Location: Edinburgh College of Art, Main Lecture Theatre
Date: 7th March 2008
Time: 14.30 – 17.30
We're delighted to welcome director Nick Broomfield to eca for an eagerly awaited documentary masterclass.
Famous for his idiosyncratic approach to observational cinema, Nick will be discussing and showing clips from a range of his films from his latest fiction feature Battle for Haditha to his documentary Fetishes.
While making Driving me Crazy in 1988 Nick decided to put himself and Producer in the film to try to make sense of the event. This experiment led to a greater sense of freedom from the confines of observational cinema and led to a more investigative and experimental type of filmmaking. For example: The Leader, his Driver and his Driver's Wife, Aileen Wuornos, Kurt and Courtney, Biggie and Tupac.
Entry free but please RSVP to: scottishdocumentaryinstitute@eca.ac.uk
Battle for Haditha Screening
Director: Nick Broomfield
Location: Filmhouse Cinema, Lothian Road.
Date: 7th March 2008
Time: 18.00
Tickets: £6.00
Nick Broomfield's third fictional feature is a forensic cinema verité-style account of a real-life massacre in Iraq, when US marines gunned down 24 Iraqi civilians in cold blood. A re-enactment of the Haditha massacre told from multiple perspectives. Shot in the naturalistic style of his last film ghosts, the film brings the audience close to life on the ground in this troubled country.
Following the screening Nick will be present take part in a Q&A.
New York Filmmaker Doug Block visits Edinburgh
Location: Filmhouse Cinema, Lothian Road
Date: 15th March 2008
Time: 17.45
Duration: 90mins
Tickets: £6.00
New York based Director/Producer Doug Block will screen his celebrated documentary 51 Birch Street with an extended 1 hour Q&A.
Both unexpectedly funny and heartbreaking, 51 Birch Street is the first-person account of Block's unpredictable journey through a whirlwind of dramatic life-changing events: the death of his mother, the uncovering of decades of family secrets, and the ensuing reconciliation with his father. What begins as his own intimate, autobiographical story, soon evolves into a broader meditation on the universal themes of love, marriage, fidelity and the mystery of family.
The theme of Bridging the Gap this year is Home and Doug Block will give a private workshop to our finalists of the Bridging the Gap competition the following day…..
Other Documentary screenings and events in Scotland:
REEL LIFE - Documentary Films at the Glasgow Film Festival 2008
Tickets available NOW online at www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk
The 11th Hour
Thursday 14 February [3.45] & [8.15] GFT
Directors Nadia Conners, Leila Conners Petersen
Featuring Stephen Hawking, Mikhail Gorbachev
USA 2007, 1h35m, PG
Leonardo DiCaprio uses his celebrity status to promote interest in this thought-provoking documentary on the way the greed of the human species is contributing to the destruction of the planet. DiCaprio is the co-producer and narrator of a film that gathers devastating images and eloquent testimony to underline the widespread devastation caused by global warming. It also suggests some ingenious ways in which the process could be halted and reversed even at the eleventh hour.
An Unlikely Weapon
Monday 18 [3.30] GFT & Tuesday 19 February [6.15] CCA
Director Susan Morgan Cooper
Featuring Eddie Adams, Gordon Parks, Clint Eastwood
Narrator Kiefer Sutherland
USA 2008, 1h36m, 15
Photojournalist Eddie Adams captured moments from thirteen wars, six Presidencies and countless lives of the rich and famous. His most famous moment came during the Vietnam War when he photographed General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner. It was a shocking image that changed public opinion. Susan Morgan Cooper's fascinating documentary is based around lengthy interviews with the late Adams as he reflects on his career and the burden of responsibility that came with his profession.
Black White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe
Wednesday 20 [8.30] & Thursday 21 February [6.15] CCA
Director James Crump
USA 2007, 1h15m, 15
Black White + Gray: A Portrait.. CCA 20-Feb-08 To 21-Feb-08
Sam Wagstaff was an influential art curator and fanatical collector of photographic art who met the controversial Robert Mapplethorpe in 1972. The two men became lovers, forging an intense bond that lasted the rest of their lives. James Crump's acclaimed documentary offers a striking portrait of Wagstaff and his legacy but also sees the broader picture of an existence that reflects life in the New York art world and as a gay man from the 1950s to the 1980s. Patti Smith was a friend of both men and is a key contributor to the film.
King Corn
Wednesday 20 February [3.30] GFT & Thursday 21 February [8.20]
Director Aaron Woolf
Featuring Earl L Butz, Ian Cheney, Curt Ellis
USA 2007, 1h28m, PG
Following in the footsteps of human guinea pig Morgan (Super Size Me) Spurlock, King Corn is a damning indictment of modern farming practices and the food we eat. It is also funny, informative, jaw-dropping and completely engaging. Three college buddies decide to plant one acre of corn in a farmer's property in smalltown Iowa. Their aim is to follow the crop to harvest and beyond. The reality is a crash course in what ails America from genetic modification to government subsidies. You'll never see corn in the same way again.
