Busy weekend ahead

The continuing international adventures of Laura-Beth's Boris-Noris will see it screened in Helsinki for the SAMPO 2018 International Puppet Theatre Festival this coming weekend, again as part of the Bristol Festival of Puppetry's Women in Puppetry and Puppet Animation package that has been doing the rounds to much enthusiasm. The two screenings will take place Friday August 24th and Saturday 25th at the Päivälehti Museum - both of them are free so be sure to get your fine Finnish selves over there.

Some bad - but actually good - news regarding the upcoming UK premiere screenings of Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires at London's Frightfest Festival on the 25th is that individual tickets to both are completely sold out. I have gotten wind however that there may be a few festival passes available from the box office so if you were hoping to check out the film and maybe want to make a weekend of it that option might be up your alley. More info here - however there are only a handful of spaces left so if you grab a pass be sure to check it will actually get you in to what you want to see. If you make it I'll hopefully see you there!

Lastly my new film Sunscapades will have its Canadian premiere on the same day as part of Toronto's Lost Episode Fest. As with the film's inclusion in the BUT Festival this event is one I'm very happy to be part of as it celebrates a specific subsection of indie genre films that makes it something of a spiritual fit. I believe the film will screen as part of the animation block Not For Kids which kicks off 10:55pm August 25th at the Carlton Cinema. Tickets and more specific info here.

Brothers in arms

Another upcoming festival roundup for Boris-Noris (Laura-Beth Cowley's fantastic UWE MA film on which I made some unpleasant noises and removed some rigs) as it continues to knock it out of the park. This Monday, May 21st, the film screens at Albania's A-FestFilm (formerly Anifest Rozafa) in their Films for Age 13 programme that will kick off at 11:30am at the Millenium Cinema in Tirana.

From the 25th of this month La Boîte Carrée's touring programme Le Plein de Super  (whose 2018 season Boris-Noris is a part of) will kick off its first batch of screenings throughout France. The dates for this leg of the tour are:

• 25th May - Brissac-Quincé
• 2nd June - Étrich
• 8th June - Saint-Nazaire
• 15th June - Montbert
• 29th June - Ligné

The tour then resumes in July, this time traveling throughout Portugal at the following locales:

• 14th July - Ericeira
• 19th July - Alfarim
• 20th July - Lagoa de Albufeira
• 21st July - Quinta do Conde
• 22nd July - Sesimbra
• 24th July - Santa Cruz
• 27th July - Proença-a-Nova
• 28th July - Sobreira Formosa
• 29th July - Montes da Senhora

For full information check out the tour's official website and if you make it to a screening be sure to send a postcard!

The Bristol Festival of Puppetry's specially-curated screening Women in Puppetry and Puppet Animation will be shown again in June, this time as a standalone event at Exeter Phoenix. As a nifty bonus for this one Laura-Beth will be in attendance for an onstage Q&A with Puppet Place curator Emma Windsor after the screening, which will be happening on Tuesday June 12th at 7:30pm - more info here.

The following weekend the Art All Night - Trenton International Film Festival will be taking place at New Jersey's historic Roebling Wire Works. This one is an intense, 200-film marathon that takes place entirely within 24 hours. Fortunately Boris-Noris will be screening at the civilised 12:05pm slot on the Sunday (June 17th).
That's all for now but there'll be plenty more a-comin', so stay alert.

Back at it

After a busy 2017, Laura-Beth Cowley's film Boris-Noris which I'm proud to have worked on (loves me some coattails to ride, I do) looks set to have an equally hectic year ahead. On Saturday January 27th it will screen at Edinburgh's Manipulate Festival in a repeat screening of the Bristol Festival of Puppetry's Women in Puppetry and Puppet Animation programme that played a couple of times last year. The screening will take place at 3pm at the Traverse Theatre.

