To say webbie award winning director, Bobby Miller hit on a strange concept for his short TUB would be a pretty large understatement, but it’s a setup that successfully straddles comedy, drama and horror. Bobby and I took the DN SXSW interview experience to the crowds and bands of 6th Street.

Showlinks
The Bobby Miller
TUB
The Bobby Tube
Don’t Let Jimmy Fallon Win
Next New Networks
eatsleepdraw
Monster In My Closet

TUB – Sundance Film Festival 2010 Short Film Trailer from Bobby Miller on Vimeo.

• DN SXSW2010: Junko’s Shamisen – Sol Friedman
• DN SXSW10: The Freebie – Katie Aselton
• Junko’s Shamisen – Sol Friedman
• DN SXSW10: His & Hers – Ken Wardrop
• DN EP 098: Seeking Wellness – Dan Schneidkraut

If you’re in a strong, loving relationship you can withstand anything right? In her debut feature, The Freebie, actor turned director Katie Aselton stress tests a couple’s marriage, when they give each other a mutual pass to a one night stand. I spoke to Katie about her move to the director’s chair.

• DN SXSW2010: Junko’s Shamisen – Sol Friedman
• DN SXSW10: TUB – Bobby Miller
• DN SXSW10: His & Hers – Ken Wardrop
• DN EP 078: Garage – Lenny Abrahamson
• SXSW2010: Kick-Ass

Alongside the feature strands, SXSW runs several shorts programmes throughout the festival, which often provide an early chance to see the work of up and coming directors. Sol Friedman’s Kabuki inspired short, Junko’s Shamisen has to be one of the most ambitious, and visually stunning pieces I’ve ever seen. He joins us to discuss the painstaking blending of green screen footage with hand drawn, computer composited animation and a ‘dead’ fox.

FILM TITLE Materials
Production Stills
Motion Tests

Showlinks
Sol Friedman
Junko’s Shamisen
Adobe After Effects
Kabuki
Canada Council for the Arts
Red Camera
Keylight for After Effects

• Junko’s Shamisen – Sol Friedman
• DN SXSW10: TUB – Bobby Miller
• DN SXSW10: The Freebie – Katie Aselton
• DN EP 067: Four Eyed Monsters – Arin Crumley & Susan Buice
• DN SXSW10: His & Hers – Ken Wardrop

Junko’s Shamisen (2009)
Set in the rural backwoods of feudal Japan, a young peasant girl named Junko, returns home to discover her blind grandfather brutally murdered. Filled with despair, Junko, accompanied by a mystical fox spirit, abandons her old life and sets off for the village in search of better fortune. While begging, young Junko inadvertently encounters the evil samurai lord responsible for killing her grandfather and with the influence of the fox spirit, avenges her grandfather through an act of gruesome poetic justice.

• DN SXSW2010: Junko’s Shamisen – Sol Friedman
• The Reason I Collect – Emma Curtis
• The Life Size Zoetrope – Mark Simon Hewis
• Sweet Salt – Katerina Athanasopoulou
• Sun in the Night Time – Anne Wilkins

It’s been a long time coming but I’ve finally packed the DN bags, jumped on a plane and hit the indie directors’ favourite film festival, South by Southwest, or SXSW for those in the know. We open up with an interview for a film I originally saw at last year’s London Film Festival, but whose gentle charm has stuck in my mind ever since, Ken Wardrop’s His & Hers. I spoke to Ken about the jump from shorts to features and how the stories of women from middle Ireland can have the power to touch festival audiences around the world.

SXSW folks can catch His & Hers tonight at 7pm & on Thu, Mar 18th at 2pm.

Showlinks
His & Hers

• His & Hers – Ken Wardrop
• DN SXSW10: The Freebie – Katie Aselton
• DN EP 108: We Dreamed America – Alex Walker
• DN EP 097: Inside the Circle – Marcy Garriott
• SXSW2010: Kick-Ass

His & Hers (2009)
A 90-year-old love story told through the collective voice of 70 ladies at different stages of their lives.

