After hearing Peter Dekom's provocative keynote speech at the Vancouver Film and Television Forum (they dropped the word "Trade" from the Forum's title this year, I notice), I missed most of the Film Day and Wednesday's Television themed day. But I was back for the full day of the Storyville panels and events.
Following the Vancouver Film and Television Forum's Storyville morning session, with the introductions to the panel of commissing editors, we had the pitching session in the afternoon. What a contrast to the last pitching session that I saw at the VIFF Trade Forum.
The implosion of the U.S. housing bubble last year, and the subsequent fallout, is the subject of several documentaries at this year's Vancouver International Film Festival (1-16 October). Part of a finance related strand entitled Follow The Money, the docs try to untangle the complex financial web behind the sub-prime disaster
For Peter Dekom, a dry-humoured, Hollywood entertainment lawyer, the single most important factor right now in human development is the speed at which our world is changing.
Dekom, who gave the Vancouver Film and Television Forum keynote talk on Tuesday morning, likes to refer to this "diabolical change" as hyperacceleration.
The 17th Raindance Film Festival gets underway at the Apollo Cinema in London on Wed Sept 30th with an opening showing of the film "Humpday" an uproarious comedy directed by Lynn Shelton about two pals Ben and Andrew who get together to shoot a film to be submitted in their local porn festival - it will be a film that will go 'beyond gay' ! Humpday is due for general release in the Autumn.
The Raindance Fest is an excellent opportunity to see Indie films covering a wide-ranging of subjects, many of which are receiving a UK premiere at the fest ahead of general release soon.
On Saturday 3rd October, as part of BAFTA's special global Spotlight on China curated by Filming East Festival, BAFTA will be presenting a day devoted to Chinese cinema.
The day will offer a selection of fantastic Chinese films as well as some of China’s emerging film talent, but the day will also give audiences an opportunity to get involved in a free film maker’s Q&A.
Here's the crucial info :
Saturday 03 October
12:30 The Longest Night in Shanghai (Yoru no shanghai), Director Zhang Yibai, 2007, 110mins
Princess Anne Theatre - Ticket price
The 1st October sees the launch of The 14 Islands Film Challenge, a nationwide search to find "the UK’s most talented professional or aspiring filmmakers." The competition will give fourteen lucky filmmakers a once in a lifetime opportunity to spend two weeks on an idyllic island in The Bahamas and the chance to compete for a £14,000 cash prize.
What a world of difference there is in the way organizations handle problems when they are caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
While usually relatively minor, from a national media standpoint, almost every organization encounters major or minor problems each year as they have “run-ins” with the media. This is especially true today where citizen journalists can blast camphone videos or 140 character Tweets around the globe in the bat of an eye.
Measuring just 126cm by 130cm, the "world’s smallest cinema" was unveiled today in London to mark the Virgin Media Shorts Awards.
I don't know if it was the fact that Vancouver was under a deluge this morning, or there's just fewer journalists around these days, but the Vancouver International Film Festival media conference seemed less busy than in previous years.