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'A Film By Abigail' Invited to be Opening Film of the 'London Short Film Special' at Internationales FilmFest Emden|Norderney In Germany

18/4/2014

A film by abigail
INVITED TO BE Opening Film of the
London Short Film Special
at 25th Internationales FilmFest Emden | Norderney in Germany

UPDATE: 'A Film By Abigail' will screen on May 10th in Emden at 2:15pm. The screening will be accompanied by English assortments of Earl Grey Tea, Scones, Clotted Cream, & Strawberry Jam for the German audience! Nice touch! According to the LSFF newsletter here is also a second screening on the 12th of May.

I've kept it under wraps for a little while now, but just after A FILM BY ABIGAIL screened at the London Short Film Festival 2014, I recieved an invite to submit to German film festival INTERNATIONALES FILMFEST EMDEN|NORDERNEY. One of the perks of being in the LSFF fold, is that they're very active and connected with other short film platforms for continual potential exposure. The short documentary was spotted by the German festival's short film programmer when it screened at the ICA. When I was officially told it was in (not always a done deal...) I was informed that it was going to be a part of the 'London Short Film Special' program - which is a curated screening of highlights from LSFF 2014 and presented by the festival director Philip Ilson. Not only that, but Abigail would also be the opening film for it!!!

International Filmfest Emden-Norderney is one of Germany’s most nationally acclaimed and internationally recognised film festivals. With over 100 films on 7 screens it is primarily a major audience festival for its 22,000 or so visitors.

via www.filmfest-emden.de

The festival is larger, but seems to have a similar intentions to the THIS IS ENGLAND film festival in France that the film was an award nominee at, with it seeking culturally informative or insightful work from Britain for German audiences. This will be the film's German Premiere and the first time I've ever had any film screening in the country. It's a place that gave us and cinema Fritz Lang, Wim Wenders and Werner Herzog. It marks the third time that the short documentary has opened something, the previous being its World Premiere at BAFTA London and The Short Cinema film festival in Leicester.

Please SHARE/LIKE this blog if you're feeling generous and helpful - THANK YOU for reading!

LET'S CONNECT? FOLLOW ME AND OTHERS MENTIONED ON TWITTER
Me > @PaulEVernon
London Short Film Festival > @LSFF
This Is England - Short Film Festival of Rouen > @thisisenglandfe

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

16/4/2014

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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

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'A Film By Abigail' Invited to be Opening Film of the 'London Short Film Special' at Internationales FilmFest Emden|Norderney In Germany

A film by abigail
INVITED TO BE Opening Film of the
London Short Film Special
at 25th Internationales FilmFest Emden | Norderney in Germany

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!

Thank you for reading. I'm writing this blog as an active artist, filmmaker and the curator of my Vortex Museum.
- Paul

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'A Film By Abigail' Invited to be Opening Film of the 'London Short Film Special' at Internationales FilmFest Emden|Norderney In Germany

A film by abigailINVITED TO BE ﻿Opening Film﻿﻿﻿ of the ﻿﻿London Short Film Special﻿﻿﻿﻿at 25th Internationales FilmFest Emden | Norderney in Germany

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

Reviews & Comments after Guest Speaking atBRADFORD INTERNATIONALFILM FESTIVAl

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

Thank you for reading. I'm writing this blog as an active ​artist, filmmaker and the curator ​of my Vortex Museum.- Paul

Archives

Categories

LocATIOn

phone

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A film by abigail
INVITED TO BE Opening Film of the
London Short Film Special
at 25th Internationales FilmFest Emden | Norderney in Germany

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!

Thank you for reading. I'm writing this blog as an active artist, filmmaker and the curator of my Vortex Museum.
- Paul