• DN SXSW10: His & Hers – Ken Wardrop
• We Dreamed America – Alex Walker
• Us Now – Ivo Gormley
• Tokyo Cowboys – Daneeta Loretta Saft & Patrick Jackson
• They Turned Our Desert Into Fire – Mark Brecke

The first time we had the pleasure of director Jamie Travis’ company was for his triplet of films The Patterns Trilogy. Well, working in threes once again, he’s recently finished The Armoire, the final installment of his The Saddest Children in the World trilogy, and joins us to discuss evoking emotion through a formal filmmaking approach.

Note: If you’re in or near London on the 20th March, Jamie will be screening The Saddest Children in the World trilogy (Why The Anderson Children Didn’t Come to Dinner, The Saddest Boy in the World & The Armoire) and giving an Artist’s talk as part of the 24th BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.

Showlinks
The Armoire

• The Armoire – Jamie Travis
• DN EP 133: The Patterns Trilogy – Jamie Travis
• The Patterns Trilogy – Jamie Travis
• Miss D 2007 Top Ten
• DN SXSW2010: Junko’s Shamisen – Sol Friedman

The Armoire (2009)
11 year-old Aaron plays a game of Hide and Seek in which his friend Tony is never found. The mystery of their relationship—and of their queer attachment to the armoire in Aaron’s bedroom—can only be revealed, it turns out, through hypnosis.

Note: If you’re in or near London on the 20th March, Jamie will be screening The Saddest Children in the World trilogy (Why The Anderson Children Didn’t Come to Dinner, The Saddest Boy in the World & The Armoire) and giving an Artist’s talk as part of the 24th BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.

• The Patterns Trilogy – Jamie Travis
• DN EP 159: The Armoire – Jamie Travis
• White Red Panic – Ayz Waraich
• The West Side – Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo & Zachary Lieberman
• The Shovel – Nick Childs

I miss my days of living in the North of England, so when I find a film that perfectly captures the spirit of the people and the atmosphere of the landscapes I feel at home, amongst friends or possibly enemies, but either way in the company of truly living, breathing lives on screen. It’s this that director Jonathan Entwistle has seamlessly accomplished in his short Cotton Stones. He joins us to discuss how life’s little moments can play out as major incidents on screen.

Cotton Stones Materials
Script
Dialogue List

Showlinks
Jonathan Entwistle
Editopen
Arri SR3

• Cotton Stones – Jonathan Entwistle
• Miss D 2007 Top Ten
• DN SXSW2010: Junko’s Shamisen – Sol Friedman
• DN SXSW10: TUB – Bobby Miller
• DN SXSW10: The Freebie – Katie Aselton

Cotton Stones (2009)
A brother’s betrayal and the nightmare of growing up too fast, in a place where there is nothing to live for.

• DN EP 158: Cotton Stones – Jonathan Entwistle
• White Red Panic – Ayz Waraich
• The West Side – Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo & Zachary Lieberman
• The Shovel – Nick Childs
• The Patterns Trilogy – Jamie Travis

Director Neil LaBute’s career has spanned numerous theatre and feature film productions, but for his latest project, LaBute collaborated with the team behind new PS3 game Heavy Rain, to create a documentary where famous ‘witnesses’ answered the question How Far would You Go…? to save someone you loved.

You can watch How Far Would You Go…? on the Heavy Rain site.

• DN Special: Wholphin
• DN Special: Storm – Kurtis Hough
• DN Special: Joy Division – Grant Gee
• Time Piece – Kat Mansoor
• The Wonder Of Wes

Here at DN we’re big fans of films that avoid spoon feeding an audience needless back story, but instead parachute you into the current narrative crisis and credit you with the intelligence to make sense of your new surroundings. The short drama Jade, is such a film and director Daniel Elliott joins us to discuss how a simple story can be brought to screen in a compelling way.

