The Encounters Film Festival taking place in Bristol from September 20th to 25th is now firmly established as one of the UK’S leading film festival in the areas of short film and animation. With more than 2200 short films submitted and more than 400 selected each year, Encounters screens some of the best British and international contemporary talent, giving the opportunity to new and emerging voices to be heard. Its diverse programme reflects expressions of creativity, imagination and experimentation, exploring the possibilities of the medium and questioning traditional modes of filmmaking.

The event has a long tradition of investigating and presenting new cinema waves and innovative filmmakers. Last year’s focus on Romania included a thorough exploration of the Romanian New Wave with a series of screenings of Romanian shorts and masterclasses by the acclaimed director Adrian Sitaru and the talented actor Adrian Titieni. Along with the new emerging talent, Encounters hosted a number of already established artists, such as the Swiss director and screenwriter Ursula Meier and the experimental British filmmaker Carol Morley.

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The lowdown this year

This year’s programme is very audaciouys and and inspiring, with the new strand ‘Widening the Lens’ exploring alternative viewpoints and examining matters of disability, gender, LGBT and non-white representation on screen. A series of short films will challenge our perception of ‘normal’ thereby foregrounding diversity and differentiation. Panel discussions, such as ‘Grrls on Film’ and ‘The Ethical Approach to Diversity’ will open up the debate on the representation of the female figure on screen and ways to promote diversity and inclusion.

In a period of significant politico-economical upheavals and redefinition of national borders, Encounters reflects the human anguish and pain with a series of short films that explore the act of migration and the brutalities faced by refugees.

Bloody Foreigners is a mixture of six thought-provoking international short films that examine the refugee crisis on the European borders, the often hostile circumstances and the racist atmosphere in the host countries, the reactions of the native populations and the despair and anxiety of the refugees in their difficult ‘journey’ to flee their country and establish a new life in a new land. Similarly, Ode to Lesvos presents the stories of the people of the Greek island Lesvos, who opened their families and offered a warm embrace to the suffering Syrian refugees.

Another highlight of this year’s festival is focus on Ukraine, with the Myroslav Slaboshpytski Retrospective, which includes short films of the acclaimed Ukrainian director, best known for his debut The Tribe. Along with this, the Ukraine Female Filmmaker Focus offers a variety of Ukrainian shorts directed by young upcoming female filmmakers. Covering a range of themes and styles, the Ukrainian focus brings to the festival a taste of the Ukrainian life, history and politics.

The 22nd Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival runs from 20th-25th of September in Bristol. Just click here for more information.

Is there a film that shook your world, and do you live in London? Then consider becoming a film programmer!

The Barbican Cinema, with support from Film London, has launched a ground-breaking and bold initiative this week. “What London Watches: Ten Films That Shook Our World” is their first film season ever entirely curated by people like you. From September 15th to October 30th, anyone who lives in London can submit a suggestion of film to be screened at the Barbican Center next Spring programme,- between April 6th and 13th.

Robert Rider, Head of Barbican Cinema, says “This is a singular opportunity to celebrate the rich complexity of our capital city and to explore the power of film to reverberate across all our lives. Never before have Londoners been asked to suggest a film that is personally important and inspiring, with the possibility of seeing it on the big screen, and we are excited and curious to see which films people pick”.

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The Babylon of cinema

The most dignified aspect of this project is the inclusion, or in other words, the engagement with the audience. Film London and the Barbican Center hope that city workers, crane operators, taxi drivers, nurses, teachers, people from across all cultures, diasporas and collective identities can mold their Barbican now. The legacy is that the Barbican come closer to people that usually would not consider going to a cinema in the City.

So far almost 50 cultural and community organisations – with an accumulative reach of around 600,000 people – including women’s, refugee and LGBTQ groups across the capital, are reaching out to audiences and members to encourage them to take part. These include the Bernie Grant Arts Centre, The Arts Centre Hounslow, Chinese Visual Centre, Polish Cultural Institute, London Asian Film Festival, Gate Theatre, Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Festival, Tricycle Theatre, Goethe Institute, Italian Culture Institute, Hackney Empire plus many more. DMovies is also doing its part.

Adrian Wootton, Chief Executive of Film London and the British Film Commission, says: “London boasts a tremendously rich film culture, both in terms of the iconic films that have been made here and the sheer number of cinemas, film clubs and pop-ups operating in every corner of the capital. I can’t wait to see the films that the city selects, and I’m excited to be working with the Barbican on what must be the biggest conversation ever held with Londoners about the films that have made the deepest, most indelible impression upon them.”

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Don’t miss the deadline!

