23 Sunday Dec 2012
Posted in Anime / Animated Film, Film, Japanese, Korean
I’m still playing catch-up with the Trailer Weeklies. Aside from that missing #60, I’m a week behind… but I’ll keep trying, maybe I can get that #65 out before next Sunday. I should probably start scrutinising all those “Best films of 2012″ lists that tend appear around this time of the year (which I like to read for inspiration, but hate to create myself).
28 Friday Sep 2012
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Year: 2011
Country: Germany
Language: German
Director: Marten Persiel
Screenplay: Marten Persiel, Ira Wedel
Cinematography: Felix Leiberg
Animation: Sasa Zivkovic
Music: Lars Damm, Troy von Balthasar
Runtime: 90 min
Trailer: Trailer 1 and Trailer 2
Film’s official website: This Ain’t California
This Ain’t California had its UK premiere at the Raindance Film Festival (London) on September 27, 2012. Details here. It also screened in German cinemas this summer and has been shown at a number of international film festivals. It will be the closing film at the annual Berlin & Beyond Festival in San Francisco on October 4, 2012.
A few years back the International Baccalaureate (IB) issued a quote for its students the world round to discuss in their Theory of Knowledge examination essays: “History is part myth, part hope and part reality”. Der Spiegel, a German-language weekly from the popular press, missed the lesson, writing the following in its review of This Ain’t California:
Zu rasant, um wahr zu sein: Der preisgekrönte Film “This Ain’t California” über die Skater-Szene in der DDR kommt als Dokumentation daher. Dabei ist vieles erfunden und nachgestellt. (Translation: “Too daring to be true: The award-winning film ‘This Ain’t California’ about the skateboarding scene in the German Democratic Republic pretends to be a documentary. Much however is invented and reproduced.”) (quote source) Continue reading »
18 Tuesday Sep 2012
Posted in Anime / Animated Film, Events, Film, Japanese, Review
Year: 2012
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Director: Takekiyo Hitoshi
Animation Studio: Koo-Ki
Screenplay: Takekiyo Hitoshi, Komori Yōichi
CGI Direction: Tanaka Kenichiro
Soundscore: Kitazato Reiji
Runtime: 95 min
Trailer: on YouTube
Film’s official website: After School Midnighters
Preview of a festival screener courtesy of the Raindance Film Festival, which will be showing Hōkago Middonaitāzu on October 5 and 7, 2012. The film will also screen at Scotland Loves Anime on October 13 (Glasgow) and October 19 (Edinburgh).
At the elite St. Claire’s Elementary School it’s day 1 of term, with a whole lot of new students entering through the gates for the first time ever. Among them are Mako, Mi and Mu, three little girls who wander through the vast corridors of the school – though “wander” may not so aptly describe their doings. Continue reading »
12 Wednesday Sep 2012
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Lots of shorts from East Asia are showing at events and festivals in the autumn as well. Coming up: Continue reading »
04 Tuesday Sep 2012
It’s always a good thing if a festival releases its programme and the first film on the list is one you’ve been wanting to see for a while. Continue reading »
04 Saturday Feb 2012
Posted in Anime / Animated Film, Film, Indie, Japanese, Korean
Writing from lovely Birmingham today. I know, I know – I’m the only one that finds Birmingham lovely, but I just can’t help it – the most uncharming places become wonderful with the right people, and as I visit a dear friend here, I always enjoy my time in this much maligned second largest city of the UK. Anyhow, I perused old film festival programmes for this week’s Trailer Weekly and also included some other random discoveries. A nice variety of serious and funny, ‘real’ and animated – there should be something for everyone I hope.
28 Saturday Jan 2012
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Lots of Japanese and Korean productions as I was exploring the website of Third Window Films, one of the UK’s main distributors of Asian films, this week.
05 Monday Dec 2011
Last night the awards ceremony for the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) was held in London. BIFA was created in 1998 by Elliot Grove, the founder of Raindance, which organises an excellent indie film festival in London every September. The BIFAs, meanwhile, “set out to celebrate merit and achievement in independently funded British filmmaking, to honour new talent, and to promote British filmmaking and British talent to a wider public”.
You can find the full list of winners here, but a quick shout-out to a number of them: Continue reading »
