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Seventy
films in seven days adds up to whole host of real-life stories from
all corners of the globe at Sheffield's Showroom cinema.
For
students and independent film makers it's a chance to network and
find a foothold in the industry - there will be masterclasses and
a public debate with key decision makers in UK television.
For
the punter in search of a thought provoking hour or two, the array
of films is almost baffling. So the best advice is probably just
to dive right in.
To
start you off, four local people have previewed films which caught
their eye.
SEX:Female
This
film is a series of interviews with women talking about sex. It
is presented with a mixture of humour, irony and some seriousness.
Perspective
is created with with the help of interspersed clips from old black
and white movies and good old love songs and tunes.
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| Humour
and candour in SEX: Female. |
Girls
talking in pairs giggle as they describe their experiences or lack
of them, with a combination of embarassment and bravado.
The
laughter is infectious, sometimes the embarassment is too.
The
film presents a wide range of types of women with a broad range
of experiences. Are we to believe that this is a cross-section of
American women?
Underlying
the fun is the serious implication that a good loving relationship
can dispense with some of the sexual hyperactivity experienced outside
these relationships.
The
degree to which apparently harmonious couples differed about their
sexual activity did confirm stereotypical images, which were shaken
in some of the accounts.
Entertaining
though, and not least was the partners watching each other as they
give their accounts.
-
reviewed by Andrea Parry, Abbeydale Corridor Education Action Zone
Go
Further
Woody
Harrelson is a well known television and film actor, but is equally
committed as an environmental activist and vegan. Go Further is
a documentary account of his Sustainable Organic Living tour of
the USA's west coast.
Unlike
a film such as Koyaanisqatsi (not in this festival), which merely
presented images of environmental carnage and left the viewer to
draw their own conclusions, Go Further is unashamedly campaigning.
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| Natural
born vegan: Actor and activist Woody Harrelson in Go Further. |
It
tries to encourage individuals to change their lifestyle by affirming
that one person can make a difference.
What is shown is the amazingly huge crowds who turn out to hear
Woody's presentations and arguments at various campuses.
Compared
to Britain, it tends to show a much greater awareness and sensitive
response on the part of younger Americans, to the real threats present
day lifestyles pose for future generations.
You
may already know all the arguments put forward, and Go Further might
just tempt you to do that and make practical changes in the way
you actually live your life.
-
review by Dave Godin, journalist
Traces
of a Dragon
A moving tale of family whose time together never came. Set against
the backdrop of the political and social upheavals in the 20th century
China it is a testimony of familial sacrifice and separation , humiliation
and survival.
When Jackie Chans' father decides that the time has come for him
to finally lay to rest the ghost of his familiy's secrets, Chan
rediscovers his parents and discovers his true family name -'Fang'.
He
learns not only of brothers and sisters in mainland China that he
did not know he had, but also of the pychological and sometimes
brutal price they paid just trying to survive in a political climate
that demanded total and absolute obedience.
Interwoven with with the Chan/ Fang story are heart-rending and
sometimes shocking archive images of China and the suffering of
her people.
The
consequences of that history for ordinary men and woman are eloquently
told via the story of Chans' mother and father.
In essence it's a film about a man in the autumn of his life who
decides to lay down the burden of sacrifice and finally reveal the
truth to a son who just happens to be one of the most popular screen
actors in the world.
-
reviewed by Ony Bright, presenter BBC Radio Sheffield
The
Other Final
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| The
Other Final |
On
the day that Germany met Brazil in the World Cup Final in Japan,
Bhutan and Monserrat, the bottom two teams in the FIFA international
tables, competed in "the other final" in Bhutan.
The
topic could have lent itself to either mockery or sententiousness,
but a delicate self-parodic balance is maintained throughout. The
film and the people in it do not take themselves too seriously,
but they take themselves seriously enough.
The
film is a celebration of cultural diversity and of joy in sharing.
The
feel of each country is established through a range of images backed
up by interviews, popular song, religious ritual and radio extracts.
Conflicting attitudes - to sport, competition, nationalism - are
economically sketched in.
Conventions
of sport documentary and travelogue are exploited to conscious excess.
A white football, whimsically bouncing across the screen and linking
diverse places and people, holds the film together.
Watching
the film you can believe for a moment that sport can indeed bring
the peoples of the world together in the shared enjoyment of a peaceful
and and healthy pastime.
-
review by Roger Hilyer, Sheffield Hallam University
Sheffield
International Film Festival is at the Showroom Cinema, Sheffield
from the 13th to the 19th October 2003.
BBC
Question Time special debate will take place on Saturday 18 October
2003. Lorraine Heggessey, Controller at BBC ONE, David Abrahams,
General Manager of Discovery UK and Peter Dale, Head of Documentaries
for Channel 4 will answer questions from the floor.
Ticketing
details: www.sidf.co.uk
The
BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.
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