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The Purbeck Film Festival makes a welcome return to BU with a programme of films from around the world. |
Purbeck Film Festival at BU
16th ? 28th October 2006
Tickets: £2.50 per head on the door
The Purbeck Film Festival makes a welcome return to the Talbot Campus of Bournemouth University with a fortnight of screenings from around the world.
The global theme starts on Monday, 16th October, with Control Room - an impactive and provocative documentary concerning the Arab satellite television news network Al-Jazeera and its coverage of the 2003 Iraqi war. The film is followed by an audience discussion concerning issues raised by the documentary.
Subsequent screenings feature films from India, Russia, Hong Kong, Korea, Poland, Brazil with special food sampling opportunities on two nights and a chance to meet members of the production team that made the controversial British film Rollin’ With The Nines.
The Festival concludes with a special screening and celebration of works by students from Bournemouth University, the Arts Institute at Bournemouth, the Bournemouth and Poole College, Weymouth College and Salisbury College.
Tickets for all Purbeck Film Festival events at Bournemouth University are £2.50 and can be purchased in advance from the Students’ Union shop on the University’s Talbot Campus or on the door prior to each film.
We look forward to welcoming you to Bournemouth University and proud to support the Purbeck Film Festival!
Monday 16th October
CONTROL ROOM (Cert 12)
7.45 pm - MARCONI LECTURE THEATRE, Talbot Campus
OPENING NIGHT… An impactive and provocative documentary concerning the Arab satellite television news network Al-Jazeera and its coverage of the 2003 Iraqi war. Directed by Jehane Noujaim, the film features candid interviews with Al-Jazeera personnel and offers an Arab perspective of the conflict. The brutality of war is depicted in shocking news footage unavailable to Western audiences and includes the horrifying killing of an Al-Jazeera reporter in an apparently deliberate US targeted air strike. US news reports are analysed for omission and bias, challenging viewers to question how truthful and comprehensive the news coverage they receive is in a highly information controlled culture.
SPECIAL EVENT… The documentary will be introduced by Stephen Jukes, Head of Bournemouth Media School and former head of News at Reuters who oversaw the agency's coverage of the Iraq War. Following the screening, Stephen will lead a discussion concerning the issues raised by the documentary.
Tuesday 17th October
BANDIT QUEEN (Cert 18)
7.30 pm -ALLESBROOKE LECTURE THEATER, Talbot Campus
Introduced by Lizzie Sykes.
This screening is accompanied by a selection of Indian food prepared by the University's International Students.
The raw uncompromising story of Phoolan Devi, a heroine of India. Subjected to cruel and often brutal treatment from the age of eleven when she was sold into marriage by her father, Phoolan suffers frequent and terrible degradation through her teenage years and as a young woman. Set in a remote corner of India, Phoolan’s early life is a succession of mental and physical abuse. Escaping this pitiless existence, Phoolan is adopted by bandits, whom she later joins, stealing from the rich upper caste Thakurs to help the poor. Based on Phoolan Devi’s diaries, Shekhar Kapur’s often shocking yet compelling film portrays Phoolan’s rise as a legendary – and politically potent – figure in Indian folklore. Phoolan is played with great force and conviction by Seema Biswas.
Wednesday 18th October
THE RETURN (Cert 12)
7.30 pm - ALLESBROOKE LECTURE THEATRE, Talbot Campus
Introduced by Phil Mathews
An intense and powerful familial drama set in the beautiful yet austere wilderness of Putin’s Russia, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s first feature is the story of two young brothers whose absentee father returns home without explanation after twelve years. A film about fatherhood and growing up, the focus of the story is upon the two young brothers and their tempestuous relationships with their disciplinarian father. The three go on a holiday to a remote island in northern Russia, a trip which evolves into a test of manhood for the brothers. Hauntingly atmospheric, the film is intensely cinematic, with an overwhelming sense of landscape, telling a story of emotional and psychological depth. Mesmerizing performances are provided by Konstantin Lavronenko as the long-lost mysterious father and Vladimir Garin and Ivan Dobronavov as the brothers.
Thursday 19th October
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (Cert PG)
7.45 pm - ALLESBROOKE LECTURE THEATRE, Talbot Campus
This screening is accompanied by a selection of Chinese food prepared by the University's International Students.
