Opening with the release of latest film, The Confessions of Thomas Quick
Friday August 14 – Thursday August 20 2015
Tag Archives: Documentary
Eden And Michaela Strachan To Find The Next Nature Filmmakers
Eden Shorts: Nature Filmmaker of the Year
Eden, Britain’s leading natural history channel today announced a brand new nationwide and first-ever amateur nature filmmaking competition, Eden Shorts.
The aim of the competition is to inspire budding filmmakers to produce one-minute short films, which capture the natural world in all its beauty and wonder. It opens on the 7th July and closes on 27th September 2014. Entrants can find information on how to enter at edentv.co.uk/shorts.
The winners will have their work showcased on-air on Eden, as well as some other prizes on offer for one overall winner. These will be picked by an expert judging panel, including wildlife enthusiast and TV presenter, Michaela Strachan.
Michaela commented; “’I think Eden Shorts is a fantastic idea and an amazing opportunity for amateur wildlife filmmakers to be creative and show their work. To get the opportunity to showcase your talent on the channel is such an incredible opportunity, it’s like the ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ of the wildlife film making world. The criteria is very open so it’ll be really interesting to see what people come up with. It’s a tough world to get into and this could give untapped talent a perfect platform to show off!’
Filmmaking technology is now far more accessible, making it easier for passionate individuals to obtain beautiful moving images of the natural world. Sir David Attenborough believes that the future of natural history communication mostly rests with dedicated amateurs who will film wildlife around them, he was quoted recently saying people will capture “the mating of a dragonfly on a pond which may be 100 yards from their home and put that on the web.”
Emma Boston, General Manager of Eden, added; “Eden Shorts is looking for high quality amateur films, which showcase the wonder of the natural world. This could consist of a time-lapse of a flower opening or the setting sun, a piece to camera about nature or local wildlife projects, a classic wildlife film of a favourite animal or even an animation.
More than anything the competition asks entrants to be creative! Eden Shorts is looking for live-action footage of nature, presenters talking to camera, animations, an interview or any other means that help to convey the film’s message.”
Eden celebrates the wonder of nature, and features the very best wildlife, science and adventure programming. The channel shows the best of the BBC’s Natural History Unit with Sir David Attenborough, and science programming with Professor Brian Cox, as well as UK premiere acquisitions that explore the world around us and some spectacular adventure and travel programmes.
Instructions on how to enter
To enter the competition, each entrant must upload a Short Film lasting no more than 1 minute to their personal YouTube account. Entrants must then submit the relevant URL for their Short Film together with their personal email address via the Competition entry form application located on the Eden website at eden.uktv.co.uk.
Scarlet Starlings | Music Profile
Album released June 1st 2014 Unsigned. Independent release.
Scarlet Starlings are a London-based folk rock band made up of cousins, siblings and significant others. They grew up listening to their large musical family playing jangly folk music like Fairport Convention, Crosby, Stills & Nash and The McGarrigles. Granny Maisie, the family matriarch, taught each of them how to play on an old Takamine guitar held together by a piece of Meccano nailed to the bridge. Mike Scott brought his love of electro pop and Grant Lee Buffalo to the mix – he and Sara-Mae have been writing songs together for years. Now, they love bands like Fleet Foxes, Sufjan Stevens, Conor Oberst and Unknown Mortal Orchestra.
Their sound will take you down some unexpected roads where folk, indie and alt country deliciously combine with harmonies and sweet melodic riffs.
They are Sara-Mae and Mike Scott, Simon Tuson, Joe and Jen Tuson and Talitha Gamaroff.
Their music was on the soundtrack of 2011 Portabello Film Festival award winning documentary, ‘Hard to Get: From Patient to PinUp. One of their songs ‘Ransom’ was played on Gary Crowley’s BBC London Calling radio show. They have played at festivals Lakefest 2013, Shuffle Fest London 2013 and a variety of venues across London including The Old Queens Head Islington, Folklore at the Half Moon in Putney, Into the Warm at The Harrison Kings Cross and many more.
