Danny Boyle's take on the true story of climber Aron Ralston, 127 Hours, will close the London Film Festival tonight.
The 127 hours in question entail the 5 days that Ralston spent in a crevice in Utah's Blue John Canyon. He had been climbing on his own and hadn't told anyone where he was going. When he falls and finds his arm trapped under a boulder, he has to make a terrrible choice in order to survive.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
Cor blimey governor, Special Edition # 42 is a massive one. Laurence Boyce has been watching a multitude of DVDs and the column includes numerous feature debuts, some great British features and THAT sci-fi show that is always mentioned in this column. Given it’s so big, better stop waffling on and get straight to it!
Whilst the phrase “A comedy about suicide bombers” would seem to be an exercise in Daily Mail baiting, it’s worth noting that Four Lions (Optimum Releasing) is satirical, poignant and timely. It’s also bloody funny. Chris Morris, in his feature film debut, knows that comedy can arise when you have a great group dynamic. It just so happens that this group dynamic comes from a bunch of people who want to be terrorists. In following the motley bunch of wannabe Northern jihadists, there are a group of excellently staged set-pieces (including a section at a Pakistani training camp in which our leads manage to do everything spectacularly wrong), a number of stand- out performances from the likes of Riz Ahmed and Nigel Lindsay who manage to make us sympathise with the group despite the terrible nature of their plans and line after line of tremendously funny material. Morris and crew have done meticulous research into the subject and the film never comes across as glib; indeed, the climax of the film is both disturbing and powerful and it provides much food for thought about the nature of fanaticism and the lengths that people will go to in order to belong. An example of brave and daring British filmmaking. The extras on the disc are notable as well: the deleted scenes throw up many treats whilst some of the behind-the-scenes stuff is fascinating when you get to see Morris at work. It’s just a shame that he ultimately decided that he didn’t want to put commentaries on there...
It seems for British black actors to make their mark artistically and get meaty parts they have to migrate to television and film work in the USA. The roles they play across the pond seem to have more development and are more challenging with less chances of them being a one-dimensional stereotype as in the UK.
For example Eamonn Walker did the television rounds including a stint on ITV’s The Bill during the 80’s and then moved on to seminal US TV prison drama Oz and features such as The Lord of War and Unbreakable but how come a talent like him has been let go to US primetime television when he should be given more opportunities in Blighty? In fairness he has come back to the UK for highbrow British work such as a modern day adaptation of Othello with Christopher Eccleston which was well received but how come 10 years into the new century there still aren’t that many prominent roles for black actors on UK TV? We had the ascension of Richard Blackwood (promoted lazily like a modern day Lenny Henry) before his television career burned out by mediocre material (the writing for Ed Stone of Dead should have had more edge) and a lack of talent nurturing but if he went to America at his peak would his popularity be any different like ex Grange Hill child star, Sean Maguire who is doing the rounds as a journeyman actor? I am sure the writers wouldn’t pigeonhole him to oblivion.
From Sophie Le Brozec for StudioBeyond.net
The unprecedented power of the Internet is threatening to bring down traditional barriers in the most closed industry in the world - the film industry.
The rules could well be changing in the film industry. Highly guarded personal connections and contacts could be fighting a losing battle with the speed and accessibility of vast online communities.
Suddenly the power in the game is shifting hands. As online film communities threaten to sweep control away from the traditional power holders, wise use of the new phenomenon can help movie-makers gain all the benefits of the internet. And whilst a multitude of new projects and talent can very quickly gain tremendous exposure, those same projects and talent can also serve as a valuable resource to sustain an industry that is undergoing rapid changes.
I Cine Fest Brasil London
17th to 20th September 2009 - Riverside Studios, Hammersmith
For the first time in London, the I Cine Fest Brasil is presenting 20 productions, comprising feature films, documentaries and short films, from a range of different genres including everything from blockbuster hits to talented-newcomer discoveries.
As part of this fantastic program we are highlighting the acclaimed documentary Smoking I Wait from director Adriana Dutra. Smoking I Wait is a film about the struggle and challenges of a person trying to quit smoking.
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The Closing Night Gala of The Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival will be the World Premiere of Ecosse Films' NOWHERE BOY, the highly anticipated debut feature from British artist Sam Taylor-Wood.
Imagine John Lennon's childhood... Liverpool 1955: a smart and troubled fifteen year-old is hungry for experience. In a family full of secrets, two incredible women clash over John. Mimi, the buttoned-up aunt who raised him and Julia, the prodigal mother. Yearning for a normal family, John escapes into rock n' roll. His fledgling genius finds a kindred spirit in the teenage Paul McCartney. Just as John begins his new life, tragedy strikes. But a resilient young man finds his voice - and an icon explodes into the world.
Once you're editing or creating a content page:
1 - click this button:
2 - in the lower half of the new pop window, navigate to the directory you want to upload a photo into - eg people or short film award.
3 - click this button:
4 - find your file to upload.
5 - click the 'thumbnail' check box. if the image is too big, also click resize - and make the image a sensible sixe, eg 400px
once this has uploaded it should create a subfolder in your folder called thumnails. It will save a small version of your image in there.
