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A Belfast Night Out...

April 14, 2007

Star Trek Predicts A United Ireland; The 8th Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival

Worf from the television show 'Star Trek'

Special thanks to listener James who spotted this on a BBC News site:

Star Trek predicts a united Ireland

Hopefully we can get Erin to go and have a look.  As part of the 8th Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival the Trek episode is showing at the Black Box Monday, the 7th of May at 8pm - and hey it's free, always a big plus to us here at LTA.

From the Black Box website:

Star Trek - The High Ground
(The Banned Episode)

Beverly Crusher, who is trying to help wounded based on a terrorist attack on a non-aligned planet, is taken hostage. Based on what she learns, she comes to see what terrorism means first hand.

In his study of terrorism, Data notes that Ireland would be reunified in 2024 as a result of a successful terrorist campaign. Due to its content (and specifically its mention of Irish reunification), this episode has never been shown on free-to-air television in the United Kingdom or Republic of Ireland, and initial airings were edited when shown on Sky One.

The Black Box previously on the site:

'Fresh Meat' at the Black Box

Belfast - City of a Thousand Festivals

(Photo above taken from the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival website - I'm such a Trek nerd that I instantly realised that the pic is not from the TV show but from one of the movies...man, I gotta get out more)

 

April 11, 2007

'Fresh Meat' at the Black Box

A hipster enjoys a performance at Fresh Meat, the Black Box, Belfast, Northern Ireland
If you're looking for something to do in Belfast on Thursday nights you can't do better than Fresh Meat at the Black Box.

I must admit Dear Reader that I was initially put off by the name of the event which conjured up visions in my mind of some horrible amateur comedy night; but boy was I pleasantly surprised.

An interesting performance at the Black Box, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Billing itself as an 'avant garde music miniature open-mic' experience the evening was a delight from start to finish - highlights included the gentleman above communicating through some sort of water-filled device, a Russian soprano and group piano playing.

A group performance at Fresh Meat, the Black Box, Belfast, Northern Ireland
I loved the surreal and whimsical nature of the proceedings that evening - in this world of constant advertisement, that is driving us to consume I find that Surrealism / Dadism is an extremely viable aesthetic, moral and political response.

A man smiles during a performance at the Black Box, Belfast, Northern Ireland

I left Fresh Meat suitably refreshed Dear Listener and walked around night-time Belfast with a spring in my step.

Trash strewn lot opposite the Black Box, Belfast

 

March 29, 2007

Unpaid Intern Erin's Guide to the Belfast Film Festival - Part 9

Still from the film Enemies of Happiness

Nearly bankrupt and fighting back a nervous breakdown, documentary filmmaker Peter Whitehead wandered the streets of Edinburgh on a summer evening in 1969 shortly before the premiere of his latest film, The Fall.  A flock of birds surprised him and caused him to pause in a square.  There, he saw an elderly man pull food out of his pocket and start feeding the birds, calling them individually by name.  Whitehead, who over the previous four years had chronicled an era of excess, energy, anarchy, and angst with unparalleled access and acumen, left filmmaking and bought his first falcon. 

While Whitehead did not entirely abandon filmmaking in the 1970s, making a Led Zepplin concert-pic in 1970, Daddy in 1972, and Fire in the Water in 1977, the passion of his past three and a half decades has largely been devoted to majestic birds-of-prey.  The film that served as the catalyst for his dramatic life overhall, The Fall, chronicled the descent of the student protest movement from a legitimate political force to what Whitehead described as “calculated political anarchy.”  The film that resulted was a genre-bending experiment mixing a fictional political assassination with real-life footage of the protest movement.

Nearly forty years after beginning filming of The Fall, Whitehead told Sight and Sound, “I’ve never been on holiday, never wasted a single day.  I would consider it a waste if I’m not pursuing my myth in some form or another.”  Don't miss the myth of Peter Whitehead this Saturday at Studio Cinema, where The Fall begins at 7:00 PM.

Also on Saturday…

Two documentaries on the difficulties and disenfranchisement that occurs when people exert their right to vote are playing together at QFT on Saturday.  No Umbrella: Election Day in the City follows the experiences of voters in one of Ohio’s poorest voting precincts during the 2004 presidential elections.  Enemies of Happiness tells the story of a 27-year-old woman running in Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections in September 2005.  Celebrate Northern Ireland's upcoming power sharing scenario with a Saturday afternoon of election woes starting at 2:00 PM at QFT.

As if our lives weren't scary enough, on Saturday afternoon, you can witness a dystopian future in which only Jett Loe and Martin Sheen’s brother can save the day.  The Patrol is just one of many short jewels on display at the Jameson Short Film Competition, starting at high noon at the Black Box.

