East End Film Festival
Our guide to what to watch
“This is not where the east ends but where it begins…” reads Jan Noble’s poem, Tide. His apt ode to the east was specially commissioned for the East End Film Festival which is now fully in the swing of its 10th year in Tower Hamlets.
It’s packed with premieres and film-making masterclasses spread across almost 30 different venues ranging from trad. cinemas to old-skool east end pubs in Brick Lane, Dalston, Limehouse, Mile End and Stratford. The festival that everyone loves the look of, but can never seem to find the time to attend, can seem a little daunting. But with some of the most diverse film programming we’ve ever seen from a low-budget nine-day festival, it really is worth delving into. (If only for all the mental people you meet at various screenings...) So if it all seems like too much work, get the 411 on what’s hot from our festival diary.
MONDAY:
So you’ve missed the opening night party, Carl Barat mumbling about dockyard workers in a Limehouse Church and the grits ‘n’ gravy programme of Southern film (and home-style cookin’) at the Film Maker’s Centre, but make up for it on Monday! At 8.30pm The Barbican is showing the acclaimed Shed Your Tears And Walk Away. Jez Lewis’ super-personal documentary about his hometown Hebden Bridge showed at 2009’s London Film Festival and is booking out fast. Go! Or if Talking Heads is more you thing, don’t miss the David Byrne night at the Visionaire Pop Up cinema hosted by Shoreditch’s Village Underground. From 6.30-8pm, Byrne’s surreal take on a fictional Texan town, True Stories will be playing before his The House of Life examines Candomblé – the Brazilian spirit cult of the Bahia region. Music by Dalton’s Django Djano and Camden’s Mat Motte follows til 2am.
TUESDAY
Like free stuff? Head on down to Spitalfields Market for an Art And Design swapshop where you could pick up a rare poster, amazing photography or a breakout piece from an undiscovered name. If you’re an artist looking to get your work known, just bring down your best prints, sculptures, metal work – anything you’ve made and want to share with the wider world – and donate it to the pile. After that, walk five minutes down the road to the Film Maker’s centre on Hanbury Street for the world premiere of Therapist with director and composer, Barry Adamson. Adamson helped Nick Cave found the Bad Seeds back in 1984 before scoring David Lynch’s Lost Highway in 1997 and will be on hand for a conversation after the film. Sweet!
WEDNESDAY
At 6pm, drop in to the Dalston Rio to the UK premiere of Today Is Better Than Two Tomorrows, a zero-budget documentary that follows two 11-year-old cousins as they leave the Mekong river in search of a better life. Or if you want something a little closer to home, visit Brick Lane’s Vibe Bar from 7.30pm to watch Alan Miles’ Who Shot The Sheriff? This doc centres on the electrifying Rock Against Racism movement that united the likes of The Clash, The Specials, X-Ray Sepcs and Sham 69 against right-wingers in East London. Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly’s Sam Duckworth and his new band the All-Stars will play in the bar following the screening.
THURSDAY
Catch some short docs for free tonight. Monty’s Bar will be hosting the bi-monthly screening and networking night, DocHeads from 7pm. Elsewhere, the controversial Russia88 – about genuine racist skinheads in Moscow – plays at the Dalston Rio from 6.15pm. Presumed Guilty – about José Antonio Zuñiga’s biased murder trial in Mexico City – is at the Amnesty International Human Rights Centre from 7pm. The London premiere of a documentary about Muslims with Mohawks, Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam, will play at Rich Mix from 6.15pm while the experimental Russian film Crush plays at Genesis at 8.30pm. And you thought you were gonna watch the election debate!
FRIDAY
That’s it, all over for another year. No films tonight, instead say bye-bye in style at the award ceremony and gala wrap party at the Whitechapel Gallery. Nine rooms, four floors, retro candy machine and free booze all for £12 on the door. Get your tix here: http://shutterbox.tv/east/closing.php
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