Crazy Love
Thursday 21 February [6.30] Grosvenor
Director Dan Klores
Featuring Linda Riss, Burt Pugach, Jimmy Breslin
USA 2006, 1h32m, 12A
Love is the strangest thing as this jaw-dropping documentary so readily proves. In 1950s New York, married, thirty-something attorney Burt fell desperately in love with Linda, a 20 year-old model with movie star glamour. When Linda got engaged to somebody else, Burt hired some thugs to throw lye in her face that caused the permanent loss of her vision. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison but on his release Linda was still the only girl for him and they have been together ever since. Fact is stranger than fiction in this mesmerising true tale.
A Walk Into The Sea: Danny Williams And The Warhol Factory
Thursday 21 [8.30] & Friday 22 February [6.15] CCA
Director Esther Robinson
Featuring Brigid Berlin, Paul Morrissey, Gerard Malanga
USA 2007, 1h18m, 12A
Danny Williams was a promising young filmmaker of the 1960s who worked as an editor for the Maysles brothers, designed lighting for the Velvet Underground and became a regular at Warhol's Factory. He was also Warhol's lover. In 1966, he left a family dinner and was never seen again. Thirty years later his niece Esther Robinson began to piece together the story of his life and rekindle interest in a career that had become a footnote in history. This fascinating documentary is a testimony to his life and loss.
Body of War.
Friday 22 [3.30] & Sunday 24 February [2.45] GFT
Directors Ellen Spiro, Phil Donahue
Featuring Tomas Young, Cathy Smith, Senator Robert Byrd
USA 2007, 1h27m, 12A
The human cost of the invasion of Iraq is brought vividly to life in this powerful, heartrending documentary. Swept along by a wave of patriotism in the wake of 9/11, Tomas Young enlisted in the Army and was sent to Iraq where he was shot and paralysed. Back home the film follows his growing commitment as an activist and the complex emotional and physical challenges he faces, contrasting that with all the empty rhetoric behind the 2002 Senate vote on giving the President the power to wage war.
Joy Division
Friday 22 [9.00] GFT & Sunday 24 February [6.30] Grosvenor
Director Grant Gee
Featuring Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris
UK/USA 2007, 1h33m, 15
If the award-winning Control left you hungry to know more about the real Ian Curtis and the iconic Manchester band then definitive documentary Joy Division has all the answers. Grant Gee has interviewed all the key individuals who knew Curtis from surviving band members like Bernard Sumner to the late Tony Wilson and Curtis's Belgian lover Annik Honore. The result is a fascinating profile of the band, the music scene that flourished in Manchester and the mercurial life of the haunting, tragic Ian Curtis.
A Life in the Death of Joe Meek
Sunday 24 February [6.30] GFT
Directors Susan Stahman, Howard S. Berger
Featuring Alex Kapronos, Marc Evans, Edwyn Collins, Humphrey Lyttelton
USA 2007, 2h8m, 12A
Joe Meek was a pop composer and Britain's premier independent record producer of the late fifties and early sixties. Meek was renowned for his pioneering recording techniques and for the futuristic sound of the records he produced, but notorious for his eccentric personality. Joe's biggest struggle was with himself and coping with being gay at a time when it was illegal. This fascinating documentary explores how Joe Meek managed to leave his indelible stamp, not just on the recording industry, but on modern pop culture as well.
John Cavanagh will introduce this screening. John is a broadcaster, musician and collector of vintage analogue equipment. He contributed to the making of the film.
Also:
Escape from Luanda Showing Wed 27 Feb to Thu 28 Feb
Location: Filmhouse Cinema
Director: Phil Grabsky
Country of origin: Britain/Angola 2007
Duration: 72 minutes
In Luanda, one of the world's poorest and most dangerous places, three students from Angola's only music school work towards their end-of-year concert.
The Music School houses some 80 students, most of them desperately poor. Many face disapproval and outright rejection from their families, who can't see a future in music. This film asks if, despite the ravages of 27 years of civil war, musical passion can overcome terrible hardships.
Award-winning filmmaker Phil Grabsky (The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan, also screening at 17.45 on the same day) will be here after the 20.30pm screening on Wednesday 27 February for a Q&A.
Finlay Pretsell
eca / Scottish Documentary Institute
74 Lauriston Place | Edinburgh | EH3 9DF
+44 131 221 6116 | +44 7900 8100 87
