The Fourth annual Plymouth Film Festival was hosted at Plymouth Arts Centre on May 27-28 2017, showcasing a collection of world-class short films and features. With a range of categories such as You Only Live Once, Family Affairs and Random Acts featuring a diverse set of genres, the PFF audience was spoilt for choice when it came to quality cinematic entertainment.

Regular contributor Nigel Watson reviews the ‘You Only Live Once’ category:

A selection of seven short films, under the umbrella theme of You Only Live Once, look at the different ways we perceive and deal with existence. First up was Lucy in my Eyes directed Megan Park. This is an intimate story featuring the adult Lucy laying on her bed with her six-year-old self. She tells the younger Lucy that she is about to be married and reflects on what she would do if she could turn back time. In turn, the younger Lucy tells of events involving her depressed Father that she had long forgotten. Unless you know beforehand, it is a bit confusing knowing who the girl is, and although it is well acted, it seems like a scene from a film rather than a fully realised piece in its own right.

In sharp contrast to the Lucy in my Eyes, which is shot entirely in a bedroom, Harley directed by March Mercanti hits you in the face with his eccentric central character Harley. The documentary tells the story of redneck Harley Russell who lives in the small town of Erick, Oklahoma, through his own words and interviews with the locals.

Just off Route 66 his Sandhills Curiosity Shop is filled with old advertising signs and the kind of old stuff the American Pickers drool over. He confesses he wanted to be a session musician but never really made the big time, so now he entertains tourists from all over the world for tips to make a living. At first he just seems like a crazy red-neck who runs around with a flag, whooping like he’s on fire. Yet, beneath this extrovert outpouring we slowly learn that his wife Annabelle was an equally fun loving individual who supported this free-spirited lifestyle. Her death through cancer cuts through the comedy of the film and shows there is more than just outside appearances and behaviour.

Backstory directed by  Joschka Laukeninks is like a TV advert, where it presents the life of a man from the viewpoint of the back of his head. It cleverly shows him growing up, marrying and coping with a tragic loss.

In A Magician directed  by Max Blustin a man sees an argument between a man and his girlfriend, and as he intervenes he turns the situation around to provide a satisfying twist to the story.

The Moment directed by Karis Seungyoun is the only animated film in the selection. Like A Magician, it plays upon our notion of perception and our preconceptions as a street artist draws a stranger’s portrait.

Swiss Avalanche directed by Mimi Helm, is an odd film about two women who decide to have a threesome at a party, to broaden their sexual horizons. Things do not go to plan as they get progressively drunker, and the story literally has a sick ending.

My favourite was About the Birds & the Bees directed by J.J. Vanhanen. Set in the cold landscape of Finland, a farmer and his son live on a remote farm, when things become fraught after the teenager has an ‘accident’ with his girlfriend. He has to confess to his father that they need to get to the pharmacy fast before it closes for the weekend. The trip becomes a challenge when their car won’t start and they have to use a small tractor to get there, only to see the shop owner drive off. As they drill into the front door of the store an old  bemused, passer-by on a foot operated scooter gives them a quizzical look. There are many similar quirky pieces of comedy here, and beautifully composed shots of, for example, the tractor moving over the snow covered landscape. J.J. Vanhanen is a name to look out for in the future.

Overall, You Only Live Once provided a wonderful variety of films that made you laugh, think, and appreciate our fragile existence.

R.Kaysey reviews the ‘Random Acts‘ showcase:

Part of an Arts Council and Channel 4 partnered project, Random Acts at this year’s Plymouth Film Festival consisted of a selection of 13 short films. Described in the brochure as arts films created by South West 16-24 year olds, most appeared to contain more mature talent. What really stood out was the amount of humour on display, in addition to the visual artistry.

By far the best contribution was The Ship, which won both the Random Acts Sharphams Audience Award and the Festival’s award for Best Animation. It was, surprisingly, about Cornish devolution and a dog marooned in Devon. Surely that this young lady’s film will go on to be viewed outside Devon and Cornwall, and will lead to her being commissioned to do more.