You have till October 30th to submit your suggestion of film. After that a panel will look for the ten titles that best reflect the diverse make-up of London as well as the inclusive ambition of the project. The panel will particularly consider people’s backstories to inform their selection, with the most inspiring suggestions entered into a prize draw, plus the opportunity to attend their screening during the season and present their film to audiences next April.

The Advisory Panel is composed by Isra Al Kassi (Events Coordinator at Ritzy cinema), Catherine Bray (Producer, Film Journalist and Editorial Director of Film4 Online), Dave Calhoun (Global Film Editor at Time Out), Catharine Des Forges (Founder and Director of The Independent Cinema Office), Steadman Gbajumo (Freelancer filmmaker working on both BBC 2 and Channel 4 productions), Priscilla Igwe (Managing Director, New Black Film Collective), Larushka Ivan-Zadeh (Film Editor at Metro), Selina Roberts (Freelance Film Programmer and Writer. Co-founder of Club Des Femmes), Cary Sawhney (Filmmaker and previous Head of Diversity for the BFI), Keith Shiri (Film Curator and Programme Advisor to the BFI London Film Festival as well as the Venice Film Festival), and Adrian Wootton (Chief Executive of Film London and the British Film Commission).

I have already submitted my suggestion. DMovies hope to see you in April introducing your personal movie memories at the Barbican.

The website link to submit film ideas is found by clicking here.

Watch the initiative’s official trailer here, where Londoners explain their pick:

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Is your father a hero, a crook, a ghost or – perhaps more unexpectedly – just an ordinary human being with virtues and fallacies ahoy? Estrella (played at the age of eight by Sonsoles Aranguren and at the age of 15 by Icíar Bollaín) has a strange obsession with her elusive and mysterious father Agustín (Omero Antonutti). She is always keen to investigate his secret past and unrequited dalliances with more fervour than her own relations. She hardly remembers her mother, and she is very dismissive of her romance with a young male nicknamed Carioco.

Spanish filmmaker Almodóvar selected El Sur as one of his favourite Spanish films ever, and so it is now in cinemas again. Perhaps not coincidentally, Almodóvar’s Julieta (2016) deals with the emotions of a mother abandoned by her daughter without any explanation. El Sur opens with the departure of the father Agustín, also without any forewarning or justification, leaving Estrella desperately searching for so many answers.

El Sur has a common feature with one of the most aesthetically and politically significant Spanish films of all time, Carlos Saura’s Cría Cuervos, made just seven years earlier (in 1976). In both films the protagonist is a young girl with a very rich imagination, and both film were made not long after the end of the Francoist regime in Spain (Franco died in 1975). The difference is that the girl named Ana (Ana Torrent) imagines death (including her father’s) in Cría Cuervos, while Estrella fantasises mostly about her father’s love life, including an affair with a film star. Both movies are representative of a time of fast political changes and uncertainty in Spain, where reimagining the world through the eyes of a child looked like a plausible solution to both filmmakers and tormented Spaniards. Puerile imagination provides the poetical licence needed in order to overcome the polarisation the country experienced since the Civil War.

In El Sur, the garments are invariably dark, the mood is somber, conversations are muffled, much like the country under Franco’s oppressive dictatorship. The photography is dark like a Rembrandt or El Greco painting, the camerawork is slow and subtle, a little like Tarkovsky. Fact, imagination and allegories blend in together in a gentle and gloomy reconstruction of a child’s (and then a teenager’s) imagination.

The director Victor Erice originally planned to make a three-hour movie, with the second half taking place in the south of Spain, where Estrella moves in order to investigate the secrets of her father. However, this never came to fruition, and only the 90 minutes taking place in the north were completed. This is clearly noticeable in the film, which at times feels a little loose and incomplete. The second half probably had the potential to turn it into an immaculate masterpiece.

El Sur is showing at the BFI Southbank as part of a special season devoted to Victor Erice. Also on BFI Player for a limited period of time only.

A journey from naïve countryside Irish girl to acclaimed artist: Dare to be Wild is based on the true story of Mary Reynolds (played by Emma Greenwell) breakthrough into the world of landscape design. Brought up by environmentally conscious parents in remote backlands of Ireland, Mary dreams of the wild spirits of the earth and later channels them throughout her journey to the Chelsea Flower Show, where she promotes the idea of gardens as wild sanctuaries.

