Season Two: Programme

PROGRAMME: Wednesday 13 June

SEASON TWO GRAND FINALE

DOORS: 6:30pm / 1st FILM: 7:15pm

Season Two Closing Night will take place next Wednesday 13 June at the HiFi Club (2 Central Rd, Leeds, LS1 6DE). Doors will open at 6:30pm. 1st screenings will start promptly at 7:15pm.

To close the Season in grand style, we’ll be showcasing 4 exciting short films from up-and-coming UK talent and 4 award-winner shorts from the celebrated September 11 compilation.

We'll be showcasing directors such as actor/director Sean Penn and famous world cinema directors Claude Le Louch (Cannes Palme d’Or and Oscar winner for Un Homme, Une Femme), Shohei Imamura (Cannes Palme d’Or winner for Ballad of Narayama and The Eel) and Danis Tanovic (Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Foreign Film for No Man's Land).

Don’t forget! This is the end of Season Two, so don't miss out!

UK AND REGIONAL TALENT

• BRITTANIA SHORTS - UKFC NEW CINEMA FUND (4 shorts)

	Ten Thousand Pictures of You (Robin King, UK, 2006) 3min A rollercoaster ride through the animated pictures of Sarah’s world, as she seeks revenge upon the movie star who broke her heart.
	Cubs (Tom Harper, UK, 2006) 10min A boy tries to join a gang of inner-city kids, but learns that initiation comes at a price.
	Blood and Chips (Ryan Phillips, UK, 2006) 3min It’s a heatwave in Medway and in a local chip shop racial tension boils over with surprising conclusions.
	Billy's Day Out (Iain B. MacDonald, UK, 2004) 6min It’s a special day for 14-month old Billy. Mommy has packed a picnic and older sister, daddy and granny are all excited as they pile into the car. It has all the markings for a great bonding experience. It's never too early to start teaching children the important lessons in life.

• 11’09’’01 – SEPTEMBER 11 (4 Shorts)

	11'09'01: September 11th 2001 (Danis Tavonic, Bosnia, 2002) 11min On 9/11, a group of women who gather weekly to protest the horrors of war, are due to meet up. While the others wish to call off for the day, a young woman believes it's even a stronger call to action. “I wanted to convey that events like this should cease...because if it's like this, it's because we made it like this. It didn't happen by accident“. (Danis Tavonic)
	11'09'01: September 11th 2001 (Shohei Imamura, Japan, 2002) 11min The only one not referring directly to the events, but an interesting portrayal of a Japanese WWII veteran who thinks he's a snake. "Bush appealed to national solidarity and proclaimed his love of his country against the backdrop of the national flag. This image seemed somewhat excessive to me." (Shohei Imamura)
	11'09'01: September 11th 2001 (Claude Lelouch, France, 2002) 11min A deaf woman goes about her business in a lower Manhattan apartment while her lover returns from the events, a shattered, gray ghost. “I've been fascinated by this silent world. I wondered why not 11 minutes of silence in homage to all who died?" (Claude Le Louche)
	11'09'01: September 11th 2001 (Sean Penn, USA, 2002) 11min A lonely widower speaks to his dead wife every day. When the towers' disappearance lets light into his apartment, it's time for realisations. “The events, tragic as they were, seemed to have been overwhelmingly co-opted by the masses and the media... Loss comes every day and pain follows it. The question has always been how to be at peace with today and believe tomorrow can be better". (Sean Penn)

PROGRAMME: Wednesday 09 May

DOORS: 6:30pm / CANNES TALK: 7:00pm / 1st FILMS: 7:30pm

We’ll be showcasing award-winning shorts from UK and regional talent and from famous filmmakers such as Mira Nair from Monsoon Wedding and Alejandro González Iñárritu from Amores Perros and Babel, among many others.

In addition to the amazing line up of short films, Kultur will be hosting a discussion followed by a Q&A to get you in the mood for Cannes. Our guest speaker, HUGO HEPPELL (HEAD OF PRODUCTION, SCREEN YORKSHIRE), will give the A-Z on attending Cannes for festival virgins, followed by a Q&A. Please click here for the notes.

UK AND REGIONAL TALENT

• KULTUR DOES 20/20/2VISION 2007 (3 music videos)

	Kultur will showcase a selection of its 3 favourite music videos. Filmmakers will be present to discuss their journey throughout the 2-week Music Video Competition.