The debut album has been a year in the making and includes these 9 tracks:
1. You Give It All Away 2. So Glad You Stayed 3. Anyone Can Say I Love You 4. The Wolf 5. Death of Innocence 6. Montauk 7. Beckons 8. Don’t Fix it 9. Shape You’re In
It was mostly recorded at a small studio just outside Oxford, England. Jason King at Shed Studios recorded So Glad You Stayed, The Wolf, Montauk, You Give It All Away and Beckons. John Laurence (of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci) and Geraint Jones mixed and mastered those tracks. Daniel Green of Laish mixed and mastered Anyone Can Say I Love You, Death of Innocence, Don’t Fix it and Shape You’re In.
Hunt vs Lauda DVD Review
For racing fans, Hunt Vs Lauda: Grand Prix’s Greatest Racing Rivals is a documentary between two legends. Even for those who are not, it is still fascinating.
The victory duel for the 1976 Formula 1 World Championship has become the stuff of legend. The spectacular battle for supremacy that raged between Austrian Niki Lauda and ‘True Brit’ James Hunt has never been equalled and now this amazing story is told in a fascinating new documentary Hunt Vs Lauda: Grand Prix’s Greatest Racing Rivals.
After almost burning to death in his car at the Nurburgring track, Lauda came back from the dead and fought Hunt all the way to the last race of the season…But this film is no simple tale of driver-versus-driver: both men had their demons, but the forces that threatened them most were bred from the insane circus that surrounded them.
This powerful documentary originally aired on BBC4 and is now out on DVD courtesy of Delta Leisure
Told through unseen footage and exclusive interviews with the team managers, families, journalists and friends who were in the front row it captures the heart of the 1970s and the season that changed Formula 1 forever.
This documentary is inspiring and breathtaking. We even felt emotional a few times. A truly stunning documentary with lots of great stuff we had never seen before. A must-watch.
‘I did not want to start the race at the Nurburgring…I did so out of loyalty towards my firm and my friends. It was not a good compromise for me’ Niki Lauda
‘Niki was the only bloke who could get half his face burnt off and come out better looking’ James Hunt
Title: Hunt Vs Lauda: Grand Prix’s Greatest Racing Rivals
Cert: 15 Cat.
Running time: 52 mins approx.
Hunt Vs Lauda: Grand Prix’s Greatest Racing Rivals (BBC Official) [DVD]
One Direction: This Is Us DVD Released
Follow international pop sensation One Direction from their humble hometown beginnings to the global phenomenon in ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US, arriving in an “Ultimate Fan Edition” coming to Blu-ray3D, Blu-rayand DVD with UltraViolet™ December 19th from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Also available in 3D format, the special edition Blu-ray release features both original theatrical and extended fan cuts of the feature film. The extended cut includes 20 minutes of new footage and four additional songs for fans to treasure.
As MTV’s 2012 Artist of the Year, Academy Award nominated director Morgan Spurlock (Best Documentary, Super Size Me, 2004) and producer Simon Cowell (TV’s “The X Factor”) give fans a captivating and intimate, all-access look at the journey of One Direction, chronicling the group’s almost immediate rise to superstardom. Never-before-seen footage from the “Ultimate Fan Edition” includes three exclusive featurettes with behind-the-scenes footage of Niall, Zayn, Liam, Harry and Louis having fun at a radio station in Japan and paying a visit to Madame Tussauds™ wax museum to experience their own sculptures being created. This edition will also feature “Up All Night” – two mini movies previously only seen at the live concert. ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US comes with extended scenes and seven featurettes where fans will have the opportunity to go backstage with the group as they prepare for one of their biggest performances of the year and follow them on visits back to their hometowns with the cameras rolling. Also included is the Music Video for fan-favourite “Best Song Ever”, the lead single from the group’s new album Midnight Memories, released globally on November 25th.
ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US will also be available on single-disc DVD featuring the original theatrical version of the film along with select featurettes from the “Ultimate Fan Edition.”
More Than Honey | Film Review
Acclaimed Swiss director Markus Imhoof’s new project More Than Honey has made a noticeable splash in the world of documentary filmmaking, picking up numerous awards including a Lola (German Film Award) for best documentary. It is a simple yet elegantly composed film confronting a frighteningly contemporary issue; the unexplained deterioration of the global bee population. The downward spiralling figures of colonies over the past fifteen years and across nations have left scientists and bee farmers dumbfounded. The long term effects of ‘colony collapse disorder’ (as the phenomenon has been named) could be devastating for both agriculture and economy worldwide. Imhoff travels across the world and meets various beekeepers, business owners and scientists as they explain the disaster confronting them and what they believe to be the causes behind it.
