The EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL kicks off this week, 15 – 26 June
http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/

There’s a lot happening across the 12 days of the Festival, but we wanted to pick out a few highlights and events (some of which are connected with our partners and fellow travellers):

• Nokia Short Weekender
23 – 26 June
http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/films?src=strandlink&section=Nokia%2BShorts...
A selection of international shorts including drama, animation and documentary, including the UK premiers of the Bridging The Gap Scottish Documentary Institute documentary scheme, the Channel 4 Coming Up new talent scheme, and a retrospective of short films by Canadian director Guy Maddin.
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BAFTA and Shooting People present Short Sighted!
Thursday 23 June
An intensive day devoted to helping you get your short film distributed. The sessions cover every step in the process of getting your film out to an audience and the people who might fund future work, from maximising your film’s festival life to knowing the inside on traditional short film sales to TV and DVD. They also aim to help you judge when and where to put your film online, to look at where short film exhibition is headed in this digital age, and how this might start to generate revenue for filmmakers.
Speakers include: Rebecca Mark Lawson, Philip Ilson (London Short Film Festival / Branchage Festival / BFI London Film Festival), Chris Tidman (Shorts International), Liz Harkman (Encounters Short Film Festival), Hannah Vincent (Itzon), Jamie Dolling (You Tube) and Jon Reiss.
http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/films/2011/bafta-and-shooting-people-short-...

• What is the state of the Film Financing in the UK today? (in association with Branchage School)
Saturday 18 June, 3pm. Festivalhouse@Teviot - Dining Room
Access: EIFF Pass holders only
http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/industry/industry-events-programme-2011-16-...
2010 was dominated by political change; Producers braced themselves for major policy changes and drastic cuts. One year on, how is the current economic climate, the pound to the euro scenario, and the closure of the UK Film Council affecting productions? Is private finance the most likely way to get films funded in the current day? Drawing on the industries film financiers and producers, the panel will discuss changes in film financing and its possible outcomes. Panelists include Rebecca Mark Lawson (Tyke Films), Paul Welsh (Digicult), and Adam Betteridge (Premiere Picture)

• Rich Pickings: Disappearing Act
Saturday 18 June
http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/films/2011/rich-pickings-disappearing-act
Over 750,000 people in the UK suffer from dementia. This event presents a series of short films exploring the disease in its many forms, from the viewpoint of sufferers and carers alike. Alongside affecting tales of loss, confusion and isolation, this wandering journey offers unexpected moments of comic absurdity, clarity of insight and joy of life. The screening will be followed by a discussion with filmmakers and scientists, as well as those who have experienced dementia, who will together investigate the thoughts and stories addressed in the films and look at other issues around this terrifying but common condition.

• The New Cinephilia
Thursday 16 June, 9.30am – 6pm Inspace | 6.30pm – 8pm Festivalhouse @ Teviot
http://projectcinephilia.mubi.com/event/
Opening with lively presentations from renowned figures in contemporary cinema, “Project: New Cinephilia” will be a unique gathering of diverse voices engaging in conversation about the current landscape for film appreciation and evaluation, taking place at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011.
A day long symposium at Inspace consisting of six sessions, each one exploring a different area of cinephilia and its place within our lives. Sessions will explore reading film – how we position ourselves when deciphering cinema in the 21st Century, getting your voice heard – a masterclass in developing your own fanzine or blog, and discussions on how film is consumed, taught and understood within our lives. The day will be rounded off with a Twitterthon at Festivalhouse @ Teviot, a 140 character film critic deathmatch where writers battle it out on the topics of modern day cinephilia using only the power and reach of twitter.
http://projectcinephilia.mubi.com/

• Midnight Movies: Polyester
Friday 24 June, 11.30pm
http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/films/2011/midnight-movies-polyester
Midnight Movies celebrate the 30th anniversary of John Waters' hilariously odorous comedy Polyester, with a uniquely aromatic screening. Originally shown in Odorama, the film stars drag queen Divine as a put upon housewife faced with an adulterous husband, perverted children... and bad smells! Show off your finest polyester at a pre-screening party in the Filmhouse bar with music, cocktails plus prizes for the best dressed ... and worst smelling! Presented in partnership with Little Joe Magazine.

