Mash Up than the sophistication of Christian Marclay, Final Cut operates on the principle of triggering memory and familiar emotional responses. The simplicity of the story meets collective expectation, its arc resolved in a final reassuring embrace.

There are clever sequences such as the splicing of multiple screen goddesses to Hayworth’s ‘Put The Blame on Mame’ from Gilda or the accelerated rhythm of pursuit, but the thrill and seduction of this film really lies in reading your own memories of cinema into it; the element of identification not just with the titles or stars but the whole emotional ride of self projection. Aptly described by IFF’s Director as “the greatest mixed tape ever made”, this is a work of pure nostalgia and reverie, a hit list of icons, film moments and personal memories that like a really good fairground ride once experienced you want to get straight back on again.

What Is This Film Called Love?

A homage of a different kind What Is This Film Called Love? by director Mark Cousins is the antithesis of his epic 15 hour series The Story of Film: An Odyssey in interest, depth and relevance. His declaration that his walking tour accompanied by a photograph of Sergei Eisenstein is “not trying to change the world in any way” is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Punctuated by self-conscious literary and artistic quotations, this is a strange hybrid of pretension and spontaneity, a hand-held ready made stream of consciousness of little interest to anyone but its maker.

There are moments of clarity amongst the self indulgence but not nearly enough to stave off boredom. Screened with Ivan The Terrible Part 2, selected by Cousins to accompany his film, What Is This Film Called Love? is an interesting premise but is ultimately too self-absorbed to lead the audience deeper into either of its human subjects or their imaginative territory. It is the kind of film celebrated by the internet where everyone’s reality is up there to be shared and that’s exactly where this film belongs, although its screening at festivals is sure to generate healthy debate.

IFF continued its commitment to the screening of short films from Scotland and the UK with a series of short fiction and documentaries including the apocalyptic Saved by Stuart Elliot, Eva Riley’s insightful exploration of the relationship between two sisters in Sweetheart, Zachariah Copping’s descent into addiction, love and loss, Foxy and Marina, and Paul Cox’s incisive documentary Steve Dilworth – A Portrait, examining the relationship between the artist’s environment and creative process on the Isle of Harris.

Originally commissioned for the centenary of the Hippdrome Cinema, Boness (1912-2012), Scotland’s first purpose built cinema, The Lost Art of The Film Explainer brought the historical context of cinematic storytelling vividly to life in performance and discussion. A tradition that began in the UK during the silent era when cinema managers stepped in to say what was happening because not all members of the audience could read, the lost art of the film explainer has strong traditions in Germany and in Japan where foreign films required both cultural translation and translation of inter-titles.

Frank McLaughlin, Andy Cannon and Wendy Weatherby

Entertaining Scottish Storyteller Andy Cannon, cellist/composer Wendy Weatherby and piper/guitarist Frank McLaughlin performed live accompaniment to three films drawn from the Scottish Screen Archives; Buy Your Own Cherries (1904) St Kilda: Britain’s Loneliest Isle (1923/1928) and Mairi – Romance of a Highland Maiden (1912), one of the earliest story films made in Scotland and first screened at the Central Hall Picture House, Inverness, on 20 May 1912. Amazingly the grandson of the romantic lead was in the audience having heard about the existence of the film just a week earlier. Filmed on the shores of North Kessock and featuring possibly the slowest chase in cinema history, the film was created by Andrew Paterson and re-edited in 1953 by local film maker and Playhouse Cinema Manager Jimmy Nairn. Nairn’s legacy was also highlighted during the festival with the Inverness Local History Forum’s 20th anniversary screening of films from Scottish Screen archive introduced by SSA curator Alistair Bell.

In performance The Lost Art of The Film Explainer reinterprets and invigorates archival material in a way that gives a modern audience the opportunity to experience human history live through music, spoken word and moving image. There is much scope for international research and exchange in relation to cinematic traditions of the explainer in the UK, Germany and the Benshi tradition of narration in Japan that will hopefully result in the development of future performances. The underscoring of traditional and original music/ song by Wendy Weatherby and Frank McLaughlin enhanced the images on screen allowing the images to them to speak for themselves, while Andy Cannon’s commentary on the action, characters and social context illuminated the past in a way that a lone screening never could. There are many ways into cinema and this event illustrated beautifully the value of research, passion and live performance to bring archival material into the light, stimulating curiosity and connections between local and global traditions of storytelling and acknowledging the community of cinema.

In its tenth year IFF is an event that its Director and Eden Court can be immensely proud of. In each successive year the festival continues to showcase all that film can be; distinctive for the depth, range and quality of programming, committed in its support of local product and bringing excellence in world cinema to a growing audience. In the last 120 years our relationship to cinema has irrevocably changed, however within the scope and vision of IFF 2012 the magic of George Méliès or the miraculous everyday captured by Hirokazu Koreeda take us within and outside ourselves in a way that no other art form can. Cinema is limitless imagination projected on screen and this year’s festival celebrated that restorative vision with intelligence and joy, reflecting innovation and new ways of seeing from the silent era to the latest releases and pre-release productions. In answer to Mr Scorsese’s question about wells of inspiration, they are to be found right here.

© Georgina Coburn, 2012

Links

• Inverness Film Festival

PUNCHING far above its weight, the 8^th Inverness Film Festival was the strongest yet, delivering a programme distinctive for its quality, audacity and imagination.

With an astonishing line up of Scottish, UK and World Cinema past and present, including 15 Scottish and 3 UK premieres, the festival has certainly come into its own this year; seeing a significant rise in audience numbers and clearly addressing an increasing appetite for diverse independent product.

Arguably the greatest pleasure of any festival is the uncovering of hidden gems. This year’s programme gave ample opportunity for unexpected discovery (and rediscovery) of the work of both emerging and established film makers, which otherwise would not be seen by a wider Highland audience.

Since the opening of the refurbished Eden Court Cinemas three years ago, audience expectation has consistently been raised due to the vision of Eden Court Film Programmer and Inverness Film Festival Director, Paul Taylor.

The American

While this year’s programme featured major releases such as The American; the third instalment of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest; Another Year, The Debt and Never let Me Go, the inspired selection of independents such as Symbol, Café Noir, The Eagle Hunter’s Son, The Trotsky, Ruhr and Animal Kingdom, together with a tribute to British Director Terence Davies, were just some of the memorable highlights of IFF 2010.

A unique screening of the 1957 comedy The Smallest Show On Earth, starring Peter Sellers, for a limited audience inside Eden Court’s projection booth was one of the more unusual events, imaginatively placing the audience in the live centre of the cinema.

Receiving its first screening in Scotland at IFF, director Daniel Alfredson’s The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest received the Inverness Film Festival Audience Award (designed by Isle of Harris based artist Steve Dilworth) for Best Film.

Amongst the showcase of new Asian cinema the comically absurd and brilliantly insightful Symbol Shinboru by Japanese Director Hitoshi Matsumoto was an unexpected delight. Watching this film is like taking a ride to an unknown destination, the split narrative suitably intriguing and entertaining to hold us transfixed until the end.

While the connection between a man in a locked room inhabited by virtual angels in the walls and a Mexican wrestler, Escargot Man, appear completely unrelated, the film cleverly progresses like an exercise in gaming. The director visually enables the audience to move up a level as the wider implications of the lone prisoner’s actions are gradually revealed on a global scale.

The world of the isolated room where “the education” consists of pushing buttons producing an accumulation of objects is a potent symbol for modern existence. This truth, however, is delivered with hilarity, the antics of the lone prisoner in polka dot pyjamas and his efforts to escape an immediate source of identification and laughter.

As the parallel narratives converge, culminating in an acceleration of images and consciousness, the film concludes with a magnificently ambiguous ending. Unashamedly strange and supremely entertaining, Symbol was one of the undeniable gems of this year’s festival.

The debut feature from South Korean film critic Jung Sung-IL, Café Noir, was another unexpected revelation. From the opening scene of a girl eating a burger enshrined in a halo of chrome and neon, the film’s incredible cinematography, often delivered in long takes, added much to its dazzling visual style.