Amongst the diversity of subjects tackled in the rest of the films, there was more unexpected and imaginative artistry. In Hairitage, although the focus was on social attitudes towards Afro-Caribbean natural hairstyles, there was a punchy visual rhythm underscored by a half rappy, half blank verse style of soliloquy that was both bewitching and poetic. Surfing was another delight – almost the entire subject of The Matrix and 1984 were encapsulated in a few minutes’ worth of views of a restaurant scene from different angles. Radioactive Snail, an animated short, concerned a snail’s funny revenge on a mad scientist.

All Random Acts showcase shorts are now available online here.

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The Plymouth Film Festival returned to Plymouth Arts Centre for it’s most successful year yet – Ben Cherry reviews the weekend and the screenings he attended in the final installment of a three part blog.

Sunday was a quieter day than Saturday, which is understandable due to people having traveled from up the country and people nursing hangovers from the Award ceremony or the increasingly amazing/awful Eurovision. Unlike the previous two days however, the films shown were quite heavy going in comparison and there was little levity.

I went to the Faith in Humanity screening to start off with. However I heard many good things about the previous screening Sunday Brunch so I was a bit gutted I missed out on that. My two favourite films out of the six shown were Dust and Resin, directed by Stephen Parker and Marie’s Dictionary, directed by Emmanuel-Vaughan Lee. Marie’s Dictionary I found incredibly sad and yet very hopeful. It was a short documentary which told the story of Native American Marie Wilcox, the last fluent speaker of the Wukchumni language and the dictionary she spends 7 years in creating. It was an emotional film especially when Marie was expressing how she may the last person living to speak the language, but the determination to keep her legacy alive gives the film its heart and I’m glad it won the Audience award for that category.

As I mentioned before Dust and Resin was another favourite and I enjoyed all the subtle twists and turns in the plot. You expect the story to go one way but it ends up going down a different path entirely. One of the reasons it was made was to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s Scotland and the film’s denouement is heart-breaking and shows how debilitating and horrendous the disease is.

The last screening of the weekend was on the subject of Moral Dilemmas. This was the hardest hitting of all the screenings. Demons, directed by Abdullah Al Maawali tells a disturbing story about a closet paedophile who struggles with maintaining his grip on a normal life. The film had a tense atmosphere and the ambiguous ending keeps you thinking long after the film has finished. Will the lead character act on his impulses or keep them at bay? From the ending I would go for the former. A brave and powerful film.

The most popular film of the screening was Mayday Relay, directed by Florian Tscharf. The film is about a German sailor and his daughter who receive a mayday call from a damaged boat that has over a hundred people on board. It raises many questions as to what you would do in that situation. Due to the lead character’s small capacity boat the likelihood of their survival was limited if they were to deal with a disaster situation with over a 100 desperate people wanting to live. It felt like the film was the starting point for the ‘Moral Dilemmas’ title of the screening and it was a challenging end to a brilliant Film Festival.

As I mentioned in the beginning I asked co-founder Will Jenkins a few questions regarding the festival. Personally I thoroughly enjoyed the festival and all the films I had seen were of a very high quality. However as I had not been to the festival in previous years I wanted to know if the festival was a greater success than last year. On being asked this he said, “Absolutely. We had more screenings, more workshops, more parties and more attendees. We’ve learnt a lot again this year, and we’ll be even better prepared next year to bring everyone an even bigger event.”

Ben Cherry

Read Part 1 and Part 2 of Ben’s reviews!

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The Plymouth Film Festival returned to Plymouth Arts Centre for it’s most successful year yet – Ben Cherry reviews the weekend and the screenings he attended in the second installment of a three part blog!

I went to the vast majority of the showings on the Saturday, but firstly I wanted to check out the Best of Plymouth Film Festival screening (this screening was a compilation of PFF Directors favourites from previous years). Prior to the screening starting I overheard some people commenting on their hangovers from the Opening Night party the evening before at The Rumpus Cosy. From the pictures I’ve seen and other comments during the weekend, it was a good and well attended night.

