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BRITDOC ANNOUNCES COMPETITION FILMS PRESS RELEASE - THURSDAY July 4th TAKE ME TO THE FILM LIST ON THE WEBSITE This year we've compiled a stellar programme of films, ranging from the best British Features, to the Best of the Fests and aided and abetted by two wonders to highlight this years themes of Comedy and Music. We're thrilled that The Yes Men will be screening a work in progress of what promises to be a hilarious but hard hitting film and we're delighted to be presenting Robert Flaherty's seminal Nanook of the North with a live soundtrack from The Shine Synchro System.
BRITISH FEATURE COMPETITION What a year for British Feature Documentaries! The Brits have been storming the world in 2008, picking up awards at Sundance, having premieres at Cannes and Rotterdam. This year the quality of submissions was astonishingly high and it was an absolute pleasure to view all the films submitted and an honour to have found some hidden gems that I'm thrilled to be screening at this years festival. Blood Trail - dir. Richard Parry 1993, Sarajevo. Robert King is a 24 year old art graduate from Memphis aiming to be the youngest ever Pulitzer Prize winner. In contrast to the bravado and tight-lipped competitiveness of the 'press pack', he wears his heart on his sleeve and is completely unashamed about his ineptitude. Through Bosnia, Chechnya and Iraq, over 15 years, we follow his desperate attempts to make his name in war photography. Chosen - dir. Brian Woods Chosen is testament to the power of a compelling story, simply told. The film deals with a subject often whispered but rarely spoken about - the sexual abuse of boys by teachers in British public schools. Three middle class men who were abused at the same school, Tom, Mark and Alistair, tell their stories straight to camera 30 years on. Day After Peace - dir. Jeremy Gilley Jeremy Gilley's inspirational film picks up where his earlier work Peace One Day left off. After succeeding in the Herculean task of creating Peace Day - a day that the UN sanctified as a global ceasefire though never acted on - Gilley now takes it upon himself to try and silence the cynics and prove that Peace Day can save lives. This film follows that journey. Heavy Load - dir. Jerry Rothwell Heavy Load follows director Jerry Rothwell in his own pursuit of happiness through the filming of an unlikely punk band. Michael, Simon and Jim are three adults with learning disabilities who, with their support workers Mick and Paul, make up Heavy Load. The film is an honest and revealing portrait of the bands journey and the affect that filmmaking has on both them and the director. Life After the Fall - dir. Kasim Abid Abid returned to Iraq and his family shortly after the fall of Saddam in 2003, some 30 years after his exile. This film is the story of his family and offers a unique insight into modern-day Iraq. Having survived dictatorship, war and sanctions, Abid's family were ready to embrace change, not knowing what that change would bring. Man on Wire - dir. James Marsh In 1974 New York's Twin Towers were nearing completion, and for some years previous it was one man's dream to walk a tightrope between them. Man on Wire is the hugely entertaining tale of the irrepressible Philippe Petit, the man who astonished the world by walking a tightrope across the Twin Towers, completely illegally and without a safety net. Starstruck aka Son of Eurovision - dir. Jamie J Johnson This feature pop-umentary follows the fortunes of the 2007 Junior Eurovision contestants, delivering a quirky and moving insight into what it is to be a young euro with burgeoning dreams. With the EU constantly stretching its boundaries, the film is a reminder of our history and our future, through the eyes of four wonderfully different characters from European nations old and new. Johnson builds portraits using fantastically individual musical interludes and an idiosyncratic take on European history. The End - dir. Nicola Collins Collins explores the fascinating lives of her father Les Falco and his friends, infamous gangsters born in the war-torn East End who went on to trhive in the underworld. Despite their lack of remorse in their retellings of how they built reputations through violence, one cannot help but warm to these men and their respect for a unified code. Thriller in Manilla - dir. John Dower In 1975 Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier fought their third and final contest in the Philippines. What unfolded in the searing heat of Manila is now considered the greatest boxing match in history. With unprecedented access, Dower's film tells the story from the perspective of 'the other man in the ring': Joe Frazier Young@Heart - dir. Stephen Walker Young@Heart is the heartbreaking, joyous story of a choir of senior citizens (average age 80!) and their musical director, Bob Cilman, as they prepare for their Alive and Well tour. Coldplay never sounded so good.
BEST OF FESTS In addition to the brilliant British selection we've re-jigged our International selection this year to try and give you an overview on what's happening on the International Festival circuit. We've invited 5 of the biggest festivals around - SUNDANCE, IDFA, BERLIN, TORONTO & SXSW to screen some of their favourite films from the last 12 months - the perfect way for you to see great films and to understand who's playing what. All the programmers will be present so do come along and have a chat with them too! Sundance presents: Trouble the Water - dir. Tia Lessin & Carl Deal This powerful and troubling film is a first hand experience of Hurricane Katrina as lived through by some of the cities poorest residents, aspiring rap artist Kim and her streetwise husband Scott. Despite the mayors calls to evacuate the city before the disaster hit, no public transport was provided and for Kim and Scott the only option was to stay and brave it out, which they did, filming as the situation worsened. IDFA presents: Up the Yangtze - dir. Yung Chang This spectacularly beautiful film gives us a disquieting insight of a changing China through a luxury cruise on the Yangtze river towards the Three Gorges Dam. It's a story of sacrifices for modernisation as the river rises and more and more farming families are displaced, their way of life destroyed. Berlin presents: Heavy Metal in Baghdad - Dir. Eddy Moretti & Suroosh Alvi Heavy Metal in Baghdad follows the dreams of the only heavy metal band in Iraq – young people under constant threat whose main desire is for peace, a better life and the freedom to be able to play their music. Toronto presents: Obscene - Dirs. Daniel O’Connor and Neil Orgenberg Obscene is a story of American censorship through the life of Barney Rosset – one of the great unsung heroes in post-war America’s battle for freedom of expression. SXSW presents: At the Death House Door - dir's. Steve James and Peter Gilbert Steve James (Hoop Dreams) and Peter Gilbert's latest film follows the remarkable journey of Carroll Pickett, the former death house chaplain at Huntsville Prison, Texas. From 1982 until 1995, Pickett ministered to 95 men who were executed, aiming to calm them before they went to the gurney.
