BFI Flare: fiveFilms4freedom FiveFilms4freedom (say it ten times) is a showcase of short films selected from this year’s BFI Flare festival to be promoted by the British Council and hosted online via the BFI player. On Wednesday 25th March 2015 the two organisations are asking people from more than 50 countries and regions to participate in the simultaneous viewing of the programme. This (…) Continue Reading »

Burroughs: The Movie, directed by Howard Brookner, is a compilation of film footage, photographs, and sound recordings collected in St Louis, New York, Colorado, and London during 1978-1983. Aaron Brookner, the director’s nephew, raised funds to restore and rerelease the documentary on the occasion of Burrough’s 100th birthday in 2014 (Howard Brookner died in 1989, Burroughs died in 1997). On (…) Continue Reading »

The team’s films to watch - Still Alice, Hyena, Dream Catcher Continue Reading »

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence is ‘the final part of a trilogy about being a human being’, divided into over 30 self-contained scenes. In his note of intention, director Roy Andersson lists his influences: Bruegel the Elder’s painting ‘Hunters in the Snow’, in which four birds seem to observe a village scene from above; the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) art movement, (…) Continue Reading »

Appropriate Behaviour is the first feature film from Desiree Akhavan, who writes, directs, and stars in this self-consciously superficial study of identity politics. The protagonist interrupts a discussion about bias against the queer community (…) Continue Reading »

Enemies of Happiness/ Vores lykkes fjender is a powerful exploration of the determination and sheer hard work of Malalai Joya in the ten days leading up to the 2005 Afghanistan elections-the first democratic parliamentary election in over 30 (…) Continue Reading »

Photo credit: Lynn Alleva Lilley Queens of Syria documents the first stage of the ongoing Syrian Trojan Women project, which began in Amman, Jordan, late 2013 (www.syriatrojanwomen.org). Through a combination of drama therapy and revisionist (…) Continue Reading »

Critics’ Week’s best film (in this writer’s opinion) has finally landed in the UK. I was surprised -and delighted- to find out a horror film was among the competition’s selection, despite its championing of genre cinema. And I have to admit, shamefully, that I did think chances were it would be a little too experimental and left-field to really provoke genuine scares and jumps and provide pure (…) Continue Reading »

Our patners at The Reel Deal’s Films To Watch This Weekend, presented by Joe Forreseter and Rebecca Perfect: Continue Reading »

Every springtime the rising tide of the Inguri river sweeps across the Georgian mountains, washing soil and rock into the valley below. These pieces of earth congeal into tiny islands on which local peasants harvest crops of corn. Corn Island (…) Continue Reading »