Portsmouth Film Festival

The line up for this year’s Portsmouth Film Festival which takes place between the 23rd and 26th September has been unveiled. The theme this year “Oh I do like to be beside the seaside” one long weekend of film events, features, shorts, quizzes, installations, exhibitions and workshops exploring the darker side of the seaside. The festival includes a showing of The Who’s film Tommy which was filmed on location in Southsea, which will included a live band to accompany the showing as well as other treats for Tommy fans.

For full programme details visit the festival website at www.portsmouthfilmfestival.org.uk or follow them on Facebook.

Tags: Portsmouth Film Festival, The Kings Theatre, Tommy

Shorts::Cut Short Film Festival 2010

Shorts::Cut organises screenings in Portsmouth and Southsea of short films by regional filmmakers, this year, in partnership with The University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth City Council and The Kings Theatre, Southsea. This year, the first screening will be held at the famous King’s Theatre Southsea on August 15 at 7pm, tickets are £3 advance, £4 on the door. The Second screening will be held in the Menuhin Hall at the Third Floor Arts at Central Library in Guildhall Square on August 15 at 7pm, tickets are £2 on the door.

Selected films can also be shown as part of subsequent events in the lead up the the announcement of the News Guide awards. Short films made in Portsmouth and the surrounding area could also win the award for Best Local film at The Guide Award 2010, organised by The News. Last year’s winner was “Less Than Romantic”.

Find about the films and screenings here.

Tags: Shorts::Cut, The Guide Award

The Last Resort – Student Film Wins Award

A documentary film about the decline of Portsmouth as a traditional seaside resort has won first prize for three student film-makers who graduate this week.

The University of Portsmouth students won the award for ‘best documentary’ at the Inspire Film Festival for their graduate film ‘The Last Resort’ which received critical acclaim from the judging panel including legendary film critic, Barry Norman. The film explores the decline of the Southsea as a traditional seaside resort told from the perspective of an elderly sea-swimmers group, a sea-front cafe manager and the owner of a model village.
The 16 minute film made by Russell Oastler, David Kinnaird and Lucas Way has since been picked up by the Sunday Times Short Film Community, an online showcase for the work of new film-makers which goes live in August.

The film explores the declining fortunes of The Big Wheel Cafe at Clarence Pier and Southsea’s model village, run by Mike Armet, who owns the attraction on Southsea Esplanade.
The film also introduces a group of Southsea die-hard swimmers who take a dip in the Solent’s chilly water 365 days a year. Some have been swimming there for over 30 years and even swim on Christmas Day. Sadly one of their group, 86 year old Dorothy Browning, passed away during the making of the documentary and the film has been dedicated to her memory.
Russell, who has just returned from work-experience on a professional short film, said it was never his plan to be a documentary film-maker but enjoys the unplanned nature of the medium.
“I like the idea that you don’t really know what might happen in a documentary – it could be something totally unexpected,” he said.

Tags: Award, Southsea, Students

Have You Made a Short Film?

Local film production company Compulsive Productions are working with Oak Grove College in Worthing for their first Community Film Festival. The film festival is open for submissions up until 1st August, to submit your short film (no longer than 10 minutes) please download, print and fill out the submission form (PDF) and then post it to Compulsive Productions with your film (MiniDV, DVD or AVI/MOV).

To see the short films already submitted to the festival please visit the festival Vimeo page (many more submissions to be added in the next few days or so).

The festival awards and screening evening will be held at 7pm on the 21st October 2010 at The Dome Cinema in Worthing.

For more information please email Compulsive Productions or write to Compulsive Productions, Making Space, 2 Bishopstoke Road, Leigh Park, Havant, Hampshire, PO9 5BN.

Happy Cloud by Worthing Youth Media

Tags: Compulsive Productions, Oak Grove College

Road Buzz

Neal from Saft and Boneless got in contact about their new film Road Buzz which they just completed. Road Buzz is a feature length documentary about Downhill Skateboarding and features music from three Portsmouth bands, Big Squirrel, The Reactor Core is Beautiful, And You’re Smiling Now But We’ll All Turn Into Demons.

There is a screening coming up in Woking, The Longboard Lounge will present ROAD BUZZ at 3pm and 6pm on Sunday 11th July at Woking YMCA. Running time 80 minutes. Entry is £2, which also enters you into the Longboard Lounge Random Raffle with all proceeds going to the YMCA.

They hope to organise another one in Portsmouth soon with some of the bands playing.

For more details about the film check www.roadbuzz.saftandboneless.co.uk.

Tags: Road Buzz

American: The Bill Hicks Story at No.Cinema starting July 9th for 3 screening only.