FOURDOCS BRITISH SHORT DOC COMPETITION The Solitary Life Of Cranes - Dir: Eva Weber Part city symphony part visual poem, ‘The Solitary Life of Cranes’ is a mesmerising and fascinating insight into a world unnoticed by most of us. It explores the invisible life of a city, its patterns and hidden secrets, seen through the eyes of crane drivers working high above its street. My Name Is Karl - Dir: Moritz Siebert Karl appeared in summer of 2006 at a police office at the Mannheim, southern Germany, unable to remember anything about his life apart from his name. The film follows Karl as the director tries to unravel the truth of his story. Made in Queens - Dir: Nicolas Randall In a rented garage on the outskirts of Queens NY, something incredible is happening. A group of imaginative tinkerers from Trinidad work late into the night creating something nobody had ever seen before: enormous sound systems rigged onto bmx bikes. Valley of the Goats - Dir: Leon Dean The residents of the town of Lynton and Lynmouth in Exmoor National Park are at war over a breed of wild mountain goats that have lived in the nearby Valley of the Rocks for hundreds of years. Can a group dedicated to the protection of this rare breed, The Friends of the Goats, save the animals from extinction?
Sanctuary – Dir. Lovejit K. Dhaliwal Sanctuary is the true story of one woman, Marjorie, who tries to seek asylum in the UK. Speaking of her experiences in her own words, this film illustrates the journey she goes through - her inward journey as she confronts the affects of her torture and her outward journey as she struggles for asylum.
BRITDOC runs from July 23rd-25th in Keble College, Oxford.
Britain’s best-loved ‘computer’ goes on permanent display at the Science Museum ERNIE – the first Premium Bonds number generator joins the History of Computing gallery Britain’s best-loved ‘computer’ is to go on permanent display at the Science Museum.
ERNIE 1, the first generation of
the machine which randomly generates winning premium bond numbers, will take its
place in the History of Computing gallery on Thursday 26 June 2008. Alongside
ERNIE will be photographs from the launch of Premium Bonds in 1956, original
posters advertising Bonds and items reflecting the immense popularity of ERNIE,
including cards and poems sent to the random
Premium Bonds were launched for sale by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Harold Macmillan, in November 1956, with the first numbers drawn the following June. The draws were an instant hit with the British public. Millions of people checked to see if ERNIE had come up with their numbers. Draws were televised and celebrities and members of the public were keen to visit and pose with ERNIE, a machine which had acquired human characteristics and become a celebrity in ‘his’ own right. At the time of the launch, Shadow Chancellor, Harold Wilson had described Premium Bonds as ‘a squalid raffle.’ But the public came to see Premium Bonds as a secure way to save, with the added monthly chance of winning money, including the top prize of £1,000. By 1961, thirteen million people had invested £339 million in Premium Bonds and ERNIE signified a new form of public trust in machines. Weighing 1.8 tonnes and the size of a van, ERNIE (Electric Random Number Indicator Equipment) ran for sixteen years from 1957 until 1972 and was followed by ERNIE 2 in 1973, ERNIE 3 in 1988 and ERNIE 4 in 2004, with each machine smaller and faster than the last. The first draw ran day and night for two and a half days, longer than anticipated, because ERNIE was stopped at one point to allow its engineers to sleep. Aside from its cultural influence, ERNIE has great technological importance. It was the ‘son of’ the world’s first digital electronic computer, the code breaking Colossus, created during World War II to read messages sent by German commanders. ERNIE was built at the same place as Colossus, the Post Office Research Station at Dollis Hill, and by some of the same engineers. The Colossus machine was so secret that it was not until well into the 1970s that people began to hear of Colossus’s wartime code breaking exploits, and the link between Colossus and ERNIE became clear. Technically, ERNIE was very advanced. It used a hybrid of valves and transistors with printed circuit boards, at a time when the use of transistors was novel. But ERNIE was particularly groundbreaking. The first machine to rapidly generate random Premium Bond numbers, ERNIE used the random movement of electrons in a neon diode to achieve this through a physically random event. Costing £25,000 to build, ERNIE was an early example of a commercial use of this kind of technology. Although ERNIE uses many of the technologies that became commonplace in computing and telecommunications, technically the machine is not a computer as he does not ‘compute’ and is not programmable – he just generates random numbers which cannot be tampered with. Tilly Blyth, Curator of Computing at the Science Museum, said: ‘This is a very important machine in the history of computing in Britain, as well as being one of the most-loved. Now, we see computers as an invaluable part of our daily lives, but it was ERNIE that helped us become confident in the use of digital electronic machines, as we could see his benefits – namely, the possibility of winning big money!’ Tim Mack, NS&I’s Head of Marketing, said: ‘ERNIE has always been at the forefront of technology. ERNIE 4, which is now used to reveal today’s winners, produces 50,000 Premium Bond numbers in the time it takes to boil an egg. Because of the popularity of Premium Bonds today, if ERNIE 1 were used for the prize draw he would take 52 days to generate the numbers, while ERNIE 4 takes just three hours to complete the entire draw. ‘ Visitor information Science Museum is free to enter and open daily from 10am – 6pm. For more information call 0870 870 4868 or visit www.sciencemuseum.org.uk. Nearest tube: South Kensington. Rare Chinese
prints go on Show
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