She finds a lifetime opportunity to help celebrity guru/garden designer Charlotte Heavey (Christine Marzano), but soon realizes her ideas are being seized by her jealous boss, and published without her permission. She pretends to be content and continues to be taken advantage of, and preditacbly ends up being dismissed. Despite the hurdles, Mary decides to compete for the Gold Medal on the Chelsea Flower Show. The film focuses on Mary’s quest to dissiminate her vision, as she persuades a team of unconventional experts, the Green Angels, along with her dalliance the botanist Christy Collard (Tom Hughes) – they seem to be the only ones who understand her pioneering vision.

She still has to convince Christy that the exposure at the event will help them to higlight the urgency of nature preservation in its ordinary state. Christy’s passion is in the reforestation of the forgotten landscape of Ethiopia, which sees Mary embarking on yet another trip. The pair eventually finds their middle ground and their newfound synergy takes them back to Chelsea to work together on Mary’s concept.

The film is sustained by a fairy-tale like tone, with a few (sadly mediocre) allusions to Celtic mysticism. As well intentioned as it is, little is uncovered on the liberating power of nature. Apart from the glorious shots of Ireland and Ethiopia – which are always the backdrop to sappy romance -, the film sometimes fails to analyse the real impact of the work of the protagonist. It’s visually striking, but possibly a little too glossy and dazzling a depiction to uncover the importance of the revival of nature.

Dare to be Wild is out in more than 100 cinemas in the UK and Ireland on Friday September 23rd, with a special screening at the Gate Cinema in London on September 21st.

You can watch the film trailer below:

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The Scottish philosopher Adam Smith had distinguished views on politics and was severely criticised by proclaiming a moral theory in which savage peoples are ruled by passions, and civilised peoples by the mind. He was right when he said that: “To promote the little interest of one little order of men in one country, it hurts the interest of all other orders of men in that country, and of all men in all other countries”. The story behind the documentary When Two Worlds Collide is the testament of this.

The doc exposes the social injustice and the environmental issues caused by the Promotion Agreement between Peruvian former president Alan García and George W. Bush administration in 2009. By inviting American entrepreneurs to explore petrol in Peru, García disregarded the territories of native indigenous peoples. Pregnant indigenous women were having health problems due to water contamination and the rainforest was in critical danger. So indigenous leader Alberto Pizango started to protest against the president’s destructive actions.

Pizango claimed that there was no native representation in Peruvian Congress and that his people weren’t consulted for the agreement. In an action in 2009 Pizango and many indigenous people blocked a highway, so that there was no food for people in the cities. Though García considers indigenous people as “savages that don’t understand development”, one of his cabinet ministers agreed to meet with a committee of indigenous people. Politicians and native people continued to disagree.

Pizango reiterated that his people “wanted development but didn’t want to risk their lives”. Respect nature and take care of the land is a principle for native communities. As they didn’t sell their territories to (petrol) Barrett Company, a conflict erupted. In the name of order, García sent police forces to Petrol Peru Oil Station. Eighty-two indigenous people were shot and nine died; on the other side, plus 11 policemen were killed. Policemen searched for weapons even inside the ambulances.

The film challenges audiences to rethink preconceptions of savagery. While dead policemen were considered heroes, dead “savage” indigenous men were considered criminals. Pizango fled to Nicaragua and became a political refugee. Most of the Peruvian press was by García’s side. One TV anchor told Pizarro he was “risking the whole country and was not open to dialogue”.

Vile rulers of mankind can open an incurable wound in an entire nation. Back in Peru, Pizango faced a trial. He was accused of inciting killings. No members of government, or policemen ever faced prosecution for the people killed and wounded..

When Two Worlds Collide has very strong images of the conflicts. It is a subversive piece of cinematography, recognised with awards in Sundance Film Festival and Hot Docs Toronto International Film Festival. The film is out in cinemas worldwide right now.

Don’t forget to view the film trailer below:

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There is no peace without justice. White Sun is a very intense and political fairy tale, exposing the tensions that Nepal has faced in the past few decades. The struggle of Maoists versus monarchists (with the victory of the former) has left Nepal deeply divided. Director Deepak Rauniyar digs deep into the history of his country to expose dilemmas of generations and a community divided between tradition and progress.

Located in the Himalaya, Nepal is home to eight of the world’s ten tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point on earth. The astonishing photography, vivid with very strong colours, was created by DOP Mark Ó’Fearghail. The story is set in 2015, the year when Nepal created a constitution for the first time in its history.

