(BFI London Film Festival, October 9th, 2020, 8:45 pm, BFI Player, Booking opens September 21st, 2020) https://www.bfi.org.uk/london-film-festival/screenings/relic Release Info London schedule; October 30th, 2020, Curzon Home Cinema) https://www.curzonhomecinema.com/collections/coming_soon "Relic" When Edna (Robyn Nervin), the elderly and widowed matriarch of the family, goes missing, her daughter Kay (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter Sam (Bella Heathcote) travel to their remote family home to find her. Soon after her return, they start to discover a sinister presence haunting the house and taking control of Edna. When octogenarian Edna inexplicably vanishes from the town of Creswick, her daughter Kay and granddaughter Sam rush to their family’s decaying country home and find clues of her increasing dementia scattered around the house in her absence. As Kay discovers mounting evidence her mother is suffering from dementia, creeping dread turns to sheer panic; Edna could be anywhere. Kay is overcome with guilt; Edna had called her several weeks prior, fearful there was an intruder coming into her house. Did Edna simply wander off and get lost, or was she taken? When Sam and Kay start to notice eerie and mysterious happenings around the house, they begin to fear the latter. Suddenly, as inexplicably as she disappeared, Edna returns; with no memory of the past several days, or at least none she’s willing to share. After Edna returns, Kay’s concern that her mother seems unwilling or unable to say where she’s been clashes with Sam’s unabashed enthusiasm to have her grandma back. Initially there comes a wave of relief, but Edna’s unsettling behaviour makes it clear she can no longer manage living on her own. Kay, haunted by her guilt and childhood nightmares of a mould-infested cabin and elderly relative abandoned in it many years ago, is faced with a difficult decision about whether to move her mother into an aged care facility. Sam won’t support the idea and instead decides to move in with her 'Gran' to look after her full-time. What Sam sees as a selfless act, Kay thinks is naïve, and mother and daughter are pulled further apart. While Kay travels to Melbourne to take a tour of a retirement village, Sam discovers caring for Edna is more challenging than she first envisioned. However, as Edna’s behavior turns increasingly volatile, both begin to sense that an insidious presence in the house might be taking control of her. Edna is the manifestation of the monstrous force destroying the house or just it's most vulnerable prey. Edna is prone to sudden, almost violent outbursts and worse, seems to be changing. Is this simply the horrors of dementia or is something more sinister at play? Disturbed by her 'Gran’s' swings in behaviour and in an effort to understand what’s going on, Sam visits her neighbour and learns Edna had aggressively locked young Jamie (Chris Bunton) in her closet. Returning to investigate, Sam discovers a cramped, seemingly endless labyrinth within the walls of the house and is hit with a jarring realisation; is this where Edna went missing? Sam then becomes trapped in the claustrophobic, moulding maze herself. Meanwhile, Kay has made a decision, she wants to make amends and care for his ageing mother. Edna, in a lucid moment, agrees to return to Melbourne. Things unravel when Kay, horrified, later discovers Edna locked in the bathroom shedding her skin, revealing a moulded flesh underneath. Alarmed, Kay follows Edna into the labyrinth within the walls, where Edna quickly turns savage and monstrous. Kay’s guilt-riddled nightmare is coming to life as Edna sheds more and more skin, further exposing a blackened, skeletal creature within. Amidst the horror in the walls, Kay is reunited with Sam as they both fight to survive and reconnect as mother and daughter. After violently attacking the monstrous form that's Edna in an attempt to protect Sam, Kay unexpectedly discovers the creature underneath is not what she thought and that if she's to end the sinister manifestation of dementia that has it's grips on her family, she must come face to face with what has been abandoned for too long. Edna is the character at the centre of an unrecognisable decline. Edna is a character with charm and a dry, acerbic wit and skilfully captured She's’s vulnerability and her uncertainty as her body and mind start to deteriorate. Because she’s suffering from 'Alzheimer’s' which is a terrible blight on anybody’s life. It’s very difficult to understand the innerworkings of the mind of someone who's suffering from this condition. The transformation of Edna to the other has several stages and involved close collaboration between makeup, prosthetics, animatronics, stunt and visual effects departments. That remains a mystery to all of us. But there’s also a terrible sadness in such a character, for obvious reasons. "Relic" slowly devolves into a horror and genre space, mirroring Edna’s mental and physical deterioration. Edna’s descent into the other demonstrates that there are more horrific things than simply death. What’s worse is grieving for the loss of someone while they're still alive; it's the degradation of once brilliant minds, kind souls, and a treasured lifetime of memories; it's the feeling of becoming a stranger to the person who brought you into the world; these are the true terrors. Kay in particular, comes across as quite a severe character. She’s such a gracious and generous character. We can relate to Kay’s plight. It’s not a stretch to imagine yourself in this situation. It’s incredibly relatable because we’re all in a family. And family relationships are always complex. And you always feel guilt and regret and resentment and love and all these things in equal measure. And constantly one of these emotions is being replaced by another and back again. Sam is unpretentious. She doesn’t pull any punches. She’s tough. She seems pretty within her own skin. Each of us are depicted as very flawed, and human, and we still have full capacity for joy and love towards each other, and all of those things aren’t mutually exclusive. It’s a story about complex family dynamics coping with someone who has dementia and the ramifications, and the horror, the real-life horror of dealing with an elderly relative who starts losing their grip on reality and how it does affect and infect, the whole family in ways that are at times, horrifying. "Relic" slowly descends into the genre horror space. And that's certainly a conscious decision, mostly to mirror the experience of someone going through dementia or 'Alzheimer’s', and the people around them. Changes that feel small and benign to begin with, just a bit of forgetfulness, become much worse, andthat’s what's trying to depict on screen. The film plays with the line between what’s imagined in the character’s mind and what’s real. Sometimes the supernatural, or the seemingly supernatural, has a real world explanation. That’s something the film plays with in there’s always two possibilities to each question. The film crafts an unforgettable haunted-house movie highlighted by unsettling sonic and visual design and complete with literal bumps in the night, while gracefully incorporating the all-too-real terror of facing a deteriorating loved one. All three characters frayed family chemistry. Stylistically, the film optes for a largely natur alistic approach, leaning heavily on practical lights. More restrained in the first, the film, embraces darkness and shadows as events start to unravel, shifting to a more claustrophobic, handheld approach. Stylistically that marries in well with the emotional states of the characters, especially Edna, whose mind is retreating to the darkside of dementia. The main location, Edna’s house, is a combination of two real locations and a studio build, with the design and construction teams working closely to ensure the result is seamless. The film evokes what's happening to Edna, her loss of memory and identity and disorientation in spaces she inhabits. The house, like it's owner, has a faded glamour. It's once elegant but since the death of her husband and the onset of dementia, Edna has let parts of the house go. Conveniently, areas of the house used for exterior, garden and kitchen, had suffered some similar neglect and did not need much dressing. Many of the rooms in the house are elegant, warm and inviting but now disused or neglected, a pile