• BRITTANIA SHORTS - UKFC NEW CINEMA FUND 2006 (2 shorts)

	Bowl Cut (Dave Tucker, UK, 2006) 8min Bowl Cut, the frail boy who became the subject of cruel rumours. Today, his classmates, now 30-something, have set up new homes with their families, whereas he remains trapped as the town loner, burdened with stories that paint him as pest and misfit.
	Mash Up (Jesse Lawrence, UK, 2006) 10min A chance encounter on the street with an old enemy brings unexpected results for Robert and Marlon. As they try and overcome London’s worst Marijuana drought in recent history they realise something weird is going on and it involves their Somalian school friend Awat.

AWARD WINNING 11’09’’01 – SEPTEMBER 11 (3 Shorts)

	11'09'01: September 11th 2001 (Mira Nair, India, 2002)) 11min Based on a real incident, a missing young man, also in New York City, son of a Pakistani family, is first presumed to be a fugitive terrorist. “ I wanted to make a statement against the current of Islamophobia that is sweeping the world since September 11“. (Mira Nair)
	11'09'01: September 11th 2001 (Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mexico, 2002) 11min Does God's light guide us or blind us? “I was in LA. Paradoxically, I was searching for security for my family after having lived in Mexico City, which has become a tough and unsafe place to raise kids. Ironically, we were received by the terrorists”. (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
	11'09'01: September 11th 2001 (Idrissa Ouedraogo, Burkina Faso, 2002) 11min The son of an ailing woman spots Osama bin Laden in their village and gathers his buddies to help capture the fugitive terrorist, to get the U.S. reward. “I come from West Africa. Like all Africans, I was shocked by the violence of the attacks... I am also waiting for the same surge of solidarity with an Africa beset by malaria, AIDS, famine and drought”.

PROGRAMME: Wednesday 11 April (at the Faversham: don't forget!)

12 ANIMATE! Shorts (UK talent)

EXTENDING THE IMAGE 2 (commissions 1990 - 2006)

Kultur is proud to be showcasing the only animate! programme in support to their ‘call for submissions’ in the north of the UK. The animate! project is produced by Finetake, funded by Arts Council England & Channel 4 Television.

Kultur will bring to Leeds on Wednesday 11 April (at the Faversham) a programme of the best up-and-coming UK animation talent for audiences, artists and filmmakers alike. Philip Ilson, animate! brand promoter, co-founder of the Halloween Short Film Festival (London) and short film programmer for the London International Film Festival and Encounters (Bristol), will be introducing the programme and available for any questions and answers.

animate! tv is commissioning its 17th annual slate of personal projects for television, with running times of up to 6 minutes, and production budgets between £5,000 and £20,000. Individual works will be premiered on Channel 4 in autumn 2008 and will enjoy a long and highly visible international profile.

To be eligible for the competition, you must be an artist or animator with experience of experimental practice in film or digital media and be based in the UK. Celluloid, tape and digital technologies are all acceptable, in pure or hybrid form. For further information please visit www.animateonline.org.