(Image above:  still from the film Enemies of Happiness)

 

March 28, 2007

Unpaid Intern Erin's Guide to the Belfast Film Festival - Part 8

Cinema Sports taking place at the Queens Street Studios, Belfast, Northern Ireland

While women have made great strides in reaching parity in both levels of participation and payment in many fields, cinema would not be included on the list.  Seven percent of films are directed by women, a statistic only slightly less shameful than the number of female candidates fielded in the last Northern Irish assembly election.  Friday’s film fest line-up, however, highlights female-made short fiction and non-fiction films.  Coming off the back of their week long-film festival in London at the Barbican, Birds Eye View, an organisation supporting women in film, brings six short films made by female directors to the Belfast Film Festival.  These films screen Friday night with the short documentary, Like a Ship in the Night, about three Irish women taking the boat to England for an abortion.

Although abortion is legal in Great Britain, it remains illegal in both the North and the South of Ireland.  Perhaps not coincidentally, Northern Ireland also has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Western Europe.  Like a Ship in the Night explores the story of three women from very different backgrounds sharing in a journey that 8,000 women a year make.  Director Melissa Thompson will introduce her film and lead a discussion following the screening.  Enjoy an evening of female-driven programming at the Studio Cinema beginning at 8:30 PM on Friday night.

Also on Friday…

Before James Cameron became the intrepid explorer, expert archaeologist, and self-proclaimed finder of Jesus’ tomb, he used to make some pretty flipping frightening films.   Aliens is appropriately playing at the drive-in at the Titanic Quarter Paint Hall at 9:00 PM.

In what is apparently a regular club night fixture, RINKA offers a mix of screenings of independent films and live music.  Jim Jarmusch’s ode to Coffee and Cigarettes begins the night, followed by electronica/avant-rock instrumentation from the Bangor-based group When Pilots Eject, finished off by what is described as “deviant acid turntablism” provided by DJs Sinister Industry with visuals from Chewie Films. RINKA kicks off at 8:00 PM at the Black Box.

Note:  Hi folks,  Jett here; the photo above was taken at the Queens Street Studios this Saturday past during the Cinemasports event - unfortunately I didn't have the time to participate, (the challenge: make a short film in one day - show it the same evening), maybe next year!  If you're interested in making media in Northern Ireland definitely check out the QSS - they've got all sorts of stuff that would come in handy!

Note 2:  Jett here again; I see I've illustrated Erin's post about the shameful lack of films directed by women with a photo of a bunch of guys who are off to make a film.  Hmm.

 

March 27, 2007

Unpaid Intern Erin's Guide to the Belfast Film Festival - Part 7

Tough Guy at the John Hewitt Pub, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Last year around this time, I went to New York with my boyfriend.  We had breakfast with friends of his, one of whom is a poet. One of her poems, “The Spirit of 34th Street”, had been included in an anthology of poetry about New York City.  She read it out to us over coffee and pastries:

“Doors opened with a silent scream.
like photographs of anguish;
the subway paused, shed cargo
and raged on.
She lurched aboard,
sagged into a vacant seat,
frail weight of her gray years
hunched with cold.
Numb fingers plucked at rags,
drawn close against raw misery.
Knuckles, cracked and swollen white,
clutched into a plea for warmth.
He, dark and lithe,
swung down the aisle,
taut jeans dancing
rhythmically.
With Latin grace
he, sidling past
her patient form,
in one smooth gesture
disappeared through subway doors,
leaving in her lap,
like folded dove wings,
his black leather gloves.”

After finishing the poem, she remarked, “life in New York City is filled with misery and majesty.”  Filmmaker Jem Cohen uses this polarity of the urban landscape as his muse in the two films, Lost Book Found and This is a History of New York City.  Both are mosaics of city life cobbled together from years of Super-8 and 16mm filming of the streets of the city.   Lun Sante says of Lost Book Found, “Its beauty is quite ineffable.  It’s the sort of visual experience that transforms everything seen by the viewer for several hours afterwards.”  Such high praise might just warrant the price of admission.  Check out the films of Jem Cohen at the Studio Cinema (above Belfast Exposed) on Thursday at 7:00 PM.

Also on Thursday…

Polarity takes centre stage once again in John and Jane, a documentary about the experience of working in Indian call centres.  Employees leave their Indian identities outside the walls of the office, where inside, the dominance of American culture reigns supreme.  John and Jane is playing along with The Intimacy of Strangers at QFT at 6:45.

A day without a mention of totalitarianism during the Belfast Film Festival would be like a day without an alcopop during a vacation to Ibiza.  Get  your cinematic fix of state control with the Academy Award winning film, The Lives of Others, about the experience of state surveillance under Communist-run East Germany.