Showlinks
Daniel Elliott

• Miss D 2007 Top Ten
• DN SXSW2010: Junko’s Shamisen – Sol Friedman
• DN SXSW10: TUB – Bobby Miller
• DN SXSW10: The Freebie – Katie Aselton
• DN LFF09: Passenger Side – Matt Bissonnette

Way back in the mists of DN time, director Tony Comley joined us to discuss his plane disaster animation Abigail. It’s my pleasure to welcome Tony back to the show for a catch up and look at his new experimental, time-lapse based short Stately Turrets Fall.

Showlinks
Tony Comley
Sherbet
Emily Hall
Adobe After Effects
Bloody Foreigners

• Stately Turrets Fall – Tony Comley
• DN Ep 020: Abigail – Tony Comley
• Filmstock #8
• DN LFF09: Trash Humpers – Harmony Korine
• DN LFF08: The Betrayal – Ellen Kuras

Stately Turrets Fall (2009)
Commissioned by the Barbican, this 4 minute piece takes it’s ingredients from a time-lapse shot of a construction fire and weaves them through a musical piece by composer Emily Hall.

• DN EP 156: Stately Turrets Fall – Tony Comley
• Abigail – Tony Comley
• _grau – Robert Seidel
• Weightless – Erika Janunger
• Virtuosi – Marcelo Garcia

I’m very pleased to welcome Andy Capper back to the show, to discuss the journey he and VICE founder, Shane Smith, took into the dangerous heart of Liberia for the latest revelatory film in The VICE Guide to… series.

Showlinks
VBS
CNN Presents VBS.TV
Liberia
Lariam
William Bennett / Cut Hands
Jihad Milkshake

• The VICE Guide to Liberia – Shane Smith & Andy Capper
• The Vice Guide to Liberia
• DN EP 150: Swansea Love Story – Andy Capper & Leo Leigh
• Time Piece – Kat Mansoor
• Swansea Love Story – Andy Capper & Leo Leigh

The VICE Guide to Liberia (2010)
VBS travels to West Africa to rummage through the messy remains of a country ravaged by 14 years of civil war. Despite the United Nation’s eventual intervention, most of Liberia’s young people continue to live in abject poverty, surrounded by filth, drug addiction, and teenage prostitution. The former child soldiers who were forced into war have been left to fend for themselves, the murderous warlords who once led them in cannibalistic rampages have taken up as so-called community leaders, and new militias are lying in wait for the opportunity to reclaim their country from a government they rightly mistrust. America’s one and only foray into African colonialism is keeping a very uneasy peace indeed.

Watch the full series on VBS.TV

• DN EP 155: The VICE Guide to Liberia – Shane Smith & Andy Capper
• The Vice Guide to Liberia
• Swansea Love Story – Andy Capper & Leo Leigh
• We Dreamed America – Alex Walker
• Us Now – Ivo Gormley

It’s an oft quoted phrase that ‘Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity’, well this week’s guest Fede Alvarez is certainly living proof of that. After working away on his pet ‘robots attack’ SFX project for a couple of years, Fede cashed in on the Facebook built, viral hype surrounding his short Panic Attack (Ataque de Pánico!) by hopping on a plane to LA and ultimately penning a $30m feature deal with Ghost House Pictures, under the mentorship of director Sam Rami. Fede joins us to discuss the journey from $300 short to the much talked about Hollywood deal.

Showlinks
Murdoc Films
Aparato
Maurits Binger Film Institute
Tyrants from Afar
House of Secrets
Sony HVR-Z1
Adobe Premiere
Adobe After Effects
3ds Max
FumeFX
Glu3d
Detonation Films
Motionographer Post
Ghost House Pictures
CAA
Rebel Without a Crew

• Panic Attack! – Fede Alvarez
• Miss D 2007 Top Ten
• DN SXSW2010: Junko’s Shamisen – Sol Friedman
• DN SXSW10: TUB – Bobby Miller
• DN SXSW10: The Freebie – Katie Aselton

Panic Attack! (2009)
Giant robots invade Montevideo!

