To TFT listeners in Belfast: you know it already, but those of us on the other side of an ocean are mildly envious that we can’t be with you at the Belfast Film Festival over the next week or so. (Don’t cry for us, though, for in one of those thrice-yearly mystical encounters, your genial co-hosts will be together in Durham, North Carolina for the largest documentary festival in the US, Full Frame from next Thursday on, and then in Nashville for the Big Sleepy’s film fest later in April.) For what it’s worth, I’m listing below some highlights from BFF. Let us know what you see, what you like, and anything you’d like us to review. We’ll see what we can do.
Friday 27th
‘Synecdoche, New York’ is, among the movies I saw last year, the one I most want to see again. It’s a film about everything, in the same way that one human life is about everything; the actors blend into a crowd that looks like it could absorb the world, or be overwhelmed by it. It’s a painful watch at times, but also thrilling in the way that films about the interior life can be when they’re made for grown ups.
Saturday 28th
‘Let the Right One In’ is the teenage vampire film we’ve all been waiting for – Jett holds it in high esteem, and a friend who only likes about two films every five years thinks it’s a masterpiece.
Sunday 29th
If you’re not going to the Film Quiz and trying to equal or beat our record of second place (we were robbed by zombie film questions) you really could do a lot worse than seeing ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’ again – I watched it over a few months ago and think it might be the Coen Brothers’ best film – the light, the pacing, the intelligent humour, the ripping apart of racism through coruscating humour, the floating cow. It’s perfect.
Tuesday 31st
Go see Kubrick’s ‘Barry Lyndon’ if you haven’t already. If you have, then I imagine you’ve already booked your ticket. But that would mean you would miss ‘Rough Aunties’, Kim Longinotto’s film about heroic women responding to horrific abuse in South Africa. Longinotto won an award at this festival a couple of years ago – and we’ll be seeing this film at Full Frame next week – she’s a documentarian of huge sensitivity.
Thursday 2nd April
Crispin Glover will present the live roadshow version of his film ‘It is fine. EVERYTHING IS FINE.’ Crispin Glover is known for three things in particular – playing George McFly in ‘Back to the Future’, nearly kicking David Letterman in the face, and refusing to play George McFly in the ‘BTTF’ sequels. People who have seen this live performance are usually stunned by a film and a show that has enough engagement and horror to feel like a night at a circus that has both clowns and monsters. I’d probably go see ‘Chevolution’ – about the industry and cultural movements that claim Guevera as their own.
Saturday 3rd April
I’m not recommending ‘Prods and Pom-Poms’, a documentary about a South Belfast cheerleading troupe, simply because its co-directors are friends of mine – but because it does something that political cinema about northern Ireland rarely does: goes beyond the stereotype or the linear chronological narrative. There are a lot of documentaries that claim to tell ‘the truth’ about my city and my home, through biographical statements about key public figures, or important historic moments. These films, of course, have their place, and some are pretty good. But there has always been a better story under the surface than the one told by people with access to elections and microphones. ‘Prods and Pom-Poms’ feels to me like an example of Howard Zinn-style ‘people’s history’ – a story of two cultures being blended, and the world changing under their feet.
Feel free to let us know if you’re at the festival, and tell us what you see. Enjoy.
