Cambridge Film Festival Daily

Issue 4 / Sunday 19 September

No form of transportation has been portrayed more romantically by the cinema than the train. in the general, an old locomotive is Buster Keaton’s great love and its engine literally drives the plot forwards, staging exciting stunts along the way. in Brief Encounter a train station is the setting for an illicit love affair, whilst Casablanca sees Humphrey Bogart’s journey associated with sadness at the parting of ways. trains represent a happier goodbye in this year’s Cemetery Junction, in which rail travel allowed a young couple to shake off a small town and embark on a life of adventure. in Hithcock, trains are frequently closed spaces that offer no escape. Watch any Western and the railroad comes to represent something else entirely.

it is the cinema’s great fascination with the train, and all that it can repre-sent, that has led rebekah Polding and

nick Bradshaw to stage something of a celebration as part of this year’s Fes-tival. trAnSPortED is a collection of new and old films which relate in some way to the subject. rebekah explained the origins of their unique programme: “We were talking with Festival Direc-tor tony Jones about how much we all loved geoffrey Jones’ masterpiece, Snow (screening as part of MoViES BESiDE tHE MuSEuM: tHE rHYtHM oF tHE trACKS on Sunday 19 Sep-tember), and that lead us to thinking about how great trains look on film.”

they have drawn inspiration from a broad range of sources here too, look-ing at all the different aspects of the filmic representation of trains: “we’ve got films of tracks, of steam, of wheels rushing round, films from London, new York and Hanoi (and East Anglia!), early silent footage to contemporary graph-ics. it’s all about the look and feel of trains, the power and speed and mechanics on the one hand, the space of the journey on the other.“

it is on this attempt to combine the earliest films with the most contempo-rary that nick emphasises most: “one film gave us the chance to take this history of trains on film forward - StA-tionArY, by Brian McClave and gavin Peacock, is an echo of the Lumiere brothers’ Arrival of A train At La Ciotat, one of the very first movies ever made, in that the technology (they are using 3D timelapse) is a marvel and will draw people in by itself.”

But whilst the promise of 3D time-lapse photography is indeed intriguing,

GravyTrain

Hot Ticket

Sunday 19 September BEGGARS OF LIFE – tickets are still available for a chance to see Mark Kermode’s skiffle band, the DODGE BROTHERS, perform live.

SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR – A Swedish drama playing as part of the ROY ANDERSSON SEASON, playing at Emmanuel College

F E At u r E

Transported: The Art of the Train on Film

continued on page 2

the most eagerly anticipated film shown as part of the event is undoubtedly Sarah turner’s PErEStroiKA, which plays following a sell out run at the iCA this month, after earning rave reviews.

Better still, the screening (at the Arts Picturehouse on tues-day 21 September) will be fol-lowed by a discussion with the filmmaker about her work and, of course, the subject of trains at the movies. it is a subject that rebekah has clearly not yet had enough of just yet: “We would really love to do a whole festival devoted to trains... this programme is a good start though!”

one final thing rebekah was keen to impart to me is that the trAnSPortED programme is not restricted to serious, chin-stroking fare. in fact, there is stuff here for all the family, with a programme aimed at children running on Saturday. robert Beames

Transported: The Art of the Train on Film continues with Movies Besides the Museum at the Fitzwilliam Museum on Sunday 19 September

i n t E r V i E W

Closet punk in BeijingBEIJING PUNKDir / SHAun M JEFForDuSA/CHinA/AuStrALiA/uK 2010

Despite working on hundreds of student shorts as an instructor for the New York Film Academy at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, and a lifelong fascination with filmmaking, it seems safe to say that nothing can have prepared Shaun Jefford for a nosedive into the Chinese punk scene. Armed with super 8mm, and a desire to tell a story rather than rigidly document, he ended up on the wrong end of the Beijing police and the victim of Codeine cough syrup binges. For the bands Jefford talks to, punk is a way of life in a country where rebellion is not exactly a career plan...

Jefford revealed that it was in New Mexico that he first heard about the burgeoning Chinese music scene from members of the group Public Enemy, “Flavor Flav and Brian Hardgroove from Public Enemy told me about a punk band in China called Demerit. I decided I had to get involved and got down to China and discovered the scene. Adrian was kind of the catalyst that led me to Public Enemy and thus the scene.”

