Category: East-end-film-festival

East End Film Festival - Round Up

6/27/2014

by Cookie N Screen

So comes another summer, here ends another wonderful East End Film Festival. This year, running on the wonderful contributions from the public via Kickstarter, the triumphant showcase of cinematic treats from the global and the local were magnificent. Luckily enough, we were able to preview some of the films and honestly, we were captivated by the determined weirdness and greatly directed from artists you may or may not have heard off (you can read all of our reviews here). The East End Film Festival is much more than a festival, it’s a celebration where film obsessee’s come and bath in the glory of cinema. And it is supported by them too. This year has been no different and it’s down to the incredible team behind it.

East End Film Festival: Malaventura

6/21/2014

by Graeme Stirling

Prepare for a wet eye. Depending on your sensitivity level, this film will either bore you to tears or leave you feeling a bit weepy. A slow, ponderous and extremely quiet film, Malaventura – Spanish for bad luck – follows an unnamed, terminally ill man throughout his last day alive in Mexico City and has no hopeful message at its finale.

East End Film Festival: Taking The Dog For A Walk

6/21/2014

by Liam McMIllen

Everyone has a passion for music, it doesn't matter what genre, or what era, everyone has music that connects with them and will always connect. For comedian Stewart Lee, his passion is the works of Derek Bailey and the free improvisational movement. His passion is celebrated and recognised in Taking the Dog For a Walk, which is an in-depth exploration of the British free improvisation movement, from Derek Bailey to the present. I really can't praise him enough – he's used his fame and comic talent to showcase his favourite genre for people to see. He doesn't let his ego take over the documentary, he stays out the way and asks questions to his idols. His passion leaps off the screen and makes me want to fall in love with this genre just like he has. He is the anchor of the film and without him, it wouldn't be as good as it is.

East End Film Festival: The Golden Dream

6/20/2014

by Liam McMillen

According to the US Department of Homeland Security, around 20,000 Guatemalans illegally cross the border every year to take up residence in the US. There are many more, of course, who set out with that goal in mind but don't make it. The dangers of the journey are manifold - robbers, slavers, corrupts police, vigilante execution squads and simple exposure to the elements. Yet the American Dream - the certainty that in America anyone can achieve anything just by working hard - is very much alive in Guatemala even as it fades at home. It ensures that there will always be more prepared to try, even if it means leaving behind everything they know.

East End Film Festival: Whitewash

6/20/2014

by Robbie Jones

Thomas Haden Church is such an underrated actor. From Sideways to Spider-Man 3, Easy A to We Bought a Zoo, and of course, the dark comedy Killer Joe, he’s proven himself to be one of the best character actors working today. But whilst characters actor usually stick to the sides, Church takes the lead role in this brooding drama, Whitewash.

After accidentally killing a man whilst drunkenly joyriding his snow plough, Bruce hides the body and crashes in a nearby wood. From there, he practically lives inside the plough, as both the authorities and his own conscious closes in on him as we see flashbacks as to how he met the man he killed and who Bruce was before the accident.

East End Film Festival: La Distancia

6/19/2014

by Hayley Charlesworth

A combination of heist movie, surrealism and comedy, La Distancia is one of the most gloriously strange films at the East End Film Festival. Sergio Caballero's second feature is a delightful, increasingly bizarre sci-fi set in Siberia, in Catalonian. And at only roughly 80 minutes long, it's a snapshot of peculiarity that doesn't get old.

East End Film Festival: Summum Bonam

6/18/2014

by Paul Costello

To live a life devoted to all that is beautiful and right... to pursue an existence of virtue and grace... to attain a state of Good. And not just any good, but the highest good. This is what "summum bonam" means, a Latin expression that means "the highest good". First introduced into the philosophical lexicon by Cicero as an idea of something all humans should strive to achieve, it's a phrase that has come to have its limits questioned over the years. After all, different people will have different ideas as to what "good" means, be it a more profound connection to God, Nature or one another. Summum Bonam is also the title (and apparently the primary thematic drive) for the new film from relative newcomer Matias Penachino.

East End Film Festival: The Second Game

6/18/2014

by Graeme Stirling

The Second Game is an odd little film to say the least. Clocking in at just over an hour and a half, this particularly quiet and rather slapdash documentary depicts the entirety of a single football match – played on 3rd December 1988 between Romanian club teams Dinamo and Steaua as thick snow fell over the pitch – and a few minutes of introductory footage taken from the original coverage reels. The only two cast members are director Corneliu Porumboiu and his father, Adrian, the referee who – sporting a fetching mullet and moustache combo – presided over the match.

Leave To Remain - Review

6/18/2014

by Cookie N Screen

Premièring at last years London Film Festival, this labour of love movie took documentary film-maker, Bruce Goodison, three years to create. Heading to the refugees and listening to the stories of real asylum seekers, he crafted their stories and enthused them into endearing film; Leave to Remain. What’s more, Goodison guided these real life teenagers, who had fled to the UK for safety, and allowed them to learn the intricate details of the arts.

Honing in their skill and empathising with their stories, Leave To Remain is the product of a mixture of scripted stories and natural charismas from the teenager; a semi documentary film that seems vital for the political climate of late and it finally hits cinemas this weekend.

East End Film Festival: We Are Mari Pepa

6/17/2014

by Cookie N Screen

When you're younger, I always feel that you're split into three categories. Well, I did anyway. On one side was the popular group, who excelled at sports and socialising, listening to dance music and ruling schools. Then there were the nerdy crowd, who read comics and criticised television shows, showing a particular flare for tests and science. And then there the 'cooler kids', who could play instruments and rock out in a band. I remember shifting through the latter categories, sometimes staying at home and studying and the other times, watching bands and going to rock parties.

<<Previous

East End Film Festival - Round Up

East End Film Festival: Malaventura

East End Film Festival: Taking The Dog For A Walk

East End Film Festival: The Golden Dream

East End Film Festival: Whitewash

East End Film Festival: La Distancia

East End Film Festival: Summum Bonam

East End Film Festival: The Second Game

Leave To Remain - Review

East End Film Festival: We Are Mari Pepa

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