American: The Bill Hicks Story is showing in Portsmouth for 3 nights ONLY at No.6 Cinema in the Dockyards on the 9th, 13th & 15th of July.

The true life story of the outlaw comic who tried to save the world, as told by the 10 people who knew him best. Dead at 32 from pancreatic cancer in 1994, Hicks had been performing since the age of 15, but his notoriety only developed in his later years, principally in this country, after frequently being censored on American TV. A fierce polemicist for free speech and free thinking, he raged against religion, politics, advertising and most things American. A documentary by two British film-makers, compiled from interviews with close friends and family, inter woven with state of the art animation and rare footage of Hicks live performances. A must see for Bill Hicks fans and the best introduction to the late great prophet for anyone who has yet to discover his genius.

“An immersive, inventive delve into the life of a stand-up visionary.” Empire

“Lovingly assembled…this intimate tribute is highly watchable” One of the ‘Films You MUST See This Summer’ Total Film

Tickets Prices: Standard: £6.00 Concessions*: £4.50 NUS Students: £3.00 FREE Coffee & Biscuits

More info can be found over at www.no6cinema.co.uk

Tags: The Bill Hicks Story

Portsmouth Festivities – Victorians ~ Age of Wonder

The Portsmouth Festivities is an inspiring ten day annual arts festival presenting a diverse programme of events appealing to all sectors of the community, celebrating Portsmouth’s history and heritage, and providing opportunities for the community – with a focus on young people and children – to engage with the arts. Events feature professional artists, speakers and performers of international renown; a wide ranging programme of concerts and talks; free community events; education projects; exhibitions; and a platform for local performers.

Celebrating Victorians – Age of Wonder, the 10 day programme of 70 events, features, concerts, talks, workshops and free events for all the family from Portsmouth Historic Dockyard to Southsea Bandstand, the New Theatre Royal to Portsmouth Cathedral.

From Corsets to the Cosmos, Penny Farthings to Punch and Judy and from Mendelssohn to Mumbai, the 2010 Portsmouth Festivities will take you on a journey to Victorian Portsmouth and the world beyond. Inspired by the 150th anniversary of the building of HMS Warrior 1860, an 10 day programme of events will explore all aspects of Victorian life and culture, from the huge advances in industry and engineering to the opportunities for leisure and recreation.  With music from the Romantics to the music hall; discovery and exploration; science and engineering; literature and architecture, The Victorians – Age of Wonder will celebrate this extraordinary period which brought such enormous change to the face of Portsmouth.

For much more information on the whole festival please visit www.portsmouthfestivities.co.uk

Tags: Age of Wonder, Portsmouth Festivities, Victorians

Portsmouth Green Fair 2010

Portsmouth Green Fair 2010 is on Sat 17th July from  11- 4 in Portsmouth Guildhall Square and Victoria Park. The event is part of the Green Week Campaign and organised by Portsmouth Climate Action Network.

The current action packed line-up includes:

• 2 stages with 15 live bands powered by Electric Pedals bicycle generators organised by the Portsmouth coalition.
• DJ Danny Turbo.
• A bicycle powered cinema showing some of the latest eco activist films.
• Steam Boat Willy pedal powered hovercraft, where YOU can fly by pedaling.
• The Interdimensional Wizard who will show you some amazing sun powered energy machines.
• Clowns and Street entertainers doing workshops on juggling etc.
• Lodge Arts giving spray painting workshops and showcasing entries for the Big Green idea for Portsmouth
• Green motor show including vehicles which run on waste gas (Organic Power) waste oil (Veggiepower) and electric vehicles
• Healing Area including massage, reflexology,reiki etc
• Talks on permaculture, environmental gardening tips ,money saving guerrilla gardening etc.
• Portsmouth Beekeepers association where you can find out how to keep your own bees and buy some local honey.
• Art Displays and competitions from local schools
• Children’s games and activities inc building a monster using recycled materials, bouncy castles and Face painting. Also roundabouts and children’s rides. And story-tellers
• Bicycle maintenance demos + Trick bike display and skateboarders.
• Live broadcasts by Express FM and filming by Portsmouth Live
• Demos of green technology plus information and campaigning stalls
• Green Crafts inc Cob ovens and woodworking
• Pedal powered smoothie maker.
• Farmers Market for local Organic fruit and vegetables etc.
• 4 cafes selling local Organic fair-trade food and drinks including a cafe in a yurt.
• + almost 100  Stalls selling local produce, inc. clothes, eco-gifts, arts and crafts

They are currently looking for cyclists to power the generators – contact chriskennett01@hotmail.com to find out more. There are also other opportunities to get involved.