Introduced by John Foster
The great masterpiece of legendary Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai. Visually sumptuous, the story is set is a cramped sixties Hong Kong apartment block where newspaper editor Chow ? played by Kar-Wai regular the great Tony Leung ? becomes friends with neighbour Su Li-zhen, played with effortless grace by Maggie Cheung. Exceptional performances by the lead duo provide a Chinese Brief Encounter concerning two lonely people linked by the infidelity of their absent spouses. The story is a complex and delicate meditation on love and longing, but also a metaphor for change and loss, the mourning of the values of a disappearing world, and the looming spectre of Hong Kong 's unification with mainland China . The cuckolded couple brim with unfulfilled desire, their melancholy ache expressed with subtly and restraint in an elegant film which sustains an intense sense of place and a deeply evocative score. The exquisite imagery is vibrantly fashioned by Kar-Wai's long-time collaborator cinematographer Chris Doyle.
Friday 20th October
MEMORIES OF MURDER (Cert 15)
7.30 pm - ALLESBROOKE LECTURE THEATRE, Talbot Campus
Introduced by Andrew Ireland
One of the key films of the South Korean new wave, a rural policier based upon the true events of that country's most notorious serial killer case, in which a psychotic criminal murdered ten women in a provincial town between 1986 and 1991. In the film the unidentified serial killer stalks his female victims, murdering them only when it rains and ? with shades of Clint Eastwood's Play Misty for Me ? when a particular song plays on the radio. A deeply suspenseful noir yet one with strong elements of humour involving the farcical police activity. Detectives go to increasingly desperate and hilarious lengths to catch the killer, including the fitting-up of an innocent man. Tensions mount as a detective from the city joins the local force and rivalries and enmities percolate during the incompetent investigation. A tragic and bleakly comic narrative unfolds, the tone becoming darker with each killing. Starring the celebrated film actor Song Kang-ho and directed with great visceral power by Bong Joon-ho, there are some scenes are not for the squeamish.
Monday 23rd October
ROLLIN’ WITH THE NINES (Cert 18)
7.30 pm - MARCONI LECTURE THEATRE, Talbot Campus
This screening will be introduced by members of the Production Team with a Question & Answer session afterwards.
Directed by Julian Gilbey from a screenplay by Julian and Will Gilbey, this raw and controversial film about gun crime was released in the UK in April 2006, having won Best UK Feature at the 2005 Raindance Film Festival. Following British features such as Bullet Boy – screened at last year’s Purbeck Film Festival – and Kidadult, this movie is a violently visceral gangster story pitting bent white cops against vicious black criminals. The unfolding narrative concerns Hope, played by Naomi Taylor, who becomes an avenging angel femme fatale after her brother’s murderer beats her up and rapes her. Shot in an on-the-hoof guerrilla style and described by some as Britain’s first blaxploitation movie, the film features grime music, vibrant street language and powerful often disturbing shoot-outs and car chases. Producer Pikki says: ‘This is a ghetto film, but it’s also entertainment. I wanted to show the way things are on the street but not to make a moralistic point. I wanted a certain audience to see their reality reflected in film, because it never is.’
Tuesday 24th October
SHOOTING DOGS (Cert 15)
7.30 pm - ALLESBROOKE LECTURE THEATRE, Talbot Campus
Please note change of venue.
Introduced by Richard Berger
Based on a true story, a powerful and disturbing follow-up to Hotel Rwanda. Unlike that film, there is no happy Hollywood ending. Directed by Michel Caton-Jones from a screenplay by David Wolstencroft, Shooting Dogs depicts the 1994 Rwandan genocide from the white perspective, with John Hurt as a Catholic priest and Hugh Dancy as a young idealistic English teacher at a small technical college, which becomes a makeshift camp for the Tutsis fleeing the Hutu machetes. 800,000 Rwandans were ultimately killed in the worst case of genocide since the second world war after the UN peacekeepers pulled out and the world left Rwanda to its own devices in a deeply shaming and unforgivable abandonment. With a cast of hundreds of locals, the film was shot on the actual locations of the barbarity, and with survivors of the massacre amongst the film crew. The painful irony of the title is that the UN peacekeepers could kill dogs feeding off the corpses of murdered Tutsis but could do nothing about the Hutu militias responsible for their deaths. A tragic story told with passion and authority.