The quality of the films for this showing again was outstanding. My favourite film was The Fly, directed by Olly Williams and was a big winner at last year’s Film Festival. At first I wasn’t too sure. When the lead character was spending a considerable amount of time trying to kill a fly, I was getting bad memories of that famously polarizing Breaking Bad episode. However when the car was falling to bits as a result of this fly it became very entertaining and there were good reactions from the audience. In the end I thoroughly enjoyed it and I will definitely not be trying out toothpicks anytime soon. There were some other great films in that showing, Timothy was an inventive horror film which I found quite disturbing, and Cowboy Ben continued the theme of tragi-comedies.

Next up for me was The Dysfunctional Families category. Out of all the films it seemed A Six and Two Threes, directed by Andy Berriman was the most popular film and rightly so. A funny but modest film, with the show stolen by young actor Shane Teasdale. He was incredibly natural as the very chatty and foul mouthed Mackenzie. I felt that the plot wasn’t too important and it was the growing friendship between Mackenzie and the older and more middle class Andrew Dawson (played by Sean Taylor) that was the true heart of the film. Special mention goes to The Falling-esque Wild Flesh and the amusing Je Suis En Chaire which I also very much enjoyed.

The last category of films on the Saturday was ‘Supernatural’. The cinema was absolutely packed with a great communal atmosphere. As with the vast majority of the screenings, the first film was particularly strong. Boris in the Forest, directed by Robert Hackett follows an enthusiastic American tourist who decides to visit the birthplace of horror icon Boris Karloff which has since become a run-down kebab shop. The film starred Mac Macdonald as the geeky American who starred in some pretty high profile films back in the day, namely Tim Burton’s Batman and The Fifth Element. The film was very funny and I felt it was an ode to the culture of fandom and to the fans that go through so much effort just to get closer to their (usually deceased) idols.

There were a lot of good films in this category, Circles was brilliant as was Eyes Wide Open, which made me question whether it was a real documentary or not. It did encapsulate the extreme conspiracy theorists in all their infamy though.

However my personal favourite was the mini-documentary Take Their Love, directed by Emma Goude. It was filmed in Newton Abbot and follows a community of spiritual church goers. It was an odd film but the story of Sean Bennellick who lost two children in a house fire was quite moving. It looked like attending this church helped him through his grief, regardless of whether you believe the clairvoyants or not. It was hard to believe a church like that would be about 40 minutes away from Plymouth and admittedly it did remind me of The Wicker Man. But I did find it eye opening and one of the best aspects about the Festival is that it exposes you to a variety of different subjects, cultures, ideologies and communities.

Ben Cherry

Check back tomorrow for the final installment of Ben’s review – and if you missed Part 1 you can read it here.

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The Plymouth Film Festival returned to Plymouth Arts Centre for it’s most successful year yet – Ben Cherry reviews the weekend and the screenings he attended in the first of a three part blog!

I have never been to a Film Festival before. I hadn’t really had the opportunity before, but for some reason or another I felt I needed to go to at least one screening at the Plymouth Film Festival this year, and so I spent the vast majority of my weekend at the Plymouth Arts Centre attending most of the screenings at the festival.

The Plymouth Film Festival was founded by Ben Hancock and William Jenkins back in 2013 and has been an increasingly bigger event ever since. After the weekend had finished I asked William Jenkins what prompted the two of them to set up the festival. He said, “We started it because we wanted to go to it. We figured that if we wanted an event in the city then there must be others that felt the same way. Our long term goal is to raise the profile of film in the South West and to try to elevate Plymouth and the surrounding area to a point where it’s actually viable for film related businesses to establish themselves here.”

The Opening Night

I wanted to review at least one showing each day. I couldn’t make the 3pm showing due to being at work but I was interested in The Pressures of Modern Life screening which I was able to help usher for. Each screening was made up of six to eight films built around a loose theme. I was curious to know how these themes were chosen. Will Jenkins explained, “We watch all submissions and pick out the films we really love and want to screen, then try to work them into loosely structured categories. Some are easier to fit than others of course, but we see popular themes each year, and that helps the underlying concepts or ideals of the films we stay current to”. In the Modern Life showing six short films were played for the fairly busy cinema and I got my first insight into the world of film festivals.