Intimate conversations and monologues interspersed with sweeping vistas of the city of Seoul provide a portrait of characters conjoined in love and loss, and of life in contemporary Korea. Drawing on Goethe and Dostoyevsky, the film is densely layered in its textural references to literature, music and film; however, aided by the seemingly effortless camera work, the stream-of-consciousness structure (while sometimes disorientating) is completely immersive.

The film switches between black and white and colour, delivering some ravishingly beautiful sequences; a scene beneath a bridge where a woman is followed while holding a lantern, a vision of unrequited pursuit in exquisite monochrome, is completely unforgettable.

While the characters are resigned to fate the film never descends completely into nihilism, with enough moments of the sublime to elevate it beyond the disappointment and isolation of everyday life. Infused with religious references, the whole film can be seen, like the child’s self-penned school production depicted in one scene, as a convincing passion play minus the resurrection.

A firm favourite with the IFF festival audience this year was The Eagle Hunter’s Son, directed by René Bo Hansen. Set in the vast and beautiful landscapes of Western Mongolia, the film tells the story of a twelve-year-old boy Bazarbai and his journey from his homeland to the industrialised fringes of the city.

The film’s mystical element, the ancestral bond with the eagle, is beautifully grounded by the intimate depiction of familial bonds between father, son and brother and the fragility of traditional ways of life in the face of urbanisation. A rite of passage tale simply told The Eagle Hunter’s Son was completely captivating from start to finish.

The Trotsky

The UK premiere of writer/ director Jacob Tierney’s wonderfully offbeat Canadian comedy The Trotsky, starring Jay Baruchel, was positively teeming with originality, optimism and wit. Believing he is the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky, high school student Leon Bronstein’s life is guided by his destiny; to marry first wife Alexandra, meet Lenin and stage a revolution, overthrowing his fascist principle and youth apathy in the process.

It is impossible not to cheer him on; Baruchel is instantly likeable as Leon, possessing all the earnestness of belief and geek-ish sweetness to endear his cause to the audience. Winning Best Film Direction, Writing and Best Male Film Performance at last month’s Canadian Comedy awards, The Trotsky is a quirky and refreshing take on disenchanted youth accompanied by an excellent soundtrack.

This year’s Terence Davies Retrospective featuring The House of Mirth, The Long Day Closes, The Terence Davies Trilogy (Children, Madonna and Child, Death and Transfiguration), Of Time and the City and Distant Voices Still Lives, offered the rare opportunity to discover the work of one of Britain’s finest directors.

Davies possesses that rare gift of being both poetic and uncompromising, a quality which pervades his entire work. His unique visual language, the juxtaposition of sound and image in layered remembrance, is both deeply personal and universal in its appeal.

Davies consistently reminds us of the dual function of cinema, of human recognition and escape sitting alone and collectively in the dark; the light from the projectionist’s box illuminating all of our dreams and memories. Images of grinding poverty and repression are consistently tempered by the immediacy of sound; an element which contributes so strongly to the emotional resonance and spiritual clarity in his work.

In a film such as The Long Day Closes, Davies utilises sound clips from old movies, popular, classical and folk music to inform our reading of grim Northern streets, seeing romance and magic in the everyday, amidst a characteristically dismal atmosphere of relentless rain. Although in the opening sequence Davies tellingly confronts us with a brick wall barrier, equally there is an emanation of radiance in how scenes are lit throughout the film, evocative of the transformative imagination of the lone child protagonist.

Overhead shots of congregation and cinema audience are bound by the same kind of illumination. Each of Davies’s films feels like an act of transfiguration, the trials of everyday life become exalted. In Distant Voices Still Lives memories of abuse and hardship are counterbalanced by a sense of community and belonging, united in song and by a visual aesthetic which feels as though it were lovingly hand coloured in the manner of a precious family photograph.

The quiet dignity of many of his central characters pitted against the harsh confines of religious or social institutions is deeply poignant and ever present from the earliest works in his Trilogy; stunningly composed in stark black and white. This unflinching vision informs all subsequent work, including Davies’s only foray into period drama set outside his native Liverpool, The House of Mirth.

Davies elevates the costume drama to a whole new level in his adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel, aided by an exceptional performance by Gillian Anderson as tragic heroine Lily Bart. The director portrays a sublimely lit world of social graces and civilisation, conveying a deep understanding of the plight of his central character, the grim reality of her circumstance and subsequent demise.

Davies’s 2008 documentary Of Time and The City feels as much a self-portrait as homage to the director’s birthplace and childhood home of Liverpool. His narration is often wry and profound, the soundtrack of an individual life and of an age combined with archival and more recently filmed footage. Cycles of growth, demolition and decay are steeped in individual and collective reminiscence, reading like a magnificent symphonic poem; a celebration of the environment that ultimately shaped Davies’s unique creative vision and a valediction for times now past.

The Scottish premiere of David Michôd’s impressive first feature Animal Kingdom provided excellent closure to the festival. Grand Jury Prize winner at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and recipient of a record 18 nominations in this year’s AFI awards (winners to be announced in December), Animal Kingdom features a fine Australian cast including Ben Mendelsohn, Joel Edgerton, Guy Pierce, Jacki Weaver and newcomer James Frecheville as J.

Animal Kingdom

Michôd defies our expectations of the Crime Drama, centring our attention on a teenager placed unwittingly at the centre of an underworld family at war with itself and the police. The ensuing game of survival in this environment is beautifully paced, Michôd building tension gradually aided by Frecheville’s brilliantly understated performance and a chillingly controlled turn by Mendelsohn.

Veteran of stage and screen Jacki Weaver is excellent as matriarch Janine Cody, whose malevolent affection is a binding force throughout. Examining in greater depth themes explored in his award winning 14 min short Crossbow, screened prior to the closing night gala, Animal Kingdom places an innocent between family and authority, devoid of protection from both. The result like Michôd’s remarkable preceding short is a compelling portrait of dispossessed youth.

Local production Fighting Back, the first martial arts film produced in the Highlands, had its debut screening as part of this year’s selection of short films. Directed by Douglas McDowall and Jamie MacDonald and featuring comedy, romance, action and wire work, this ambitious production, part spoof, part homage to Asian cinema, signifies a promising beginning for future collaborative work.

David and Colin Robertson, local black belts in kempo, featured in the film’s fight sequences, with varied camera work by Mike Webster adding appropriate dramatic focus to key scenes. Kevin Douglas’s performance as the villain was convincingly menacing and showed potential for development in future projects. Filmed in just one week, Fighting Back is a great beginning, a refreshing example of storytelling not tethered and bound by its Highland location.

Shot in Glasgow, Colin Kennedy’s 12-minute short comedy I Love Luci involving two addicts, lost dentures and a dog was a thoroughly enjoyable alternative to typically grim urban subject matter, delivered with warmth, humour and a complete lack of stereotyping. Scott Graham’s third short film, Native Son, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, was another highlight of the shorts programme.

His bleak yet compassionate focus on human loneliness and isolation in a rural landscape has become more distilled and accomplished in this latest work. With the prospect of a feature film imminent, Graham is definitely a director to watch out for. What impresses so much about this film is the depth of character he manages to achieve in 20 minutes.

We have a back story (shown not told) which is extremely effective in creating empathy for the central character played by Sean Harris, in spite of his extreme behaviour. As a study of repression, masculinity and the fundamental need for human contact, Graham creates a memorable statement which very much feels like an episode from a more substantial work in the making.

This year’s festival workshops included Scheduling and Budgeting, Film in a Weekend for 13 to 19-year-olds, The Edge of Dreaming workshop with Director Amy Hardie, and the national touring workshop Unravel: The Longest Hand Painted Film In Britain, led by artists Chris Paul Daniels and Maria Anastassiou.

Working with communities and film festivals across the UK to create 16 hours of footage ( one frame for every metre of distance between John O’Groats and Land’s End), Daniels and Anastassiou have conceived of a project that will bring thousands of participants into contact with the immediately tactile medium of celluloid.