A few days later the film will begin its involvement with the touring programme Festival Ciné Junior where it will play throughout France over the subsequent fortnight. As part of the themed screening Au bord de l'eau (At the Water's Edge), the film will screen alongside some other great work including Robert Löbel and Max Mörtl’s ISLAND. The list of dates are as follows:

• January 31st, 9:30am: Vincennes, Espace D. Sorano 
• January 31st, 10am: Arcueil, Espace J. Vilar 
• February 1st, 10am: Vincennes, Espace D. Sorano
• February 2nd, 10:30am: Champigny, Studio 66
• February 5th, 10:30am: Champigny, Studio 66
• February 7th, 10am: Vitry, 3 Cinés Robespierre
• February 7th, 2pm: Arcueil, Espace J. Vilar
• February 7th, 3pm: Aubervilliers, Le Studio
• February 7th, 4pm: Aubervilliers, Le Studio
• February 7th, 4pm: Chilly, Cinéma F. Truffaut
• February 8th, 9:30am: Fontenay, Le Kosmos
• February 8th, 10:45am: Fontenay, Le Kosmos
• February 9th, 10am: Vincennes, Espace D. Sorano
• February 11th, 11am: Fontenay, Le Kosmos
• February 11th, 4pm: Chilly, Cinéma F. Truffaut
• February 13th, 9:15am: Sucy, Espace J.-M. Poirier
• February 13th, 10am: Chevilly, Théâtre A. Malraux
• February 13th, 10am: Vitry, 3 Cinés Robespierre

World Traveller

I'm incredibly stoked to be able to say that Laura-Beth Cowley's film Boris-Noris (for which I did some noise-making and general post-production) is on fire at the moment. Since screening at CIFF back in May it's been shown in Spain, Italy, France and the Czech Republic, with a whole bunch more to follow in the coming months:

First up is Stop Motion MX that takes place August 17th-19th down Mexico way, where the film is part of the Student category. As far as exactly when the screening is I found the programme to be kind of impenetrable, although native speakers may have better joy than my uncultured ass.

Over on the island of Malta you can see it at the first Gozo Film Festival. Exact screening times and programme categories don't appear to be up yet but it will be running from August 25th-27th at the Sentinella Cultural Centre and St. John's Demi-Bastion.

From August 26th it's in Paris at Festival Silhouette in the Young Audiences (4-6 years) category that has a bunch of (what I'm pretty sure are free) screenings:
Saturday August 26th - 11am at Le Hasard Ludique
Saturday August 26th - 4pm at Holiday Inn Express
Sunday August 27th - 11:30am at Espace Khiasma
Sunday August 27th - 2:30pm at Holiday Inn Express
Saturday September 2nd - 4pm at Holiday Inn Express

On Monday September 4th at 8pm the film will be screened at The Smalls Film Festival in their Student Film category. This one's here in the UK at London's Calvert 22, nestled 'twixt Shoreditch and Bethnal Green.

Earlier that same evening and even closer to home - on our doorstep, pretty much - is the Bristol Festival of Puppetry, who are putting on a special Women in Puppetry and Puppet Animation screening, celebrating 'the talent of female directors, animators, puppeteers and other filmmaking creatives, in front and behind the camera'. You can catch this one at The Watershed in Bristol at 6pm September 4th.

Next stop is Stop Motion Montreal, one of our absolute wishlist festivals what with Montreal being my sometime-stomping-grounds and its long-established reputation as one of the best stop-mo events around. It takes place September 15th-17th - literally the weekend of our wedding, so alas we can't attend in person. I think she genuinely contemplated calling it off when she found out. The main festival venue is Concordia's J.A. de Sève Cinema, with specific dates/times to be revealed soon.

Another wish-list fest we're pleased to be ticking off is Bristol's long-running Encounters Short Film Festival, whose main hub of operations is once again The Watershed. Boris-Noris will see itself screening in the first animation programme Packing A Punch at 12noon on Wednesday September 20th as well as repeat screening of the Bristol Festival of Puppetry selection at a time yet to be announced. This one we will be there for, in fact I'll also be there in my usual Skwigly capacity so if you're one of the animated filmmakers also in the programme who'll be there also then there's a good chance I'll be interviewing you at some point the week.

Lastly (for now), there's the Linoleum International Contemporary Animation and Media Art Festival that runs from September 28th to October 1st in the Ukraine. This one I already hold in high regard for throwing in Klementhro last year. Again more specifics when we get 'em.
There are more a-comin' but I think that's all I'm able to announce right now. So check it out if it's playing near you, it's a cracking fillum (he said with complete impartiality).