Klementhro Peaks

Here's something a little different - rather than a dedicated film or animation festival, the next event to include Klementhro in its line-up will be The Official Twin Peaks UK Festival, which will feature it as part of a screening of David Lynch-inspired short films.
This one has special significance to me as I'm an absolute Lynch devotee and everyone who had to endure being around me during the twenty-odd weeks the new Twin Peaks was airing last year will attest that I was absolutely obsessed with it.

Although Klementhro came about a few years earlier there was never any denying that its not-always-appealing weirdness owed a debt to Lynch, in particular his leanings toward the humour of repetition and drawn-out-scenarios. Also the trope, if that's what you could call it, of a solitary figure on a journey peppered by meetings with increasingly bizarre characters has been a Lynch mainstay since his earliest days.
All that aside the event looks like great fun, with all sorts of Lynch-ey activities, events and screenings plus a bunch of people from the show itself will be there, so I'm excited to pop along and check it out. If you want to check out the schedule and grab tickets you can head over to the official site.

Summer Podding

Thirsty for some podcasts? Then boy howdy have you come to the right place. Here are two new episodes of the Skwigly Animation Podcast for your suckling lips to latch on to. In episode 84 we’re thrilled to speak to one of modern animated television’s most respected writer/producers Josh Weinstein. As a writer Josh has been involved in The Simpsons (alongside partner Bill Oakley), Gravity Falls, Futurama, Strange Hill High and Danger Mouse. Most recently Josh has developed the new Netflix series Disenchantment – which dropped last month – alongside creator Matt Groening.
Direct download link here if you're not in a streamy mood.

In episode 85 we welcome Ben Steer, director of the multi-award-winning Mamoon, released online this week. Developed as part of Blue Zoo’s long-running animated short films programme, the film is an expertly-crafted visualisation of the emotional toll of the Syrian Civil War in which a mother and child find themselves in peril.
What, you want another direct download link? Here, bloody well take it why doncha?

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.

Postcard Nights

The final batch of dates for  La Boîte Carrée's touring programme Le Plein de Super (featuring Laura-Beth Cowley's Boris-Noris) are coming up, with the last five stops as follows:

• September 8th - Casson
• September 14th - St Denis la Chevasse
• September 21st - Lys top transect
• September 28th - Corsep
• September 29th - Paimboeu 

If any of those are near your neck of the woods be sure to check them out - and send a postcard!
More info on the tour over at the official website.

Sunny Side Up

Some fantastic news I've been sitting on can finally be revealed today. On the heels of its first major festival selection next month Sunscapades will be screening in October as part of the BFI London Film Festival!
Not only that, it's in what looks to be one of the most exciting screenings - Real Horrorshow - alongside a mix of animated and live-action shorts that look absolutely fantastic, such as Anna Mantzaris's Good Intentions that, as with Sunscapades, also features music by the excellent Phil Brookes.
All told the film is in damn good company and, given that it's not an animation-focused festival, I'm incredibly honoured to be among the ones that made the grade, including recent work by Chris Shepherd, Evgenia Golubeva and Peter Millard to name a few.
The screening takes place at the Prince Charles Cinema (Downstairs Screen) on Sunday October 14th at 3:30pm, then repeated Thursday October 18th at the Rich Mix Cinema (Screen 1) and tickets go on sale September 13th. I'll definitely aim to be at the Sunday screening so hope to catch you there!

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.

Nether gonna give you up

I wasn't expecting to write this so soon but I can cheerily confirm there's another upcoming festival for my new film Sunscapades! Following on from this week's earlier news nugget that it will screen at Encounters late September, before then the film will get two screenings at the BUT (B-Movies, Underground and Trash) Film Festival that will take place in the Netherlands - Breda, to be precise.
Sunscapades is part of Shorts Block 1 - Over the Top Humor on August 30th 7pm at the Chassé Cinema, repeated on September 2nd 12pm at the Nieuwe Veste in Hall 4. You can grab up some tickets here.
What's especially cool about this news is that, as with Encounters, this is a festival that has screened my work in the past. In fact it was one of the very first events to take a punt on my films, screening my student film House Guest (with whom Sunscapades does share a certain B-Movie/Underground/Trash vibe, I'd be happy to concede) way back in 2009. It's good to be back in BUT country.

Sunny times ahead

I'm very happy to reveal that my film Sunscapades will screen here in Bristol next month as part of TWO programmes for this year's Encounters Short Film Festival!
It's the first time I've had a film in the fest since 2011 and it's a real honour and privilege to be among a line-up that includes some of my favourite new and established filmmakers whose work includes Wildebeest (Nicolas Keppens), Cabin Pressure (Matthew Lee), Perinatal Positivity (Emma Lazenby) and Brexicuted (Chris Shepherd).
The full line-up looks fantastic, with some personal favourites including Ooze (Kilian Vilim), Via (Izzy Burton), KUAP (Nils Hedinger), Travelogue Tel Aviv (Samuel Patthey), Mamoon (Ben Steer) and Hybrids (Kim Tailhades) as well as recent interviewees Robert Löbel (Island) and Patrick Bouchard (The Subject).
Sunscapades will screen in the festival's animation competition programme Happy Sad on Wednesday September 26th at 2pm, then again the following day in the comedy programme From the Sublime to the Ridiculous at 8pm, both at Bristol's Watershed in Cinema 1. Check out the current programme here and stay tuned for even more event updates as they come!

Bussing it

La Boîte Carrée's touring programme Le Plein de Super resumes this month with another batch of screening dates taking place throughout France. As before, Laura-Beth's film Boris-Noris is along for the ride so if the bus is headed to your neck of the woods be sure to check it out:

• 8th August - Saint-Sigismond
• 9th August - Maillé
• 10th August - Oulmes
• 11th August - Nieul-sur-l'Autise
• 16th August - Rezé
• 17th August - Saint-Mars-de-Coutais
• 18th August - Apremont
• 20th August - Barbâtre
• 21st August - L'Épine
• 22nd August - Noirmoutier
• 23rd August - La Guérinière
• 28th August - La Bernerie-en-Retz
• 29th August - Treffieux

More specific info can be found at the tour's official website.

There's just no sinking the bugger

Yet more adventures for our pal Klementhro coming up this month and next. Firstly there's the Big Cartoon Weekend in Saint Petersburg, another offshoot of Russia's Big Cartoon Festival as its name suggests. Klementhro will play in the third programme 'Borrowed Time' that kicks off 7pm on Sunday July 29th at the Rodina Cinema, rubbing shoulders with some fantastic other films such as The Burden, Catherine and Mr. Madila.

Following that will be an early August screening at Ukraine's Lviv International Short Film Festival Wiz-Art in association with the London Short Film Festival at which the film originally screened back in January of last year. I'm humbled to say it will be screening in a special retrospective of the best British shorts of the past three years to screen at LSFF. The even takes place on August 10th at 4pm and you can watch the programme for updates here.