6 - now click on the 'popup image tab at the top of the page
7 - click the 'enable' check box.
8 - select your uploaded image bin the lower half by clicking on it.
9 - you will be asked if you want to use associated thumbnail. Click yes
10 - add a caption if you want
11 - click insert, then you're done.
27-9-7 - big upgrade night!
- CB advanced articles view component (with pagination
- Joomla eXtplorer
- JomPack - for backup
- Seyret videos component installed, categories created, permissions set and start videos uploaded.
- JomComment - purchased and installed
- Google translate module
16-9-7
-added MyVideos Community Builder - (click add YouTube / Google videos to the site) REMOVED
- added MosWiki (click the Wiki button and replace the word Joomla with the wiki page you want to appear. REMOVED
- downgraded JCE to version 1.05 to get Advanced Image to work 
. rejigged advanced image, so it should now work
--- this log is only really active since the 16-Sept-07
Netribution is one of 5,000 news sources indexed by Google news which means stories can get a lot of visibility in a short space of time. Because of this we also need to be a bit more careful about what we publish so all stories have editor approval, and our content submission is a bit more complex (but a bit more powerful) than many blogs.
If you have something film or media related (or even just inspiring) that you'd like to share with the world - we'd be delighted to welcome you. What follows is a guide to how to get your work published.
Click on this link to register. It takes about one minute.
If you are using an old version of Internet Explorer, or Safari on the Mac, it is also reccomended that you use Firefox - as this works flawlessly with our content management system. Safari is very slow, and Explorer is, well, unpredictable.
If you aren't already logged in, log in. Click remember me to stop you getting booted out. At the top right corner of the screen you should now see a new menu. Click the link 'submit an article'. This page allows you to edit any articles you have written, see how many hits they have had, and enter new ones.
At the bottom of the page is a popup menu where you can chose what sort of article you want to upload - news, interview, review, article (ie essay), or diary (ie blog). When you have selected your content type you will be forwarded to a content submission page.
This page is divided into a number of sections where you can copy and past your article.
Important - If you are using Microsoft Word to write your article, use this button 
to paste it onto our system - this will strip out some of the strange formating Word includes. If you are using another text editor which adds strange formating (you'll realise this when your article appears a bit of a mess), please use this 
.
Otherwise just copy and paste as normal into the various sections (if you are copying from another web page, eg Wikipedia or your website, Firefox normally copies images and formating, which can save you a lot of time).
Title (required) - pretty self explanatory, enter the title for your story.
Category (required) - here you can choose a suitable category for your content to appear under (don't worry too much if one doesn't perfectly match, just choose the closest).
Intro (required) - the opening section of your story. Could just be the first paragraph, but ideally something which sums up what the rest of the article is about.
Body (optional) - this is where you put the rest of your article. If you article is only one or two paragraphs long you can put it all in the 'intro' box and leave the rest.
Metadata (optional) - to increase the chances of your article coming up high on search results, clicking on the metadata tab at the bottom will allow you the chance to enter a description of your piece and keywords.
If you want to add pictures there are two ways.
which will bring up a popup window where you can paste the URL (ie http://flickr.com/myphoto.jpg) of your image in the first box, and a description (for people with vision impairments) in the second box. Under the 'Appearance' tab of this window you can also change the size of the image, and align it to the left or the right of your text.which brings up Image Manager. At the bottom is a number of folders. Choose the folder that most suits your image and double click on it. Click the button and you can upload a JPG or GIF, which you can resize if needs be. Click on the appearance tab to change the alignment or size, and click insert.If you've got this far without tearing your hair out or giving up - well done and feel free to skip to number seven (or even eight). But thereare a few more things you can do to spice up your article if you are feeling particularly adventurous.
You will probably have noticed a number of familiar buttons - like 
for bold, 
for creating a numbered list and 
for making tabs. Have a play, they work just like in a word processor.
You can also make links by selecting the text you want to turn into a link, and clicking this 
button.
You can even climb under the hood and edit the raw HTML code with this button 
if that makes your day.
Perhaps coolest of all, you can embed video in the page to create your own personal one page film channel - or just to illustrate the story you are writing (eg an interview with a short filmmaker dotted through with examples of their work. To make it work you need to add a simple code:
{nameofprovider}video id{/nameofprovider}
There's a guide to doing this with most video providers here
But wait. This is the moment where things can possibly go wrong. If you've spent a bit long working on your article, our system can log you out. Therefore when you click save, it doesn't recognise you and deletes your article. Aagh! Big nightmare.
To avoid this, there is a simple trick. You open up a second window (in Firefox or Explorer). Go to Netribution, and if you are not logged in, then log in.
Go back to your article, click the big save button 
and your article will be forwarded to one of our editors to double check it's not spam or illegal or illegible, and it will soon appear on the front page.
If it doesn't work, or something goes wrong, or you've submitted an article and it hasn't appeared within 48 hours, or you think these instructions could be improved, then please drop us an email - hello @ netribution.co.uk
We cannot guarantee that we will include your article, or that it will appear on the front page of the site. We may change its category and formating for site consistency, and clean up any typos without telling you. Any other noticable material changes we will get in touch first. For more info see our terms and conditions.