Tags: Climate Change, green, Green Fair 2010, Local Events, pcan, pedal, Pedal Power, Portsmouth

Collective Summer Show – University of Portsmouth

Collective
Summer show of work for graduating students from Art, Design and Media plus Creative Technologies.
Opening Evening 4 June, 5-8pm
Open to the public Monday 7th-Friday 11th June, 10-4 daily and Saturday 12th June 10-3pm
To complement this, there will be a small exhibition of personal collections from staff in the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries.
What is collection and why do we collect?
Members of staff from the Faculty reveal their collective treasures. There will be a small programme of lectures around this event.
CCi Space and Eldon Gallery are open to the public from 10am to 4pm Monday to Friday.

Access is from the Winston Churchill Avenue entrance.

I took some photos earlier of the Collect staff exhibition being installed at The University of Portsmouth.

Below a taster of BA Illustration student work.

Tags: Design, eldon, SPACE, Students, University of Portsmouth

Blueprint in Southsea (and Emsworth)

A couple of months back the Blueprint Skateboards team came down as part of their national tour to promote their new film ‘Make Friends With The Colour Blue’. Whilst down here they did a demo at Emsworth skatepark, a signing at Bored and then were all in attendance at the south coast premiere of the film at Little Johnny Russells. I’ve posted up my photos from the day over at Forever Circling and included a few below as a quick glimpse:

Tags: Blueprint Skateboards, Bored, Little Johnny Russells

Pet Sounds Weekly Playlist – Movies

This week’s new playlist is now up and can be listened to here (if you have signed up to Spotify). All the songs are film based.

A quick reminder that the HoA guys will be part of the Pet Sounds night at Kraken Wakes on Saturday night, more info can be found on Facebook. See you there.

01. Miserlou – Dick Dale (Pulp Fiction)
02. Watermelon Man – Mongo Santamaria (Out Of Sight)
03. Freddie’s Dead – Curtis Mayfield (Super Fly)… See more
04. Lowrider – War (Up In Smoke)
05. Slow Ride – Foghat (Dazed & Confused)
06. Sweetness – Yes (Buffalo 66)
07. Gimme Shelter – Rolling Stones (Goodfellas)
08. Woo Hoo – The 5, 6, 7, 8’s (Kill Bill pt 1)
09. Little Green Bag – George Baker Selection (Reservoir Dogs)
10. Just Dropped In – Kenny Rogers (The Big Lebowski)
11. Frankenstein – Edgar Winter (Artie Lange’s Beer League)
12. Partyman – Prince (Batman)
13. Machine Gun – Commodores (Boogie Nights)
14. Leave Home – Chemical Bros (Clubbed to Death (Lola))
15. Sweet Home Alabama – Lynryd Skynyrd (Con Air)
16. Everybody’s Talkin – Harry Nilsson (Midnight Cowboy)

Tags: Pet Sounds Weekly Playlist

May Days Arts Trail 2010

The May Days Arts Trail is an annual visual arts open studios event that takes place in artists’ homes, studios and community venues across the Havant Borough between 8-23 May, over three weekends. The 3rd weekend takes place this weekend in Havant, Leigh Park and Waterlooville and includes an open studios event at Making Space. You can visit and talk to artists at work in their studios, find out about upcoming workshops and also buy pieces of work. I’ll also have some studio space for Quiet Corners photos, gift cards and other bits and bobs, hope to see you over the weekend.

You can find out more (plus the other open studios across Havant, Leigh Park and Waterlooville over the weekend) by looking at the event brochure here (PDF).

Tags: Making Space, May Days Arts Trail

Exit Through The Gift Shop at No.6 Cinema

Starting this Friday 7th May for 5 nights only you can check out the new Banksy film, Exit Through The Gift Shop at The No.6 Cinema. I’m not even going to get into Banksy whilst writing this post, but I will definitely be seeing this movie, hopefully this weekend.

Tags: Banksy, Exit Through The Gift Shop, No. 6 Cinema

The Boy Friend

A quick reminder of undoubtedly one of the biggest film events in Portsmouth this year: on the 16th May a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet Ken Russell, Twiggy, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Brian Murphy and Murray Melvin at a special 35mm screening of The Boy Friend (courtesy of the BFI) at The New Theatre Royal, filmed there in 1971, before the fire.

There will be a unique matinee performance with live chat, tap dancing and a celebration of Ken Russell and his incredible career. The interview will be led by Sally Taylor from 2.15pm, film screening will be at 3pm.

Tickets are £35 (£25 for concessions) and available in the box office or online.