of unread mail and newspapers at the front door, dust on the dressing table, flowers which have long since withered are still in a vase forgotten or unnoticed. The set dressings suggest Edna’s loss of memory, identity and purpose, at once familiar and unfamiliar. In particular the film creates spaces where things are hidden, where darkness is at the edge of frame and doesn’t reveal all the information to the audience. It's about the idea of something being hidden. So you’ll notice in the film, there’s always areas unseen. There’s often things obscuring frames or spaces falling into black; always stemming from the idea of what you can’t see. The creation of the labyrinth which is a visual metaphor for Edna’s mind and the experience of someone with dementia feeling within the walls of their own home. The inspiration for "Relic" is drawn by 'Alzheimer' disease and looking the changing relationship between grandmother, daughter and granddaughter. And the shifting dynamics within a family when the parent assumes the role of the child. At it's core, "Relic" explores the fear and heartbreak of dementia and ageing through a horror lens. Your grandmother suffers from 'Alzheimer’s'. You got around to seeing her, it turns out you'd left it too late; she didn’t recognize you. The guilt is hard to swallow. At a certain level, it feels worse than death, to see your loved one progressively lose parts of themselves, and slowly become a stranger. That trip we observed how much the town has declined, all the younger generations choosing to relocate to the bigger cities, leavnn ing an aging community behind. There are horror stories about elderly people being found dead in their homes well after the fact, neglected and forgotten, their children in distant towns, their bodies starting to deteriorate. We could think of nothing more heartbreaking. Using a multigenerational story to create a character driven, emotionally resonant horror. The film explores the heartbreak and horrors of aged dementia, the importance of human connection and the shifting roles and dynamics within a family.

■ (Release Info London schedule; September 20th, 2020, Electric Cinema, 191 Portobello Road, London W11 2ED, United Kingdom, 12:00) https://www.electriccinema.co.uk/programme/ ■ Release Info UK schedule; September's 25th, 2020, Princes Road, Wells, Somerset, BA5 1TD, 01749 673195.) https://www.wellsfilmcentre.co.uk/view_film.php?sid=22d419732a3b9f9b9670646bfb238b35&filmid=1003256 "Monsoon" Kit (Henry Golding) returns to 'Ho Chi Minh City' for the first time since he was six years old when his family fled the country in the aftermath of 'The Vietnam-American' war. Struggling to make sense of himself in a city he’s no longer familiar with, he embarks on a personal journey across the country that opens up the possibility for friendship, love and happiness.
Kit arrives in Vietnam ahead of his older brother brother Henry (Lâm Vissay) to search out a meaningful place to scatter their parents ashes. It's a country Kit last knew as a six-year-old boy when his family fled to England as boat refugees in the turbulent aftermath of 'The American-Vietnam' war. He barely recognises 'Ho Chi Minh City' now and grapples with a growing sense of cultural dislocation made all the worse by the fact that he has forgotten how to speak the language. Whilst exploring his old neighbourhood he visits his estranged second cousin, Lee (David Tran), who helps him piece together the hazy memories of his fractured childhood. Kit arranges an on-line date with Lewis (Parker Sawyers), a handsome and sensitive 'African American' clothes designer whose father fought in 'The American-Vietnam' war. Despite some initial tension over their parents opposing roles in the conflict, a romance sparks between them and Lewis introduces Kit to the more vibrant and contemporary parts of the city. Kit also meets Linh (Molly Harris), a young Vietnamese student who embodies the spirit of a new generation, carving out an identity in modern Vietnam despite feeling constrained by her family’s traditional values and their expectations of her. Continuing the search for a meaningful location to scatter the ashes, Kit takes the long train journey North to his parents native Hanoi. He visits the apartment where his parents lived and meets up with Linh who introduces him to her family and the age-old art of lotus tea scenting. Hanoi holds no memories for Kit, yet the legacy of the war permeates this city. On his return to 'Ho Chi Minh City' Kit reconnects with Lee who reminds him of the hardship his parents went through to leave Vietnam. He picks up his brother Henry at the airport before meeting up with Lewis again. That initial spark they shared has developed into something hopeful, two men putting the past behind them in a country full of new possibilities. It's a rich and poignant reflection on the struggle for identity in a place where the past weighs heavily on the present. By tackling the personal and political legacies that have shaped them, Kit, Lewis and Linh can start to write an exciting new chapter in their lives. Cultural identity, the search for belonging and the legacies of the past are touchstone themes. Kit's family fled 'The Khmer Rouge' in Cambodia when he was a baby. He then lived in Vietnam until he was eight when the family fled to England as boat people after reunification. The film creates an intimate meditation on the personal and cultural implications of displacement. Kit memories are rooted in the period he spent as a child in 'Ho Chi Minh City '. It's the story about a person returning to a land that they had fled. Went back to the country of your childhood for the first time in thirty years, which proved to be an extremely moving experience. Kit wants to understand his place in a culture, to try to capture a past he feels his parents denied him. This country is meant to mean something for Kit but it doesn’t feel familiar, or he doesn’t recognise the smells, the sounds, the people, the language. What he comes to understand, though, is that his parents actually liberated him. There’s this romantic notion that you've to go back to your past to move forward but there’s no definitive answer to be had from the experience, just a slight shift or change in you. You learn not to hanker for the past, but to live with it. Lewis is an on-off inhabitant of 'Ho Chi Minh City' who has based the production of his t-shirt business in the country. He’s like a tiny typhoon, charismatic and rambunctious. Moving to Vietnam is one way of piecing together the relationship with his father who fought in the Vietnam war and subsequently killed himself after suffering extreme 'PTSD'. A cosmopolitan art student, Linh represents a rapidly developing and forward-looking Vietnam but is torn between making her own way and inheriting the responsibility for the family’s Lotus tea production business, a very traditional Vietnamese way to make a living. Cousin Lee connects Kit to the country and helps him piece together the gaps in his memory from childhood; Lewis and Kit find themselves in moments of transition in their present lives; and Linh embodies the energy of a new Vietnam, moving out of the past with confidence. Each of the four main characters in the film is entangled in this negotiation between past, present and future. Vietnam is an incredibly dense environment and the film wants to counter that with a sense of quiet and a slowness that conveys the feeling of Kit struggling to engage with his surroundings. Ultimately this is a film about family bonds and what roots us. The unifying theme in the film is cultural identity. When you're a refugee and you’ve been displaced, there’s this cstant struggle where we don’t ever feel we belong. The question is what shape or structure you choose to place that theme in. 'Ho Chi Minh City' is developing rapidly, it’s basically under construction and there are seven million mopeds on the streets, so crossing the road needs a steely nerve and a substantial amount of blind faith. We're deeply uneasy about the rise of nationalist rhetoric around the world and increasingly dismayed by the reductive portrayal of refugees in the popular media. As "Monsoon" emerges in the current climate, the film deliberately left space for the audience to ponder those questions and come to their own conclusions. So much of what we built in the West is contingent on forgetting some of our past traumas.