Chandra (Dayahang Rai) returns to his small village in the mountains in order to bury his father. The orphan child Badri helps him to transport his luggage. Chandra is an anti-regime partisan and fought for more than a decade in the Nepalese Civil War. Many in his village don’t share his views. His brother Suraj fought for the defeated monarchist regime. The local tradition mandates that they burn the corpses of the dead. In a village with mainly elderly men (the majority of the younger men went to fight in the war) Chandra and Suraj, with opposite positions, are the only young men left fit to carry their father’s body downhill to be cremated. Meanwhile Chandra’s ex-wife Shobha struggles to find a man to sign the birth certificate of her little daughter Pooja. Pooja needs a father in order to enter a boarding school, instead of being relegated to a low caste.

The script successfully transposes the woes of a nation to a village. The protagonist is a Maoist, but the film does not take sides with anyone. There are blemishes on all sides, and no one is immune to the problems. The script delves inro many dilemmas without resorting to melodramatic devices. There is an incredibly touching scene of the clash between the child Badri and Chandra which epitomises the absurdity of the conflict: Why are we breaking apart and killing each other?

The symbolism behind the death of Chandra and Suraj’s father is connected to an old saying: “death is the last truth”. The film raises many questions: which principles should the country embrace after the abolition of the monarchy? How do you mantain strong traditions without holding back the future of a new generation? The children Pooja and Badri may have the answers.

White Sun is showing this week at the 73rd Venice Film Festival as part of the Horizons Section. DMovies is live at the event.

You can watch a clip from the film below:

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In 1956, the Paramount’s classic The Ten Commandments (Cecil B DeMille, 1956) proved the profitability of a massive Biblical epic, and the studio decided to do a remake of the 1925 silent film Ben-Hur. Based on Lew Wallace’s best-selling novel, the second production of Ben-Hur (William Wyler, 1959) was an instant hit. The producers built what was then the biggest movie-set ever constructed for the chariot race in the Roman arena. It received 11 awards from the total of 12 nominations at the Oscars. It was an intelligent piece of filmmaking, as it never showed Christ’s face, but it captured the reaction on people’s faces upon seeing him.

To repeat in 2016 the effect of an empire which is an affront to God, producers decided for the use of 3D. They probably thought that 3D would accentuate or lend a new meaning to the chariot race, but they failed. The second remake of Ben-Hur is a poorly constructed historical epic film, and not as clever, witty or thought-provoking as the 1959 version. It arrives under the stigma of industrial cinematographic forces that support the status quo. The creators of the protest hashtag #OscarsSoWhite are probably appalled at the Ben-Hur’s lack of diversity.

First of all, Bekmambetov trusts that his audience is incapable of following the film narrative. Since the beginning, the story has to be explained by a homiletic voice-over. Such didacticism suggests that there is something intrinsically wrong with the film, unable to rely on dialogue and images for the purpose of storytelling.

The costume design is far from immaculate. Some of the clothes are of modern day origin: Esther (Nazanin Boniadi), for instance, appears wearing trousers, at a time when females wore stola (tunics). Ben-Hur is not an adaptation of a classic tale to current days, such as Coriolanus (Ralph Fiennes, 2011). In order to prove that Shakespeare can still be relevant in modern context, Fiennes offered a televised debate between the Roman generals Martius and Volscii. The effect of the costume design in Ben-Hur consists of anachronisms, continuity and factual errors to the point that Ben-Hur (Jack Huston) climbs up from the dusty ground in the arena in his clean tunic. A film likely to become a constant feature in Robert Webb’s BBC show ‘Great Movie Mistakes’.

Judah Ben-Hur is a Jew that becomes a Christian at the end of the film. He was helped by Jesus Christ, he was turned into a slave and he witnessed Christ’s suffering. But for some reason this change of faith under brutal captivity is mostly ignored in the movie.

The film is also filled with gender stereotypes. Whilst the male characters Judah Ben-Hur and Messala are driven by revenge, the female character Esther is all compassion and patience. She tries to avoid blood and hate in the family. She is also a frigid, passive and conformist figure.

Maybe the most dangerously sanitised aspect of Ben-Hur is the role played by Morgan Freeman. It is offensive that after #OscarsSoWhite, Freeman plays a secondary role whose only task is to help the white hero. He represents the Africans in the Roman Empire, as a sheikh who recognises Ben-Hur as a fugitive slave. He instigates the governor’s (Pontius Pilate/ Pilou Asbaek) greed and convinces the Romans to accept a brutal and grueling race between the two brothers.

The conflict between a Roman Empire against Jews in the Middle East is symbolic of the modern struggle of the US against certain Arab countries and “terrorists” in the Middle East. It is a thinly-veiled argument in favour of international belligerence and meddling. The happy ending of the movie suggests that the balance will be restored and harmony will prevail after the military intervention.

The film is out in UK cinemas on September 9th, and you can watch its trailer below:

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