Working directly onto 16mm film stock and found footage, people from all ages have hand painted, drawn and etched marks directly onto film, with screenings in participating venues. The process of working sequentially within the frame or directly onto longer sections of film is completely engrossing and it will be fantastic to see the cumulative results of this activity from people all over the UK.

A special live performance of Steven Severin’s new score for Jean Cocteau’s 1930 film Le Sang D’un Poete (Blood Of A Poet) presented a mesmerising synthesis of sound and image, heightening appreciation of the surreal and enigmatic nature of the original work. Cocteau’s combination of live, drawn and sculptural elements found its aural counterpart in Severin’s suitably textured score, a synthesised, highly atmospheric soundscape drawing the viewer rhythmically into the imagery on screen.

Although Cocteau’s staging can often feel contrived, it was impossible not to become immersed in the dream-like and voyeuristic world of his creation to due to the immediacy of Severin’s hypnotic score. The second work in his on going series Music For Silents, the composer/ musician has clearly grounded his interpretation in an understanding of Cocteau’s visual language which is wonderfully compelling.

Throughout the four days of the festival it was pleasing to see audiences taking a chance on cinema without the instant draw of big stars or well known directors. The popularity of films such as The Eagle Hunter’s Son are proof positive that audiences becoming accustomed to the quality of Eden Court’s regular film programming are more willing to engage with a greater variety of film.

The screening of James Benning’s Ruhr was surprisingly well attended given the stillness of his moving images. This is challenging, absorbing and rewarding cinema, part of a diverse and dynamic programme which continues to evolve in each successive year. Although IFF 2010 is a very hard act to follow, it is certain that audiences can continue to expect the very best in 2011.

© Georgina Coburn, 2010

Links

• Inverness Film Festival

Nosferatu

THE 7TH Inverness Film Festival was once again testimony to creativity and innovation on a small budget, not only in terms of showcasing emerging talent in independent film (Highland, Scottish, UK and international) but in the depth and breath of the programme.

A celebration of the auteur filmmaker past and present, the festival revealed a number of hidden gems and provided the opportunity to view the latest releases including 16 Scottish and 3 UK premieres. This year’s master classes were particularly engaging and enabling for would be filmmakers, writers and producers, with the theme of authorship a strong thematic thread throughout the programme.

A Bill Douglas retrospective featuring his semi autobiographical trilogy My Childhood, My Ain Folk and My Way Home, his 1986 feature Comrades and two documentaries, Lanterna Magika – Bill Douglas & the Secret History of Cinema and Bill Douglas: Intent on Getting the Image, gave insight into the creative development of the great Scottish director/auteur.

The festival also featured several debuts by first time feature directors including Sophie Barthes (Cold Souls), David Morrisey (Don’t Worry about Me) Malcolm Venville (44 -inch Chest), Pascal Alex- Vincent (Give Me Your Hand /Donne-moi la main) and Warwick Thornton (Samson and Delilah).

Warwick Thornton’s Samson and Delilah was one of several significant festival highlights. The recipient of 13 AFI nominations (winners to be announced in December) and winner of the Camera D’or award at Cannes in May for best first feature film, Thornton’s superbly understated love story reveals a side of Australia seldom seen.

Described by some critics as “the first Australian film”, this is a work of intelligence and compassion exploring an aspect of Australian culture the nation has yet to fully come to terms with; the dispossession of Aboriginal people from their own land and the profound social impact of a country founded on the idea of “Terra nullius”. Thornton’s film is an encouraging indicator that an essential process of cultural re-evaluation has begun.

The Australian outback as a backdrop for romantic storytelling is brilliantly redefined in the film’s stark and uncompromising portrayal of poverty, addiction and social isolation. What shines through is the strength and dignity of the main characters in the midst of deplorable circumstances.

The central performances of Rowan McNamara (Samson) and Marissa Gibson (Delilah) are what enable us to invest so much in their story as an audience. There is incredible tenderness in what is unspoken with little scripted dialogue between them – much of their relationship as it evolves is communicated visually.

Thornton’s script and direction of the camera are beautifully handled and brilliantly understated. Hope is delivered in the ending but not in a way that undermines the personal or collective suffering at the heart of the story. An important and thought provoking film, Samson and Delilah will no doubt sweep the AFI’s this year, and deservedly so.

Departures Okuribito by director Yôjirô Takita was the winner of the inaugural 2009 Inverness Film Festival Audience Award. An Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film and recipient of 10 Japanese Academy Awards, the film received the most audience votes, followed by Niels Arden Oplev’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, an adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s popular novel. (If like me you missed the Departures screening at this year’s festival you can catch it when it returns to the Eden Court cinemas in February.)

The unique design of the IFF Audience Award, a sculpture in bronze by Harris-based artist Steve Dilworth, captures the ephemeral quality of light and shadow flickering on a screen or in flame. At its core is a phial of air described by the artist as a “primal token from the Outer Hebrides”, a reference to the “same landscape Stanley Kubrick filmed using a red filter to depict Mars in his masterpiece 2001, a Space Odyssey“. It seems extremely apt that a work of art so uniquely of its place and creatively expansive should represent the festival in its journey abroad.

The opening night gala screening The Boys Are Back presented a life affirming and satisfying drama directed by Scott Hicks (Shine). With fine performances from Clive Owen, Nicholas McAnulty and George Mackay, the film explores the relationship between a father and his sons following the death of his second wife.

While there are elements of the film (use of soundtrack and the appearance of Joe’s dead wife) that are pure audience manipulation, the emotional impact of the film remains genuinely affecting throughout. As a humane and sensitive study of family relationships, separation and grief, the film hits all the right marks.

Cinematography by Greig Fraser exploits the South Australian light and landscape, providing a breathtaking setting for the story, emanating natural warmth from the first frame to the last. Well acted and crafted with a resoundingly uplifting effect on the audience, this was the perfect film for opening night.

Rabbit Without Ears Keinohrhasen, directed by Til Schweiger, provided a wonderfully unexpected comedic highlight of the festival. This hugely enjoyable romantic comedy (four words I’m usually unable to place in the same sentence) was smart, laugh-out-loud funny and extremely entertaining. One Day Removals by director Mark Stirton was also enthusiastically received by the audience. Shot in two weeks in digital, this imaginative and refreshingly black comedy follows a very bad day in the lives of two white van men as they unwittingly unleash carnage in rural Aberdeenshire.

Richard Jobson’s Masterclass, The Role of the Director, was a thoroughly inspiring examination of the crafting of moving images, utilising the latest technology and exploring the creative possibilities of shooting on a small budget. In a culture dominated by product over creative process, Jobson’s approach is extremely encouraging. At its heart is a love of the collective experience of cinema, establishing a human connection through the medium and the inherent responsibility of the artist as creator.

Jobson’s mantra of “show don’t tell” reasserts the importance of grappling with visual language to create an aesthetic and vocabulary equal to your vision. The contemporary role of the director as craftsman, technician, producer, social commentator and potential agent for change is exemplified by Jobson’s ongoing work and its portrayal of violence and masculinity.

Drawing on examples from his own work, 16 Years of Alcohol, New Town Killers, I Am Digital, A Woman In Winter and The Journey, Jobson discussed the importance of visual narrative and design, the symbiotic relationship between sound and image, working with actors, development of a script, storyboarding, production and editing.

Finding “what is at the heart of your own voice” and asking the vital question of how far to you intend to push the media you’re using could be equally applied to all artistic disciplines. Jobson’s creative approach driven by the desire to actively challenge one’s own ability and skills with a craft-based approach to technology is refreshing and dynamic. His infectious energy, sheer self determination and absolute belief in not diminishing the scale of ambition according to budget constraint is a potent source of inspiration for emerging artists/directors.

“Convergence of media” through use of stills photography, animation, gaming and digital film techniques is one of the most interesting aspects of Jobson’s work, having implications in the potential distribution of independent product to a global online audience.

Jobson’s latest release, The Journey, a project with Emma Thompson created to raise awareness about the reality of sex trafficking from Eastern Europe into the UK, is part of a wider programme of art installations, viral campaigning and distribution of the film to millions of online subscribers through The Guardian. The Journey is a harrowing and confrontational film, a descent into the hell of sex slavery and the invisibility of its victims in our society for which we are all responsible.

