"Satirico, grottesco e oltre"

Zürich ho!

As March wraps its sweet little self up I'm happy to be able to bring you folks up to speed with what awaits paddling troublemaker Klementhro this coming April.

This Friday (the 1st) he'll begin his involvement in the first of two touring film programs that will be playing throughout Switzerland. The first - Kurzfilmnacht Schweiz - will be focusing on Swiss-German speaking cities, with its first screenings taking place in Zürich at two venues, the Arthouse Le Paris at 8:30pm and the Arthouse Uto at 9pm. Klementhro will be part of the Happy Aging program, more info for which can be found by clicking here.

Later on in the month I'm happy to say the film will be playing at the Skepto International Film Festival, an event I'm well-acquainted with as it has screened both Ground Running and The Naughty List in the past. It's in some excellent company this time around, screening alongside such terrific filmmakers as Simon Cartwright, Job, Joris and Marieke, Konstantin Bronzit and Réka Bucsi. Klementhro will play as part of the Skeptyricon (Satire, Grotesque and Beyond) screening and the festival itself will run from April 13th to 16th in Cagliari, Italy. More specifics to follow, but in the meantime you can check out the festival website here.

Girls just wanna have fun

Hi there, faithful readers. I hope you're having yourselves a long Good Friday. I've personally spent the last week and a bit hacking my lungs out through my eyeholes, as evidence by my Lemsip-soaked mumblings and grumblings in the latest Skwigly Podcast which went up this week.
It's not all grousing and spluttering, however, as the interview segment is from a couple weeks back when I still had my voice and was privileged to meet the fantastic directorial duo Charlie Kaufman (he who penned such fantastic films as Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and Starburns Industries' ace Duke Johnson, discussing their phenomenal independent stop-mo feature Anomalisa. The film is still out in select UK cinemas and I can't recommend it enough. Give it a stream below or a download here.

Where are you going, Klementhro?

Things have been a little quiet on the bayou of late, but my latest film Klementhro is looking to have a pretty exciting couple of months ahead.
I haven't really spoken much about this film as there wasn't much by way of development, it just sort of...happened. I put it out semi-anonymously to a handful of festivals last year and was met with a fairly tepid success rate, however upon seeing it go down very well for the first time in November I have a little bit of renewed enthusiasm for it. It won't be setting the world aflame, but people - not everyone, mind - seemed to get it way more than I expected.

At any rate, in the lead-up to a busy April it will screen this weekend as part of the Kyiv International Short Film Festival's pre-fest celebrations in honour of the event's fifth anniversary. It's in some fine company too, alongside work by Florian Grolig, Priit Tender, Réka Bucsi and Rory Waudby-Tolley. The screening takes place this Saturday, March 19th, then repeated on Sunday 20th. You can find out more specific info on the official site or the Facebook event page.

Mad Marchness

So far we're on one post per month in blogland; available time in which to jot down my pithy observations has been scarce, to say the least. Any floating nuggets of assumption that this year would prove less busy than my hair-thinning 2015 have been well and truly flushed away at this point.
I don't think there'll be anything I'll be able to show for the current contract I'm on for a good little while but here's a roundup of what's been happening elsewise.
The last few Skwigly podcasts have boasted some excellent animation guests, including:
Australian indie director Elliot Cowan (The Stressful Adventures of Boxhead and Roundhead) in episode 43...
...Louis Hudson and Ian Ravenscroft of Dice Productions discussing their career and recently released Nickelodeon short DuckManBoy in episode 44...
...not to mention Dan Gray and Tom Brown of Holbrooks, whose wonderfully grim short teeth was one of my top picks of last year, in episode 45:
Treat yourselves and get caught up!
As far as written features go, there are two recent interviews with NFB filmmakers Sarah Van Den Boom whose tremendous film In Deep Waters is an exploration of ‘Vanishing Twin Syndrome’; a constant sense of incompleteness that can stem from our time in the womb. I'm also very happy to once again speak with Theodore Ushev, this time on his latest film Blind Vaysha, an adventurous stereoscopic piece adapted from a short story by Georgi Gospodinov, shortly after its premiere at Berlinale in February.

I'm also incredibly happy to have interviewed Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind writer Charlie Kaufman on his first animated feature Anomalisa, a truly atypical stop-motion film that comes out this weekend in the UK. It may not be for everyone but it's such a breath of fresh air midst all the generica doing the rounds. Also interviewed is co-director Duke Johnson, whose acclaimed credits include Community and Mary Shelley's Frankenhole. The film is out tomorrow throughout the UK, I highly recommend you check out the listings to see if it's playing near you.
That's all for now. Hopefully see you again before another month goes by...