11th Keswick Film Festival 2010

Plans are well under way for the 11th Film Festival. This year we are trying it at a weekend which is not half-term. Responding to feedback from people who say it is hard to get here, and that B&Bs are full over the half-term weekend, we hope that this will suit both our regular supporters and our guests to Keswick.

The Festival will start with the Party at the Theatre by the Lake for pass-holders and invited guests, followed by the opening film. We will then have our usual 30 + films over the next three days.

Guests include Tony Grisoni, acclaimed script-writer of the Red Riding trilogy and films such as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; Jan Dunn, director of Gypo and The Calling; and maybe more...

Films At The 11th Keswick Film Festival

The brochure for the 11th Keswick Film Festival should be available early in 2010 and over the next few weeks we'll be whetting your appetite by announcing some of the films making up the programme on the website.

View All Films Showing at KFF11

Ken Russell In Keswick

On the 14th and 15th of November, Keswick Film Club will be welcoming Ken Russell to the Alhambra to celebrate his work. Over the weekend three of his finest films will be shown and Ken will be talking to eminent film critic Derek Malcolm.

The line-up is as follows:-

• Delius, Song of Summer at 5pm on Saturday introduced by Ken and Derek Malcolm
• The Devils at 8pm on Saturday
• Ken and Derek In Conversation on Sunday at 3.30pm
• Mahler at 5pm on Sunday

All are £4 each (or £3 to Film Club Members). There's no booking in advance for this, you have to take your chances with our keen film club members. Full details can be found on the Film Club website.

Accelerate Online

Accelerate, the short film made for our 10th birthday, is now available to watch online.

ACCELERATE from carl hunter & clare heney. on Vimeo.

You can also read some of Carl Hunter's thoughts on making the film on the Caught By The River website.

KFF on Twitter

You can now find us on Twitter under the user name keswickfilmfest.

http://twitter.com/keswickfilmfest

Audience Award

To celebrate its tenth birthday, the organisers of Keswick Film Festival this year decided to give an Audience Award - along the lines of Sundance, Berlin, Venice and Cannes - to the film that was voted most popular and enjoyable in the minds of Keswick audiences.

And the winner is...Young@Heart, an American film about a choir of seventy-somethings (and older - some much older!) who have made a huge impact in their own country and abroad by adapting very modern music (Sonic Youth's 'Schizophrenia', James Brown's 'I Feel Good', Coldplay's 'Fix You', for example) to their own style - a style of great rhythm and clarity of expression, which enhances the audience's and their own enjoyment of their combined effort. It’s a very uplifting story of a committed group overcoming illness - even the death of some choristers - to achieve a high standard of singing and a positive effect on listeners: one of the most memorable scenes is their visit to a local prison, where many inmates are reduced to tears through their emotional response to the choir's music, and their gratitude at having someone caring about them.

The two films which were narrowly beaten to the Audience Award were Four Minutes and Lemon Tree - the former a highly dramatic film from Germany about an elderly piano teacher training a young convict at a women's penitentiary, and the latter an Israeli film based on the true story of a Palestinian widow who must defend her lemon grove when a new Israeli Defence Minister moves next to her and threatens to have her trees torn down. Both were well worth their high scores in festival-goers' voting, but it was the 'feelgood' Young@Heart that won the day.

More Sunday Pictures

Some more photos from Sunday

Sunday at KFF 10

Photos from Sunday

Saturday at KFF 10

Sunday At Keswick FIlm Festival

Films showing on Sunday at Keswick Film Festival:

• Autumn Ball: 10:30 AM - The Alhambra
  
• Grow Your Own: 12:30 PM - Studio
  
• Patti Smith Dream of Life: 1:00 PM - The Alhambra
  
• Lemon Tree: 1:00 PM - Theatre By The Lake
  
• Ramchand Pakistani: 3:15 PM - Studio
  
• Butterfly Kiss: 3:30 PM - Theatre By The Lake
  
• Call It What You Want: 3:30 PM - The Alhambra
  
• Kautokino Rebellion: 5:30 PM - Studio
• Summer: 6:00 PM - The Alhambra
• Blindsight: 6:00 PM - Theatre By The Lake
• Two Lovers: 8:30 PM - Theatre By The Lake
• Traitor: 8:30 PM - The Alhambra

Day 2

Heavy Load gig

Saturday At Keswick Film Festival

Films showing on Saturday at Keswick Film Festival

• Millions: 12:00 PM - The Alhambra
  
• Trilogy: 12:30 PM - Theatre By The Lake
  
• Sari Soldiers: 1:00 PM - Studio
  
• Girl Who Leapt Through Time: 3:00 PM - The Alhambra
  
• Young@Heart
  
• Distant Voices, Still Lives: 5:30 PM - Theatre By The Lake
• Religulous: 5:30 PM - The Alhambra
  