(Photo taken by Jett of a Tough Guy at the Belfast Film Festival Quiz, the John Hewitt Pub)

 

What to do in Belfast Tonight; the 6th Annual World Pong Championships

Daniel Jewesbury, Esq., as seen at the Belfast Film Festival Quiz, the John Hewitt Pub, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Dear Listeners
:  If you find yourself in Belfast tonight than you have ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE not to go to the 6th Annual World Pong Championships at the John Hewitt tonight at 8pm.  I went last year and had a ball:

Drama - Thy Name is Pong

They take their Pong seriously here in Belfast; historically it was one of the few activities that Protestant, Catholic and Muslim could do together in Northern Ireland and many people will tell you it helped them through the tough times. 

Why not commemorate the event by cheering on the participants - the John Hewitt is a fine pub and worth going to even if no Video Game related activities are occurring.  I was there last night myself as it was the famous Belfast Film Festival Quiz.  Our team came in second Dear Listeners, and I have a decorative 'Jameson Key Ring' to prove it.

(Photo above:  Daniel Jewesbury, Esq., one of the organisers of the Pong Evening, as seen last night officiating in the Film Quiz - that's Dr. Gareth Higgins taking up most of the right frame).

 

Unpaid Intern Erin's Guide to the Belfast Film Festival - Part 6

Woman sitting alone at the Queens Film Theatre, Belfast, Northern Ireland
In the small town of Rheims, France, three skinheads were looking for an Arab to bash.  Instead, on a September night in 2002, Francois Chenu had the misfortune to cross their paths.  Because Chenu refused to deny the fact that he was gay, the three men beat him, threw him in a pond, and left him for dead.  The story of his family, their grieving process, and their quest for justice is the subject of Olivier Meyrou’s documentary, Beyond Hatred

QueerSpace, a Belfast-based organization serving and advocating for the needs of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Community of Belfast and Northern Ireland, has worked in conjunction with the festival to present the film. While the festival has included a wide array of programming around same sex themes, Beyond Hatred stands out for its poignancy and topicality for a society recently bestowed with the dubious moniker of “the most bigoted place in Western world.”  Beyond Hatred is playing at Studio Cinema on Wednesday at 8:30 PM followed by a discussion with our very own Dr. Gareth Higgins.

Also on Wednesday…

The Black Box might do weird better (or at least classier) than anywhere else in Belfast.  While I’m not exactly sure what a double bill of a Turkish remake of the Wizard of Oz and a 1960s Japanese children’s television show re-scored with live electronica would look/sound/feel like, I’m sure it wouldn’t fail to be an interesting and maybe even unique experience.  Check out Turkish Wizard of Oz/Gimme Gimme Octopus at the Black Box at 8 PM.

If you’ve always felt there weren’t enough documentaries on the protracted conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh, watch A Story of People in War and Peace fill that niche at QFT at 9:10 PM.

(Photo taken by Jett of woman sitting alone at the Queens Film Theatre)

 

March 26, 2007

Unpaid Intern Erin's Guide to the Belfast Film Festival - Part 5

Still from Buenos Aires 1977

In the summer of 1971, Stanford social psychology professor Philip Zimbardo conducted the now famous Stanford Prison Experiment in order to observe what happens when ordinary individuals are placed in roles of authority and submission.  Twenty-four college students were divided into two groups—guards and inmates.  Originally designed as a two-week study, Zimbardo ended the experiment on the sixth day due to the increasingly sadistic manner in which the guards treated the inmates and the rapid psychological deterioration of the inmates as a result of the simulated prison environment. 

The film Buenos Aires 1977 takes place in a secret detention centre run by the military junta who ruled Argentina from 1976 until 1983. The literal translation of the Spanish title of the film, “Chronicle of a Fugue” points to the dreamlike state in which both captive and captor exist.  The Zimbardo experiment shows how quickly individuals can slip into experiences or actions that were once relegated to the stuff of nightmares.  In a world in which law and order now includes the vocabulary of stress positions, extraordinary rendition, dietary manipulation, and coercive interrogation, Buenos Aires 1977 can be viewed not only as a reminder of a dark page of one nation’s history but also as a cautionary tale for the future we are in the process of creating. You can listen to Dr. Zimbardo on Radio Open Source this Tuesday and you can watch Buenos Aires 1977 at QFT at 6:30 PM.

Also on Tuesday…

The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun wins the best lead in a festival brochure blurb prize with the following description: “Mr. Vig, an 82-year-old virgin, realizes a 50 year-old dream—to turn his castle into a monastery.  Then, love and the Russian Orthodox nuns arrive.”  Watch those Russian monastic sparks fly at QFT at 8:45 PM

The 6th Belfast World Pong Championships show the world that unlike cheese rolling, this sport is here to stay.  Watch out for “young fresh faced joystick jamming pretenders” and the cunning linguistics of such clever people as Richard West and Dan Jewesbury.  If for some unfathomable reason you find yourself not able to attend what is sure to be a cultural jewel you can soothe your soul with vintage pongage courtesy of LTA.