In his approach to what admittedly sounds like fairly dry subject matter, More Than Honey fuses fact and humanity in an engaging and subtle manner that avoids any sense of preaching. The film has running narration from Imhoof referring to his childhood memories of beekeeping in his family and remembering its unique mix of family values and commerce. The English translation is provided by the great actor John Hurt, whose warm tones still have an air of sombre fragility that match the tone of Imhoof’s recollections and findings. Rather than settle on traditional talking head interviews, the film takes its time with every subject, spending time observing them in their specific locale and professions. One of the most memorable subjects, beekeeper Fred Jaggi, is shown in particular methodical detail in his native German countryside, from tending to his hives to terminating rogue queens (ie. queens guilty of infidelity!). There are no hurried edits, no voiceovers layered over his own and no artificial sentiments. As a result there is far more genuine empathy than a lot of other documentaries would be able to muster even with potentially more attention grabbing subject matter. The sight of the old man’s calm yet forlorn face as a lost beehive is burned speaks volumes.
Then there is the astonishing footage of bees themselves, filmed in their natural habitat with micro cameras and in stunning high definition quality. Looming out of their honeycombs and swarming over one another and their queens, the footage captured is at once bizarre, otherworldly and yet oddly beautiful; the smallest aspects of nature blown up to epic scope cinema. Anyone uncomfortable around insects may obviously find this approach not entirely comfortable but it makes a refreshing change from the normal depiction of insects in cinema as a source of disgust or stupidly vengeful nature. Rather the film refreshingly focuses on the unwarranted wrath that we may have foisted upon them.
It is possible to argue that Imhoff doesn’t bring his intertwining threads to a thorough conclusion but since this is an ongoing environmental crisis, a pat ending for comforts sake would ring false. Though there is a sliver of hope provided, Imhoff wants to keep this mysterious epidemic fresh in the viewer’s perspective and get them thinking and talking about something that we take for granted being in genuine danger of disappearing completely. With a clear vision and unfussy style, he has constructed and powerful understated wake up call.
I Am Breathing Film Review
The thin space between life and death becomes an unlikely source of optimism and hope in the face of grueling adversity, in this powerful yet restrained documentary. It follows the last months in the life of Neil Platt, a Yorkshire based architect who contracted Motor Neurone Disease in his early thirties and was left paralysed from the neck down and dependent on breathing apparatus. Under no illusions to the outcome of his diagnosis, Neil welcomes the filmmakers (one of whom he befriended at art school in Edinburgh) into his home and family life and communicates, via interviews and an online blog he sets up, his struggle with the disease, his reflections on his life to date and the legacy he wishes to leave behind for his infant son Oscar.
From its opening scenes, any sense that we the audience are in for a thoroughly maudlin and downbeat experience are quickly and quietly dispelled by Platt’s engaging and immensely likeable presence. The most courageous acts can be the most subtle and the calm and dignity that he approaches his situation with is incredibly moving. Directing duo Emma Davie and Morag McKinnon keep interviews and observations stripped down and low key, settling for tight close ups for interviews and a handheld roaming camera to follow Platt’s interaction with family and friends and his daily tasks. There’s a genuine ‘fly on the wall’ feel to the proceedings and lengthy sequences that follow the minute details and tasks that suddenly seem to require a Herculean effort. There’s a sharp juxtaposition between a recognisable suburban home setting and the cold, sterile heaps of medical equipment that clutter the family home. However far from settling for a miserabilist tone there’s a gentle and inspiring sense of humour in Platt’s observations of this new take on home life and his struggles with faulty assistance equipment. In one great scene, he recounts how his phone company can’t quite grasp that he won’t be alive in order to renew his phone contract (‘We can offer you three months for free?’)
When the directors do decide to break away from the low key formalism, they thankfully do it in tasteful and reserved manner. We are treated to animated depictions of Platt’s blog posts on Plattitude (every bit as droll and upbeat as interviews), diagrams of his work in architecture home albums and video of early life and university where he met his wife Louise, who is never far from his side and appears as rocksteady support for her husband. Platt recounts his eventful life prior to his diagnosis, his passion for motorcycling and the close knit unit of family and friends he has met over the years. The depictions of an active and healthy lifestyle underline the tragic nature of the illness without oversentimizing the issue. As well as creating an itemised catalogue of personal items that he plans to leave to his son for later years, Platt intends the film itself to be a testament not just to his struggle with the disease but as a human being. In this regards I Am Breathing takes on an astonishingly personal and thought-provoking edge. How do you begin to sum up your life when you when you know it is being robbed from you in such a cruel manner? What do you plan to say and leave behind for your son who will have only vague memories of you? The honesty and straightforwardness of these reflections is quietly devastating.
