Bristol films gets international showcase

south west | media and culture | event notice Thursday November 06, 2008 18:25 by Pam Beddard - Encounters Short Film Festival pam.beddard at btinternet dot com 07767 621207

The Encounters filmfest returns this month, bringing new opportunities for local talent

Faces, places, msuic and talent from Bristol and other parts of the South West will get a new international showcase when the Encounters Short Film Festival takes place at Watershed and adjoining venues from Tuesday 18 to Sunday 23 November.

It has long been an Encounters tradition to feature a round-up of home-grown live action and animated films in the festival’s internationally-respected programme of screenings, competitions, masterclasses, debates and workshops.

But this year the festival's new managing director, Liz Harkman, says: “The standard of local work is now so high, and our locally-based talent so well-regarded throughout the industry, that we’ve decided we need to change how we present it. So, from now on, South West work will be part of our Best of British strand – a brand of proven excellence and where most of our many visiting buyers, commissioners and talent scouts look first.”

Among the 12 productions chosen for the debut Best of British: Made in the South West programme are new animations from Aardman, the World of Arthur Cox, Will Becher, Saul Freed; an eerie story, shot near the Severn Bridge, by UK Film Council favourite Esther May Campbell, of Easton; a searing drama about domestic violence that has just won its Bristol-based makers - Sam Hearn and Richard Penfold - the Turner Classic Movies short film contest; an unusual boy-meets-girl story with a soundtrack by Insects, from Shafeeq Vellani, plus the latest work by UWE graduate Geoffrey Taylor, who won both student prizes at Encounters 07.

Liz Harkman adds: “It isn’t only local filmmakers who will be in the spotlight through this change. Most of the locally-made work also uses local actors, children, extras, locations, crew and music and, in one case, even local knitters – all of which can only add extra interest and recognition value for local people who book to see it.”

Best of British: Made in the South West will get its first showing at 8.30pm on Tuesday 18 November, with repeats at 10.15am on Thursday 20 November and at 2.45pm on Saturday 22 November. Saturday’s screening will be audio-described and descriptively sub-titled for people with impaired vision or hearing.

South West filmmakers are also represented in the Emerging Talent and Children’s Award programmes at Encounters 08, and another Best of British programme includes CHRISTMAS WITH DAD, a documentary about a 23-year-old Bristol man who acts as father to seven children while coping with failing eyesight.

In all, this year’s festival is offering more than 300 films from 40 countries, many of them premieres.

The line-up includes the debut short by BritArt star Sam Taylor- Wood; a Sadie Frost production featuring Hollywood actor Rhys Ifans and Rita Tushingham; an exclusive preview of the acclaimed Israeli film WALTZ WITH BASHIR, hailed as the first full-length animated documentary, and the UK premiere of newly-discovered Russian animations from the 1900s that are forcing the history of cinema to be re-written

There will also be talks by triple Oscar-winning animator Richard (Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) Williams, actor/director Paddy Considine and the influential animation commissioner, Clare Kitson, among others, industry debates, and a day of films and activities for young people.

The festival climaxes on Saturday 22 November with the 2008 awards ceremony.

For more details and online bookings, see: www.encouters-festival.org.uk

Festival information and tickets are also available from the main festival venue - Watershed, 1 Canons Road, Bristol, BS1 5TX, tel 0117 927 5100; email: info@watershed.co.uk or see www.watershed.co.uk.

The Encounters Short Film Festival is an Encounters Festivals Ltd event, funded by Bristol City Council (www.bristol.gov.uk), South West Screen (www.swscreen.co.uk) and the South West Regional Development Agency (www.southwestrda.org.uk).