Still from Monastery and Mr Vig.jpg

(Image above from 'The Monastery:  Mr Vig and the Nun; Image at top from Buenos Aires 1977)

 

March 25, 2007

Unpaid Intern Erin's Guide to the Belfast Film Festival - Part 4

Still from Nomadak TX

In the poem “Nothing to be Said,” British poet Philip Larkin writes, “For nations vague as weed, for nomads among stones, small-statured cross-faced tribes and cobble-close families, in mill-towns on dark mornings, life is slow dying.”  For many traditionally nomadic cultures, however, the opposite would be true.   Millennia marked by movement are quickly being replaced with a forced and often uneasy stationary lifestyle.  Spanish filmmaker Raul de la Fuente travels to some of the last bastions of transience in the documentary, Nomadak TX.  He confronts the extinction of a lifestyle armed only with a camera and a little-played Basque instrument, the txalaparta.

This ancient instrument, made of wooden boards and resembling a xylophone, requires two players.  From the deserts of Morocco to the lushness of India to the frozen tundra of Lapland to the grassy steppes of Mongolia, the filmmaker offers the txalaparta as a conduit for communication that transcends culture, geography, and language.

In our modern day versions of nomadism, in which we solitarily criss-cross the globe untethered by territory and emboldened by technology, the concept of shared creation from materials as simple as wood, sticks, and even ice is a welcome reminder that if we hold a way of life to be dear, then we can slow down the dying process and perhaps even offer it a proper resurrection.  Nomadak TX is playing along with On the Road at QFT at 9:00 PM.

Also on Monday…

My Country, My Country is the story of a Sunni Muslim doctor and political candidate in Iraq.  The director and cinematographer, Laura Poitras, met the protagonist, Dr. Riyadh, while he was conducting an inspection of Abu Ghraib.  Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary and described by The Village Voice as “indispensable, heartbreaking, and ferociously wise,” don’t miss My Country, My Country at QFT at 7:00 PM.

If you’d only watch Seven Samurai at the cinema because Kurosawa is too sacred to be shown on the small screen or if you salivate at the thought of a new addition to the Criterion Collection, why waste your time watching movies on Monday when you could show off your knowledge of cinematic minutiae at The John Hewitt?  Scurry on over to the BFF Film Quiz at 8:00 PM to strut your cinematic stuff.

(Image above from Nomadak TX)

 

March 24, 2007

Unpaid Intern Erin's Guide to the Belfast Film Festival - Part 3

Queens Film Theatre, Belfast, Northern Ireland

In my family, we collected stray people like some people might collect decorative porcelain figurines.  Even today, when I come home, I still never know who I might run into in the bathroom when I’m brushing my teeth. Normally, I liked the revolving-door nature of our home but at times, especially around the holidays, the mass of strangers in the house could prove to be a bit much.  One Christmas, I snuck away from the pack and sought refuge in my room.  Providence allowed a four-hour long epic film to be starting just at that moment.  Nobody else wanted to watch a historical epic set around the Russian revolution.  By the time the movie had finished, everyone had left the house.  I’ve been a fan of Dr. Zhivago and its female lead, Julie Christie, ever since.

This Sunday, Christie will be in Belfast to introduce her latest film, Away From Her.   This is the directorial debut of Sarah Polley, who worked with Christie on the under-rated film, The Secret Life of Words, which also happened to be filmed in Northern Ireland.  Sarah Polley is a gorgeous and under-stated actress who doesn’t shy away from films with difficult and dark subject matters.  Away From Her, which centers around a couple dealing with Alzheimer’s, is no exception. If she brings the same level of sensitivity to her directing as she does to her acting, the result will most likely be both nuanced and heartbreaking.  There’s a definite dearth of female directors, especially young ones.  Sarah Polley is a welcome addition to a very small club. Go and check out what Sarah Polley and Julie Christie have created at Storm Cinema at 8:00 PM.

Also on Sunday…

There are three choices of music documentaries highlighting three very different genres—punk, rock, and pre-fab.  The John Hewitt is showing a documentary called Love Story about the band Love, who Labour backbencher Peter Bradley described as “the world’s greatest rock band”, in the afternoon at 3:00 PM.  Loud Quiet Loud, a documentary on The Pixies, is on at 7:00 PM.  And if you’d prefer to watch the comings and goings of Beatles rip-off band, The Monkees, you can see the eponymously titled documentary at the Black Box at 7:30 PM.

(Photo taken by Jett: Woman behind a counter, Film Festival Venue Queens Film Theatre)

 

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