	Miles from Anywhere (Gary Carpenter, UK, 1997) 4min On the surface, an exploration of environment and landscape. Hand-held photography close up on textures in a detailed examination of the real. From stone to sky, material to air, framing is all and holds the answers.
	Feeling My Way (Jonathan Hodgson, UK, 1997) 5min An account of a journey from home to work as seen through the filter of the conscious and subconscious mind. Through the use of moving collages and painterly animation laid over Hi-8 footage, the viewer is able to share the traveller’s experiences and his mental reactions to the trials and triviality of urban existence.
	Interstellar Stella (AL + AL, UK, 2006) 12min A child model is growing up inside a labyrinth formed from her advertising pictures. In this sumptuous but enigmatic and twisted drama we follow a photographer as he travels through the lens to do battle in a world of perfect illusions.
	15th February (Tim Webb, UK, 1995) 6min From a poem by Peter Reading, symbol and sadism meet live-action and stop-motion in this tale of rejection and its aftermath. There’s even a credit for ‘hair knotting on heart‘.
	Jukebox (Run Wrake, UK, 1994) 5min Street life, it’s the only life I know. In this uptempo party piece, xerox, paint and found-sound montage in with Curtis Mayfield, moving on up into fragmented experience.
	Ferment (Tim Macmillan, UK, 1999) 5min In a quiet city square an old man clutches his chest and falls to the ground, and time stands still. We travel from the square, down streets, through buildings – the human condition unfolds in glimpses of frozen moments.
	Hotel Central (Matt Hulse, UK, 2000) 10min Hats on for this journey into an old country past. Room service with a difference: the phone rings in the wardrobe or the wilds. Nobody and everyman home. A grab bag of styles help us to feel like a man adrift in woodland.
	Kingdom Protista (Andrew Kötting, UK, 2000) 5min A few drops of pond water rich in bottom sediments, seen under a microscope can quickly confirm the existence of another world. In dimensions that fall between those of bacteria and the smallest of animals, there exists a realm of life so diverse that you have to sit and wonder. This is the Kingdom of Protista and like all living things, it needs to suck itself off.
	Purple Grey (Sebastian Buerkner, UK, 2006) 7min A vivid imagination can be a seductive but debilitating distraction from life. Twisted fantasies, associations and flashbacks offer an enticing escape, and even a mundane room may be made more bearable by mentally morphing space and time. But the real world continues, demanding, undermining, overwhelming…
	Scrutiny (Ian Cross, UK, 1995) 7min ”Naked came I out of my mother’s womb and naked shall I return” Job 1.21. Scrutiny questions the accepted ‘nature of things’ – birth, sex, marriage, death and DIY. Rapid fire animation, fidgeting on the film’s surface, challenges us to make sense of it, while the contrasting live action lulls us into a false sense of familiarity. A journey is depicted, taking us through the heart of the country and ending amidst the seemingly chaotic life of a city.
	Proximity (Inger Lise Hansen, UK, 2006) 4min An upside-down time-lapse camera moves along a beach, inverting the sand and sky as the weather changes. The result is a disorienting and mysterious space where the originally solid ground at the top of the frame appears to be sliding past like a lava stream.
	Sunset Strip (Kayla Parker, UK, 1996) 3min 12 frame, half second days. A year of sunsets. Brakhage-style interventions directly onto film stock in this record of light and cloud. Time-lapse goes transcendent with a little help from nail varnish, petals and stockings. A day-by-day diary of a whole year’s sunsets. The result is a dazzling expression of the visual music revealed by 365 setting suns.

PROGRAMME: Wednesday 14 March

3 Britannia Shorts (UK and regional talent)

The Nyuggle (Lee Kern, UK, 2006)
3min

The crooked legend of a bizarre, horse-like creature native to the Shetland Isles that appears to lull and trick unsuspecting, weary travellers.

Nobody Loves a Fairy When She’s Old (Jez Coram, UK, 2005)
7min

Sylvia is connected to an elaborate life support machine. She’s alienated from society and suffers incarcerated in a remote hospital. A doctor tends to her needs but it is not enough for Sylvia. She formulates a plan so she no longer has to suffer alone.

Avow (Tony O’Reilly, UK, 2004)
4 min

A confession made for and sent to the police by a killer.

3 Award-Winner x 11’ 09” 01 – September 11 Shorts

11'09'01: September 11th 2001 (Amos Gitai, Israel, 2002)
11 min

The film recalls the Palestinian suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on the same date as the attack in New York.
“On the morning of September 11... we were told to turn on the television set and the news of the Twin Towers attack started to pour in. Television didn’t hesitate to use and reuse and reuse the spectacular dimension of this shocking news.“ (Amos Gitai)

11'09'01: September 11th 2001 (Samira Makhmalbaf, Iran, 2002)
11 min

The film shows the struggle of a primary teacher in Afghanistan trying to get her pupils to do a 1 min silence for the victims of the September 11 events in New York.
“When I saw those two towers collapsing on TV... I thought I was watching a film with special effects... I faced a double anxiety because I had friends in both America and Afghanistan.” (Samira Makhmalbaf)

11'09'01: September 11th 2001 (Ken Loach, UK, 2002)
11 min

The film allude to U.S. complicity in terrorist acts in Chile against Allende, who died on September 11, 1973
“I was at my mother’s house in the Midlands. I was astounded by the audacity and horror of the attack, but, in retrospect, some such attack has been inevitable.” (Ken Loach)