Crafty coattail-ridin'

Encounters is gearing up for the return of its physical edition next month. Things have changed a bit over there and I'm no longer involved in the way I'd been the last few years but, rather splendidly, they'll be screening Speed following its inclusion in the 2020 online festival for a special retrospective programme. The film will be screened as part of Strange Hearts, kicking off 11am September 28th at Bristol's Watershed. Come on by, we can split a flapjack.

Two other films I nosed my way into that are getting themselves a repeat showing will be Laura-Beth Cowley's witchy shorts The Gift and Crafty Witch that were part of the 2020 and 2021 edition respectively. You can catch them in The Strength Within programme that screens at 12:30pm on the 29th and again at 4:30pm on the 30th.

Also coming up for Crafty Witch is a screening at this year's edition of Frightfest on Monday August 29th as part of Short Film Showcase 3. The programme starts at 1:30pm in 101 Films Discovery Screen 2 at the Prince Charles Cinema.

It will also be part of a programme from this year's Cardiff Animation Festival who will be taking nine of their accoladed shorts on tour across Wales, starting this Saturday (27th) with a screening at the festival's main venue Chapter at 2:30pm.

On a separate note, it struck me that it's been a little while since I had an actual website. For the first time in about five years I actually had a bit of downtime last month so I took the opportunity to cobble one together. It's kinda basic but then, shucks, so am I. Also managed to finally update my showreel for the first time since 2018, so if you fancy a gander check 'er out below:

Ridin' them coattails again

 

Happy Monday, gang! Following its TV broadcast earlier this year there's some festival news for Laura-Beth Cowley's latest film The Gift, made for BBC Arts/Calling The Shots and on which I animated and made various unpleasant noises. These will all be online events and all look like great fun so give 'em some consideration.

Down Mexico way it will be among the official selection for Macabro FICH, which takes place August 25th-30th. I'm not exactly sure if there are fixed programme times or if the screenings will be accessible for the duration as there's no English version of the site and I'm an uneducated fool who can barely speak his own language at the best of times, let alone Spanish.

Another exciting inclusion taking place around the same time is this year's edition of Arrow Video Frightfest. This is the second time I've been able to ride the coattails of someone else's film getting in to this particular festival and I'm enthusiastic to see how the digital version comes together. The Gift will be part of the Short Films Showcase 2 that festivalgoers can stream from 6pm on August 27th through to 9pm on the 31st. Tickets are a measly £5 and you can grab 'em up here. Also worth a reminder that right afterward Laura-Beth and I will be helping out our pals at Cardiff Animation Nights for their August programme that starts at 8:15pm on YouTube, so that's your evening sorted!

The following week the Linoleum Contemporary Animation and Media Art Festival will be taking place, starting on September 2nd through to the 6th. Having featured Laura-Beth's previous film Boris-Noris back in 2017 (as well as my film Klementhro the previous year) these folks have further cemented their reputation for good taste by featuring both The Gift and my latest film Speed this year. The Gift will be among the Ladies First programme showcasing standout new work by female directors and Speed can be seen as part of the special screening #KillMePlease curated by Skwigly comrade Aaron Wood.

A couple months further down the line the film will be participating in the first season of the Nosferatu Film Festival, a triannual event focused of indie horror films that will be taking kicking things off in October/November. More info on that one when it comes, in the meantime you can follow the film's Facebook page and Instagram for updates.

Chuck Soup

So I finally got to see the finished (pending a possible recast of the voices should it land international distribution) version of Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires at Frightfest the other weekend. Aggregating the reviews that have come in since it premiered at Annecy the general vibe seems to be consistently positive. Certainly there was an enormous sense of achievement among the crew who had gathered in London for the screening and, godless commute aside, working on the film was honestly one of the best gigs I've had to date and I'm very proud to have been involved.
With wider distribution hopefully not too far away there are a couple more events the film will be showing up at in the meantime.

Although I don't think the film itself will be screening, there's a special presentation with animator Jody Meredith happening at Stop Motion Montreal (who were among the fests to include Boris-Noris last year so they're darn good eggs in my book) on September 15th 7:30pm at Concordia's J.A. de Sève Theater.

Later in the month the film proper will be screening in competition as part of the line-up for this year's edition of the Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival. These will be 10:15pm September 20th at Le Star Saint-Exupéry, 6pm September 21st at Ciné Vox and 11am September 23rd at Le Star again.

Then it October there are a couple of late-night screenings at the SITGES International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia. playing at 12:45am on the 6th at the Cinema el Retiro and 1am the following morning at the Hotel Meliá's Tramuntana cinema.
Be sure to keep your eyes on the film's website and Facebook page for more news as it comes.

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.

Chuck Amuck

Some more festival screenings for Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires, Mike Mort's high-energy indie animated feature that I scribbled and yelled over last year. Its North American premiere at Montreal's Fantasia Festival is now set to take place 4:45pm on July 21st at Concordia's SGWU Auditorium and you can grab your tickets here.

The following month it's finally screening here in the UK, so all being well I'll be able to catch its national premiere in London as part of Frightfest 2018. This one will be two screenings on August 25th at the Leicester Square Cineworld - 3:45pm on the Arrow Video screen and 4:15pm on the Horror Channel screen. Swing by and give it a look-see, 'cause they definitely don't make 'em like this anymore.