• Sound Tracks
http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/films?src=adv&country=&section=Sound%2BTrac...
Introducing the new Sound Tracks strand for Edinburgh International Film Festival, created by EIFF with Domino Records, and curated by Edinburgh International Film Festival and www.tentracks.co.uk , for your audiovisual pleasure. Includes music and film events featuring Chemikal Underground, Domino, the Institute Francaise, Pram, and Kinetica.
Full up to date info on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=176722715718340

BUT DO CHECK THE EDINBURGH FILM FESTIVAL WEBSITE FOR THE FULL FESTIVAL PROGRAMME INFORMATION…http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/

FOLLY FOR A FLYOVER
From 24 June, Hackney Wick http://www.follyforaflyover.co.uk/

We’re also excited, as on the 24th June, a building will appear in the gap between the East and Westbound traffic of the A12 where is crosses the Lea Navigation Canal.
Folly for a Flyover will host a six week programme of cinema, performance and play, including boat tours, screenings and drop-in workshops, produced by Assemble CIC in conjunction with CREATE 2011 and The Barbican Art Gallery.
Full events & screening programme at http://www.follyforaflyover.co.uk/events/

London Short Film Festival and Branchage Festival will be presenting screenings & events as follows:

Friday 1st July: MIDDLE OF THE ROAD
London Short Film Festival presents Architecturally Controversially, a programme of short films celebrating and exploring the romance and banality of the motorway alongside controversial aspects of 20th century architecture mixing documentary and experimental work. There’s a special focus on East London too, looking at the A13 and M11 roads and at the brutalist social housing architecture of post-war East End.
Plus a live performance from East London indie band Peggy Sue.

Saturday 16th July: Branchage Festival Present: MINNIE THE MOOCHER and GERTIE AND HER GAIETY
A night of burlesque delight, jazz, dance and swing presented by Branchage Festival. Also featuring The Poetics of Pace, produced the OJO, originally for the Sum of Parts at the Sadlers Wells.

Folly for a Flyover also takes in a film programme from FLASH GORDON to Lotte Reiniger, from TOY STORY to Julian Temple’s REQUIEM FOR DETROIT, and many more plus shorts and live music; it’s an exciting programme!

We want you to check out these filmic books and websites:


• The End: An Electric Sheep Anthology
www.electricsheepmagazine.com / Published by Strange Attractor Press - http://strangeattractor.co.uk
From the gutter to the avant-garde, The End: An Electric Sheep Anthology brings together a mind-bendingly eclectic programme of films, authors, artists and directors to create a unique new vision of cinema past, present and future. Follow Electric Sheep into the darkness and you’ll find Bill Morrison’s chemical ghosts, the bad girls of 50s exploitation films, apocalyptic evangelical cinema, the human centipede, Spanish zombies, Japanese nihilists, Henri-Georges Clouzot’s lost masterpiece Inferno, Ingmar Bergman’s visions of the end and David Lynch’s soundtracks of decay.
Contributors include Jack Sargeant, author of Deathtrippping: The Extreme Underground; Jason Wood, author of The Faber Book of Mexican Cinema; James Rose, author of Beyond Hammer: Contemporary British Horror Cinema; Greg Klymkiw, producer of Guy Maddin’s Careful; Frances Morgan, former editor of Plan B Magazine; Jim Harper, author of Flowers From Hell: The Modern Japanese Horror Film; as well as the Brothers Quay and Peter Whitehead among many others.

• Fat Rat Films
http://www.fatratfilms.co.uk/index/Home.html
Check out documentary filmmakers Gemma & Fred’s Fat Rat Films website, with links to their showreel.
They have had their short UK Uncut screened at last week’s Sheffield Doc/Fest; it's up close and personal with the protest group who in four short months have brought Vodafone, Topshop and Boots to their knees.
Another of their shorts Oil & Water is selected to be premiered at Silverdocs Festival, selected out of 2,200 submissions and one of five films produced in the UK that has been chosen.
http://realscreen.com/2011/05/26/silverdocs-unveils-slate/

• Tales from the Cutting Room Floor
http://cuttingroomtales.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/head-leader/
filmmaker Guy Ducker’s on-going blog about the UK film industry, dealing with matters concerning screenwriting, directing and editing.

And here’s some film screenings and other interesting sounding events etc coming up into late June and early July:

1. Kino London at Open City, UCL Central London, from 17 June www.kinolondon.com/kino-at-open-city
2. Late at the Library: Out of This World, British Library St Pancras, Friday 17 June www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/outof/events/event121915.html
3. Home of Metal, Birmingham, from 18 June www.homeofmetal.com
4. An Evening of Absinthe, The Water Poet London E1, Weds 29 June http://transsexualtransylvania.co.uk/2011/06/08/underground-picturehouse
5. The Exploding Cinema presents The Disposable Film Festival, The Others Stoke Newington, Sat 9 July www.explodingcinema.org



1. Kino London at Open City
Screen your short doc in the open air this weekend with Kino!
http://www.kinolondon.com/kino-at-open-city/

Kino takes its open-mic short film night into the open air this weekend with two screenings at Open City London Documentary Festival on Friday 17 June & Saturday 18 June.
It kicks off at 9pm at the specially constructed Magnificent Revolution £1 cinema, In the South Quad at UCL, central London.
There are still a couple of screening slots available for filmmakers with short docs, 6 minutes or under. Get in touch asap to book yourself in!