• DN EP 154: Panic Attack! – Fede Alvarez
• White Red Panic – Ayz Waraich
• The West Side – Ryan Bilsborrow-Koo & Zachary Lieberman
• The Shovel – Nick Childs
• The Patterns Trilogy – Jamie Travis

Eddie White, co-director of the beat poetry meets Arabic Jazz, kidnapped felines short The Cat Piano, joins us to discuss the film’s creation and the tricky journey through film festival submissions, wins and eligibility rules to make it to the pre Oscar nomination short list.

Showlinks
The People’s Republic of Animation
The Cat Piano
The Cat Piano Facebook Page
Adobe Photoshop
Katzenklavier
Michaël Dudok de Wit
Nick Cave
Oscar Rules & Eligibility
Oscar Animated Shorts Short List

• The Cat Piano – Eddie White & Ari Gibson
• The Wonder Of Wes
• Filmstock #8
• DN SXSW2010: Junko’s Shamisen – Sol Friedman
• DN EP 144: Moray McLaren: We Got Time – David Wilson

The Cat Piano (2009)
In a city of singing cats, a lonely beat poet falls for a beautiful siren. When a mysterious dark figure emerges, kidnapping the town’s singers for his twisted musical plans, the poet must save his muse and put an end to the nefarious tune that threatens to destroy the city.

• DN EP 153: The Cat Piano – Eddie White & Ari Gibson
• _grau – Robert Seidel
• Zoo – Robin Bushell
• ZOMBIE ZOMBIE: Driving Clip – Simon Gesrel & Xavier Ehretsmann
• What We’ve Found Out About Stem Cells – Richard Fenwick

I’m joined this week by director Ivo Gormley, whose documentary feature Us Now explores the ways in which Internet communities are able to share knowledge and form intelligent, collective decisions, and how this could translate to the governing of our lives and society as a whole.

Showlinks
Us Now
Ivo’s Twitter
The Us Now Global Screening Project
Think Public
CouchSurfer
Mumsnet
Royal Society of Arts
Linux
Ebbsfleet
mySociety
Playmarkers

• Us Now – Ivo Gormley
• INSIDE THE CIRCLE Breakin’ Convention Screening
• DN SXSW10: His & Hers – Ken Wardrop
• DN Special: Joy Division – Grant Gee
• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde

Us Now (2008)
Us Now takes a look at how the internet could allow us to do away with politicians and run the government ourselves. It tells the stories of the online networks whose radical self-organising structures threaten to change the fabric of government for ever.

• DN EP 152: Us Now – Ivo Gormley
• We Dreamed America – Alex Walker
• Tokyo Cowboys – Daneeta Loretta Saft & Patrick Jackson
• They Turned Our Desert Into Fire – Mark Brecke
• The Super Noble Brothers – Mark Escribano

Get out there make the film you want, with the kit you have to hand and recognition will follow. Despite sounding like a fairytale that indie filmmakers tell each other during the tough times, director Marc Price did just that for his debut zombie feature COLIN, which not only picked up a trail of buzz at Cannes last year, but also landed him a cinema release and DVD distribution deal. Marc joins us this week to bring the fairytale to life.

Showlinks
COLIN
Nowhere Fast Productions
Concrete Canvas Arts
Good Taste made Bad Taste
Panasonic NV DS15
Adobe Premiere
Rebel Without a Crew

• COLIN – Marc Price
• Thirst – Park Chan-Wook
• The Host with the Most
• INSIDE THE CIRCLE Breakin’ Convention Screening
• Hotel Harabati Competition

COLIN (2009)
Colin is bitten by a zombie; he dies and returns as one of the undead. We follow him as he wanders through suburbia during the throes of a cadaverous apocalypse. Through his encounters with objects, places and people, we learn who Colin was and more pertinently, what he has now become.

• DN EP 151: COLIN – Marc Price
• ZOMBIE ZOMBIE: Driving Clip – Simon Gesrel & Xavier Ehretsmann
• We Dreamed America – Alex Walker
• Us Now – Ivo Gormley
• Tokyo Cowboys – Daneeta Loretta Saft & Patrick Jackson

After their successful collaboration on the decaying seaside town documentary Blackpool: Las Vegas of the North, directors Andy Capper & Leo Leigh have joined forces again and hit the streets of Swansea to produce their second film for VBS’ Rule Britannia series, Swansea Love Story. They both (separately) join us on the show this week to discuss their DIY methods for capturing the true lives of young and often homeless heron addicts.