The Script Factory master class Assessing Scripts, led by Ludo Smolski, gave valuable insight into the industrial context of the script as “the currency of the film industry”. This fascinating and informative course examined the essential elements of story design; premise, structure, genre, character and craft, as a foundation stone for film development.

The whole process of “Unpacking the script” delivered in two sessions over two days was extremely stimulating, analysing each essential component of the text, patterns of expectation from an audience in relation to genre and the actual mechanics of storytelling.

Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau’s 1922 silent masterpiece Nosferatu was a joy to behold on the big screen in spite of the somewhat limited scope of David Allison’s live accompaniment. The premise of this special event was propitious; there is nothing better than the feeling of rediscovery when live performance of sound and silent film are brought together.

The exploration of a Scottish dimension to the Nosferatu legend in the form of 19th century Scots traveller and narrator Emily Gerard also showed promise (Gerard was reputed to have brought the word Nosferatu to Western Europe, inspiring Bram Stoker’s Dracula.) However, Anne Marie Watson’s voiceover was totally miscast and clumsily written, possessing the tone and language of a newsreader or patronising school teacher rather than a voice of experience leading us convincingly into the tale.

Created in an age of cinema when invention was key, Murnau’s exploration of darkness and light provides a wealth of rich material for artistic reinterpretation. Utilising the visual language of German Romanticism and Expressionism, the tonality of the film, both moral and physical, and its use of silhouette, shadow play and high contrast composition are arguably the key to any musical interpretation.

This need not be in terms of literal musical styles or in the obvious use of leitmotifs. There are subtle ways of using a variety of soundscape to capture the essence of a scene and contribute to the action, pace and rhythm of the work, together with an understanding of the value of silence. The power of sound to inform how we read an image, leading us deeper into the film and its themes felt lost in this translation.

David Allison’s accompaniment felt overlaid rather than integral to the original visual work. A dramatic scene such as the movement of Count Orlok’s shadowy hand slowly reaching into the heart of our heroine should not be wallpapered over by inappropriate easy listening guitar music.

Admittedly having been spoilt by the quality of Neil Brand’s performance at last year’s festival I had an extremely high expectation of this performance. Despite misgivings about the soundtrack, seeing Nosferatu again was an absolute pleasure, rekindling what is so inspiring about this era of filmmaking. Murnau’s visionary aesthetic of the 1920’s remains magical, imaginative and resoundingly powerful today.

Described as “part city symphony, part visual poem,” The Solitary Life of Cranes by Eve Weber captures the heightened perspective of voices we seldom hear. The film’s ascent to the skyline over London with voiceovers by crane drivers observing the ebb and flow of humanity beneath them is wonderfully revealing.

Observing the routines and patterns of urban existence, the shifting weather and the inner life of buildings, this is an unexpectedly contemplative and engrossing film. Like the crane drivers we experience the state of being “cab happy” in the cinema, the camera leading us into silence and solitude while the rest of the distant world rushes past.

A more extreme view of humanity emerges in Coco Schrijber’s intriguing documentary Bloody Mondays and Strawberry Pies, exploring the polarity of human response to boredom. Narrated by John Malkovich and with excerpts from Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho and Dostoyevsky’s Notes FromThe Underground, the film explores boredom from a number of perspectives including a pie-maker, stockbroker, artist and mass murderer. The way that narratives overlap and represent boredom as a precursor of creativity, mediocrity and atrocity is one of the most compelling aspects of the film.

Two showcases of shorts were presented this year with additional screenings prior to main features, a tradition which I hope will continue. Shorts give an exciting glimpse of emerging talent and among this year’s selection Karelian Cowgirls /Oudoille Oville by Mintu M&aauml;ntynen, Pollphail by Matt Lloyd, Silence by Ava Lanche and Believe by Paul Wright (Winner of The Leopards of Tomorrow International Short Film Competition at the 62nd Locarno Film Festival and the Promotional Award for Directing Talent at the Winterthur International Short Film Festival) were distinctive for their stylistic interpretation of subject.

The most challenging and visually arresting film of this year’s Festival, FILM IST. A girl and a gun by Gustav Deutsch, utterly defies audience expectation of genre. A musical film drama in five acts, the film echoes the Germanic song cycle tradition and the subversive spirit of Dada and Surrealism. Hundreds of moving images drawn from 11 international film archives have been removed from their original context and collaged into a one of a series of new works.

Excerpts from documentary, fictional, pornographic, political propaganda and scientific footage are juxtaposed in such a way that our sense of structure and narrative are eluded. This film felt like pure Schoenberg – resonant with beauty and discord. The only discernable structure is provided by ancient mythology with excerpts from Hesiod, Sappho and Plato.

The fragmentary nature of text – written, auditory and visual – maintains absolute resistance to any safe or familiar notion of cinematic narrative. There is almost a total breakdown of visual language we expect from film in order to rebuild it, consequently a sense of creation and destruction fills every frame. FILM IST asks an essential question; “what is cinema?” challenging how we attribute meaning to the moving image.

A girl and a gun is a visual journey of discovery like being led into a labyrinth where found footage is a repository for our collective unconscious. As the images unfold you have no idea where the film will take you, there is no option other than to embrace the experience in all its serenity and disturbance. The relationship between sound and image is powerful and the rhythmic quality of some sequences totally mesmerising.

This is particularly true of the first act, Genesis, where the quiet emergence of the soundtrack flickers to life with rings of flame, the sensuous drift of imploding smoke and molten earth. This cosmic movement is followed by the emergence of life in nature and in human form, a dance between order and chaos, purity and depravity, “to be continued…”

This is the art of the found object, where accident – film condition, scratches and colouration – become part of the visual quality of the work. In many ways the projected image reminded me of a multilayered etched surface pulsing with life, death and desire. The final image, a gun pointed at the audience and fired with a final frame of spattered residue echoes the impetus of the whole work, to explode our ideas about what film could or should be.

IFF 2009 presented a diverse and extremely enjoyable range of screenings and events, a four day celebration of cinema that was both thoughtful and highly entertaining. Consistent with the quality of programming to be found year round at the Eden Court Cinemas, the annual festival continues to be an amazing showcase of the very best in world cinema past and present.

© Georgina Coburn, 2009

Links

• Inverness Film Festival
  

The flag was there to promote their Blackbeard’s Haunted Ness Islands Halloween Show, but Highland Council felt obliged to remove it following that single complaint. It made our correspondent “Jolly Roger” feel rather less than jolly about the whole business of Creative Censorship – read his/her reaction here.

Meanwhile Homecoming Scotland 2009 moves into its final stages this month, culminating with another surge of events leading up to St Andrews Day . A flick through the Finale brochure reveals only one major event in the Highlands, a St Andrews Fèis Homecoming event at Eden Court (27 November 2009).

The final assessment of the merits or otherwise of the promotion will only emerge later, and will doubtless be the subject of ongoing debate. Whether it achieved it broader aims of generating visitor numbers I cannot say, but I can say I’m not sorry to see it end. I am not a fan of these year-long extravaganzas, and this one seemed even more amorphous than Highland 2007.

Doubtless a number of events would not have taken place without it, or would have done so in a different form, and artists and promoters have equally doubtless been happy to take advantage of the funding opportunities it has offered.

Once again, though, there seemed to be a great deal of slapping a Homecoming logo onto things that were already happening, and a lot of slightly strained attempts to manufacture a Homecoming slant to events that did not really fit the template. Or am I just being unduly grumpy?

Reports from The Gathering, Homecoming’s flagship event in Edinburgh this summer, suggested that conditions were less than ideal for the inaugural performance of The True North Orchestra, led by Jim Sutherland. There will be another chance to hear them when they perform in the opening concert of Celtic Connections 2010 in January.

Oh, and there is also another year-long celebration waiting in the wings, albeit not as lavish – 2010 is BBC Scotland’s Year of Song, and they plan to celebrate songs and song-writers (in all genres) across their radio, television and online programming.

