Interviews For Herts Jazz Film Festival 2018

For this year's Herts Jazz Festival I was able to bring back the Herts Jazz Film Festival. We only had space for two films, but they were rather special. My interviews with Gareth Williams (about accompanying a Buster Keaton masterpiece) and director Gary Barber (about his documentary on legendary tenor player Bobby Wellins) are reporduced …

Interview with Bill Morrison – Cambridge Film Festival – 26 October 2017

Mike O'Brien and Bill Morrison. Photo credit: Jean-Luc Benazet and Cambridge Film Festival This interview was first published in Take One. Dawson City: Frozen Time, the latest film from renowned American director Bill Morrison, is a complex, poetic, multi-stranded tale featuring the fortuitous discovery of buried nitrate film stock. The telling of this story reveals …

My Favourite Films of 2017

It's been a pretty awful year in politics, so I find looking back at my year in film is a pleasant diversion. The following is a list of my current 2017 favourites, but before I go through them, there are a few special film-related highlights to mention: In January I hosted a Q&A with producer …

Cambridge Film Festival 2017: Kékszakállú

Below is a slightly edited review of the one published in Take One, both in a festival print magazine  and online. An outdoor swimming pool and some children take turns to launch themselves from the diving board. One girl hesitates at the edge, frightened, uncertain. Cut. In Kékszakállú - the enthralling latest film from Argentinian …

Screen St Ives and a Very Special Screen 2 Opening Event

In August 2017, community cinema Screen St Ives (SSI) launched 'Screen 2' - a new specially curated strand which Amanda Randall and myself are leading on - with a special screening of the British romantic comedy, Dead Cat. The local director of the film and good friend of SSI, Stefan Georgiou, came along to introduce …

Interview: Mornington Lockett to front special Herts Jazz Festival concert in celebration of Bobby Wellins

My interview with Mornington Lockett was originally published in London Jazz News.   One of the highlights of this year’s Herts Jazz Festival is a concert put together by one of the UK’s most accomplished jazz saxophonists, Mornington Lockett, in celebration of the music of one of his heroes, the late great Scottish saxophonist, Bobby …

Special screening of Abbas Kiarostami’s THE TRAVELLER (1974)

This Bank Holiday Monday, 29th May 2017, we have a real treat in Cambridge. The Arts Picturehouse cinema, in conjunction with ourscreen.com, is presenting a screening of THE TRAVELLER, the debut feature of the great Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. The event will take place at 9 pm and tickets are only £5. Ehsan Khoshbakht, the film critic …

When Beckett met Buster and they made Film (updated)

Update: 20 May 2017 Next Monday (22nd) finally sees the release on Blu-ray / DVD of FILM, the collaboration between Samuel Beckett and Buster Keaton. In addition, the BFI package comes with a new documentary, NOTFILM. Pamela Hutchinson extolls the riches of this welcome new release. While it is a joy to see Film on …

Film: Further Beyond – A Journey Well Worth Taking

With HELEN and MISTER JOHN, directors Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy proved themselves adept at thoughtful and intelligent fiction features. Mark Kermode waxed lyrical about HELEN in this video review: It's one of those little gems that really makes you think cinema can still be exciting and exceptional in ways that are frankly inexplicable. Their latest …

My Favourite Films of 2016

I have a love/hate relationship with top film lists. Of course, their contents are dependent on the films actually seen, contingent on mood and atmosphere when seen, influenced by how others reacted, and much more. Yet, they hold an irresistible fascination, and often provide a useful opportunity to spot films which I need to check out, or …