All six films were very strong. One of the most enjoyable films in the screening was Murder Selfie, directed by Tobias Tobbell. The film follows a couple who suffer a home invasion by two masked characters and the events of the film are told via the character’s social media platforms.  The film is almost a throwback to the Silent film era, relying on soundtrack and the phone messages on the screen to drive the narrative instead of spoken dialogue. The humour was black and some of the extremities of the character’s actions were not overly outlandish disturbingly. Social media does bring out an obsession of gaining more ‘likes’, ‘followers’ etc. and this obsession is what motivates the character’s in the film. Like all of the films shown at the festival the subject is very relevant to 2016.

My favourite film however and maybe out of the entire festival was the much deserved Best Fiction award winner, ‘I Used to Be Famous’ directed by Eddie Sternberg. The film follows a failed nineties boyband star Vince, who is desperate to get back in the public consciousness and ends up meeting a gifted young man who he connects with musically. The film is both painfully funny and painfully tragic. The film really reminded me of Ricky Gervais’ The Office where the humour is derived by awkward situations and the delusions of grandeur from the main character. It wasn’t only the humour that felt Office-influenced. The climax of the film where Vince plays a concert for his new found friend and the general public was heart-warming and life affirming without resorting to being overly sentimental. The Office does something similar in its finale by offering a positive and realistic resolution to its characters. The film gave in my opinion the best line of the festival with Vince trying to sell his boyband to a non-believer by saying they were ‘like 5ive but Street’. I was pleasantly surprised by how good the film was and could have happily watched it as a feature length film.

Ben Cherry

Parts 2 and 3 of Ben’s review available later this week!

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Plymouthian film maker Andy Oxley accepting the Audience Choice Award for Born To Be Mild from festival founders Ben Hancock and Will Jenkins.

Plymouth has a rich history when it comes to film making but has previously been lacking in festivals, with most being held further afield in the South West. As an advocate and fan of independent film making who has grown up largely missing out on the joys of Film Festivals, I can safely say that Plymouth Film Festival has more than filled the void!

A beautiful day in Plymouth: twenty degrees outside and mere minutes from the waterfront Plymouth Arts Centre was buzzing with film makers and enthusiasts alike as the inaugural Film Festival was about to commence. The first screening was the Best of the South West nominees of which there were seven, ranging from the sweet and jovial ‘Born To Be Mild’ by Plymouth Director Andy Oxley to the deeply moving ‘Keepsake’ by Andy Robinson and even including an incredibly unique horror film ‘The Nicest Daughter’ by Damon Foster.

The second screening was the Documentary Film nominees in which ‘Born To Be Mild’ made a second appearance alongside ‘Time On The Hill’ by Ryan Dean; a visceral and eye-opening film about deer stalking in the Scottish Highlands.

Thirdly there was the Student Film nominees screening which was, in my opinion, the most diverse category. The films ranged from Animation to Horror, touching on Thriller, Fantasy and Comedy in between. The most memorable, for me, was ‘Timothy’ by Marc Martínez Jordán.

Last, but by no means least, was the largest category: Best Fiction Film. The variety, as it had been all day, was astounding and provided a true spectrum of genres and styles. ‘Waking Marshall Walker’ by Bjorn Thorstad & Gabriel Baron gave an all-absorbing and alluring insight into the dynamics of a family living with the mental decline of an elder relative whilst ‘Ain’t No Fish’ provided an overtly comical yet thought-provoking look into the pollution of our seas. Animated Comedy made another appearance in Peter Smith’s ‘Rob ‘n’ Ron’ and the Comedy Drama ‘Dos Caras’ by Francisco Bendomir about a man attempting to steal his girlfriend’s grandmother’s Faberge egg was imaginative and memorable.

In total thirty two films were shown at Plymouth Film Festival totaling over five and a half hours; every single minute provided inspiration and entertainment for all in attendance. As set stories and future project plans are shared in the bar over a glass of champagne, I am already looking forward to next year and beyond!

Please visit https://www.plymouthfilmfestival.co.uk/ to find out more information including the Winners and Prizes.

Visit https://www.plymouthartscinema.org/ for details on upcoming screenings, events and deals.

by Jenny Smith https://reellovereviews.tumblr.com/

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