2. LATE at the Library: Out of this World special with Global Communication / The Radio Science Orchestra
Fri 17 Jun, 7.30pm
The British Library
St Pancras
96 Euston Road
London NW1
£12.50
http://www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/outof/events/event121915.html

The British Library celebrates Out of this World: Science Fiction but not as you know it with a unique music event featuring rare live performances by Global Communication and The Radio Science Orchestra plus exceptional DJs Rob da Bank and Jon Hopkins.
The retro-space sound of the Radio Science Orchestra featuring theremin and other futuristic instruments is the brainchild of Bruce Woolley. Tonight’s special show is entitled Return To Mars and features the visionary SF musings of writer Ken Hollings.
Closing the night will be Global Communication, Tom Middleton and Mark Pritchard’s legendary act conducting a live recreation of the contents of one of the electronica standards of the 1990s, their classic album 76:14.
Other attractions on the night include the weird and wonderful club performers the Immaculate Extremists, appearing as aliens, space-age tourists and steampunk stormtroopers.
Everyone is encouraged to dress futuristically, in sci-fi glamour or in silver. The event will feature a sci-fi salon offering makeovers provided by the fabulous colours and infinite possibilities of make up brand Illamasqua and the London College of Fashion, so by the end of the night expect the Library to be thronged by creatures and people from another world!

3. HOME OF METAL
From 18 June at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Wolverhampton Art Gallery & The New Art Gallery Walsall
http://www.homeofmetal.com
Home of Metal is a celebration of the music that was born in the Black Country and Birmingham, and is a project created and produced by Capsule. Home of Metal brings people together to share their passion and explore themes of Heavy Metal through exhibitions, film screenings, live events, a conference and family friendly activities. Four decades since Heavy Metal was unleashed onto an unsuspecting world, Home of Metal honours a truly global musical phenomenon.
Home of Metal aims to celebrate the bands that helped put Birmingham & the Black Country on the musical map, but also had the imagination and talent to create new genres and movements, all in their own individual ways. From Black Sabbath, unquestionably the founding fathers of Heavy Metal who introduced a sense of darkness, the supernatural, and huge, heavy riffs to an era still celebrating peace, love and flower power; Led Zeppelin, arguably one of the world’s biggest ever bands, who were one of the first to dirty up RnB and recreate it as Hard Rock; Judas Priest , defenders of the faith whose twin guitar attack paved the way for multitudes of melodic metal acts in their wake. The 80s and 90s are also represented by Napalm Death, whose first two albums introduced grindcore to an unsuspecting world, and finally Godflesh, whose brooding, desolate soundscapes pioneered industrial metal.
Apart from their postal codes and accents, all of these bands share a common trait in that they all were unwilling to conform to the established rules and guidelines of their respective musical scenes, and instead, embraced originality and all brought something staggeringly new to their respective musical scenes, and for the most part, established new genres, sub-cultures and continue to inspire to this day.

4. An Evening of Absinthe
29 June, 6.30pm
The Water Poet
9 - 11 Folgate St
London E1
http://transsexualtransylvania.co.uk/2011/06/08/underground-picturehouse/
TICKETS £3 - BOOK HERE: http://wegottickets.com/transylvania
Only very limited no. of tickets available on the door.

Come and join us for an evening of Absinthe, featuring rare shorts from the silent film era including: LA BONNE ABSINTHE (1899) and ABSINTHE (1913). Followed by our main feature: BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS (Dir. Stephen Fry, 2003) - a portrayal of hedonistic 1930s London, based on the Evelyn Waugh novel Vile Bodies.
Enjoy a Green Beast complimentary cocktail on arrival and learn the truth behind the Green Fairy while partaking in La Louche – a ritual of 19th Century bohemian France.
FREE popcorn!

5. Exploding Cinema presents Disposable Film Festival 2011
THE OTHERS
6-8 Manor Road
Stoke Newington, London, N16 5SA
Saturday 9 July, 8pm
£5 entry (no concs)
http://www.explodingcinema.org/

Exploding Cinema hosts the London screening of San Francisco’s The Disposable Film Festival 2011. “one of the coolest film festivals” – MovieMaker magazine
The Disposables: They may not all be 1080p HD, but they can go places no other camera can… and they SEE things we can only dream of. There are films being made right here and now that didn’t even exist in our imagination.
A screening of films made exclusively on disposable and unconventional media: Phones, flipcams, webcams, helmetcams, scanners, USB microscopes, and vehicle rearview video systems.

London’s Exploding Cinema have been showcasing the latest, rawest, cutting edge and underground films for 20 years. This is the third year Exploding have hosted the Disposable Film festival and in those three years the Disposable genre has appropriately exploded.