(Release Info London schedule; September 25th, 2020, Curzon Home Cinema) https://www.curzonhomecinema.com/film/watch-little-girl-film-online "Little Girl" 7-year-old Sasha has always known she's a little girl, even though she was born a boy. As society fails to treat her like the other children her age, in her daily life at school, dance lessons or birthday parties; her supportive family leads a constant battle to make her difference understood and accepted. When she grows up, she will be a girl. This is something Sasha has dreamed of since childhood. Her family soon realises how serious she's. In addition to interviews with the parents, who acknowledge their daughter as such without hesitation, the film depicts the family’s tireless struggle against a hostile environment as well as their everyday lives. We see Sasha at play, practising ballet and during a visit to a therapist specialising in gender identities. At school, Sasha is not allowed to appear as a girl but must wear gender-specific boys clothes. Tenderly filmed images and close-ups of Sasha’s face create a gentle intimacy. Sometimes, it's as if she does not understand why everything is so complicated and why she cannot simply be what she's and wear what she wants. Sasha is not at all a child who has no idea what she's doing. Nobody at school knows her bedroom is a little girl's room. It's like a secret room. By allowing us in, she demonstrates a level of trust; she's letting us into her life. There's another time, too, when we're in her bedroom. We realize she isn't paying any attention to us. She's playing on her bed, leaning over the side with her head upside down; as if to say, 'Yes, I'll let you watch me here, in this private space'. The camera is with her, as close as possible, at her eye level, and that's what allows us to create a bond of empathy and to understand what she's going through. The violence that Sasha endures, we feel it very strongly. With regard to the hospital, even if the location seems cold and medicine attempts to rationalize everything, the child psychiatrist shows unbelievable humanity in her approach to Sasha. Her role is to help Sasha articulate what she's experiencing and what she's feeling deep inside. It cannot be rushed. If she has nothing to say, it's not a problem. It's a support structure that's put in place for years and that Sasha can call on for help when she needs to. There's no obligation. Everything can be reversed. When we first meet Karine, Sasha's mother, she's at the end of her rope, exhausted by years of looking for someone who could help her understand and support Sasha. Where she lives, in north-eastern France, there's nobody she can talk to about it. The few people who might be able to guide her, such as the family doctor, have so little training on the subject that their statements tend to be blaming rather than helping, not out of mean-spiritedness but ignorance. It can make them dangerous. There's a department for children with gender dysphoria at 'Robert Debré Children's Hospital''in Paris. For her, it's a glimmer of hope. The first consultation with the child psychiatrist is a long and moving scene. It provides both an overview of everything the family has withstood for so many years and a beginning-point for the acknowledgement of Sasha's suffering. Karine asks questions that have been preying on her mind for years. 'Did I do something wrong'? 'Was it the right decision to let her dress as a little girl'? The child psychiatrist's answers are so liberating. In a few minutes, years of guilt and anxiety evaporate. Karine is ready to go to any lengths to defend her child. Her battle is non-negotiable. Any opposition, any attack, any judgments regarding Sasha will always provoke a scathing reply from her. What's admirable about Karine is that she's also aware of the collateral damage. She knows that a child like Sasha monopolizes her attention. She has, therefore, less time for her other children. She actually tries to explain to them that the fight demands sacrifices. Karine sees that as Sasha having made real progress in her need for affirmation. It's hard, but that's how it's. This documentary is about transexuals in France. As early as 3-4 years old, Sasha senses deep inside that she's a little girl. That gives ue pause because usually, when the subject of transidentity comes up, it's assimilated with adolescence, with puberty, the moment when the body changes. Sasha's account opens our eyes to the fact that it could occur much earlier in the life of a trans person. We also realize that the identity issue is totally separate from questions of sexuality that crop up in adolescence. It's essential to tell the story of a contemporary child experiencing those identity issues to get a better grasp of these questions. The approach is, on the contrary, completely respectful of the people concerned, and the film aimed to raise awareness and acceptance of transidentity. But there's no fantastic level of acceptance in our society. The film depicts the family as a truly benign cocoon. They're a solid, united family. There's a bond of unconditional love between them, which you perceive without filters. Most likely, it's due to what Sasha is going through: her family has come together around her to protect her. The film captures this unity by showing the house as a kind of bubble in which Sasha and her loved ones are safe to live their lives. There's a greater sense of threat around it, on the outside, at school, in ballet class or just on the street. The film shows how the family must seek out and identify allies. The lack of people they can turn to is striking. The educational slant of the film is deliberate. "Little Girl" paints the touching portrait of an seven-year-old who questions her gender and who, in doing so, provokes some disturbing reactions from a society still stuck in a biologically deterministic boy-girl way of thinking. The film features people fighting what they've been assigned to do or be. School can be a traumatic setting if you're unable to find affirmation, unable to find allies and friends. It's a smokescreen. Beyond Sasha's transidentity, the film is about what it means to be different as a child. What does it mean to grow up and make a life for yourself outside of society's norms? Life is possible for a trans person, without it being a drama or a tragedy.