• Glass: A Portrait of Philip in 12 Parts: 6:00 PM - Studio
• Anvil! The Story Of Anvil: 7:15 PM - The Alhambra
• Hilary And Jackie: 8:15 PM - Theatre By The Lake
• Eraserhead: 8:30 PM -Studio
• Four Minutes: 9:00 PM - The Alhambra

More Opening Night Photos

Opening Night Photos

Some images from the opening night of KFF10

Friday At Keswick Film Festival

Films for Friday At Keswick Film Festival:

• Satanic Angels : 1:00 PM - Theatre By The Lake
  
• Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame : 1:30 PM - The Alhambra
  
• Pied Piper of Hützovina: 1:30 PM - Studio
  
• Orquesta Tipica: 4:00 PM - Studio
  
• Wendy And Lucy: 5:00 PM - The Alhambra
  
• Of Time And The City + Q&A: 6:00 PM - Theatre By The Lake
  
• The Fall: 8:00 PM - The Alhambra
  
• The Day After Peace: 8:15 PM - Studio
  
• Heavy Load: 8:15 PM - Theatre By The Lake
• Heavy Load Gig at the Rugby Club
  

KFF on Twitter

If you're a twitter user and want to talk about the festival then please use the tag #kff10 and it will appear on the main blog page.

1 Week To Go

Our 10th birthday present 'Accelerate' filmed in Keswick, with local people, from a script by Frank Cottrell Boyce will be shown before Dean Spanley, before Hilary and Jackie and before Grow Your Own. It will also be shown at a free screening at the Alhambra on Sunday at 15.30 with a local hour-long film Call It What You Want - described as 'more than just a climbing film.'

More programme changes:

• In the City of Sylvia has had to be withdrawn and is replaced by Wendy and Lucy
• Anvil is moved to Saturday 19.15 at the Alhambra and replaced at 13.00 on Friday by Satanic Angels
• Forget About Me has been withdrawn for music copyright reasons, but will be replaced by Butterfly Kiss
  

Remember to get your passes and tickets, and to secure a seat in the Studio: pass-holders must get a Studio ticket! There will be a flier with up to date programmes available at the KFF Desk in the Theatre during the Festival.

Programme Changes (Updated)

In the previous post I said Satanic Angels was showing on Saturday when it is actually replacing Heavy Load on FRIDAY.

The correct changes (for now) are:

• Moved: Anvil now showing Sunday 10.30am Theatre Main House
• New: Satanic Angels showing FRIDAY 1pm Theatre Main House
• Cancelled: In The City Of Sylvia. Replacement to be announced.

These changes can now be seen on the programme page.

A Birthday Gift

Last year at the Keswick Film Festival we had a sell out when Carl Hunter showed his film 'Grow Your Own' at the Theatre by the lake and ran a Q&A. We invited him back to show it again this year at Keswick Film Festival 12th - 15th Feb at Theatre by the Lake and Alhambra.

He with Frank Cottrell Boyce, the well known script-writer of many films and books are coming to the festival this year and to celebrate our 10th birthday decided to make us a short film.

The short film, made in Keswick started like this, according to Carl:- 'Roy, Frank and I were in the pub one day talking about Keswick and how it is the best Film Festival and we said - let's do something for their 10th birthday - let's make them a short film.'

With the help of the Keswick Drama Group and the drama course at Cumbria University about 14 people were rustled up for auditions the following week , a bus was hired for the set and filming happened the next weekend. So the film has been made entirely with local non-professional actors, filmed in the area. Over the next couple of weeks filming will be finished and the film put together so it can be premiered at the festival.

Website Update

The website has been updated in time for the 10th Keswick Film Festival next month. All of the films have now been added and you can find out what's on when and where on the programme page or by downloading the new brochure.

The Festival is getting closer

We have our usual quality selection of 'best from the Festivals' with films from Spain, Germany, Iran, Estonia, Israel, Japan, Norway, Argentina and Pakistan. They include a number of pre-releases and premieres. We are particularly pleased to have the UK premiere of Glass: A portrait of Philip in 12 Parts.

The music theme from last February will be playing through the Festival with something for most musical tastes, heavy metal fans will enjoy Anvil, there's tango in Orquesta Tipica, Hilary and Jackie the controversial biography of Jacqueline du Pre, Roma music in the Pied Piper of Hutzovina, the film of Patti Smith and Young @ Heart, the award-winning documentary. In addition to all this we have the film of Heavy Load plus they will be doing a gig in Keswick on the Friday night after the film.

If this isn't your kind of entertainment we have a Terence Davies retrospective and Q & A plus Frank Cottrell Boyce, the eminent script-writer talking about his films and his craft. There will be other guests too.

To celebrate our 10th birthday we are announcing the Keswick Film Festival Audience Award. The winning film will be announced after the Festival on the website. The audience votes will be taken as usual from the feedback forms.

All Fims Announced

All of the films showing at the 10th Keswick Film Festival have now been added to the films page.

http://www.keswickfilmfestival.org/films.php

We're busy putting the finishing touches to the brochure and it should be available soon. We're also hoping that tickets for individual films should be available to book from the Theatre By The Lake sometime next week.