October 2016 film round up
Words, Ilona Walker
After a flurry of film screenings as part of Scalarama last month it’s back to the regular schedule of events, albeit with some additions from Biennial, Liverpool Irish Festival, North West Labour Film Festival, Liverpool Left Film Club, and a number of films, courses and events courtesy of the new academic year.
The North West Labour Film Festival seeks to live up to its tagline ‘Cinema celebrating working people’ with a weekend of appropriately themed films, starting on the 6th October. Ken Loach’s Palme D’Or winning I Daniel Blake screens at FACT at 17.30 with 7 Chinese Brothers showing at 19.40. The festival continues at FACT on the 8th with screenings of The 33 (a film that tells the story of the 33 Chilean miners who were trapped underground for a record 69 days) and Trumbo (a biopic on the Hollywood scriptwriter Dalton Trumbo). Both screenings feature a Q&A. Silkwood – a drama starring Meryl Streep as Karen Silkwood, a real-life labour activist who died in suspicious circumstances – rounds off the festival on the 9th. Coinciding with the Labour Film Festival is the inaugural screening of Liverpool Left Film Club who will be showing the 1927 German expressionist and sci-fi classic Metropolis at the Caledonia Pub on the 7th of October.
This month sees your last chance to catch The Biennial’s programme of video art and film, which draws to a close on the 16th of October. Nothing More (NADA+), a film on the social and political struggles in present day Cuba, screens at FACT on the 6th October, and Freak Orlando, an experimental episodic film from German filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger, screens on the 13th. Raphael Hefti’s An Aluminothermic Reaction Producing Liquid Steel, Filmed at 2000 Frames per Second screens after both films. Films can also be found in the main exhibitions – Lucy Beech’s Pharmakon screens in Gallery 2 at FACT; Dogsy Ma Bone, a film made by Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, screens in Cains Brewery; The Uncomputable by Fabien Giraud and Raphaël Siboni screens in ABC Cinema; and Mark Leckey’s Dream English Kid screens in Blade Factory. There are also short film pieces in Cains Brewery, Tate, ABC Cinema and Open Eye, by Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh & Hesam Rahmanian, and Samson Kambalu.
For those craving some video art post-Biennial, head to FACT on the 18th of October for the Jarman Award Tour. The screening of shortlisters sees some familiar names return to FACT, including Shona Illingworth (whose work Lesions in the Landscape, a film exploring amnesia and the mass evacuation of St Kilda, appeared in FACT last year) and Cécile B. Evans (whose work Commercials (It’s not possible, it’s real) appeared alongside LaBeouf, Rönkkö and Turner in the Follow exhibition earlier this year). Heather Phillipson – also nominated – will be in conversation with FACT Director Mike Stubbs.
Following the excitement of Different Trains last month, METAL returns to its regular – and completely free – Film Station programme with a screening of Fear Eats the Soul on the 7th of October and Richard Linklater’s (more on him later) Before Midnight on the 21st. Nordic Film Liverpool continues its 2016/2017 season on the 24th October with Golden Globe-nominated Swedish film Turist (Force Majeure) showing in the Nordic Church.
Orson Welles’ The Lady from Shanghai screens at the University of Liverpool on the 13th October in the afternoon and will include an introductory lecture and critical discussion; tickets cost £11 or are free to University of Liverpool students. Later that evening The University of Liverpool’s Iberian and Latin American Studies (IBLAS) department presents También La Lluvia (Even the Rain) at A Small Cinema. The event promises an interesting discussion on colonialism, cultural stereotyping, and the treatment of indigenous cultures, which will be led by Dr Şizen Yiacoup. Tying in nicely is a teaser from Liverpool Radical Film Festival at the same venue on the 14th entitled Indigenous Film & Activism: A Double-Bill Screening Event.
The Liverpool Irish Festival will be screening a number of films in the middle of the month, kicking off with Bobby Sands biopic 66 Days on the 17th October at FACT and continuing with a double-bill of short film compilations on the 18th and 19th, both presented by Mike Hannigan from IndieCork Festival – ‘Our August Destiny’: short films in the wake of 1916 and Best New Irish Short Films 2016 respectively. The latter event also features a Q&A. On the 20th short comedy What the focal! screens at St Michael’s Irish Centre and will be followed by a talk, a Q&A panel session and music. Liverpool Irish Festival’s film offerings conclude on the 23rd with I Could Read the Sky, a film that explores identity, loss and exile, at A Small Cinema, which will also include a Q&A with the film’s Executive Producer Roger Shannon.
Being October, this month also sees a handful of Halloween-themed screenings. A Small Cinema is pulling out all the stops with Ringu & Hausu: A Japanese Horror Double Bill on the 29th, Kids Club Halloween: Monster House on the 30th, and Suspira, also on the 30th. Following the success of last year, Liverpool Philharmonic will be screening Hitchcock’s Psycho with a live orchestra on the 31st (tickets sold out quickly last time, so grab them while you can).
With the academic year newly underway there are plenty of opportunities for developing skills and learning more about film. The University of Liverpool’s department of Continuing Education offers three different scriptwriting courses: Writing for Performance – Scriptwriting starts on the 4th and runs for 10 weeks in the evenings; Scriptwriting for Television and Film starts on the 5th and runs for 20 weeks in the evenings; and Scriptwriting for Beginners – Want to Write a Script? starts on the 6th and runs for 10 weeks in the afternoons. For booking information email conted@liverpool.ac.uk. The Liverpool Film Seminar – a collaboration between LJMU and The University of Liverpool – also kicks off its season of events with a talk by Professor Rob Stone on the 24th October entitled  ‘Winging It: Richard Linklater’s ‘Boyhood’.
For filmmakers who already have a film ready and waiting to be screened, be sure to submit your work to Liverpool Film Night before the 19th of October. Selected films will be shown on the big screen at FACT on Wednesday 23rd November.
Looking ahead to November, Liverpool Radical Film Festival will get into full swing, and an exciting monthly awards festival, Indie Flicks, arrives in Liverpool having successfully established itself in Manchester. Future Shorts Film Festival may also make an appearance.