Film Festival
Grimmfest Review: Trans
As humans, we’ve long been fascinated with getting bigger, better, faster and stronger. Physical strength and muscular prowess have been a desirable feature, for obvious reasons, of soldiers and warriors down through history. Even going back to Ancient Greece and the first Olympics or the modern incarnations, we celebrate athleticism in many forms. However, homo …
Grimmfest Review: Mara
Memory is a fragile thing. Anyone with friends or relatives who suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s know just how painfully true this can be. On the other hand, those suffering from trauma or grief may gladly surrender certain events from their recollection. It’s an area which intrigues science fiction filmmakers, creating such wonderful cinema as …
Grimmfest Review: Rendez-Vous
Each filmmaker approaches their craft in a unique and individual way. This goes all the way back to the basics of how they write or approach a script to the choices made around filming and the equipment they’re going to use. One of the most complicated and complex ways of producing a film is by …
Grimmfest Review: Threshold
Modern technology has been rapidly changing the face of cinema. Long gone are the days when you need cumbersome equipment or a complex development process. Today, all you need is a mobile device, a lot of imagination and the appropriate software. The likes of Steven Soderbergh and Sean Baker have demonstrated what can be done …
Grimmfest Review: The Barcelona Vampire
There are stories and legends of vampires in many cultures and societies around the world. Whilst this folklore deviates in many ways, the evil at the heart of it largely stays the same. It’s a term which has been bandied around as a way of stigmatising or targeting certain people and groups, or as cautionary …
Grimmfest Easter Horror Nights Preview
Grimmfest takes place in Manchester every October and has cemented itself on the UK horror film festival calendar. Given the current ‘situation’, things have been a little different over the last year. However, whilst most of us are stuck indoors with little to do, they’ve decided to launch something a little special. Grimmfest Easter Horror …
French Film Festival UK Review: The Translators
It’s often said that everyone has a book in them. Thankfully, most people don’t take up the challenge. Even so, it’s incredibly difficult to get a novel published, let alone make a living out of writing. However, sometimes an author manages to catch the imagination and becomes hot property. E-books and the internet have added …
BFI Flare Review: Kiss Me Before It Blows Up
Families can be complex, confusing, confounding and confrontational, but more often than not blood is thicker than water. All families have a tangled web of inter-relationships, shared histories and those topics avoided at all costs. However, when you’ve finally found that special someone you want to spend the rest of your life with, your nearest …
BFI Flare Review: Cured
Today, being gay in a progressive society generally means being a second-class citizen in one way or another. Seen, accepted but usually not afforded the same legal protections as someone in a heterosexual relationship. In less open and tolerant countries it remains a criminal office, often punishable by death. However, there was a time, even …
BFI Flare Review: Rebel Dykes
There once was a time when youthful rebellion and protest were a mainstay of British life. Indeed, activism and campaigning were often regular pastimes during the 1970s and early 1980s. Especially around the time when Margaret Thatcher came to power and society was becoming increasingly conservative. AIDS was on the rise and a number of …