More immediately, the Inverness Film Festival rolls out in November. Their website promised programme details as of 12 October 2009, but remained ominously unchanged. Enquires have revealed that all is well, the programme is in place, and was scheduled to be revealed on 29 October 2009.

In our lead interview this month, Barry Gordon caught up with a couple of music promoters trying hard to bring name bands to his native Caithness. A number of companies based in the Highlands & Islands are out and about this month, including the Black Isle-based Plan B . Frank McConnell revisits a 1988 collaboration with Michael Marra, director Gerry Mulgrew and designer Karen Tennent in A Wee Home From Home.

Moray-based Wildbird take an unusual look at the Bard in Playing A Round With Shakespeare, while Strathspey-based Dannsa team up with the Cape Breton band Beòlach on a tour.

Kenny Mathieson
Commissioning Editor, Northings

Kenny Mathieson lives and works in Boat of Garten, Strathspey. He studied American and English Literature at the University of East Anglia, graduating with a BA (First Class) in 1978, and a PhD in 1983. He has been a freelance writer on various arts-related subjects since 1982, and contributes to the Inverness Courier, The Scotsman, The Herald, The List, and other publications. He has contributed to numerous reference books, and has written books on jazz and Celtic music.

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

Seachd - The Inaccessible Pinnacle.

AT LAST the depth, range and quality of programming which has developed at Eden Court in recent times has a magnificent new home in The Playhouse and La Scala cinemas. This year’s festival heralds a new beginning not only in the opening of two supremely comfortable state of the art cinemas but in the possibilities of programming in two unique spaces, each with its own distinct character.

The warmth and intimacy of both venues provide a welcome alternative to the retail park experience of film, with a programme that reflects an ongoing commitment to providing access to the very best in world cinema.

Following their successful collaboration on the 4th Inverness Film Festival in 2006, co-directors Paul Taylor and Matt Lloyd have continued to develop the festival as a focus for Highlands and Islands filmmaking in a UK and international context.

Our unique location is the basis for inspirational storytelling through film and in a focus year of Highland Culture there is no better time to examine, affirm and redefine our visual culture in a global context.

The potential for collaboration between visiting filmmakers was also an important aspect of this year’s festival, with focused discussion on the future of Gaelic cinema both sides of the Atlantic. Workshops, masterclasses, discussion and screenings including eight Scottish and two UK premieres succeeded in delivering an exciting and incredibly diverse programme with many memorable highlights.

The Scottish Premiere of the Coen brothers’ No Country For Old Men christened the new La Scala cinema as the first screening on opening night. Beautifully shot to the point where you feel like you’ve got Texas dust and arterial spray in your eyes, the film is a thriller memorable for its characterisation and offbeat humour.

Featuring Kelly MacDonald, Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson and Javier Bardem the film is driven by the tension of pursuit. The turbulent expanse of the Texan landscape provides a setting of visual unrest for the opening scenes of a drug deal gone horribly wrong.

Brolin’s performance as Llewelyn Moss is beautifully understated and is matched perfectly by Kelly MacDonald as his naïve wife. Bardem is the personification of cool psychotic menace as Anton Chigurh, although this role doesn’t display the range and depth seen in earlier work such as The Sea Inside. Bardem does deranged so well that he may now be in danger of typecasting.

The opening night mystery screening offered the opportunity to experience a film you would not see on wide release and encouraged the audience to take a chance on the unknown. La Antena is a visually stunning film combining live action and animation in homage to the language of silent film, German Expressionism and the surreal vision of Luis Buñuel with particular reference to Fritz Lang’s 1927 classic Metropolis.

The second feature by Argentinian director Esteban Sapir, the film took 11 weeks to shoot and a year to complete. This was clearly time well spent in post production layering image and text to achieve an extraordinary creative vision which you could spend the rest of your life analysing.

Pared down to black and white, with silent screen fade outs and the ever present hum of a clicking projector Sapir returns to techniques and soundtrack from the early years of cinema.

Inventive use of subtitles that interact with the action on screen, imagery presented as montage and the visible mechanics of animation create a vintage feel in an incredibly sophisticated and relevant contemporary film.

A modern fable for a digital age this film pays homage to film making of the past creating its own unique aesthetic in the process. The artificial world of the city seen through falling snow is exquisitely beautiful, fantastic and inventive.

The film’s imagery is both lyrical and angular, ranging from whimsical humour to hard social and political critique. The whole film affirms the most precious gift we possess in any age; imagination, reflected not only in Saphir’s creative process but in the choice of this film for opening night of the festival.

Education sessions during the festival including Animate Yourself-Animation Techniques, Techniques For Film Makeup for 9-12 year olds, Video Image Creation and Projection and Creating and Manipulating Images for over 15’s were complimented by screenings of 10 animated shorts as part of Tallest Story Awards.

Gaelic speaking primary school students from Dunvegan on Skye, Gairloch, Newtonmore, Islay and Stoneybridge in South Uist created five animated stories using a variety of techniques from black and white silhouettes, drawn image, fabric collage and mixed media.

These were shown alongside 5 animated films from rural India with over 5000 children in Scotland and India voting for their favourite film from each country.

Students from Newtonmore Primary were awarded the trophy for their film The Raven Stone, while 15 Gond artists from Bhopal India were awarded the trophy for their animated short The Best of the Best. The exploration of tribal stories and language through animation brought together storytelling traditions from Scotland and India with films translated into five regional Indian languages in addition to Hindi, English and Gaelic.

Placing Gaelic language in the context of world culture through the art of film was strongly reinforced by screenings and discussion at the festival. Saturday’s discussion “Is there a future for Gaelic Cinema?” chaired by Ishbel Maclennan (BBC Alba) brought together components of film production including funding, distribution and creation for a stimulating and timely debate.

Panelists included Simon Miller (director of Seachd), Nona MacDermid Marc Almon (repectively producer and writer & director of Nova Scotian 8 minute Gaelic Short Faire Chalum Mhic Leòid), Margaret Cameron from Seirbheis nam Meadhanan Gaidhlig (the Gaelic Media Service) and Martin Goff from Soda distributors, London.

The discussion introduced many issues relating to independent filmmaking. With the advent of DVD’s the life cycle of films beyond opening week at the cinema has greatly expanded, the internet, open market sites like YouTube and advances in technology mean that filmmaking is more accessible than ever before.

Reaching an audience beyond the multiplex is entirely possible through the creation of an online dialogue between filmmakers and their audience. Establishing an economy around Creative Industries such as Gaelic filmmaking and linking improvements in education to future development of the sector is of great importance.

Establishing partnerships or collaboration between artists and creative resources in Canada and Scotland will allow the momentum generated by films such as Seachd: The Inaccessable Pinnacle and Faire Chalum Mhic Leòid to be sustained and developed.

The universal appeal of storytelling through independent film has an increasing market worldwide and the need to create contemporary stories in Gaelic was discussed. The tendency to relegate the language and its culture to the past is an issue that all Gaelic Arts must address in order to maintain a living tradition. The discussion raised many questions relevant not just to Gaelic filmmaking but how culture is nurtured in a wider sense.

One of the pleasures of film festival screenings is the rare opportunity to see a selection of shorts. Two screenings Alt Highland: Shorts I & II featured a diverse range of films with Highland connections including Newspaper by Robert Goodwin, Sea of Glass by Donald Blair, Run Tony Run! by Simon Grohe and Scott Graham’s excellent Shell (20min 2007).

Graham’s second short film about a young woman set in an isolated petrol station manages depth and craftsmanship that films many times its length often fail to deliver. Minimal dialogue concentrates our attention upon human interaction in the story and the camera dwells beautifully on small details that add to the audience’s understanding of a scene. Shell is a film that shows great promise and I look forward to seeing Graham’s technique develop in future short and feature length productions.

Sunday’s screenings in Shorts 2 focused on artist’s films shot on 16mm and 8mm including a rare short by Orcadian artist Margaret Tait, The Big Sheep (Coara Mor) (1966), This Is My Land by Ben Rivers (2006) and two films by Matt Hulse, Sine Die (1994) and Hotel Central (2000).