Tags: Ken Russell, The New Theatre Royal

Portsmouth Film Society Spring Programme

Portsmouth Film Society‘s second programme of contemporary and cult, independent cinema continues in April, May and June 2010. The programme features powerful stories from around the world, as well as British art house cinema from the 1960s and two matinee sessions with talks by guest speakers. Members of the society have the opportunity to suggest and collaborate on future programming decisions. The programme includes: Milk (Tuesday 13 April, 7pm); Waltz with Bashir (Tuesday 27 April); El baño del Papa (Tuesday 11 May, 7pm); It’s All Over Town (Wednesday 19 May, 2.30pm); Far North (Tuesday 25 May, 7pm); She, a Chinese (Tuesday 8 June, 7pm); Partition (Wednesday 16 June, 2.30pm); and, After the Wedding (Tuesday 22 June, 7pm).

Tags: Portsmouth Film Society

Bank Holiday Bike Ride After Party – Call for films

Graham had kindly organised an After Party for The Strong Island Bike Ride this April 4th at The One Eyed Dog. There is an opportunity to have films projected for the evening in the Duck side of The Dog and I thought this would be a good platform to see is anyone would like to contribute or has some cool bike films we can play. Any bike film/short/videos would be cool. If you think you can help then either speak directly to Graham or drop an email/comment to Strong Island. Thanks for your support.

Smell The Roses from Zack McTee on Vimeo.

Tags: Strong Island Bike Ride

Ken Russell at The New Theatre Royal

On Sunday 16th May the New Theatre Royal is host to join Ken Russell and friends at a special screening of his acclaimed production, The Boy Friend. Filmed at the New Theatre Royal back in 1971, Ken Russell’s musical stars Twiggy playing Polly Browne, an aspiring musical comedy star, working as stage manager of a production of The Boy Friend. She is transformed into a star when she replaces leading lady Rita Monroe (Glenda Jackson), who twists her ankle seconds before the curtain goes up. Before the evening is over, Polly is scampering over outsized sets, and ducking around seemingly thousands of chorus girls and boys. Christopher Gable, who plays Polly’s on-stage leading man, also choreographed the lavish musical numbers. Director Ken Russell (notorious for his onscreen excesses) fashioned a humongous parody of the Busby Berkeley film musicals of the 1930′s and staged on a scale that made Berkeley seem stylistically modest.

Interview with Ken Russell and friends – 2.15pm, film screening – 3pm.

Tickets are £35, £25 for concessions and available here.

Tags: Ken Russell, The New Theatre Royal

Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll

Tonight is your last chance to catch the wonderful Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll staring Andy Serkis, who was nominated for the 2010 BAFTA Leading Actor award for his portrayal of Ian Dury. The film is on at No. 6 Cinema at 8:30pm and is a 15 classification.

Tags: No. 6 Cinema

Love You Too Premiere @ No.6 Cinema

“Love You Too” is a film about infatuation, desolation and a young boy’s struggle through false hope. Ostracized from the school cliques he falls into a downward spiral triggered by his obsession over a suicide video. His father provides no help; entangled in his own web of sex, lies and addiction. The characters descend further into moral ambiguity and self-deprecation before reaching a harrowing denouement.

The film stars local young actors as well as Nick Thomas Webster (Harry Potter,Sweeney Todd.) and Fiona Ryan (Tv the tudors.) and other professional actors, it was shot all over Portsmouth during last summer and had a budget of just under a grand

The premiere its self is FREE, but we do ask for donations on the door to cover the security. There will be refreshments sold just before the premiere… including alcohol. After the premiere we will be doing a Q+A session with the cast and crew so feel free to ask any question. If you wish to attend just put your name below and how many guests you would like to bring. Hope to see you all there.

The premier screening of Love You Too will be at 18.30 at the NO.6 Cinema, in case your unaware of where that is its in the dockyards where the action stations are (look for boat house number 6).

To see more details and RSVP head over to Facebook.

Tags: Love You Too, No. 6 Cinema

Poetry, Wine, Music and Keats

The No.6 Cinema on Saturday 23 January at 7pm wish for you to join them for wine, music and poetry readings followed by their first screening of the stunning Keats biopic ‘Bright Star’. Bright Star is set in Hampstead, 1818 where tubercular poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) falls in love with Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish); who becomes the muse of some of the English language’s most perfect love letters.

There will be live music from The House Band who play a range of music from Irish jigs, reels and hornpipes to polkas, modern folk music and popular music and well-known songs from the 50s onward. Nineveh Books of Havant, who have a strong connection to Keats who spent his last night in England at the Mill in Bedhampton, will be on hand with Keats related books and to read from his work.

Join No. 6 for a glass of wine and salmon nibbles for only £3.50.

Tags: No. 6 Cinema