(London Film Festival, BFI Southbank, Belvedere Rd, Bishop's, London SE1 8XT, United Kingdom, Available soon on BFI Player, Wednesday 14 October 2020, 18:30 – 19:00 BST) https://www.bfi.org.uk/london-film-festival/screenings/another-round-druk "Another Round" There's a theory that we should be born with a small amount of alcohol in our blood, and that modest inebriation opens our minds to the world around us, diminishing our problems and increasing our creativity. Heartened by that theory, Martin (Mads Mikkelsen) and three of his friends, Tommy (Thomas Bo Larsen), Peter (Lars Ranthe) and Nikolaj (Magnus Milang), all weary high school teachers, embark on an experiment to maintain a constant level of intoxication throughout the workday. If Churchill won 'WW2' in a heavy daze of alcohol, who knows what a few drops might do for them and their students? Initial results are positive, and the teachers little project turns into a genuine academic study. Both their classes and their results continue to improve, and the group feels alive again! As the units are knocked back, some of the participants see further improvement and others go off the rails. It becomes increasingly clear that while alcohol may have fueled great results in world history, some bold acts carry consequences. In this story, we meet four good men a little late in their lives. We meet them in a world we know; a boring and mediocre one, which sees them locked in monotony and entrenched in patterns and habits, trapping them in middle ground. At the same time, death is moving closer. They've passed the half-way point in their expected lifetime. The freedom of youth and weightlessness have gradually become distant memories. They rediscover all of it and much more by taking part in an experiment entailing a systematic intake of alcohol. Initially, in connection with their jobs as high school teachers. 'I do not drink before breakfast'? The quote is from Churchill, who helped to defeat 'The Germans' and win 'World War II', while under the excessive and constant influence of alcohol. Other great thinkers, artists and writers, such as; Tchaikovsky and Hemmingway have found courage and inspiration that way. After the first mouthfuls of alcohol, we all know the feeling of the conversation growing, the room getting bigger and the problems getting smaller. With this movie, we want to examine and salute alcohol’s ability to set people free. "Another Round" is inspired by 'The Norwegian' psychologist Finn Skårderud’s theories that man is born with a 0.5 blood alcohol level shortfall. The film creates a tribute to alcohol but it goes without saying we also want to paint a nuanced picture. Embedded in our examination of the essence of alcohol lies an acknowledgement that people die from, and are destroyed by excessive drinking. An existence with alcohol generates life, but it also kills. The movie is imagined to be rooted in the real world, in completely naked, blunt and at times improvised intimacy, like in “A War” by Tobias Lindholm, “The Celebration” by the undersigned and “Husbands” by Cassavetes. The moments play out, letting the camera observe and not dictate. The movie assumes a humoristic and, in some eyes, scandalous approach to a serious topic. "Another Round" is intended to be a multi-faceted story that at the same time provokes and entertains, makes us think, cry and laugh within the length of the movie. And hopefully leaves food for thought and debate for an audience who lives in a world which, to an increasing degree, is defined by puritanical rhetoric outwardly, but has a rather high alcohol intake even from a relatively young age. "Another Round" is imagined as a tribute to life. As a reclaiming of the irrational wisdom that casts off all anxious common sense and looks down into the very delight of lust for life; although often with deadly consequences. It's a fun, moving, life-affirming and thought-provoking drama about friendship, freedom, love, and alcohol.

(Release Info London schedule; October 22nd, 2020, Genesis Cinema, 93-95 Mile End Road, Bethnal Green, London E1 4UJ, United Kingdom, 21:00) https://we-love-cinema.com/movies/37879-the-other-lamb/ "The Other Lamb" The cult is all Selah (Denise Gough) knows until one day she begins to question it's leader and the insular world she's born into in this haunting vision of a nightmarish awakening. Selah is a young girl born into an alternative religion known as 'The Flock". 'The Flock', a group of 20 women live in the secluded 'Pacific Northwest'. The members of 'The Flock', all women and female children, live in a rural compound, and are led by one man, known only as 'The Shepherd' (Michiel Huisman). 'The Shephard' is the patriarch of their all-female cult. He's a controlling, messiah-like figure with a frightening dark side. For her entire life, the cult she was born into has been all that teenage Selah has known. Along with a band of similarly cloistered young women she lives seemingly unstuck in time, cut off from modern society in a remote forest. The women worship him with their bodies as well as their faith, as testified by the number of exclusively female children they’ve brought into the tribe. Life with 'Shephard' is the only life Selah has ever known. Their self-sufficient community possesses no modern technology, and is hidden away in the woods, far from modern civilization. 'Shephard' is the group’s guardian, teacher and lover. Each of the many female members of the group is either his wife or daughter. Selah is pure in faith, but also dangerously headstrong. She was raised as a daughter of 'Shephard', but it's only a matter of time before she stands to become a wife. As an encounter with the authorities forces women and Selah to build a 'New Eden' further inland, Selah increasingly doubts her faith, and has strange, bloody visions. The onset of puberty brings with it harsh new rituals, and her first shocking glimpse of what happens to 'Shephard’s' women as they age. Selah, who's on the cusp of teenage-hood, is an incredibly devoted follower, but begins to bond with Sarah (Raffey Cassidy), an outcast wife who has grown skeptical of 'The Shepherd's' teachings. Selah is given the great honor of participating in the sacred ritual of the birthing of the lambsn, upon which they depend for survival, where she has a shocking and transformative experience. She begins to have strange visions that make her question her own reality, and everything 'The Shepherd' has taught her and her sisters. When her insular world is rocked by a series of nightmarish visions and disturbing revelations, Selah begins to question everything about her existence, including her allegiance to the increasingly dangerous 'Shepherd'. Awash in images of primal, dreamlike dread, this provocative fable is a haunting vision of adolescent awakening and revolt. "The Other Lamb" chronicles the journey of Selah, a young woman who begins to question her upbringing and worldview as she comes to the realization that 'The Shepherd', the charismatic and handsome male leader of the cult she has grown up in, is in fact a false prophet. 'The Shepherd’s' striking physicality and charisma is merely an illusion of strength; it's actually Selah who demonstrates incredible fortitude and clarity as she faces off with difficult contradictions within her life that arise as 'The Shepherd’s' authority slowly begins to erode. Selah has a screen presence that's unabashedly wild and modern, which exists in stark contrast with the tradition and severity that 'The Shepherd' brings. Whether speaking or silent, both characters anchor the film with an exceptional intensity. Even when they aren’t sharing a scene together, it feels like they're going toe to toe. The film is also steeped in rain, fog, and rotten leaves, which adds a raw texture to the atmosphere that further complements Selah’s growing defiance. Her emancipation, while rewarding, is by no means a form of wish fulfillment or a simple resolution. When we’re with her at the end, we must ask ourselves, where do we go from here? Selah’s story is enduring, one that can speak to our past, present, and future. "The Other Lamb" is a film for modern times; a dark cry against the patriarchy. The story is very much an allegory for the present moment, a moment where women across the world are rewriting history by coming forward in droves about the abuses that they've faced at the hands of powerful men over the years. At it's core, this is a film about power, specifically the different ways in which it's ow exercised, understood, dismantled, and co-opted. Framed through the lens of a coming-of-age story, In order to further underscore the quality of the film, it's actually very important that we position the narrative outside of a specific time period and location because not unlike a fairy tale. "The Other Lamb" develops a world that reflected this particular sensibility. Audiences that come to see "The Other Lamb" leave the theater feeling both reinvigorated and challenged by Selah’s revolutionary journey. The cult operates as a microcosm for the physical and psychological horrors that women must contend with throughout their lives.

