producer and composer of Desire Fiona Howe writes:
"Played with estimable intensity...an intriguing insight into the politics of marriage, the power of language and the dangerous unpredictability of ardour..."
David Parkinson, Empire Online
Following its successful run of international film festivals from Sarajevo to Amiens, Cambridge and Raindance, British micro-budget indie feature Desire plays the Apollo Piccadilly from 4th March followed by other London cinemas and a nationwide tour of twenty UK cities from mid-March.
Shot on Red Camera entirely in the filmmaker’s London home, with music by his partner/producer Fiona Howe and performances from their children, DESIRE went from concept to world première in under a year for a budget in five figures and was received as one of the most intriguing, best-looking and watchable films of the year
Starring Oscar Pearce (Nicolas Roeg's Puffball) and Paris-based Tella Kpomahou in her first English-speaking role, DESIRE is the story of a screenwriter whose character threatens to take over not just his creative and sexual life but his sanity.
"British film tradition has abandoned too easily the home truths of, say, Coward and Priestley, who opened the shutters on the hidden family life of middle-class Britain"
Director, Gareth Jones
A first feature by theatre and television veteran Gareth Jones who has worked abroad for most of the last twenty years, DESIRE sets a new benchmark for austerity film.
‘With the dearth of public subsidy and the demise of the UK Film Council, British feature film is looking for a new resourcefulness and new audiences’, says Jones, who draws his inspiration from the continental traditions of Bergman (Scenes from a Marriage) and Pasolini (Teorema) to launch a new, intimate British cinema of ideas.
‘Recession breeds introversion,’ he says, ‘a need to look more closely at who we are’. With songs by the Malian superstar Oumou Sangare, DESIRE plays out behind the doors of a London family home, whose secrets simmer dangerously beneath the surface till desire tips the balance and the highly unstable mix erupts.
RefugeeYouth, Nueva Generacion and Refugee Action bring a collection of films about exile to BFI Southbank on 16 - 22 June.
The BFI Southbank marks National Refugee Week with a series of award-winning and moving films about exile and will host Refuge in Films, a weekend of films and events curated by young refugees.
Refugee Week celebrates the UK's history of providing sanctuary to people fleeing human rights abuses and their contribution to the UK. As part of their Simple Acts campaign, audiences are being urged to ‘watch a film about refugees’ - just one of the 20 small everyday actions that can be carried out by all in a bid to inspire people to change perceptions of refugees. Between Tuesday 16 and Sunday 21 June, a selection of thought-provoking and award-winning features, short films, interactive workshops and panel discussions with refugees and filmmakers will take place at BFI Southbank.
The programme will include the UK Premiere of Emmy award winning documentary, Made in LA (2007) (curated as part of the Refuge in Films festival) that follows a group of Latina immigrants working in LA garment sweatshops and their battle for basic labour rights. The week will also feature the UK premiere of The Fortress (2008), which won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno festival in 2008 and which investigates the hidden world of a Swiss reception centre for asylum seekers. Following the June 16 screening of The Fortress will be a panel discussion around the depiction of refugees in film that will feature well known film directors and people who have fled their country. During the day, Refugee Action will host a tea party with refugees and a display of award-winning photography in the delegate centre.
Over the course of the week, there will also be an opportunity to see Ellen Kuras’ (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) Oscar nominated documentary, The Betrayal (2008). Curated as part of the Refuge in Films festival, it is a film 20 years in the making that follows a Laotian family who have sought refuge in an unwelcoming Brooklyn, New York. There will also be screenings and a discussion with Mohamed Maklouf, film director and exile.
For younger viewers The Future Film Institute will hand over its programming of films and events to the Refuge in Films festival throughout the weekend of 19-21 June. The festival is curated by young people from New Generation and Refugee Youth, who come from 19 different countries. They have put together an amazing programme to celebrate Refugee Week. A series of visual workshops and performances will also be taking place over the weekend as well as the launch of Becoming a Londoner, a book produced by young people about their experiences of the process of becoming part of their new city. In the Mediatheque, there will be a special collection jointly curated by The Future Film Institute and Refuge in Film who will also co-host the monthly Future Film discussion group during the weekend. (from BFI Press Release)
Technorati Profile
In Anatomy Of A Reel, director Mark Tonderai and his key heads of department breakdown the first reel of the thriller Hush (Generalrelease: 13 March 2009) from idea to final cut. The reel will be pulled apartand looked at from the perspective of the Writer, Director, DOP, Composer andEditor in their singular effort to create a low budget suspense story with abig budget look. A must see event for anyone interested in the mechanics andart of filmmaking!
Tired
and irritable, Zakes (Will Ash) and Beth (Christine Bottomley) drive
home along the M1, a familiar journey full of harshly lit service
stations and bad coffee. When a white truck narrowly avoids hitting
them, its back doors open to reveal a woman terrified and screaming
caged up inside. Unsure if what he has seen is real, Zakes calls the
police but drives on. Beth is furious that he hasn’t done more to help
and at the next petrol station storms off. When she doesn’t return,
Zakes slowly realises that she too has been snatched by the white truck
driver and is forced into a vicious game of cat and mouse with a ruthless killer who has terrifying plans for his human cargo.
*DUE TO LIMITED AVAILABILITY TICKETS MUST BE PURCHASED PRIOR TO THIS EVENT*
Date: 11 March 2009, Start time: 18h30, Venue: Cineworld Shaftesbury Avenue/13 CoventrySt/London/W1D 7DH. Book tickets: £10.00 Go to www.raindance.co.uk or call 0207 287 3833
Five new films made by members of the Co-operative British Youth Film Academy have been showcased to 500 students at a red carpet screening in Manchester. A co-operative of twenty colleges and universities, The Co-operative British Youth Film Academy combines professions from the worlds of film and education to give young people unique opportunities to gain hands-on experience of the thrills and challenges of a real film set.
On 14th July the remarkable British documentary Isolation will begin a limited theatrical run at Picturehouse Cinemas across the UK.