A graduate of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design in Dundee, Hulse’s wonderfully edgy and surreal style in Hotel Central juxtaposes soundtrack and image to unsettling affect. The use of time lapse gives the whole film a stilted rhythm and intense energy all of its own.

A significant feature of this year’s programme was the presence of filmmakers to introduce or discuss their work including Arni Olafur Asgeirsson, Oliver Parker, Neil Jack, Cameron Fraser, Nona MacDermid and Marc Almon.

Audience contact with film makers and the opportunity to ask questions and discuss their work is a vital and fascinating component of any festival. Saturday’s Animation Masterclass with Ko Lik Films’ Neil Jack and Cameron Fraser provided an intriguing insight into the process of stop motion animation with screenings of their Scottish BAFTA award winning film The Tree Officer and Haunted Hogmanay.

The UK premiere of Icelandic director Arni Olafur Asgeirsson’s Thicker Than Water was another highlight of this year’s festival. This is a film that offers no gift-wrapped ending but is a beautifully realised study of what Asgeirsson described in his post screening discussion as “the damage of secrets” inherited by the next generation.

The relationships on screen are brought to life by a fine cast and the actions of characters however flawed are infused with such empathy that it is impossible not to have an emotional investment as their lives unravel. It is a compelling film that raises infinitely more questions than it answers, true to the complexity and often destructive nature of human behaviour.

Oliver Parker’s comedy-drama I Really Hate My Job has the intense quality of a stage play centring on the lives of five women working in a Soho restaurant. Concentrated within the interior setting and in the heat of a London summer the film features an excellent ensemble cast with Shirley Henderson, Alexandra Maria Lara, Anna Maxwell Martin, Oana Pellea and Neve Campbell.

The invisibility of three waitresses and two kitchen hands becomes a study in how we see ourselves laced with hysterical humour. With insipid chick flicks or underwritten support roles for women aplenty in mainstream cinema it is refreshing to see female characters define a film.

Castells, a debut feature by German director Gereon Wetzel, is an unexpectedly engaging film. This documentary centres on the Colla Joves of Catalonia as they compete with other communities to build the highest human tower. The camera work in this film cleverly progresses with the action drawing the audience in until we can see and feel the quivering tension in limbs and on faces holding up a mass of human bodies.

The audience becomes as involved as the filmed spectators, gasping as the tower starts to sway. Shots from the town’s balconies are particularly well composed, giving a sense of scale to the human drama below. As the camera captures the training, commitment and cooperation necessary to build the towers it equally defines the human qualities that could make the tower fall.

A film of great beauty and charm is Caramel by Lebanese director Nadine Labaki. Dedicated to her home city of Beirut, Labaki’s portrayal of the lives of four women working in a beauty shop is both intimate and personal, enveloping the viewer in an emotive circle of warmth and humour.

A hugely enjoyable and at times deeply poignant film, it reminds us of universality of love and human experience irrespective of culture or language. Labaki is a wonderful storyteller creating a film of subtlety through careful observation, capturing every nuance of expression in life and on screen.

In total contrast Saviours Square by Polish directors Krzysztof Krauze and Joanna Kos-Krauze is a bleak vision of urban life and social disintegration, relentless in its portrayal of individual isolation and despair. Grainy and drenched in the cold colours of winter, the film evokes a human scene of loneliness and loss familiar on the streets of all the world’s cities, and implies the ease with which our fortunes can be altered by “the maliciousness of fate”.

The film’s vision of family life is presented in terms of selfishness, manipulation and emotional violence with a strong sense of inevitability pervading the film, ending as it began in tragedy. Any hope of redemption through responsibility is negated by the overwhelming feeling of an endless cycle at work. This is a difficult film to watch but a story that is painfully relevant and needs to be told.

Although screenings such as the closing night gala The Assassination of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford starring Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Mary Louise Parker and Sam Shepard were well attended, less well known productions deserved a wider audience.

No doubt the reopening of Eden Court overshadowed promotion of the festival, and box office teething problems are still being resolved. IFF by virtue of its programming has the potential to become a destination but a much stronger and more integrated approach to marketing is required to equal that vision.

Where filmmakers are not well known it is essential to encourage audiences to take a chance on viewing films they might not immediately be drawn to. The introduction of a festival pass, online booking with payment, wider distribution of the festival brochure and easier navigation on the Eden Court website would go some way to promoting wider public access.

This year’s festival was thoroughly entertaining, engaging and challenging and a solid platform for future development of independent cinema in the North.

© Georgina Coburn, 2007

Links

• Inverness Film Festival
• Eden Court Theatre

Johnny Lee Miller as Graeme Obree

IN ANTICIPATION of the reopening of Eden Court in 2007, this year’s Inverness Film Festival marks a significant beginning in terms of programming.

In previous years the Festival has lacked focus and coherence, but Festival Directors Paul Taylor and Matt Lloyd have significantly raised the bar, providing a strong and intelligent focus on the art of storytelling through cinema.

This year’s Festival presented a celebration of Scottish Cinema, an exploration of ‘Distant Worlds’, and actively engaged with the cultivation of contemporary Highlands and Islands filmmaking.

Featuring two UK and seven Scottish premieres among over 17 different screenings at Eden Court Cinema and VUE, the festival also included a live performance of ‘The Island Tapes’ at the Ramada Jarvis Hotel. This special event combined music by David Allison, Allan Neave and Alyth McCormack with film of St Kilda, Harris, Orkney and Shetland from the Scottish Screen Archive.

Opening and closing night gala screenings of Kevin MacDonald’s ‘The Last King of Scotland’ and Douglas Mackinnon’s ‘The Flying Scotsman’ were well received. Graeme Obree, the subject of Mackinnon’s film, attended on the closing night. My only regret was that I could not split myself in half and see everything!

Having access to screenings from around the world, including shorts, and the opportunity to attend master classes and workshops, which added so much to my subsequent viewing, were highlights of the Festival for me.

“Here there are stories waiting to be told”, said Timothy Neat’s 1989 film “Play Me Something”, set in Barra. Discussion at the festival through industry guest speakers put the region in creative context. Our whole territory or “mindscape” through film is of immense interest to the rest of the world and it is encouraging to see filmmaking being developed through such initiatives as the Digital Eden Project, Cineworks and DigiCult, all of which had a strong presence at the Festival.

Glasgow Media Access Centre’s Cineworks and DigiCult launch 06/07 will provide opportunities for local writers and directors to receive training and develop their ideas locally.

David Smith, Executive Producer of Cineworks presented a seminar on “Presenting and Packaging Your Project”, giving practical advice but also providing an overview of the industry and the potential for the Highlands and Islands to be at the forefront of a creative movement away from the central belt.

This political shift and commitment to adequate provision and training presents the region with a climate ripe to develop existing talent and see ideas translated to the screen for a world audience.

Mark Jenkins superb illustrated lecture ‘An Introduction to Film Editing’ gave valuable insight into what is largely an unseen craft, examining the evolution of film from script through to post production. The structure, rhythm and language of film he revealed through the edit process was fascinating.

Even though I am not a filmmaker his experience, insight and passion for the craft made this one of the highlights of the festival for me. Like good composition in painting “the best cut is the one you don’t see”, and I felt that this presentation gave me a greater understanding of the visceral and emotional effect film can have on an audience, and why.

Another Highlight was the screening of Digital Eden, a pilot project funded by Scottish Screen’s Digital Media Access Fund and by the Scottish Highlands and Islands Film Commission. Six short films by Oliver Smith, Rachel Mill, Vicky Stonebridge, Ruth Brain, Jean Mackay and Kate Fairclough were selected and developed, including documentary, animation, music video and drama.

It was wonderful to see young filmmakers being interviewed about their work following each screening as the presentation and promotion of film is an important aspect of its production and potential success.

This kind of project, giving Highlands and Islands aspiring filmmakers the opportunity to train using different programmes and equipment, bore amazing fruit within a short space of time and it would be in the interests of the entire region both economically and culturally to expand the project for longer duration.

For me ‘The MusicMaker’ by Ruth Brain and Alasdair Brotherston stood out for its strong design and visual impact, utilising flash and mix puppetry. Another animated piece, ‘Who’s Afraid?’ by Vicky Stonebridge, revealed the scope of work using tablet/pen and the Mirage programme.