But in making the film, Jefford had to encouter numerous obstacles presented by China’s notoriously stringent authorities. “I did everything without permission so I flew completely under the radar. Part of what was challenging was not knowing the boundaries, or when the hammer may fall from the authorities.” There was a constant sense of apprehension on the project as the ever-present gaze of the police was palpable: “we were often shut down whilst shooting, and a lot of footage is shaky or otherwise imperfect because we had to shoot and then run. Also – the day that my name disappeared from the internet and our little website for the film disappeared from Google searches in China – that was

pretty creepy!”All of this was possibly made even harder by the

cultural barrier. The language indecipherable, Jefford still tried to approach the film as he would any other: “I approached the film just as ‘Shaun, meeting these interesting people’. I thought this was the most natural way to go. I am pretty good with people so even though I couldn’t follow every nuance of what was said to me I generally know what people are saying through body language and circumstance. I asked the bands to talk to me in Chinese, but sometimes I asked if we could talk about the same issue more generally in English. When things came out more naturally in Chinese I used that.”

But is he optimistic about the future of Chinese punk? “I think there will be a crack down on Chinese punks eventually. I hope it won’t be too serious for the people involved but I can’t honestly see the scene surviving if they keep singing songs like MiSanDao’s Fucking Olympics – about as anti-establishment as it gets!”

In itself, pretty strong stuff for public consumption in China. But was any of the group’s behaviour too subversive to be shown in the final film? Apparently so: “A lot of everyone’s antics were too full on to make the final cut – including the filmmakers!” he mused. “Let’s put it this way, this cut won’t get anyone arrested. But the first cut was five times harder in terms of content. At the end of thes process, after one of the band members had gone to a work farm for three years for something tiny, I had to make a serious choice whether to endanger people or to give the general hint of trouble but keep everyone safe. I may not win any journalistic prizes for this decision but I chose the latter.” Oliver Ford

BEIJING PUNK was screened on Saturday 18 September at 11pm

and is screened again Saturday 25 September at 10.30pm

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DANCING DREAMSDir / AnnE LinSEL, rAinEr HoFF-MAnn. 90 MinS / gErMAnY 2010

The documentary DANCING DREAMS is a marvellous piece of work. Appealing and uplifting as Pina Bausch’s greatest and most accessible dances, it will win over fans of Bausch (a celebrated German choreographer) on the spot. Perhaps more valuably, it will initiate many viewers into Bausch’s indispensable insights as to what tanzatheatre or dance-theatre offers to the (ever more isolated) social being.

Bausch rarely discussed the meaning of her pieces, acknowledging her dancers’ and viewers’ experiences as the only legitimate arbiters of her work’s value. This documentary follows suit, being not about Bausch but about the process of rehearsing and restaging Kontakthof. This new production’s cast is comprised of teenagers from the Bausch company home base (Wuppertal, Germany). The film’s mix of rehearsal-room footage with interviews with the teenage subjects will feel familiar, but the subjects are disarmingly eloquent and earnest, heartwarmingly committed to doing their best.

The sense of rightness that sustains DANCING DREAMS owes much to the coextensive interests of the film’s subject (Kontakthof) and its documentary frame. In the film, as in the piece at its centre, moving, dancing and performing appear as powerful tools for engendering both self-awareness and empathetic interest, for impressing dancers and viewers alike with the realities of individual experience and group desire, collective sensation and inalterably private knowledge. DANCING DREAMS is a joyous paean to people-watching: sharp and vivacious, accepting of all human tics and oddness, admiring of awkwardness and grace, frustration and relief. Emma Firestone

DANCING DREAMS was screened on Saturday 18 September

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GRANDPA IN MY POCKETDir / AntHonY gEFFEn94 MinS / uSA 2010

The first Family Film Festival got off to a bouncy start with a balloon-filled party for young viewers, followed by a screening of two episodes of GRANDPA IN MY POCKET, the popular CBeebies programme. Adastra Creative, the team responsible for writing and production, appeared to talk briefly to their young audience (and parents) beforehand, and explained that there is an East Anglian connection: good news for Cambridge fans! There is a seaside setting to the episodes, and the filming location was revealed to be the Suffolk coast; Aldeburgh and Southwold to be precise.

Grandpa’s ability to shrink to the size of a small pencil when wearing his special ‘shrinking cap’ provides some wonderful opportunities for adventure. The episodes we were shown involved firstly, a pirate’s treasure hunt, and secondly, a visit to an inventor’s workshop (situated in the familiar Southwold landmark of the lighthouse). Zaniness, occasional songs, and delightful props like the colourful family camper van, all combine appealingly. Underpinning all this fun is a sense of the importance of love, support and understanding between family members. The catchphrase ‘teamwork’ pops up in each episode to remind everyone that children and grown-ups need to help each other.