As the inevitable draws closer and Neil’s methods of communication begin to fall away, the filmmakers keep their respective distance but stay with him to record his final blog entry and goodbyes at a hospice. It’s these scenes that are the most gruelling and challenging to get through. Some may argue they toe the line of taste yet it is utterly to the filmmakers credit that they tackle such a painful, intimate moment with such reservation. Rather than trite sentiment they end on an image of seeming mundanity yet heartbreaking pogiance. As harrowing as the themes approached in I Am Breathing can be, the tone of the direction and the inspiring nature of the man at the heart of it create a warm, rich and incredibly moving portrait of not just a fight against illness but the rhythm of life itself. Along with a premiere screen at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, I Am Breathing is set to have its wide release in the UK and international community screenings on 21st June, Motor Neurone Global Awareness Day. The Scottish Documentary Institute (SDI) and Motor Neurone Disease Association (MND Association) are collaborating to promote screenings of the film and awareness of the disease in general. A fitting tribute to both the film and the man at its centre.
Documentary Film Project “Kickstarted” Gives Back to Crowdfunding Community with Original Video Series
It has been a very exciting week for LA filmmakers Jay Armitage, Jason Cooper and Chris Gartin since their own Kickstarter campaign began for their documentary feature film “Kickstarted,” the first documentary feature film for, by and about the crowdfunding revolution. Their goal is to raise $85,000 to complete the film they’ve been working on for the past year, where they have interviewed crowdfunding newsmakers like Zach Braff, Amanda Palmer, Maxwell Salzberg, Lisa Fetterman, John Vanderslice, Brian Fargo and many others.
Shrewdly, before launching their Kickstarter campaign on May 27, the trio released part of their Zach Braff interview on May 8, and that video was included in a feature story on Mashable that introduced the project to the world. To date, that video has generated well over 50,000 views per week. The filmmakers are shaping-up all this content which in Cooper’s words, “Tells the inspiring and dramatic stories of artists, makers and entrepreneurs who are harnessing the crowd to achieve the impossible,” and they are also continuing to colorfully share their key findings and insights with the growing international community of makers and crowdfunding enthusiasts.
In their introductory and trailer video, Armitage says, “We’ve taken this film as far as we can with our own resources and now need your help to complete it.” Since Mashable’s Eric Larson wrote his follow-up story on “Kickstarted” on May 30, the project is now 18% funded. Braff himself recently appeared on the cover of Variety with these words: “Go Fund Yourself: Zach Braff made finding financing on Kickstarter look easy. But is it?” That’s the exact type of question that Cooper, Armitage and Gartin have set out to answer with their project, and along the way, they are sharing their knowledge in the hopes of raising the money to finish their film.
Earlier this week, they released the first two in a series of original “Funded in 60 Seconds” episodes, presenting crowdfunding tips, insights and best practices from people who are using crowdfunding to pursue their dreams. Episode one features Lisa Fetterman of Nomiku, who had a goal of raising $200,000, and raised nearly $600,000, while episode two features musician Amanda Palmer, who raised almost $1.2 million to launch her new album. Also this week, in association with Indiewire, they kicked-off an original “Top 5” series with their first release, “Five Controversial Crowdfunding Moments.” These videos and others to come are currently available in their entirety for free on the Kickstarted YouTube channel.
As the excitement builds, instead of watching the funds come in, the “Kickstarted” filmmakers are seizing the opportunity to meet, network with – and often, film – others who are making headlines with their own crowdfunded projects. Naturally, “Giving back” is a big part of this project’s DNA: “We are a participating member in Kicking It Forward and pledge to give five percent of any profits back to other crowdfunding projects,” Cooper has said.
“We’re hoping that our efforts to help educate and cross-promote our colleagues will make it clear that the more people put into our project, the more they and others in the community will get out of our efforts,” added Armitage.
To learn more about the project please visit http://www.kickstartedmovie.