Both showed incredible potential, and given the chance to hone their skills through the further development of the Digital Eden Project, could well add to Scotland’s increasing international recognition in the field of short film.

The screening of several short films prior to features was an excellent way of exposing an audience to the impact of a simple idea well told. The shorts ‘Mono’ by Richard Smith and ‘Trout’ by Johnny Barrington were two such examples.

One of the most engaging aspects of this year’s festival was the inclusion of films from or examining “peripheral cultures”. ‘Ten Canoes’ by directors Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr, narrated by Australian actor David Gulpilil, brilliantly explored the art of storytelling through narratives that intertwine through use of black & white and colour film, personal history and myth, moving in and out of time and memory.

This sell out screening prompted much discussion afterwards and was as much about the art of film and storytelling as it was about the state of Australian Aboriginal culture prior to white settlement.

‘The Journals of Knud Rasmussen’ (Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohen) explored the relationship between Shamanism and Christianity and its affect on the life of the Inuit, and ‘37 Uses for a Dead Sheep’ (Ben Hopkins) exploring the exile of the Pamir Kirghiz tribe of Central Asia presented stories from outside our popular culture.

The humour and history of the Pamir people presented not an image of an exotic or alien culture but of common humanity and an exploration of the ideas of belonging, identity and homeland that are universal.

There were many new discoveries. Singapore Director Royston Tan’s intense portrait of loneliness in his feature ‘4.30’ and Hal Haberman and Jeremy Passmores’ ‘Special’ left me wanting to see more of their socially conscious and emotive work.

‘Special’ offered a thought-provoking slice of our times through the human and superhero attributes and delusions of its protagonist. It asks important questions about the value of the individual in our western consumer culture. However I don’t think I would have opted for a redemptive ending!

Perhaps most surprising was the revelation that Ben Affleck can act in the feature ‘Hollywoodland’, about the life and mysterious death of actor George Reeves, famous for his portrayal of superman in the 1950s.

With an excellent cast and strong performances from Adrian Brody, Diane Lane and Canadian actress Molly Parker, this film is only slightly marred by the father / son subtext which was unnecessary given the potent and complex relationships between the leads.

I am sure that when the new Eden Court opens in 2007 there will be more scope within the venue for discussion and debate about screenings and currents at work within the film industry.

I sincerely hope that Eden Court, Scottish Screen (soon to be part of Creative Scotland) and the Scottish Highlands and Islands Film Commission will continue to assist in the development of emerging talent, and place Highlands and Islands Filmmaking on the map as an innovative hub of cinematic production and activity.

The annual Inverness Film festival has emerged as an important cultural event, and Paul Taylor and Matt Lloyd are to be congratulated for their vision, an excellent foundation for IFF 2007.

© Georgina Coburn, 2006

Links

• Inverness Film Festival

MATT LLOYD explains the thinking behind the programme for the 4th Inverness Film Festival
 

SIXTY YEARS ago there were only three film festivals in the world – Cannes, Venice and Edinburgh. Now the UK alone boasts around two hundred. A few are internationally recognized star-fests, some cater for specific tastes – French cinema, for example, or horror films – whilst others provide the only non-mainstream programming a particular region can offer.

There is considerable competition between festivals for the best films, so the challenge for any programmer is to carve out a unique festival identity, whilst still attracting a wide audience.

It was with this in mind that Paul Taylor, Eden Court’s cinema programmer, and I approached our first Inverness Film Festival programme. As a young festival – this will be its fourth year – we felt it was time Inverness declared its intentions in an informal manifesto.
 
Thanks to Eden Court’s regular, excellent film programme, there was no obligation to show specific titles which otherwise wouldn’t reach the city. At the same time, we had no desire to come up with something so esoteric that it would only appeal to a tiny minority.

So we settled on two distinct but complementary themes – Scottish, particularly Highland, cinema, and an international programme entitled ‘Distant Worlds’.

Ultimately, we want Inverness Film Festival to offer a programme unlike any other in the UK

As the UK’s most northerly film festival, we felt Inverness’s programme should reflect the values of the Highlands, whether through revisiting classic local films, or through selecting international titles set in remote and dramatic locations, in which ancestry and storytelling are to the fore.

Films from varied and distant worlds demonstrate a common sense of humanity, which is, after all, the most important message cinema can offer.

Amongst the Scottish films on offer is the Scottish premiere of The Last King of Scotland. Directed by Oscar winning Kevin MacDonald (One Day in September, Touching the Void) this is an extraordinary imagining of a young Scottish doctor seduced by the charisma of the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.
 
Skye-born director Douglas MacKinnon will introduce his film The Flying Scotsman as the closing night gala. Starring Johnny Lee Miller and Brian Cox, the film is a fantastic recreation of Scottish cyclist Graeme Obree’s fight against depression and institutional snobbery.

The Island Tapes is a live performance of new musical scores to silent black and white films of life on Scottish islands in the 1920s and 30s. From the archives, we chose a Hebridean double-bill of Play Me Something (1989), starring John Berger and Tilda Swinton, and the rarely seen dark melodrama The Brothers (1947), a sort of dark riposte to I Know Where I’m Going, which features probably the only death by gull and herring in cinema history.

The ‘Distant Worlds’ programme features films set in extreme environments and so-called peripheral cultures, and includes the breathtakingly beautiful Inuit film The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, the first ever film in an Aboriginal language, the wonderful and funny Ten Canoes, and the astonishingly-titled 37 Uses for a Dead Sheep, an off-beat documentary following the Pamir Kirghiz tribe of Central Asia.

These are three new films in which marginalised, indigenous communities tell their stories, the cast of each film playing their own grandparents.

Other treats include the Scottish premiere of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel, starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, and the UK premiere of Oliver Parker’s Fade to Black, starring Danny Houston as Orson Welles. And we have late night screenings, of the sultry noir thriller Hollywoodland and the hilarious Special, about an ordinary schmo who believes he has superhuman powers.

Highland filmmaking of the future is represented by the premiere screening of the five films made by local first-timers through the Digital Eden project.

Alongside the screening, we are running a series of masterclasses and workshops to encourage Highland filmmakers to develop their skills and experience.

Glasgow Media Access Centre will be launching their nationwide short film funding schemes Cineworks and Digicult, whilst industry professionals will be offering their expertise on submitting scripts for funding, and on the role of the editor. Over the two weekends following the festival, production company Brocken Spectre is running the nationally-recognised Writer’s Factory Introduction to Screenwriting Course.

So, that manifesto I mentioned… ultimately, we want Inverness Film Festival to offer a programme unlike any other in the UK. We want the festival to be a forum for filmmakers and film-lovers from the city and beyond. We want to see more indigenous filmmaking activity from the authentic voices of the Highlands. And we want to question just how different from us those Distant Worlds really are.

Matt Lloyd is the co-director of the Inverness Film Festival. The festival runs from 9-12 November 2006.

© Matt Lloyd, 2006

Links

• Inverness Film Festival

Breakfast on Pluto.

WITH TWO UK premieres in “Mrs Henderson Presents” and “Breakfast On Pluto”, six Scottish Premieres including “A Cock And Bull Story”, “A Woman In Winter” and “Goodnight And Goodbye”, documentaries, shorts, workshops and a classic dose of Chaplin and Fellini, this year’s Film Festival programme gave local audiences the opportunity to sample a varied range of screenings and activities as well as the launch of two important programmes to develop both audiences and film making in the North.

One of the most exciting aspects of this year’s festival is the ongoing commitment to cinema as an art form in the new Rural Cinema Initiative and the new Digital Access Scheme.

The latter scheme will offer support and training in such areas as animation, computer based artwork, video installation film and documentary making, and is funded by Scottish Screen’s Digital Media Access Fund. Groups and individuals are invited to apply for assistance to design and create a digital screen project exploring an aspect of Highland life. Each Digital Eden project will be shown on the website and on the big screen as part of the Inverness Film Festival 2006.

