Festivals and Events

To mark our editor Judy’s return to Mydylarama after completing her epic PHD, here’s one of her older cracking reviews and an opportunity to revisit the wonderful concept behind the Remake Film Festival. As Hollywood’s fiscal calculations ensure it pumps out sequels, prequels and trilogies (etc.), the Remake film festival sets out a different relationship between box office hits and contemporary production. Filmmakers from around the world are invited to reimagine, reinterpret or remake (…)

Maythem Ridha’s short film Ali And His Miracle Sheep won Best Film in the UK Competition of the Sheffield Doc Fest. I feel it’s very important before you begin to read this review that you know who I am. I am not an academic, nor a seasoned critic, I am a pizza delivery driver from Basingstoke who wrote something on the internet and was subsequently invited to pitch some reviews for Mydylarama during the Sheffdoc festival. No I’m not entirely sure how it happened either but here we all (…)

Filmed over the course of 12 years, Western Arabs is a chaotic and fascinating look at the intergenerational trauma and impact of displacement. Omar’s father, Munir, was amongst the Palestinians that were forced to flee their homes after 1948. Still a young child, he fled with his family to Jordan before eventually immigrating to Denmark. It was there that he met his Danish wife, with whom he later had three sons, Omar and his two brothers, who appear to be at loggerheads most of the time. (…)

Yet again, Encounters treats us to some of the most discerning curating out there. The various programmes never disappoint, the comedy shorts are funny, the horror shorts are scary, the experimental shorts are wacky. Covid means we miss out on many things: the wonderful Watershed venue and its underrated risotto, the networking, the warm, friendly atmosphere and chit chat with the directors, the hustle and bustle and human interactions that inject the fun and dynamism in the festival (…)

Writer Tommy Hodgson offers his own top picks from this year’s Encounters Short Film Festival. Breadline (UK, director: Carol Salter): Breadline displays intimate footage of a food bank in a Northern town through the gaze of an elderly volunteer and, in doing so, serves as a damning indictment of the austerity state which the Conservative Party has manufactured and sustained within the UK. Carol Salter’s short tale is a personal, and soul-searching look into the ordinary people who have (…)

Oline and entirely free to watch, the Independent Iraqi Film Festival brings us features, shorts and discussions, shedding a spotlight on a thriving cinematic culture in the country and among the Iraqi diaspora. IA: Israa Al-Kamali AH: Ahmed Habib RT: Roisin Tapponi SD: Shahnaz Dulaimy 1. How did the team come together and initiate the idea for the festival? IA: It started with a call from Ahmed Habib, one of the four people working on the festival, back in March. Ahmed and I got (…)

Tommy’s review of the week is Xiang Zi’s A Dog Barking at the Moon, streamed on BFI Player as part of the #FlareatHome film festival. A Dog Barking at the Moon is a fittingly dramatic piece following the trials of a Chinese family as they deal with the revelation of repressed homosexuality within the family. Director Xiang Zi’s semi-autobiographical feature brings the uncomfortable feelings and lingering resentments of each character to the fore through slow-paced shots, with long (…)

Thrive (Jamie Di Spirito, 2019) A sublimely intelligent and sensitive film, which sees a hook-up move into a challenging conversation. A naked man wakes up, lights up a cigarette and smokes out the window – through which the daylight outside illuminates the whole room. This is the only light source in the film, and it’s used brilliantly. Grindr buzzes. His date comes over, and they’re kissing almost before he’s through the door. The orange curtain is drawn, turning the generous daylight (…)

In a Tunisian village, children are playing football on a wasteland. Meanwhile, Abdallah and Mohammed come across a donkey with headphones on his ears and bags full of a white powder on his back. The two young brothers decide to bring those bags back to their village. This amusing, sweet short film by Yves Piat received the audience prize at Clermont-Ferrand 2019 and has recently enjoyed both Cesar and Oscar nominations. Thanks to the Univers Cine team, you can now catch it online with (…)

This sweet, topical short from director Daniel Marc Janes is both profound and poignant, masterfully touching on the English psyche from an outsider perspective. Shot in 16mm, the visually warm picture ends with a more succinct and intimate expression of Post-Brexit Britain than any insider knowledge could secure. It was showcased as part of the London Short Film Festival’s Visions of Albion event, which presented a formidable range of new shorts – each distinct in both theme and style but (…)