News

britspotting Film Festival Takes Place This Weekend

• 10th Nov 2009

Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a…….like, film and music?

Although not wanting to engage in a drawn-out debate with film purists who might argue otherwise, it can safely be said that film and music often fit snugly together hand in hand. Over in Berlin, a group of volunteer film enthusiasts have been quietly but busily working away to prepare for the tenth anniversary of the britspotting film festival, Germany’s most important platform for new British and Irish film. Included in this year’s diverse and thrilling programme are two music-based feature films – ALL TOMORROW’S PARTIES and SOUNDS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT and a bite-sized short film, ROUND.

Wogan might be absent but the participants featured in SOUNDS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT (UK/2008) can’t escape the same trials, tears and tribulations of Eurovision. This charming film, premiering in Germany at britspotting, takes the viewer backstage to one of Europe’s biggest child songwriting contest. The behind-the-scenes documentary follows four of the seventeen contestants on their way to the finals of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam 2007, where they perform their self-composed songs in their national language. Johnson’s popumentary does not focus on winners and losers, but rather captures both the excitement of being a contestant and the confusions of being a kid. It is a heart-warming, honest documentary about children’s’ ambitions and aspirations, about their hopes and struggles. Most of the kids come from conflict-ridden homelands or families, but what they really have in common are their passion for music and the happiness it brings. SOUNDS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT (winner of the Seattle International Film Festival Special Jury Award, 2009 and the Dinard festival Prix Studio Ciné Live du Public award, 2009) is director/screenwriter Jamie Jay Johnson’s debut feature documentary and undeniably shows how music never fails to unite people.

Moving to more grown-up participants, ALL TOMORROW’S PARTIES (UK/2009) brings the creative, diverse and electric atmosphere of its famous festival moniker to the screen. ALL TOMORROW’S PARTIES (ATP) is a rock festival founded in 1999, which is hosted at two quintessentially English holiday camps each year. In contrast to other, larger rock festivals, this one is more alternative and independent, with its beat-tapping feet rooted firmly to the ground. To organize ATP, famous musicians (but also other artists like Matt Groening, creator of the SIMPSONS) are asked to invite their favourite bands to perform on stage. The result is a well-orchestrated but explosive variety of music. The directors of ATP, Jonathan Caoutte and, of course, All Tomorrow’s People, provide a dazzling documentary in the spirit of GIMME SHELTER, that portraits the real creative energy at one of Britain‘s most anarchic music festivals, featuring Belle and Sebastian, Mogwai and much more …

ROUND (UK/2008) is a music-based, sleight of hand, short film from director Kirk Hendry (New Zealand/London). ROUND combines the talents of Argentinean master shadow artist Serpico and the music of XX Teens to create a unique film that features the exclusive use of hand shadows to tell its story. Set within a flickering jungle backdrop, this enchanting short film highlights our existence as a brief chapter in the Earth's long story and reminds us that nature will always have the upper hand.

After many successful years, britspotting is delighted to be celebrating the festival’s tenth anniversary between the 13th and 15th of November 2009, with a repeat schedule during the britspotting rewinds programme running from the 16th to 18th November. britspotting offers Berlin audiences the ideal mixture of unknown low budget productions, which rarely make it onto the large screen in Germany, along with films by renowned directors like Ken Loach, Michael Winterbottom and Shane Meadows. Short films, experimental and queer films are also included ensuring that the festival encompasses a diversity of themes and means of film making.

The festival will take place in two fantastic venues; the restored 1920’s Babylon cinema, at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, and Das Filmcafé, in Prenzlauer Berg. If you’re in Berlin mid-November and fancy feasting both eyes and ears, then treat your senses to SOUNDS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT, ALL TOMORROW’S PARTIES and ROUND.

More details about britspotting and the festival can be found on the website: link