BIFF Reviews & Comments | Schedule Released for 'A Film By Abigail' at Anaheim WonderCon International Children's Film Festival

Reviews  &  Comments  after  Guest  Speaking  at
BRADFORD  INTERNATIONAL
FILM  FESTIVAl

SCHEDULE  RELEASED  FOR  anaheim  wondercon  international  children's  film  festival
'A  FILM  BY  abigail'  sCREENs  TOMORROW!

After awhile since my announcement at the beginning of March, the schedule for the ANAHEIM WONDERCON INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S FILM FESTIVAL is finally online and A FILM BY ABIGAIL will screen on Saturday April 19th TOMORROW within Program 5. It joins a selection of work that is literally from all over the world. WonderCon is ran by Comic-Con International and it's humbling my film is a part of this huge event. As it stands, there are THREE more film festival selections I'm holding back on announcing. There's much more to come for the short documentary in the coming months with some very high profile venues and programs to talk about! I feel pretty humbled how well the film is still doing and how it continues to progress. Of course I had faith in my work, but this has far surpassed my expectations. I can't wait to share what's next and I am grateful to all the events that have promoted and screened the film.

Now, onto BIFF...

Bradford International Film Festival is genuinely a fantastic event for cinema and filmmakers. It was an honour to be a guest speaker at their Filmmakers Weekend, discussing my personal experiences of film festivals in a deliberately honest and open format. Hopefully, it helped the attending filmmakers develop. I must admit, I was nervous and tentative. Though those nerves seemed to disappear after plucking up the courage to chat to the vibrant and much respected Mark Cousins the night before, who was at the event with his new work: 'A Story of Children and Film'. Mark was incredibly genuine and pleasant to talk to, giving up time for a long informal Q&A following his screening and then we chatted on our own briefly too. I praised his magnificent love letter to innovative cinema 'The Story of Film: An Odyssey' (you don't get many chances to tell someone face-to-face how brilliant something they created is! But it's important to) and I let him know his narration was at an all-time-high Werner Herzog level of greatness - which thankfully he heartily chuckled at! I also talked to him about A FILM BY ABIGAIL, which I screened at BIFF at the beginning of my talk, and its thematical connections to his new film in terms of children, film and family.

As I Stepped Off My Train...

En Route To The Hotel - The National Media Museum - Home To BIFF.

Importantly, I saw some of the great films on offer at BIFF too. 'Brother' (1997, Dir. Alexei Balabanov) was a calculated, unsettling and impressive gangster film, which was preceded by the short film 'The Green Serpent: Of Vodka, Men and Distilled Dreams' (2013, Dir. Benny Jaberg). The short documentary is blackly funny but hammering in its account of alcohol abuse and Vodka's mysterious creative qualities. For me, it demonstrated how expressive imagery can accurately convey a message within a documentary, very interesting. Have I worded that correctly?! It's hard to articulate... you should seek out this award-winning film. 

The second feature I caught (instead of going to see Sally Potter - sorry Sally!!) was the UK Premiere of feature documentary 'The Coal Miner's Day' (2013, Dir. Gael Mocaer). This was largely a claustrophobic film underground and though at points, a very funny piece. The arduous shooting, crawling deep underground with the camera is breathtaking in a rare way, the filmmaker going through a Fitzcarraldo-sized test. I don't know if I'd have the mental stamina to withstand such dangerous conditions. Another aspect to the film, are the miners, the subjects, who repeatedly discuss the documentary occurring and take advantage (or so they think) of the language barrier, as we observe aurally/visually the French director and Ukrainian coal miners. 'Love, Love, Love' (2013, Dir. Sandhya Daisy Sundaram) was the short that preceded it. An accomplished film, winning the 'Short Film Special Jury Award for Non-Fiction' at Sundance. I remember little about the film, only that I felt mesmerised by the poetry of it. It was the curation of the Russian short and Ukrainian-set feature though, that seemed to slightly overshadow the content, feeling darkly but unintentionally apt for a double bill.

Thanks for reading about Anaheim and my time at Bradford! I forgot to mention however, some of the more odd occurrences. I danced to Queen with Mark Cousins at a dillapitated empty disco (it might have been a wedding reception, it was difficult to tell) and (attempted) to help police get a criminal off a building roof opposite my top-storey hotel window... but I think they're tales for another day. Follow me on Twitter to keep in touch and check out others I've mentioned in the blog below. Keep up the good work in whatever you're doing! Until next time...

TWITTER:
Me  >  @PaulEVernon
WonderCon  >  @WonderCon
Bradford International Film Festival  >  @BradFilmFest
Mark Cousins  >  @markcousinsfilm
Sundance Film Festival  >  @SundanceFest