(Release Info London schedule; October 23rd, 2020, Curzon Home Cinema) https://www.curzonhomecinema.com/film/watch-raise-hell-molly-ivins-film-online "Raise Hell: The Life & Times Of Molly Ivins" "Raise Hell: The Life & Times Of Molly Ivins" tells the story of media firebrand Molly Ivins, six feet of Texas trouble who took on 'The Good Old Boy' corruption in the political establishment. Her razor sharp wit left both sides of the aisle laughing, and craving ink in her columns. She found joy in reporting as one of the lone liberals in her deep-red state. She knew 'The Bill Of Rights' was in peril. She feared that the partisan plague would be the death of American democracy. Ivins became the first woman to co-edit 'The Texas Observer, and among her claims to fame were her searing, comical books on George W. Bush’s temperament and political record; having grown up in the same town with him, she became an accidental expert. Her blistering way with words was feared by the political elite, but her refreshing critique and big heart garnered a die-hard following from around the country. This is the story of a political columnist and Texas maverick that spoke truth to power and gave voice to those that had none. She took on the good ol’ boys, cracking wise and drinking them under the table. At the height of her popularity 400 newspapers carried her column. Texas is the national laboratory for bad gub’ment. The 'Texification' of 'U.S.' politics, anti-intellectualism, public religiosity and machismo is here. Polarizing people is a good way to win an election and a good way to wreck a country. With her death in 2007, the nation lost a freedom fighter. The film crafts a highly entertaining watch that radiantly brings Ivins’s repartee and political wisdom back to life. Her messaging and brand of commentary strikes a particular chord in today’s hostile political climate. The film asks us to shake up the system like Molly Ivins would. Now it's up to us to raise hell! "Raise Hell" is based on the woman play 'Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit Of Molly Ivins' starring Kathleen Turner. Molly Ivins was a nationally-syndicated political columnist and author, who remained cheerful despite the state of politics in this country and her own physical trials. She emphasized the more hilarious aspects of both state and national government, and consequently never had to write fiction. Ivins was from Houston, Texas, graduated from 'Smith College' in 1966, then from 'Columbia University's School Of Journalism 'with a 'Masters' in 1967 and studied for a year at 'The Institute Of Political Sciences' in Paris. Her early journalism work was not unusual. Her first newspaper job was in 'The Complaint Department' of 'The Houston Chronicle'. She rapidly worked her way up to the position of sewer editor, where she wrote a number of gripping articles about street closings. She went on to 'The Minneapolis Tribune' and was the first woman reporter in that city. In the late 1960's, she was assigned to a beat called 'Movements For Social Change', covering angry blacks, radical students, uppity women and a motley assortment of other misfits and troublemakers. Ivins returned to Texas as co-editor of 'The Texas Observer', a sprightly, muckraking publication devoted to coverage of Texas politics and of social issues. She roamed the state in search of truth, justice and good stories -and found her uniquely strong political voice by bringing out the hilarity in those stories. In 1976 Ivins joined 'The New York Times', first as a political reporter in New York City and Albany. She was then named 'Rocky Mountain Bureau Chief', chiefly because there was no one else in the bureau. For three years she covered nine mountain states by herself, and was often tired. Ivins won many awards too numerous to list for her writing, courage, and truth telling. She was also known for her essays on 'National Public Radio' as well as media appearances around the world. Ivins wrote seven books, several of which were best-sellers including; 'Bushwhacked: Life In George W. Bush's America'. Her last book project was begun just before her cancer struck again in November 2005. She had devoted much of her writing, lecturing and life to defending 'The Bill Of Rights' and lamented 'The Bush Administration's' assault on those basic rights. She continued to be involved in the project throughout her final 15 months, though Lou Dubose did much of the actual reporting and writing while working closely with her. Ivins was always active in 'The American Civil Liberties Union' and often wrote about 'First Amendment' issues. She had promised John Henry Faulk her beloved mentor, as he lay dying that she would take care of it. She donated a speech every month to 'The First Amendment', frequently to 'ACLU' chapters around the country. She often remarked that she would rather join the 11 brave 'ACLU' members in Podunk, Alabama in the basement of 'The Holiday Inn' than the thousands of 'ACLU' members in New York or Los Angeles. She inspired them all. Molly was 'President' of 'The Board Of The Texas Democracy Foundation' publisher of the venerable 'Texas Observer', which was her spiritual home and love. She found her voice at 'The Observer' and helped sustain them and lead countless other young writers in seeking out the good stories and bring them to the public. 'The American Civil Liberties Association' and 'The Texas Observer' are the beneficiaries of Molly's residual estate, and she always encouraged other people to make financial provisions for the freedom fighting we need to continue. As we continue her fight, let's all remember her understanding of what works against 'The Powers-That-Be'. The film dugs deep into Molly's life practically living in her archives at The Briscoe Center For American Studies' at 'The University Of Texas'. The archive material shares incredible stories and nuggets of this larger than life, warm-hearted, fantastically funny and brilliant woman who was an equal opportunity satirist and a serious political wonk who was absolutely prescient. It's a deep distrust of patriarchal authority and a need to stand up for the underdog. Her politics are our politics. Molly hated anyone who would basically kick a cripple. This our deal, this is our country, that those people up in your state capitols, up in Washington, they're just the people we've hired to drive the bus for awhile, resonates deeply. If you don't vote, you can't bitch, that's in article 27. The best way to get the sons of bitches is to make people laugh at them. That alone cements our kinship and  overwhelming passion to share her story to a hungry public who needs her humor, brilliance and prescience. Molly Ivins challenges all of us to take personal responsibility for political and social issues that impact our lives. "Raise Hell" is a lightning rod to get involved in grassroots projects, local and national politics, and voter registration. If we want change, it starts with us.  

