Monday 28 May 2012

ID Fest - Sunday

Sunday saw the final day of this year's ID Fest, and with it, my attempts to ruin the whole day for everyone else by coughing uncontrollably in as many cinema screens as possible.

First up on the agenda was a screening of Ken Russell's The Debussy Film, his 1965 BBC drama about composer Claude Debussy starring Oliver Reed in the title role. Arriving just in time from the train station to see the title card on the screen, I found myself a nice comfortable seat and then... had to get up and leave because my cough descended into what can only be described as 'hacking'. I have a very strict code of ethics about people making noise in a cinema screen, so not wanting to ruin the film for everyone else I decided to head out into Derby town and find some medicine.

Unfortunately I would more readily describe my cough as dry and tickly rather than chesty, so I had to pay a ridiculous amount for something that probably contains the same stuff in the bottle anyway. Next on the agenda was a screening of the three animated shorts that were up for a BAFTA this year; Abuelas, Bobby Yeah and A Morning Stroll. A mixed bag of various lengths and various styles, I admired Abuelas for having an important message, liked A Morning Stroll for showing off some different styles of animation, and really didn't quite know what to make of Bobby Yeah. It was a nightmarish journey starring a weird little rabbit man and a multitude of body horrors that would turn Chris Cunningham and David Cronenberg's stomachs. A bit of an endurance test (it was also the longest of the shorts), I'm pretty sure a couple of people walked out until after it had finished. If you're intrigued to see what it was like, here's the trailer for it.

Despite not winning the BAFTA ( that honour went to the deserving A Morning Stroll), Bobby Yeah is a film that's impossible not to talk about.

The next screening was a presentation of FW Murnau's silent classic Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, introduced by friend of the site Adam from hopelies.com. It was well received by a healthy sized audience (the irony of screening a film called Sunrise on the hottest weekend of the year was lost on no-one), and there's plans to keep the silent film strand going at Derby QUAD with more screenings to come.

Covonia supplies steadily depleting and slightly concerned that I was overdosing on cough syrup and would say something really stupid, offensive or libelous, I headed into my podcast recording that in a moment of madness I'd agreed to do, called in keeping with the weekend's theme, The Heroes We Deserve. Where was it recording? THE SWEAT BOX. I love that place.

I am in this photo.
Recording a podcast was a completely new venture for me, but apart from a few nerves that hopefully didn't show too much (I'm going to listen to the recording and then decide whether or not to share it with people), I enjoyed the experience a lot. I even managed to say a few things, though whether they were relevant or not, who knows? My sudden bravery may be down to the large amount of glycerol in my system, or may be down to the fact that the audience invited event was, how do you say, undersubscribed.

Still, that didn't subtract from a fun experience. My swan song for the festival was a talk by the impressively monikered Professor Sir Christopher Frayling, looking at the work of director Sergio Leone, specifically Once Upon a Time in the West, screening directly after his lecture. Clearly not new to speaking in front of crowds, Professor Sir Christopher Frayling (I have no idea where to start abbreviating his name) was a funny, intelligent speaker who, like many of the other guests throughout the weekend, I could have listened to for hours longer. An expert in the films of Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood, according to his Wikipedia page the motto on his coat of arms translates from the latin into "go ahead punk, make my day", which in my mind is the knighted film scholars equivalent of having a Back to the Future tattoo or naming your child Obi-wan.

Like with any film festival I didn't get to see anywhere near as much as I would have liked to, but ID Fest still gave me the opportunity to see some great films, listen to some interesting and knowledgeable people talk about films to a degree I can only dream of one day achieving, and has sewn the seeds for plenty more films I now plan on checking out.


Many thanks to the people at ID Fest and Derby QUAD for making it a great experience for me, and to my fellow blogger types for putting up with my illness all weekend. The festival ended with the
 announcement that it would be returning in May next year with the theme of 'family', and I for one hope to be in attendance. Minus cough, with any luck.

Thanks to @adamlloydbuss and @scottfilmcritic for the use of some of their photos.


4 comments:

  1. Here's one for you, Col: I ACTED in an advert opposite the partner of Bobby Yeah director Rob Morgan. Bizarre, but true.

    Really enjoyed the ID Fest coverage. Be sure to post a link to the podcast so we can all have a listen.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the great reads from ID Fest! Sounds like you needed a hot toddy yesterday, we do a great toddy at QUAD! See you next year or sooner!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great coverage kid. See you at DocFest...

    ReplyDelete
  4. What would it be advisable for you to do when you understood your paypal account was stolen? Reaching PayPal may help yet I am very skeptical about it. The thing that disturbs me more than anything else is that a great deal of programmers are making tracks in an opposite direction from their demonstration with no move made. Maybe, Visit here it just takes excessively time and exertion to find the programmer.

    ReplyDelete