NEW SHORTS: DOCS: Long[er] Docs [+ filmmaker Q&As]
15:30 Sun 18 Jan 2015
Tickets: £10
Now in its fourth year of festival life, LSFF’s afternoon of mid-length documentaries is taking up residence in the relaxed haven of the Hackney Attic. Settle in and take a little longer to get to know the only heavy metal band in Azerbaijan, the ‘Birdman’ competitors who dream of flying and be transported to a completely different planet: aka the town of Blyth, Northumberland, circa 1994.
Filmmaker Q&As hosted by LSFF documentary programmer Jenny Horwell
(148 min)
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AN ALL-ENCOMPASSING LIGHT
Chloe White 20 mins (, 2014)
An All-Encompassing Light details the experience of Lee, now in his 80s, when the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. The film is told through Lee's eyes as he remembers where he was, and how it affected him afterwards. The film touches on themes of memory, and loss, and poses the question: how we can move forwards with our lives when we hold such painful memories? -
JUSTINE
Pratap Rughani 27 mins (, 2014)
Justine doesn't speak. She communicates through looking, gesture and the body language of her movement and interactions. What can be understood across the language divide? This short documentary portrait of a young woman living with severe neurological disorders observes the close rhythms of her days in the run-up to her milestone birthday, at a crucial moment for Britain's strained welfare system. -
MEET THE BIRDMEN
Joe Venables & John MacDonald 40 mins (, 2014)
Whether aboard a unique homemade flying machine, piloting a modified hang-glider or leaping forth in fancy dress, there is just one aim in the Birdman competition: to fly as far as possible before plunging into the sea. This intimate and action-packed documentary hangs out with human-powered aviators before hurtling with them into the highs and nosedives of the Birdman weekend. -
NOBODY LIKES US BUT WE DON'T CARE
Jordan Baseman 19 mins (, 2014)
Nobody Likes Us But We Don't Care features (possibly) the only heavy metal band in Azerbaijan: SiRR. SiRR rock out in an oil-well populated, toxic, chemically determined landscape. The band talk about their struggles playing the music that they love. Sounding like a combination between traditional, ancient Azeri folk music and classic Western Heavy Metal, SiRR only play original music. They have no audience. No one listens to SiRR. " -
REPUBLIC
Oliver Griffin & Neil Richardson 42 mins (UK, 2014)
In 1991 we were living in Blyth, a small town in Northumberland which was voted the worst town in Britain. We got our hands on a Hi8 video camera and began to document what we saw around us. 20 years later the film can finally be seen.