12th Bradford Film Festival
News Report by Daniel Laverick
The 12th Bradford film festival took place between the 3rd - 18th March, offering a varied mix of mainstream, world and avant garde cinema for it’s patrons who have come to expect something extra from a festival that continues to grow in stature year by year. Despite a few cancelled guest appearances and the withdrawal of some films from the festival, the audience still had the opportunity to experience an eclectic programme of screenings, talks and retrospectives.
The first UK retrospective of Malcolm McDowell saw a plethora of his films screened for an enthusiastic Bradford audience. McDowell himself appeared at the Pictureville Cinema on the 4th of March to discuss his acting career. The festival chose to screen a wide selection of his work ranging from A Clockwork Orange and Caligula to his more recent roles in Gangster No.1 and The Company.
Extending the Yorkshire focus (for McDowell is from Leeds), this year’s festival hosted a Kes reunion to coincide with the release of a new book that delves into the production of the film and those who were involved with it. Simon Golding, the author of the book entitled ‘Life After Kes’ was available for a book signing session after the screening while Anthony Hayward (author of ‘Which Side Are You On? Ken Loach and His Films) led an interview with the director Ken Loach and members of the writing and production team. The event was a nostalgic affair for both the creative team behind the film and the fans of a film that occupies a significant place in their collective cinematic memories. Other Yorkshire men taking part in interviews included legendary comedian Eric Sykes and the unseen fourth member of the League of Gentlemen, Jeremy Dyson.
The Bradford Film Festival has, in recent years, focussed on the cinema emerging from Eastern European countries. This year’s showcase centres on the films being produced in Slovenia. An interesting selection of films were screened including Boys Like Sexy Legs, Girls Like Ice Cream, Bullet Avoids the Fool and Eyes Full of Water along with a number of Slovenian shorts. Along with the opening and closing night screenings of The Worlds Fastest Indian and Lost were a wide range of mainstream and indie films that covered enough genres and national cinemas to satisfy the most discerning of spectator. This years festival was well organised, going all out to exemplify it’s regional identity with guest appearances and events based around it’s status as Yorkshire’s premier film festival.
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