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Notes from the City
World PremiereJames McGilchrist | United Kingdom | mins
Anonymous letters challenge three buskers to undertake three different journeys across London with unknown purpose and unknown rendevouz.
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Bonnington Square
World PremiereAlistair Oldham | United Kingdom | 20 mins
Bonnington Square is right in the heart of London, just two minutes walk from the river and just ten minutes from the Houses of Parliament. In the early eighties the one hundred houses of the Square were all squatted, forming a bohemian community from all around the world. The squat had two community gardens, a cafe, a wholefood shop, a nightclub, a newsletter and even a milkbar. Although it is no longer squatted, there are still many low rent housing cooperatives, and the cafe and the gardens are still collectively run, and the Square is now a model of a modern sustainable urban community.
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Cueca in London
Watch trailerSahba Saberian | United Kingdom | mins
According to this group of friends, dancing the traditional Cueca in their native Chile was something only ‘old people would do'. Today, thousand of miles away in London, they look at how this folk dance brought them closer together and to their roots. Amidst intense rehearsals and preparing to celebrate the upcoming bicentenary of their Independence Day, this film explores the subject of national identity and patriotism through their eyes. Great fun.
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Sweep
World PremiereHarold Chapman | United Kingdom | 10 Mins mins
A roaming camera observes and interviews nine street sweepers on the streets of London. Switching back and forth from different interviewees, a picture is built up of the physical and philosophical nature of the job. Some of the sweepers are native British, others are economic migrants, whilst others have been forced from their country by war, like the two Somalian refugees. They reveal something of their family life – some are alone, some are looking after large families. There are those that are grateful for the security of the job and want to stay in it, others have hopes and dreams beyond the confines of that particular life and are pursuing careers in film and music. They all have their own history, thoughts and ideas. They are all much more than the stooped men with barrows and brushes that we see in cities the world over, and who we normally walk past without a second glance.
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The Thames Herring
Jon Spaull | United Kingdom | 7 mins
A short film following Andrew Davies and his son during a days fishing for Herring in the Thames Estuary. Theirs is the last boat to be commercially fishing for Herring out of West Mersea. The sole survivor of a once thriving fishery.
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Underground
World Premiere Watch trailerSandra Lim | United Kingdom | 13 mins
Underground seeks to document a memory of a moment in time and place, this being the period before and after the London Underground bombings of July 7th 2005. The original project began as a short documentary art project of the London Underground several weeks before the bombings in 2005. The conditions after the bombings led to the project being set aside. In the last year, the director returned to the footage wanting to make a record of a mood or feeling of the time – if not an official record, a trace of something intangible or inherent about the time, which seems to persist into the present. The intention was to evoke a contradictory set of moods such as: anxiety and freedom, inwardness and empathy, freedom and constraint, leading to the question of what happens next? The film walks us back into the past through a series of chance and fleeting encounters, pulling us into the currents and rhythms of collective consciousness, always compelled by the imminent and the unknown.
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Wood of Value
London PremiereBjorn Bratberg | Norway, United Kingdom | 16 mins
'Wood of value' is an observational documentary of a tree's journey from the forests of Norway to the metropolis of London. The annual tradition of transporting a Christmas tree across the North Sea has been running for more than 60 years in appreciation of British aid during the Second World War. The documentary depicts the journey and the people who assist the tree on its way.
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