Showlinks
VBS
SpineTV
The Plague Interview
Sony HVR-Z5
Heavy Metal in Baghdad

• Swansea Love Story – Andy Capper & Leo Leigh
• INSIDE THE CIRCLE Breakin’ Convention Screening
• DN SXSW10: His & Hers – Ken Wardrop
• DN Special: Joy Division – Grant Gee
• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde

Swansea Love Story (2009)
Swansea Love Story, is the newest installment of VBS’ Rule Britannia series, and follows young heroin users in the city, their families and their daily routines.

• DN EP 150: Swansea Love Story – Andy Capper & Leo Leigh
• We Dreamed America – Alex Walker
• Us Now – Ivo Gormley
• Tokyo Cowboys – Daneeta Loretta Saft & Patrick Jackson
• They Turned Our Desert Into Fire – Mark Brecke

Despite the open mind I try to always bring to cinema, I have to admit that the term ‘British gangster film’ makes my heart drop involuntarily as I brace myself for a parade of wide boys with imaginatively descriptive names such as Fingers Charlie, running round with shooters, spouting Mockney. Director Ben Wheatley has shown me the error of my ways with his outstanding debut feature Down Terrace, a British film that is much more concerned with the ‘family’ portion of the term ‘crime family’ and how those closest to us are perhaps the ones we should fear the most.

Showlinks
Mr. and Mrs. Wheatley
Cunning Stunt
Modern Toss
Ideal
Rob Loves Kerry
Red Digital Camera Company

• Down Terrace – Ben Wheatley
• Down Terrace
• DN SXSW10: The Freebie – Katie Aselton
• DN LFF09: Passenger Side – Matt Bissonnette
• DN LFF09: Men on the Bridge – Asli Özge

Down Terrace (2009)
Bill and Karl have just got out of jail free but all is not well at Down Terrace. The family business just isn’t working out and Karl’s had more than he can take of his old man’s philosophising and preaching. Karl’s girlfriend is pregnant – by him? Who knows… Either way…a little information goes a long way and its definitely time for a spring clean. By any means necessary…

• Down Terrace
• DN EP 149: Down Terrace – Ben Wheatley
• Sugarhouse – Gary Love
• Lovers – Carl Zhang
• Hotel Harabati – Brice Cauvin

So once again it seems that the great films we curate here on Directors Notes refuse to be contained by our humble site and are making a break for the silver screen. This time round we’re honoured that CINECITY, the Brighton Film Festival, with whom DN has had links for many years, has given us a slot to strut our stuff.

Amongst the films selected by El Vez and myself, regular visitors will recognise a fair few past guests, with a couple you won’t (yet) have seen on the site. If you click on the video above, you can watch the trailer we’ve put together for the screening to get you in the mood for the evening’s entertainment. What could possibly make the screening even better? Well a cover charge of £0. Yep, it’s FREE entry too so there’s absolutely no excuse for missing it if you’re within a 200 mile radius of Brighton.

Another reason to come along, is that the spectacularly talented Kate Kamikaze has designed the brand new DN poster you can see below, along with accompanying postcards which should be getting their first public outing at the screening.

We’re really excited to be hosting an evening of some of our favourite shorts, massive thanks to all the directors and hope to see you there.

