Mike McKenny (@DestroyApathy) takes a look at the upcoming Leeds International Film Festival, which runs 1 – 18 November, and picks out a few things he thinks are definitely worth checking out. Image from Czech film Alois Nebel, playing in the Official Selection.
Having recently completed my MA thesis on film festivals, I’ve been eagerly anticipating having the time to actually go to one. Specifically, I was looking forward to November. Or should I say ‘spoil West Yorkshire film-geeks month’. Not only do we have the Bradford Animation Festival (13th-17th A preview of which will be up on Culture Vulture in the near future), but this year the ICO (Independent Cinema Office) screening days are also coming to Bradford in November. But here, I’d just like to extract a few items of note playing at the comprehensive and tantalizing Leeds International Film Festival.
The trailer reel shown on their programme launch on October 5th – showcasing a whopping 27 trailers – perfectly captured the festival’s emphasis on eclecticism, featuring something for everyone with trailers shifting from contemplative auteur enigmas to big name crowd-pleasers; from ludicrous splatter-fests to silent cinema classics, and from retrospectives of the unchampioned and overlooked alongside retrospectives of the very much championed contemporary fan favourites – namely the screening of three Stanley Kubrick films, including 2001: A Space Odyssey (Fri 16th 8.30pm). Below are a few picks of things that really pricked my attention, but unfortunately does not have the scope to cover everything that will make the festival fantastic.
LIFF’s Fanomenon stand, its genre offering, excels with its event based set-piece spectacles. Chief amongst them, I suppose would be their Night of the Dead (Sat 3rd 10pm – daft o’clock), now in its twelfth year of presenting the most outrageous genre films in the format of an all-nighter at the Hyde Park Picture House. For me though, the return of Leeds’ Anime Day (Sun 11th 12-10pm) is the event to savour. After their 2010 edition provided a great collection of features and featurettes , I was disappointed that it didn’t return in 2011 (although the solitary Anime offering I managed to see that year, Colourful, was very much appreciated). Hopefully this year’s will be like that last edition in 2010; I didn’t consider everything that played that day to be a masterpiece, but it was a fine, varied collection and introduced me to some wonderful characters that I would have never experienced had I missed out. The one particular feature to look out for this year would be Wolf Children (which is also repeated Sat 17th 12pm – pictured left), a film that not only looks adorable, but also has an earnest sincerity and real weight to it.
Another flurry to look out for in the Fanomenon strand is a triple bill of zaniness I have lined up on Tuesday 6th. This includes cult classic Spaghetti Western Django (2.15pm – pictured right) whose title has not only inspired Tarantino’s upcoming Django Unchained, but was also mimicked in the many features that tried to hitch a ride on its success – a practice common in any respectable expoitation cycle. One example of which plays immediately after, Django Kill (4pm). The film sounds like it takes the extremes of Django (which was banned on release but recently, under more reasonable and accepting certification terms given a 15 certificate) and expands upon it, to include, according to the programme guide: ‘a bizarre world of gruesome torture, mindless violence, sexual depravity and unfathomable madness’. This Django double bill is followed by the intriguingly titled Somi, the Taekwon-do Woman (6.15pm), a North Korean martial arts film from 1997.
Cinema Versa, LIFF’s documentary strand comprises of the familiar assortment of ‘Music on Film’ and’ ‘Underground Voices’. Though the music docs are sure to go down well, it was a number of trailers from the Underground Voices section that really stood out at the trailer reel preview. One particular example is The Ambassador (Sat 10th 6pm and Wed 14th 5pm – pictured left). Brave Dane, Mads Brügger, goes deep undercover as a white European businessman, exposing, in the form of interviews and hidden cameras, the reality of African diplomacy.
Along with the freshest examples of what world cinema has to offer, film festivals also place huge significance on their selected retrospectives. LIFF has an array of such carefully curated collections this year, including the crowd-pleasing Kubrick retrospective of Barry Lyndon (Mon 5th 7pm), The Shining (Sun 4th 7.15pm and Tue 6th 3.15pm) and 2001: A Space Odyssey. But the retrospective that I am most looking forward to is that of the Japanese actress and filmmaker Kinuya Tanaka. LIFF will screen two of her own films, as well as films she’s starred in from such masters as Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujero Ozo. In addition to simply screening these films, more use to the kind of cinephile that I am, is the Kinuya Tanaka Workshop at the University of Leeds (Sat 3rd 12-5pm). The event will feature several presentations from experts on Japanese cinema and will include a screening of her 1955 film The Eternal Breasts. The event is FREE, but you need to book a place by emailing [email protected].
After having caught a few of last year’s Golden Owl competition entries, and being impressed by them far more than most other films I saw throughout the festival, I was more than ready to dive straight into them this year. Alas, there is no competition in the Official Selection this year, but it will still showcase plenty of the freshest films from around the world. There are the headline features, such as the Opening Night Gala, Ben Affleck’s political thriller Argo (Thu 1st 7.30pm – pictured right), along with Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winning Amour (Thu 15th 8.30pm) as Closing Gala. Amongst these well known, sure-to-be multiplex or arthouse smashes, the Official Selection also harbours the most exciting, emerging talent in global cinema. To take only two that were on display during LIFF’s trailer reel, there was the Chinese revolution drama shown from the perspective of an eleven year old boy, Xiaoshuai Wang’s 11 Flowers (Sat 10th 3.45pm, Mon 12th 8.30pm and Tue 13th 4pm). Then there’s the hyper-stylised, rotoscope animation utilised by Czech director Tomás Luňák, in his film Alois Nebel (Mon 12th 6.30pm and Wed 14th 8.30pm – pictured at the top of this post), which looks and reads as though it’s some kind of supernatural neo-noir dealing with Second World War guilt.
There is plenty more to look out for, including the comprehensive Short Film City, which always features excellent collections of short films, packaged together into numerous competitions and focused categories. For more info on these and for all other films playing throughout the festival, as well as to book tickets, head over to www.leedsfilm.com and have a browse around. There is a lot to go through, but hopefully the system of strands and categories will help you find what you want.
Please put your picks down in the comments section and let everyone know why they should check them out.
Early Bird passes are still available until 27thOctober at £85 for a single pass or double up with someone to get a double pass for £150.
Mike is the manager of the soon-to-be restored Plaza Cinema in Bradford and is a committee member and former director of Minicine. Find him on Twitter @DestroyApathy. Check back here on Culture Vulture for Mike’s updates throughout the festival.