Cherry Kino is the forum for wondermental cinema at the festival - films that fill you with, and make you, wonder. The first weekend focuses on contemporary Australian film as Cherry Kino and East Street Arts partner up to welcome Brisbanite Sally Golding to perform three expanded cinema pieces and to hold a photo-sonic 16mm workshop, and we welcome Nanolab’s Richard Tuohy who will present his films and run a 16mm workshop on selectively applying film processing chemistry by hand along with Nanolab partner and filmmaker Diana Barrie at the Cherry Kino Lab at Patrick Studios, East Street Arts. This focus on hands-on filmmaking practises continues into the second weekend with two Super8 workshops on how to make crazy coloured film, and processing black and white film in an environmentally responsible and quirky way, using coffee (!) and Pip Chodorov’s excellent documentary Free Radicals provides a brilliantly accessible introduction to the history of experimental cinema. The final weekend will take place in a temporary Microcinema space by the waterfront in Granary Wharf, thanks to the generosity of ISIS. This year’s programme is packed with an array of exciting new wondermental cinema including a conceptual programme of Destructural Video, selections of work inspired by the notion of obscurity, the prismatic vision of the Camera Lucida, language as a form of possession, and a screening of the newly restored and subtitled 1967 surreal Japanese film Galaxy by political film activist Masao Adachi. Complete with in-house cafe, the Cherry Kino Microcinema offers audiences the chance to dip their toes into the programme or to dive right in, with the informal, relaxed and welcoming atmosphere helping to make experiencing wondermental cinema a free, social and artistic activity.
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Cinema Versa is the home of documentaries inspired by the underground festival aesthetic, running two major themes, Music on Film and Underground Voices, incorporating live special events and collaborations to enhance the all round experience of the Film Festival.
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Underground Voices champions human rights, mavericks and outsiders from the first Rastafarian community in First Rasta to Eco-Pirate Paul Watson and a history of LSD, The Substance.
Music on Film profiles styles ranging from alt-bluegrass with artists Split Lip Rayfield in Never Make it Home, to Britpop and Pulp in The Beat is the Law to the soaring post-rock of Icelandic band Sigur Ros in the stunning new concert film Inni.
Special events include a continued partnership with Arts and Minds and the Time to Change initiative on attitudes to mental health, we will be welcoming guest lecturer and psychiatrist Dr Peter Byrne to introduce a discussion on cinema and mental health with a range of film screenings including Hitchcock’s Psycho and Polanski’s Repulsion. We also have a salsa night and an American folk film showcase with live music, a new collaboration with Leeds Asylum Seekers Support Network and a week of militant cinema at The Space.
Fanomenon is the genre section of the film festival offering a unique combination of great fantasy cinema experiences, both light and dark, that cannot be found together anywhere else on the planet.
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The Méliès d’Argent competition sees an eclectic mix of features and shorts from every corner of Europe including terrifying happenings in the alps of Switzerland (Sennentuntschi) and the arthouse cinemas of France (The Last Screening). We have 70s B-movie from Indonesia (Mystics of Bali) and perhaps the earliest Japanese horror (Ghost Cat and the Mysterious Shamisen) while the USA gives us the highly anticipated prequel to John Carpenter’s classic The Thing.
Our renowned horror marathons Night of the Dead XI and Day of the Dead 5 are back in all their terrifying glory this year with the chance to experience much-anticipated UK premieres from movie monster wrestling in Monster Brawl to creative zombie slaying and sharp comedy with Juan of the Dead: Cuba’s first zombie movie and first independent film in 50 years.
To celebrate its 25th anniversary this year the Film Festival is bringing James Cameron's sci-fi horror classic Aliens to the Town Hall’s giant screen in glorious high definition, along with a programme of sci-fi classics including the most influential films in the genre the way they were always meant to be seen.
Fanomenon mini-season, Planet Japan, celebrates the fact that Japan does cult cinema like no other nation with some of the wildest mind-blowing fantasy film sensations yet made: UK Premieres of Karate-Robo Zaborgar and Katsuhito Ishii’s Smuggler, Milocrorze: A Love Story - a film only the Japanese could conjure up, the latest horror sensation, Yakuza Weapon, Sion Sono’s director’s cut of his sex crime epic Guilty of Romance and the sublime Symbol.