Wednesday 25th October
TOTO THE HERO (Cert 15)
7.30 pm - ALLESBROOKE LECTURE THEATRE, Talbot Campus
Please note change of venue.
Introduced by John Foster
The celebrated debut of writer-director Jaco van Dormael, a former circus clown, who with this first outing produced one of most original and tantalising films of European cinema, a non-linear tragicomedy which with its use of alternative reality and wacky surrealism paved the way for movies such as Amelie and Donnie Darko, and foreshadowed the mature work of directors as diverse as Lars Von Trier, Terry Gilliam and David Lynch. Thomas, a bitter old man, feels cheated out of his life because he and another boy were switched at birth in a hospital fire. The allusion of fire runs throughout this deeply inventive visual roller coaster. Alfred, the other boy and neighbour of Thomas, grows up to life of wealth and privilege which Thomas declares belonged to him ? ?you stole my life!' ? and plots his revenge. Michel Bouquet's performance as the older Thomas is driven by caustic irony in this bittersweet tale which plays with time and memory. A poetic meditation on fate and mortality.
Thursday 26th October
AVALON (Cert 12)
7.30 pm - SCREENING THEATRE, WEYMOUTH HOUSE, Talbot Campus
Introduced by Andrew Ireland
A highly imaginative and visually striking contemplation of the nature of reality from Polish director Mamoru Oshii. Sharing parallels with The Matrix, the film is set in the future and concerns an illegal and potentially lethal battle simulation game called Avalon. Many young people, wishing to escape the real world into fantasy, are addicted to the game – including Ash, its star contestant, played with great virtuosity by Malgorzata Foremniak. She learns of the existence of a more advanced level of the game and seeks to infiltrate it. Her quest is imbued with the risk that she may never be able to return to reality and have to endure an endless existence in a virtual purgatory. With reliance on CG1 to create the cyber game environment, the Sepia toned texture of the film gives it a moody dystopian perspective. The movie boasts a beautiful layered and complex film score – ranging through many forms including the operatic – composed by Kenji Kawai and recorded with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. The film is like a poem, an ode to realities and illusions.
Friday 27th October
THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES (Cert 15)
7.30 pm - ALLESBROOKE LECTURE THEATRE, Talbot Campus
Please note change of venue.
Introduced by Claudia Vieira
Formidable Brazilian director Walter Salles’ existential road movie portraying the early life and political awakening of Che Guevara, then a medical student, later to become one of the most memorable and iconic figures of the 20th Century. This journey of discovery begins in Buenos Aires on a rickety 1939 Norton 500 and ends at a leper colony in the Peruvian Amazon. Staring Gael Garcia Bernal as Che and Rodrigo de la Serna as his erstwhile companion, the narrative unfolds as a discursive wanderlust across Latin America – a ten thousand mile trip across Argentina, Chile, Peru, Columbia and Venezuela – where increasing evidence of acute poverty and social injustice seed the young medic’s militant impulses. This is more than a motorcycle diary, it is a life diary. Concern for people and their environment takes over from the breezy escapades of the early sequences as Che begins to experience the grief, poverty and injustices suffered by his people. Searingly evocative landscape is the backdrop to this lyrical tale of change and destiny.
Saturday 28th October
STUDENT SHOWCASE GALA
3.00 pm - MARCONI LECTURE THEATRE, Talbot Campus
SPECIAL EVENT ? Introduced by Fiona Cownie
An afternoon and evening of student work, including dramas, documentaries, animation, new media, and scenes from student screenplays performed by actors. Both undergraduate and postgraduate work will be represented. A wide range of student artefacts will be on display from a variety of institutions, including Bournemouth Media School , the Arts Institute, Bournemouth and Poole College , Weymouth College and Salisbury College . There will be a presentation of short films produced by local schools in association with the Bournemouth Screen Academy . Examples of work from members of staff, often created in collaboration with students, will be screened, together with a selection of films developed and produced in Africa and Asia by staff and students involved in media education schemes funded by the British Council and the Commonwealth Development Fund.
And afterwards?
Last updated: 24 October 2006
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