(Release Info London schedule; November 2nd, 2020, Curzon Home Cinema) https://www.curzonhomecinema.com/film/watch-how-to-build-a-girl-film-online "How To Build A Girl" This irreverent comedy is about Johanna Morrigan (Beanie Feldstein), a girl on the cusp of womanhood desperate to reinvent herself as a rock music critic. Johanna is a bright, quirky, 16-year-old who uses her colorful imagination to regularly escape her humdrum life in Wolverhampton and live out her creative fantasies. She's extrovert from the outskirts of Wolverhampton with raging hormones, an unstoppable imagination and gigantic dreams. Her bedroom is adorned with posters of her heroes such as 'Jo March', 'Cleopatra' and Sylvia Plath (Sharon Horgan), who come to life and provide the closest thing to friendship that she has. Desperate to break free from the overcrowded flat she shares with her four brothers Krissie (Larrie Kynaston), Lupin (Stellan Powell), Charlie (Evan Kenneth Jones), Andy (Scott Mason-Cherry) and her eccentric parents Pat (Paddy Considine) and Angie (Sarah Solamani), she submits an earnestly penned and off-beat music review to a group of self-important indie rock critics at a weekly magazine. Yearning to make a name for herself, she answers an ad seeking hip young gunslinger journalists for a cool London music magazine, she's accepted, reinvents herself as 'Queen Of Mean' rock critic 'Dolly Wilde', a venerable, impossible-to-please music critic with an insatiable lust for fame, fortune, and men. Despite being brushed off initially, Johanna clamors to the top of the 90s rock music scene. It isn’t long before the rapid pace at which Johana’s life is changing becomes overwhelming and she runs face-first into a devastatingly real, existential crisis. Is this the type of girl she wants to become? Or does she need to start over and build again from the ground up? As her critical savagery brings her greater and greater success, the lines between Johanna Morrigan and 'Dolly Wilde' begin to haze. She has certainly figured out how to build a girl but is this the girl that she wanted to be? How unlikely is it that we get funding a film about a weird, sexual teenaged girl set in Wolverhampton in the '90s'? A 16 year old girl who goes on this huge emotional journey from an innocent sweet girl liking '19th Century' literature to this rock and roll type 'Rik Mayall' character? Johanna Morrigan is extrovert with raging hormones and gigantic dreams. She looks like some kind of 'Disney' princess via a Wolverhampton council estate. Even though she loves her big, boisterous family, Johanna yearns to get out and make a name for herself, which she does, reinventing herself as revered and feared music journalist, 'Dolly Wilde'. But as her critical savagery brings her greater and greater success, the lines between Johanna Morrigan and 'Dolly Wilde' begin to haze. She has finally figured out how to build a girl; but is this the girl that she wanted to be? As Johanna charges toward her future in journalism with wit, determination and courage she quickly realizes that to guarantee success she must shed her original skin and invent new, better pieces of herself. Yet only in the course of tearing herself down entirely can she recognize that the woman who she needs to become, lives in the foundation of the girl she has always been. Inspiring and redemptive, Johanna is the heroine who speaks to all generations reminding us that growing-up is a lifelong task and that however far we may go down one path it's never too late to stop, reset and start again. She begins and ends in two completely different places in her life. More challenges come with the ‘hero wall’ that Johanna has in her bedroom, featuring famous faces from history. Mel and Sue as 'The Bronte Sisters'. Lily Allen plays Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Sheen as Freud. Amanda (Emma Thompson), who turns up on set with a box of chocolates from an incredibly fancy chocolatier and went around like a very glamorous version of Mrs. Overall on 'Acorn Antiques', offering them around to everybody. That’s the kind of person she's. That’s as near as you get to a heavenly entity. Based on Caitlin Moran’s semi-autobiographical novel, "How To Build A Girl" is a sassy, sexy, and a profoundly touching coming-of-age comedy that traces the rocky road to womanhood through the lens of a unique and wildly hilarious protagonist. It's a hilarious, inspirational coming-of-age comedy that's set to be the homegrown crowd-pleaser of the year. For anyone who’s read the book, they’ll see that the script has taken a departure from the 'A-B Story' in the novel. But it’s the same girl and all of the substance and Caitlin Moran messaging is there. It’s an emotional journey. The music is a huge part of the film. All the bands you see playing are playing live. What you hear on screen, if it sounds like it's in the scene, it's in the scene. There's been a big swing towards the '90s' sound and you see them in the film playing their own songs, written now, mixed with a known soundtrack.. We realise why so many 'British' women are not really represented on film because it’s such a hoo-ha and fuss. And as a 'British' woman you just feel like going around apologising to everybody saying, ‘I’m so sorry you had to put 30 Winnebago’s on the street'. "How To Build A Girl" resonates with young women today. It seems that from the screenings we’ve had, that it appeals to fifteen year old girls and their mothers. Because although, weirdly, a lot of women in-between have been really interested and excited. They’re the ones that love '90s' music. But fifteen year olds and their mothers; the mothers went through it at the time and the girls are going through it now. With a spectacular imagination and an irreverent spirit, "How To Build A Girl" has shades of "Lady Bird" and 'Juno' with a sprinkling of 'Bridget Jones’s Diary' whilst finding it's own unique blend of comedy and heart to excite the coming of age canon.