Film-going is a social activity, something that can bring us all – whether family or friends – together in delight and discovery. The Festival organisers were very thoughtful to provide a ‘chill-out’ area for children near the screens, as very young visitors may not yet have the stamina for a full sitting! The Poet

The Family Film Festival continues throughout the Festival

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Recreating the Wildest Dream

THE WILDEST DREAMDir / AntHonY gEFFEn94 MinS / uSA 2010

THE WILDEST DREAM tells the story of George Mallory’s lifelong obsession with conquering the summit of Everest, culminating with his doomed third expedition in 1924. With a stellar cast of voices which includes Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and the late Natasha Richardson, the film blends a mixture of the personal accounts of relatives, re-enactments, testimonies of historians, black-and-white film, photographs and Mallory’s correspondence with his wife. This creates a compelling piece that is part history, part mountaineering adventure, and part love story. The atmospheric cinematography is an achievement in its own right given the challenging terrain, with vistas of the billowing clouds and snow-capped peaks below Everest, and the “prodigious white fang” (as Mallory describes it) of the mountain itself. Mallory is brought to life with a poignancy that reveals the man behind the myth, whether as a tiny figure perched on a glacial rockface, or in a letter to his daughter where he describes himself as a ‘greedy daddy’ for craving cake and tea parties. Running parallel to this story is the modern-day expedition led by Conrad Anker, one of the mountaineers who found Mallory’s body a decade ago. In his attempts to recreate Mallory’s last expedition, additional angles emerge, providing insights into the psychology and dangers of climbing at high altitudes (particularly in 1924). This is a compelling portrait of a man who proves that “there’s no dream that mustn’t be dared”, even if the journey to the top is a one-way ticket.. Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough

THE WILDEST DREAM was screened on Thursday 16 September

For more information:Call: 0845 196 2981Email: sarah.jones@anglia.ac.ukVisit: www.anglia.ac.uk/artspicture

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Yo u n g C r i t i C S r E V i E W

MONSTERSI expected MONSTERS to be something in a similar vein to 28 DAYS LAtEr, in plotline rather than character depth. Suffice it to say that my expec-tations did not do this film justice.

the most pleasing part of this film for me was the amazing setting, with breathtaking Amazonian backdrops and dystopian, post apocalyptic town set pieces. this set the tone for the surprisingly dextrous camera work; MonStErS uses CLoVErFiELD-esque handheld sequences which bring you close to the action, but it never over-does or over exaggerates this, book-ending each “on-the-ground” action moment with relevant and beautiful shots of the Amazon river, northern Mexico and Deep South uSA.

i expected MonStErS to be a very monster-orientated picture, one that focused on dramatic close-ups and a 60-40 split between following the crea-tures themselves and character devel-

opment. i was wrong. i learned more about the relationship between the characters in this film than i did about the monsters, which i am truly glad about. the dialogue may feel cheesy in places but this adds to the initial awk-wardness of the relationship between Calder and Sam, and towards the end of the film their relationship becomes

complex in its own special way.Do not watch this film if you thought

DAWn oF tHE DEAD was a master-piece, but equally do not watch this film if you want a chick flick. this film is about an emotional and touching jour-ney that just happens to take place in an area full of aliens.

Max Elgar

Our Team celebrate the Festival’s 30thName: tom Martin

Position: Front of House/Project trident How many years have you worked on the Film Festival? Five years that i can remember. What are your best and worst memories? i remember being gutted when i missed terry gilliam being here one year. But my best memories are tied. Working with the tossers (April Mullen and tim Doiron) was awesome. they were here for the whole Festival and were always drinking and partying, and they were staying at our place. Some filmmakers turn up and just really make the Festival. But equally, i loved the first tridentfest show last year – seeing our films in screen one. getting them seen by the public was awesome and people loved it. that’s why we’re back with a vengeance!

What are you most looking forward to this year? i’m really looking forward to truE LEgEnD. i’m a Massive Kung-Fu fan and Yuen Woo-Ping is a a master of kung-fu choreography. there’s going to be drunken boxing involved! i’m so pumped!

A u D i E n C E AWA r D

Top Ten: the people’s Favourite Film Half the fun of the Festival is dis-cussing the films afterwards - and the Festival would like to know what you think. go online to register your reac-tions and rate the films you’ve seen.