Tag Archives: film

CPH:DOX film reviews

Though I didn’t physically attend CPH:DOX, I did manage to catch a couple of films from the programme. My reviews are included in Desist Film’s festival coverage, linked below. THE END OF FEAR (Barbara Visser) WEAPON OF CHOICE (Fritz Ofner) GIANTS AND THE MORNING AFTER (Alexander Rynéus, Malla Grapengeisser, Per Bifrost)

Delete/Ignore: locating gremlins and glitches in the machine. Or, how I met the humans and parasites of Planet IFFR

This year’s invitation to “Meet the humans of Planet IFFR” was about locating the humanity in cinema and cinema-going. For me, it reflected poignantly on how each of the micro worlds we create, such as a film festival like Rotterdam, participates in and wrestles with the wider global matrix. At its most hopeful, the themeContinue reading “Delete/Ignore: locating gremlins and glitches in the machine. Or, how I met the humans and parasites of Planet IFFR”

Looking for life in a sea of loss: on Jasmine Te Hira’s Lost Content (2013) and The Beauty of Invisible Grief (2016)

We look before we see. It looks as if it were light as air; as if sweet breath plumped it up. When we look for longer, we can see that it changes shape, leaves a mark and grows ever heavier on the arm that wears it. Made of ice, it is not just cold, butContinue reading “Looking for life in a sea of loss: on Jasmine Te Hira’s Lost Content (2013) and The Beauty of Invisible Grief (2016)”

The Cleaners, Western & I, Tonya – The Monocle Daily, Friday Feb 2nd

Reporting from the press room at this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam, I talked about three new films; The Cleaners, Western and I, Tonya, as well as the festival’s overall theme, ‘The Humans of Planet IFFR’. You can listen back here.

Re-inventing Mitchell & Kenyon: Local Films for Local People at IFFR 2018

At this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam, as part of the Critics’ Choice IV programme, Dr Peter Walsh & I staged a contemporary cinema-going film experiment. Bringing the films of Mitchell & Kenyon to life, with a live cinema event, we showed several of their films on 35mm at Rotterdam’s amazing venue, WORM. We alsoContinue reading “Re-inventing Mitchell & Kenyon: Local Films for Local People at IFFR 2018”

BBC World Service: The Arts Hour Monday 8th January 2018

Earlier this year I joined BBC World Service Arts Hour host Nikki Bedi and sarod player and composer Soumik Datta to talk about everything from what makes a well written female role to how Virtual Reality might elicit empathy, and on writers who’ve helped us through grief, plus so much more. Broadcast around the world,Continue reading “BBC World Service: The Arts Hour Monday 8th January 2018”

Encounters with 35mm: Bronco’s House and the film revival

Following Encounters Short Film Festival in 2017, I was moved to write about a film that, after repeat viewings, has deeply affected me and become of my most highly rated contemporary works, Mark Jenkin’s Bronco’s House.  My article appears for BFI Sight & Sound online, “Mark Jenkin’s short movie about the Cornish housing crisis wasContinue reading “Encounters with 35mm: Bronco’s House and the film revival”

Re-imagining Reality: 61st BFI London Film Festival

My report on the 61st BFI London Film Festival for Senses of Cinema includes review and rumination on Alex Gibney’s No Stone Unturned, Sinéad O’Shea’s A Mother Brings Her Son to be Shot, Frederick Wiseman’s Ex Libris: New York Public Library, Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here, Paddy Considine’s Journeyman, Kogonada’s Columbus and WarwickContinue reading “Re-imagining Reality: 61st BFI London Film Festival”

Immersive Encounters: virtual reality, real bodies

At this year’s Encounters Short Film Festival I checked out all of the VR they had to offer – with varying results. While I admired the attempt to make a solitary art cinematic, my body was at a loss in its engagement… so I wrote about it for BFI’s Sight & Sound online.