Official Selection is the heart of the Film Festival, championing great unseen cinema from all over the world. Check out new discoveries from emerging directors, exclusives of the latest features by some of the world’s best filmmakers and take the chance to reassess some of the classics, many of them presented in the grand surroundings of Leeds Town Hall. This year we are proud to present a new digital projection and sound system, enhancing the grandest big screen in the North.
This year’s Golden Owl Competition has 12 outstanding UK premieres including dreamlike Irish murder story The Other Side of Sleep, Australian aboriginal docudrama Toomelah and the latest gem from the Romanian new wave, Best Intentions.
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Open Wings includes galas of two superb new British features, Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights and Steve McQueen’s Shame, also the acclaimed, intense American psychological drama, Take Shelter, the Cannes Camera d’Or winner from Argentina, Las Acacias and the outstanding Korean political drama Journals of Musan.
Retrospectives this year include Magyar Masterpieces from Béla Tarr to Miklós Jancsó, a special collaboration with the University on the films of Krzysztof Kieslowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz, political animation and Swedish comedy. We are also showing some classic drama and thrillers in a reassessment of mental health representation in cinema in conjunction with the Time to Change campaign. A celebration of silent cinema includes a very special presentation of the Harold Lloyd silent comedy classic Safety Last with live musical accompaniment presented by TV comedian Paul Merton.
Every section of Leeds International Film Festival is a unique programme, each one almost a film festival in itself. You could just see all the screenings and events in Short Film City to experience the vast diversity of the real world of cinema - films from every continent, archive and new films, documentary, fiction, experimental, and animated, comedies, dramas and fantasies.
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The 2011 International Short Film Competition in three parts features some of the most acclaimed work of the year, with discoveries from short film festivals in Krakow, Hamburg, and Oberhausen, and from selections at Cannes and Venice. The International Competition is presented over three consecutive days at the Hyde Park Picture House which is also the host venue for the annual British and Yorkshire short Film Competitions, this year showing on Saturday 12th November. The Yorkshire Short Film Competition is a particularly exciting events as a showcase for the region’s exciting new filmmaking talent. The hugely popular World Animation Competition is again hosted by Leeds Town Hall, in the magnificent setting of Victoria Hall. This competition features dozens of the best animated shorts in all their forms, and this year we have added a third programme to the line-up because of the high standard of work submitted to us this year.
In between the competitions we have our three Panorama selections – British, French, and International – where you can be experience alternative, often very funny, takes on contemporary life through the unique expression of the incredible short film form.
To celebrate its 5th birthday, this year’s Thought Bubble festival programme will be the biggest yet, extended over seven days, and taking place at venues across the city; Thought Bubble 2011 will include free workshops for all ages, a three day academic conference, talks and masterclasses led by industry professionals, a giant free book crossing and giveaway, and a programme of film and documentary screenings. To mark our fifth year we’ve also released a special comic anthology, all profits from the sales of which go to the Barnardo’s charity.
The Thought Bubble Festival is the UK’s largest event of its kind – an annual celebration of sequential art in all its forms, including everything from superhero comics to self-publishing artists and writers. Formed in 2007 as a non-profit-making organisation dedicated to promoting comics, graphic novels, and animation as an important cultural art-form, we’ve grown rapidly over the years, thanks in a large part to the continued support of Leeds International Film Festival.
Our special two day convention includes an incredible line-up of leading artists and writers, including Tim Sale (Batman, Heroes), Adam Hughes (Star Wars, Wonder Woman), Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Swamp Thing) and Posy Simmonds (Tamara Drewe, Gemma Bovery) and features over 300 tables showcasing the best that sequential art has to offer. The weekend will also feature portfolio viewings and competitions, as well as a huge cosplay parade. This promises to be one of the best events of its kind in the UK, as we’re celebrating our birthday in style!For more information and a full list of events, activities and workshops visit www.thoughtbubblefestival.com
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Leeds International Film Festival Calendar - November 2011