The launch of these projects are an important step in encouraging participation and awareness of film in the North. It is fantastic that Eden Court is looking beyond the boundaries of its own building and forging a role in the creation of new work.

This year’s festival was based in the VUE Multiplex and the original HI-Arts Screen Machine (currently serving as a stand-in cinema for Eden Court) for scerenings, and Inshes Church for free workshops in Horror Film Makeup, Animation, and a Beginners Guide To Filmmaking and Screenwriting.

Eden Court’s two new cinemas and studio space will no doubt add to its capacity to deliver screenings and workshops. but the expansion of these creative activities into the wider community through these new initiatives will nurture talent, boost creative confidence and develop audiences.

Education and Outreach are an extremely important function of the new Theatre and I have no doubt that funds and energy directed into these projects now will reap great rewards in the future.

An ultimately life affirming and uplifting film, “Breakfast On Pluto” contains some hilarious scenes that teeter on the edge of tragedy but never fall into that black hole

Set against the 1970’s troubles in Ireland, this film reminds us of the individual stories and humanity that are all too often consumed in ongoing political conflict and headlines. Like its central character this film resists the temptation to be drawn into the conflict and retains a sense of self and uniqueness that is its strength.

The irrepressible character of Patrick “Kitten” Braden is evident from childhood and endures throughout the film with great humour and poignancy. As a transvestite growing up in Ireland and the illegitimate child of a priest in a small parish (played by Liam Neeson), Kitten is blessed with an overwhelming sense of who she is but not where she belongs, and invents a whole mythology around the identity of her Mother “the phantom lady.”

There is an element of fantasy and humour that sustains our unlikely heroine and transforms what could have been a stereotype into a human being the audience cannot help but care about.

An ultimately life affirming and uplifting film, “Breakfast On Pluto” contains some hilarious scenes that teeter on the edge of tragedy but never fall into that black hole, such as Kitten’s confrontation with gun runners which could have ended so differently. With excellent support from Stephen Rea, Brendan Gleeson, Ruth Negga and a cameo by Bryan Ferry. I hope the festival UK premiere screening will not be the only chance for local audiences to see this film.

I was sorry to have missed the Scottish premiere of the documentary “Enron -The Smartest Guys In The Room”, but I looked forward to Docspace, a screening of two films, “My Cousin Wallace” (Derek Murray, Scotland 2004) and “Lomax the Songhunter” (Rogier Kappers, Netherlands 2004).

However, “My Cousin Wallace” was too clumsily made to really explore its subject matter fully, and “Lomax the Songhunter” could have been an exceptionally affecting film with a healthy dose of editing!

The story of American song collector Alan Lomax, it contained genuinely moving and important scenes amongst drawn out footage of director Kappers revisiting some of the places and people touched by Lomax’s obsession to capture the music of the world in field recordings.

A fascinating story and subject on many levels, Lomax’s character and commitment (often at the expense of his family) was driven by his love of the folk music he sought to preserve. The film’s best moments are his testimony and the original footage rather than that created by the director as he revisits the scenes of the original field recordings in Scotland, Italy and Spain.

In a world at the mercy of a global music business Lomax identified the silencing of a multitude of cultures and called for “cultural equity” for every culture to have their “airtime” or expression. He sought the authenticity of music borne out of the ordinary lives of ordinary people, singers and musicians who are able to provide a voice for their communities and a powerful expression of humanity that lives in his recordings.

With the Digital Access Scheme up and running, perhaps next year we will be able to sample some local product in the short films section.

The range of what can be expressed by a filmmaker in a ten minute production never ceases to amaze. This year’s selection of Scottish shorts, “Sweetie” (Becky Brazil, 2005) “Run” (Peter Mackie Burns, 2005) and “At The End Of The Sentence” (Marisa Zanotti, 2005), were real gems.

Showing extraordinary moments out of the everyday, “Sweetie” distils all the tension in a family’s journey home from shopping into the release of a moment of recognition between a child and an unknown woman on a bus.

“Run” in which a woman escapes from the confines of her life behind a newsstand was affecting for its strong central performance. Certain shots would have made perfect stills, a perfect human face to express a modern predicament.

“At The End of The Sentence” with its reference to Johnny Cash and exclamation points was extremely funny, quirky (in a very good way) and cleverly written. With the Digital Access Scheme up and running, perhaps next year we will be able to sample some local product in the short films section?

I hope that next year’s festival will launch even more initiatives that expand the reach of cinema as an art form beyond the screen and into the lives of many more people in the Highlands.

© Georgina Coburn, 2005

Link

• Inverness Film Festival website

MICHAEL McDAID tells the Arts Journal what lies ahead for movie fans in the second Inverness Film Festival
 

THE INVERNESS FILM FESTIVAL will feature seven Scottish premiere screenings in the course of a five-day celebration of the art and craft of film making, including the first chance to see Zak Penn’s Incident at Loch Ness, featuring German film director Werner Herzog.

The new locally-filmed ‘mockumentary’ will close the festival (15 November). The opening premiere will be I Heart Huckabees (a little heart symbol replaces the word – cute or what?), a new comic movie from David O. Russell (Spanking The Monkey, Flirting with Disaster, Three Kings), starring Dustin Hoffman, Jude Law, Lily Tomlin and Isabelle Huppert.

Michael McDaid, the director of the festival, has fought hard to have both these films at the festival.

“We are really delighted to have the first Scottish screening of Huckabees, and we feel that Incident at Loch Ness is sure to create a lot of interest in this area! There are over 20 screenings in all, and we have added an extra day to the event this year. We are aiming to provide something that will interest as wide an audience as possible.

“Most of the screenings will take place at Eden Court, with the premieres in the main auditorium, but we are also screening films at the Vue multiplex, and we have brought the Columba Hotel on board this year as well – they will host the festival club as a place in the centre of town where people could get together and meet the festival guests and chat about films with other people involved in the festival or the workshops we are running.”

The other premieres in the programme are Dear Frankie, written by Andrea Gibb and directed by Shona Auerbach, a Scottish film that revolves around the dilemma of a mother who has left her abusive husband, but told her young son he is away at sea. What to do then, when the boy spots that the ship his father is allegedly on is due to dock in Glasgow?

“It promises to be a strong line-up to build on last year’s inaugural event.”

Another Scot, Danny Boyle, directed Millions, in which two young boys stumble on a quarter of a million pounds from a bank robbery, but have only one week to spend it before the UK goes over entirely to the Euro and the money becomes worthless.

Garden State is the writing and directorial debut of Zach Braff, star of television’s Scrubs. Peter Mullen stars in Criminal, an American remake of the Argentine film Nine Queens, while My House in Umbria stars Maggie Smith and has a rare non-comedy role for Ronnie Barker. Vanity Fair is a new film version of Thackeray’s classic novel.

The festival will also feature An Audience with Barry Norman (12 November) at Eden Court, in which the noted film critic will talk about his experiences amongst the good, the bad and the ugly of the film world.

The programme will again include screenings of classic films, including Night of the Hunter, Doctor Zhivago, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Leopard and La Belle et La Bête. Short films will also feature in the festival, including a series of films made on digital equipment around Scotland, and the latest batch of Tartan Shorts.

Many of the makers of the films will be around at the festival, and there will also be a number of workshops, including a workshop on short films aimed at younger people, another on animation, and one on scriptwriting.

It promises to be a strong line-up to build on last year’s inaugural event. Setting up a film festival was not his priority when Michael took up his post at the Eden Court Theatre early in 2002, but evolved gradually from his work in restoring the fortunes of the theatre’s Riverside Cinema.

“The feedback we had from audiences last year was very good – we had very good attendances, and people have been asking when the next one is, which is very encouraging for us. With Eden Court expanding and the Year of Highland Culture coming up in 2007, we are looking to continue to build the festival gradually each year.

“We have gone for an extra day this year, and we will see how that goes – it always has to be a case of testing what audiences want. We are hoping that we can move on from last year’s good start and continue to build the festival.”

The Inverness Film Festival runs from 11-15 November 2004. Full programme details are available on the festival website.

© Kenny Mathieson, 2004

Related Link

• Inverness Film Festival website