We shall be screening:

I Will Smash You – Michael Kimball & Luca Dipiero (7:15)
Stories of people smashing office environments, chairs, TVs, phones, cars and more. You’ve never seen anything like this before.
www.littleburnfilms.com

Jenifer – Stewart Copeland (4:25)
The film-maker explores his relationship with his mother through a recorded conversation between eighth-grade students and astronauts aboard the international space station.
www.gohomefatboy.com

Bathtub – M.A.Y.O. (3:25)
In a bathroom set with diamonds, white cake, and a porcelain claw-foot tub, a beautiful young woman readies for death. She’s hooked up to a machine, which instead of reading her vital signs emits a warning about the extinction of dinosaurs. In the minutes before her death, she practices a ritual to prepare herself for the unknown.
www.mindallyouroutsides.com

Spider – Nash Edgerton (9:00)
It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye.
www.bluetonguefilms.com

Voltage – Filipe Lyra & William Paiva (4:15)
Just like modular synthesizers, people connect with each other in order to achieve diverse objectives. In Voltage, robots, half-human and half-synthesizer, powered by a huge amount of energy, connect to each other in an electric and chaotic trance.
www.bamstudio.com.br/

Altar – Nathan Bezner (18:00)
A janitor cleans the same filthy toilet every day. As he begins to remove stranger and more bizarre objects from the commode, he discovers there may be more to his situation than he’d initially realized.
www.nightowlpictures.org

Cerrado Al Publico – Poet Zero (6:10)
A police officer and the barriers of understanding – physical and otherwise.
poetzerofilm.com

I Love Sarah Jane – Spencer Susser (14:16)
Ah, young love. The air seems clearer. The sun seems brighter. There’s a spring in the step. Too bad about the zombie apocalypse.
www.bluetonguefilms.com

• Twinklebum in New York
• Reading & Leeds Festival Time
• DN Hits the Festivals
• Dislocation Festival
• Carling Weekend Reading & Leeds ‘07

After reading about a group of desperate slum dwellers from Sri Lanka who daringly posed as the non-existent national handball team in order to secure their passage out of the country, producer Uberto Pasolini decided to temporarily sit in the director’s chair to bring their true life story to the big screen.

Showlinks
Machan
The Full Monty

• Machan – Uberto Pasolini
• DN LFF08: Quick Gun Murugan – Shashank Ghosh
• Micmacs – Jean-Pierre Jeunet
• INSIDE THE CIRCLE Breakin’ Convention Screening
• Hotel Harabati Competition

Machan (2008)
Based on a true story, this tragicomical tale tells the story of a sports team with a difference… Living on the margins of society, under impossible pressures, a group of desperate slum dwellers find an invitation to a handball tournament in Bavaria, Germany. This one-way ticket to the West could be the answer to their prayers and a solution to all their problems… 

• DN EP 148: Machan – Uberto Pasolini
• We Dreamed America – Alex Walker
• Us Now – Ivo Gormley
• Tokyo Cowboys – Daneeta Loretta Saft & Patrick Jackson
• They Turned Our Desert Into Fire – Mark Brecke

You know the sinking, gut wrenching feeling you get when your favourite TV show up and quits at the height of its success, or that band you love and adore call it a day after just a couple of kick arse albums? Well that’s something I’d always presumed wasn’t a worry I’d ever need to have when it came to film festivals but no, Filmstock, DN’s festival of choice will be no more after this weekend! I sat down with co-founders/directors Neil Fox & Justin Doherty to chat over how Filmstock has developed over the years and why they weren’t joking back in 2003 when they told me Filmstock would be; “…the festival that goes up to 11″.

Showlinks
Filmstock
Zero Balance
Exploits Of A Cultural Saboteur
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
Tony Hendra

• Filmstock: Establishing a Film Festival
• Filmstock 9
• Filmstock 11: This is the End
• Filmstock 11: The Best of the Shorts
• Filmstock 11: Oil City Confidential

In the third installment of our daily Doc/Fest gems, Super 8 legend Norwood Cheek takes us through the Attack of the 50 Foot Reels filmmaking challenge.

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A Buzz Films Production

• Doc/Fest 09 – The International Pitch
• Doc/Fest 09 – Crossover Summit
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod03 – Daisy Asquith
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod02 – Emily James
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod01 – Lee Kern

Sheffield Doc/Fest day two sees six filmmakers pitch for a £10k DFID funded opportunity to create a 10 minute short for the Community Channel. Greg Sanderson chairs a panel of judges including Executive Producer Jane Stephenson.

