FILM preview
FILM FESTIVAL Long Shots
Glasgow: Gilmorehill Centre, Mon 22-Sun 28 Feb.
Starting out in the film industry can be a really daunting experience. There seems to be something approximating the Grand Canyon between the young wannabe and the professionals, between new work and an appreciative audience. Last year, Long Shots - the University of Glasgow's film and video festival — started building bridges to help bring emerging talent closer to their goals. Construction continues apace in 1999, as Long Shots gears up for a
week-long residency at the University's Gilmorehill Centre. The most obvious interface
between the public and young filmmakers will be found within the programmes of short films screened in Gilmorehill's 130-seat cinema. Given that more mainstream cinemas are now making the effort to show shorts before main features and that television series such as Shooting Gallery have been given a slightly higher profile, such eclectic collections of new work should find a more responsive audience than ever.
‘These films are varied, young and innovative, and have come from all over Britain, with a few from abroad,‘ says Natasha Serlin. Long Shot's Events Director. 'It seems we've got away from sex and swearing and smoking joints.’
That may be true of the short films, but all three are staple ingredients of The Acid House, the three-part feature film based on Irvine Welsh's stories. Released in cinemas earlier this year, The Acid House is now ready for dissection in a Long Shots 'Scene By Scene’ (Sat 20 Feb at noon), during which its editor, Andrew Hulme, will share the secrets of his art.
The Acid House event is an indication that there‘s more to Long Shots than a finished work. A handful of workshops — featuring director David Hayman, production designer Andy Harris, the Urban Ghost Story team of Chris Jones and Genevieve Jollife, and several
The Acid House: heading for breakdown at Long Shots
others - will get to the heart of the filmmaking process, covering drama, documentary and experimental work.
Meanwhile, an exhibition of video art installations in the University’s Hunter Hall East reflects the fact that many emerging filmmakers aren't restricting themselves to the short drama format, and that art and film can no longer be considered separate entities.
Kicking everything off is a debate on 'Control, Censorship, Creativity', to be held in Glasgow University Union’s Debate Chamber (Fri 19 Feb, 3pm). 'T his is one of the key issues being talked about just now — should art respond to or stimulate public demand?’ says Serlin. Bringing together independent filmmakers and representatives of Scottish Screen, the Scottish Arts Council and the broadcast industry, the debate will question whether various development schemes impose restrictions or allow creative freedom. (Alan Morrison)
a See Film listings for screenings. For further information, contact Long Shots on 0747 330 3805 or /ongshots@tfts. arts. g/aac. uk
The new breed: the cast of My Name Is Joe meet the 1999 Screenworks winners
FILM SCHEMES
the essence of childhood.
The experimental aspect is developed in another trio of films: Openwork is a dance piece for camera, Experimental Truth is described as ’a narrative film Without narrative', and Loop-hole uses 16mm scratch loops to describe certain sounds. A drama, The Last Ride, which tells of a man's final journey with his dead father, completes the batch.
Cineworks, on the other hand, will provide production and finishing grants for five filmmakers with previous experience. The new scheme is funded by the Scottish Arts Council (National Lottery) and Scottish Screen, and run in partnership with Edinburgh Film and Video Access Centre.
Screenworks] Cineworks
Seven new short films have been given the green light as Glasgow Film and Video Workshop's Screenworks scheme enters a new phase of production. Three members of the cast of My Name Is Joe — Peter Mullan, Louise Goodall and Gary Lewis — were on hand to make the announcement at a launch event that also unveiled
22 THE LIST i8 Feb—4 Mar 1999
Cineworks, a new production scheme aimed at more experienced filmmakers. Screenworks is unique in that it allows fledgling filmmakers to concentrate on artistic concerns by offering full support and use of facilities at GFVW. This year’s lineoup includes three documentaries — Boys Own, about girl skateboarders; Blue Bones, Blue Tones, the study of a manic depressive schizophrenic; and Mama Puddy, which uses contrasting sounds and visual formats to capture
'These two schemes mean we've been given a lot of responsibility Within the industry, now that Scottish Screen has effectively moved away from the training and support of emerging talent,’ says Aimara Reques, GFVW's PTOJECIS Co-ordinator. 'However, the funding is proof that the Lottery board have confidence in us because of the successes we’ve had in the last few years.’ (Alan Morrison)
I For information on Cineworks, contact GFVW on 0747 553 2620.
FILM BOOKS Projections 9
Edited by Michel Ciment and Noél Herpe (Faber 8i Faber 12.99) ‘k * it wk
'When the driving force is money, attitudes change,’ says one of the interviewees in this collection of articles from the French magazine Positif. A well-established monthly, produced by expert yet unpaid film critics, Positif combines professional acuity with a convivial informality.
In all, there are 21 interviews here, from the veterans — Robert Bresson, Eric Rohmer and Alain Resnais — and on to the post-New Wave generation of Maurice Pialat, Bertrand Tavernier and Claude Miller. The new generation is also represented — Olivier Assayas, Jacques Audiard, Mathieu Kassovitz — all with interesting and direct things to say about their work.
In fact, throughout the tone is almost confessional: Claude Chabrol reminds us that he always tries 'to find a way of including a few personal preoccupations’. Others offload fascinating, personal grievances. Maurice Pialat, for example, who gripes about the looming presence of Heaven’s Gate on his own small film Lou/ou: 'Isabelle Huppert left for a year to go rollerskating with Cimino.’
The book, aimed chiefly at cinephiles perhaps, nonetheless has enough insights into the craft for budding filmmakers also. (Tony McKibbin)
John Wayne
Garry Wills (Faber & Faber £12.99) mum
’The strength of Wayne was that he embodied our deepest myth — that of the frontier. His weakness is that it is only a myth.’ Wills contends that John Wayne continues to hold legendary status because Americans respond more to what he represented on screen than the quality of his performances.
But unlike other rebellious cinema icons — Dean, Brando — Wayne was the arch conservative, a man called Marian who became known as Duke. He is the anti-anti-hero, fighting for and not against authority.
Wills's point of view is definitively American, but then so is its subject. And so the book becomes something more than a biography: it probes the American psyche, its politics, its way of life. Through the make-believe figure of 'John Wayne' we learn as much about America’s uneasy relationship with its own history and its 20th century wars as we would in a good history book. (Alan Morrison)
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