(Release Info London schedule; November 6th, 2020, Curzon Home Cinema) https://www.curzonhomecinema.com/film/watch-recorder-the-marion-stokes-project "Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project" A 'Communist' radical who became fabulously wealthy later in life, Marion Stokes secretly recorded 'American' television 24 hours a day for 30 years from 1975 until her death in 2012. By the time of her death, Stokes had amassed 70,000 'VHS' tapes, capturing not just world history, but who we're; what we watched, what we valued, and what we thought. For Marion, taping was a form of activism to seek the truth and she believed that a comprehensive archive of the media would one day be invaluable. Her visionary and maddening project nearly tore her family apart, but now her tapes are being digitized for future generations. The story of this remarkable archive, and the enigmatic woman behind it, provides a fascinating look into the media’s crafting of history, and our complicity in watching it. Marion Stokes was secretly recording American television twenty-four hours a day for thirty years. It started in 1979 with 'The Iranian Hostage Crisis' at the dawn of the twenty-four hour news cycle. It ended on December 14th, 2012 while 'The Sandy Hook Massacre' played on television as Marion passed away. In between, Marion recorded on 70,000 'VHS' tapes, capturing revolutions, lies, wars, triumphs, catastrophes, bloopers, talk shows, and commercials that tell us who we're, and show how television shaped the world of today. Before the era of 'fake news', Marion was fighting to protect the truth by archiving everything that was said and shown on television. The public didn’t know it, but the networks were disposing their archives for decades into the trashcan of history. Remarkably, Marion saved it, and now 'The Internet Archive' will digitize her tapes and we’ll be able to search them online for free. A mystery in the form of a time capsule, the film delves into the strange life of a radical 'Communist' activist who became a fabulously wealthy recluse archivist. Marion’s work was crazy but it was also genius, and she would pay a profound price for dedicating her life to this visionary and maddening project. Marion diligently handwrote the dates, times, and networks on the spines of each of her tapes. When her son Michael and her trusted secretary Frank Heilman began the onerous task of organizing her collection, they stored her tapes in thousands of cardboard file boxes, which Marion amassed over her lifetime. Those boxes were loaded into a parking lot full of storage pods, but Michael and Frank didn’t know if anybody would take the tapes. They feared that it would all just be thrown away. Remarkably, in 2013, 'The Internet Archive' acquired Marion’s unprecedented collection with the commitment to digitize her tapes and to make them accessible online. The storage pods were shipped from Philadelphia to 'The Internet Archive’s' storage warehouse in Richmond, California, where the tapes currently live on hundreds of pallets. The film creates a unique conveyer belt system with a digital camera, and a crew of archivists captured high resolution photos of the spines on Marion’s tapes. Zooming into these images allowed us to track the contents of each tape through Marion’s diligent documentation. "Recorder" creates an eclectic wish list of dates from Marion’s start in 1979 through the day of her death on December 14th, 2012. These greatest hits include an eclectic list of events, from historic dates like the fall of 'The Berlin Wall', to esoteric pop culture moments like the collapse of 'The Miss America' pageant’s stage. Each of Marion’s tapes are 6-8 hours because she recorded on extended play, and the preservationists at 'BAVC watched these tapes in real time to assure a clean image from these degrading analog videocassettes. In total the film transfers 100 tapes for approximately 700 hours of television footage. People sometimes ask if Marion was just a pathological historian whose uncontrollable hoarding tore her family apart. She was an uncompromising activist, whose insight into media and technology was decades ahead of her time. Marion’s 70,000 tapes are an endless collage of fuzzy clips, from tragic and triumphant, to historic and mundane, images that show the texture of our times. Her work is incredibly relevant today. We're living in the era of so-called 'fake news'. Now more than ever, the truth is under attack. The truth is hard to find, to know, and the truth is more important than ever. This is what Marion committed her life to. She recognized that television is a persuasive and pervasive medium, and that it can be manipulated to shape public opinion. Her story should inspire others to fight for the truth in unusual and creative ways. Whether it’s vintage 'Kellyanne Conway' defending 'Bob Dole' on 'CNN' or a four-screen montage that shows how the news of '9/11' broke on various networks in real time. Viewers see familiar things in a new way. This story is also a mystery. Marion’s an enigmatic and complicated character, and one of the ways we got closer to her is with stylized recreations that peer into her private world. These cinematic sequences from Marion’s limousine or her secretive recording stations in her apartment trace the evolution of television and computer technology as vintage footage plays on screens. The film reflects on Marion’s mission, his anger and frustration about her selfishness, and her pride in her accomplishments. Like Jobs, Marion wasn’t warm and fuzzy and she put her work and her ideas above her personal relationships. She thought differently and people didn’t always get it. But she made profound sacrifices to pursue a project that she hoped would take on a life beyond her own. And now we've the opportunity to use it.