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A Buzz Films Production

• Doc/Fest 09 – Crossover Summit
• Doc/Fest 09 – Attack of the 50 Foot Reels
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod03 – Daisy Asquith
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod02 – Emily James
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod01 – Lee Kern

The time has come once again when the documentary film community converges on the city of Sheffield for Doc/Fest. With director Frank Boyd as their guide, Buzz Films‘ Jan Bednarz & Simon Wan captured the goings on at the inaugural Crossover Summit event.

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A Buzz Films Production

• Doc/Fest 09 – The International Pitch
• Doc/Fest 09 – Attack of the 50 Foot Reels
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod03 – Daisy Asquith
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod02 – Emily James
• Doc/Fest 08 Vod01 – Lee Kern

Sadly, we’ve reached the last of our London Film Festival ‘09 afternoon tea interviews, but it’s a great one to go out on. I very selfishly took up a nice chunk of time with directors Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas, who were at LFF for the premiere of their much anticipated documentary, American: The Bill Hicks Story – a look at the life of one of the world’s greatest comedians and thinkers, as told by the family and friends who truly knew him.

Showlinks
American: The Bill Hicks Story
Bill Hicks.com
Waltz with Bashir
The Kid Stays in the Picture
La Jetee
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe After Effects

• DN LFF09: We Live in Public – Ondi Timoner
• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: The Whites Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights – Emmett Malloy
• DN LFF09: Still Bill – Damani Baker & Alex Vlack
• DN LFF09: Starsuckers – Chris Atkins

For his third feature Passenger Side, director Matt Bissonnette decided to go back to basics and the freedom that comes from shooting a film on a low budget, with a skeleton crew. We sat down over LFF tea and cakes to discuss the process of bringing his tale of road tripping, polar opposite brothers to the screen.

Showlinks
Matthew Bissonnette
Passenger Side

• DN LFF09: Men on the Bridge – Asli Özge
• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: Trash Humpers – Harmony Korine
• DN LFF09: The Road – John Hillcoat
• DN LFF09: The Limits of Control – Jim Jarmusch

As a fan of many years and with a couple near misses in the past, today’s LFF interview is probably the highlight of the festival for me. It was my pleasure to spend some time (however brief) with director Harmony Korine, to discuss his latest offering Trash Humpers, along with the chances of us ever seeing the abandoned Fight Harm project surface.

• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: Still Bill – Damani Baker & Alex Vlack
• DN LFF09: Passenger Side – Matt Bissonnette
• DN LFF09: Men on the Bridge – Asli Özge
• DN LFF09: Enter The Void – Gaspar Noe

Today’s LFF afternoon tea interview is a doubleheader with co-directors Damani Baker and Alex Vlack, who after over 11 years of patient persistence, were able to bring their documentary Still Bill to the screen; a look at the life, relationships and of course music of the legend that is Bill Withers.

Showlinks
Still Bill

• DN LFF09: Trimpin: The Sound of Invention – Peter Esmonde
• DN LFF09: 45365 – Bill Ross & Turner Ross
• DN LFF09: We Live in Public – Ondi Timoner
• DN LFF09: Trash Humpers – Harmony Korine
• DN LFF09: The Whites Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights – Emmett Malloy

Hailing from Germany’s Black Forest region, the artist simply known as Trimpin is a sonic experimenter, who combines the roles of inventor, engineer and composer, with a body of work that also defies categorization. Director Peter Esmonde joins us at the London Film Festival to discuss the challenges of creating a documentary which elucidates the creative process of such a indefinable artist.

Showlinks
Trimpin: The Sound of Invention
Trimpin

• DN LFF09: Still Bill – Damani Baker & Alex Vlack
• DN LFF09: 45365 – Bill Ross & Turner Ross
• DN LFF09: We Live in Public – Ondi Timoner
• DN LFF09: Trash Humpers – Harmony Korine
• DN LFF09: The Whites Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights – Emmett Malloy