(Release Info London schedule; November 27th, 2020, Curzon Home Cinema) https://www.curzonhomecinema.com/film/watch-falling-film-online "Falling" John Peterson (Viggo Mortensen) lives with his partner, Eric (Terry Chen), and their daughter, Mónica (Gabby Velis), in California, far from the traditional rural life he left behind years ago. John's father, Willis (Lance Henriksen), a headstrong man from a bygone era, lives alone on the isolated farm where John grew up. Willis is in the early stages of dementia, making running the farm on his own increasingly difficult, so John brings him to stay at his California home so that he and his sister Sarah (Laura Linney) might help him find a place near them to relocate to. Unfortunately, their best intentions ultimately run up against Willis’s adamant refusal to change his way of life in the slightest. During his stay at John's California home, tension builds between Willis and the rest of the family. Willis’s abrasive nature, by turns caustic and occasionally funny, is aggravated by his memory loss, bringing past and present into conflict and causing old wounds and years of mutual mistrust between father and son rise to the surface. As Willis and John confront the events that have torn them, including their differing recollections of John’s mother Gwen (Hannah Gross), the challenge they face is to find a way to forgive each other, to accept what has happened in the past and, most importantly, what's happening to them in the present. We embark on a journey from darkness to light, from rage and resentment to acceptance and hard-won grace. In "Falling", set in the winter of 2009, John is an ex-'Air Force' officer turned commercial pilot who lives in Los Angeles with his partner Eric and their adopted daughter, Mónica. His father Willis continues to live in the rural 'Northeast' on the large, isolated farm where John and his sister Sarah were raised, but he’s now struggling with the onset of dementia. Aware of the fact that running the farm on his own is becoming increasingly difficult, Willis agrees to travel to California with John in order to find a more manageable place to retire. The differences between John’s modern, urban life and sensibilities and Willis more conservative mind-set and ingrained prejudices come into stark contrast. As the story unfolds, the film moves back and forth in time, gradually exposing, through individual as well as shared memories of the two men; pivotal events that have defined their complex relationship. The dynamic of their relationship is driven by generational and geographical divides between a conservative, aging farmer and what he views as his wayward, morally weak son. It’s also a contrast between rural, heartland USA and 'West Coast' urban progressive society. In the end, the damaged bonds of familial affection that once united them, and which the story visits through their differing subjective recollections, aid them in overcoming some of the pain they've caused themselves and each other in the decades since John’s childhood. His father's shadow hung over the new home he made with his mother for years after they'd both moved on and found new partners. It's a complex and relatively unpredictable ailment that we've experienced up close, as we've been a caretaker in several instances. John is the image of a certain kind of 'West Coast' progressive. By contrast, Willis, born and raised in America’s heartland and an independent farmer by trade, is the definition of a traditional conservative man. An important aspect of the movie is that it offers a compelling study of changing views of masculinity and traditional family models. Willis is a man who has always been fiercely independent and self-sufficient but struggles as his mind begins to betray him. He's slipping into a kind of confusion, and his memories are all coming back, like ghosts. He’s aware that his mind is playing tricks on him and he's angry about it. As the film cuts back and forth between the past and the present, we also meet Willis (Sverrir Gudnason) as a young man, first meeting the love of his life and raising a young family, a man who, while still obstinate, is not as hardened and angry as he eventually becomes. He's not very good at putting himself in the shoes of other people and understanding their feelings. He kind of expects everybody to think and act like he does. And if they don't, he's not very patient about it. He loves his son and he loves his family. He works very hard. He provides for them, and he puts food on the table. And at the same time, he's like an island emotionally. He's constantly fighting these wars, and he doesn't understand that if a relationship is a war, he can never win. As Willis gets older, his inflexibility ultimately drives John’s mother Gwen, the love of Willis’ life, to leave him, taking John and his sister Sarah with her. Willis will never get over this life-changing setback. The film weaves back and forth in time looking for clues as to where the rift began. A lot of the movie is about trying to understand why that breach happened. John is trying to come to terms with his father’s bitterness, and Willis is trying to come to terms with the man John has become. The story is also about them resolving the conflicting feelings they've about John’s mother, Gwen. Gwen is the conscience of the movie. She's the fulcrum that the principal characters gravitate around. Gwen is someone who has a real love of life and who pretty effortlessly lives in the moment. There's a real searching quality about her, she's someone who enjoys expanding her world in various little ways, someone who's curious. And that curiosity is imbued with a really deep sense of caring, like a lot of women of that era, she has this yearning, this searching quality, but is also not entirely sure of how to express it. And when she’s met with resistance by the person who's supposed to love and support her, things become pretty difficult. When you're a kid, there's so much you don’t understand. And then when you're a grown-up, you get to know your parents from a broader point of view, but their world may be beginning to contract somewhat. It's a story about growing up and growing down at the same time. Subjectivity of perception and unreliability of memory are equally important themes in "Falling", underlying its narrative structure and enhancing our understanding of it's characters. It’s layered throughout with memory, and memory is imperfect. One person will remember the same moment, the same scene, the same person, differently than someone else will. We become fixated in these imperfect memories that come to define how we see ourselves and others. The film explores the fractures and contrasts of a contemporary family. There are few relationships as fundamental and complex as that of parent and child, and few events as destabilizing as the loss of a parent; when the tethers that bind you to the earth are cut. It's in this shifting and reflective moment in life where the story is placed. Our mind is flooded with echoes and images of our family at different stages of our shared lives. Feeling a need to describe them. Impressions have evolved into a story primarily make up of conversations and moments that have never actually happened, parallel and divergent lines that feels right somehow, that widened our perspective of the actual memories we've built about our family. It seems as though these invented sequences allows to get closer to the truth of our feelings for our mother and father than any straightforward enumeration of specific memories can. It's about a fictional family that shares some traits with our own. The timelines and the structure of the flashbacks are roughly in place, and the visuals feel strong. The film is interested in what lens someone has chosen, why and how a scene is lit in a certain way, why a certain coat or dress is chosen. It's always liked the collaborative aspect of moviemaking, the opportunity to witness and fully participate in the story-telling process. If a movie works, it only works as well as the compromise everybody makes, the joint sacrifice that a team of creative people makes. The visual style of "Falling" is natural and unaffected, with camera movement restricted to genuinely motivated moments. Recognized for his quiet, understated family dramas, often dealing with generational conflict, Ozu’s films employed a semi-austere, observational style that often allowed scenes to play out at length in a single frame. You see the space the characters inhabit and the scene can breathe, you can see the behavior and the gestures. The memory sequences generally have a warmer tone. The freedom of a memory-based story is that you don’t need to be dictated to by light continuity and you can really go off what feels right and follow your gut on the day. Memory is feeling, really. In the end, it’s all feeling, because you can’t remember the specifics of everything, but you can palpably recall how it felt. What's strikes about "Falling" is how it captures a very fundamental conflict at the heart of relationships and existence. We generally accept a fairly black and white version of what we perceive the truth to be, the truth of who we're and what has happened in our lives. But memory is much less of a fixed thing than we may wish to believe. We choose which memories we keep with us and we only remember the events of our lives from our point of view. And then these imperfect memories come to define us and who we become. We become defined by these self-selected moments that we can remain stuck in for a long time, if not forever. Not everyone is forgiven. Not everybody figures out a way to communicate. Some people try and fail. Some don’t try very much at all. The way that you get acceptance and forgiveness in this story, and perhaps in most stories, is by making mistakes and at least sometimes admitting that you made those mistakes. If you believe in what you're doing individually and together with other individuals in a team, and events have been allowed to unfold in a way that’s specific and feels authentic to the characters from moment to moment, then there's a chance that other people will believe in the story, be drawn to it. The commitment to every detail of performance, of picture and of sound, that deep attention to having each element contribute to the creative whole, is what makes "Falling" a standout film.