IFFW | 2013
Cineworld & Warehouse 54, Newport | October 11th, 12th & 13th
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The Newport International Film Festival is in its seventh year and what an incredible line up it has! With plenty of films from Wales and Newport itself, mixed up with loads from around the globe, including America, Germany, Belgium and France, it truly is an international celebration.
The Festival provides opportunities for independent filmmakers to have their films screened at a great red carpet-style venue, to a passionate audience of film professionals, film students, journalists and the general public. The Festival aims to promote and support independent filmmaking on every level.
There are a number of awards up for grabs at the Festival, including the prestigious Welsh Dragon Award for Achievement in Welsh Film on a Low Budget.
The festival prides itself on showing works that might not otherwise get seen. NIFF has a fiercely independent and exciting atmosphere, so come along and experience something new!!
The Official Selection
Screening 1
Cineworld, Newport | Friday, October 11th | 8:00pm
The Better Man
(71m)
Directors: Josh Bennett & Matthew Tindall
Writers: Tom McInnes & Matthew Tindall with Caroline O'Donoghue & Richard Wallace
Producers: Josh Bennett & Matthew Tindall
Cast: Cameron Stuart, David Sykes & Natalie Martins
Aaron and Josh are two lifelong best friends at a crossroads. Finally free from the comfortably structured world of higher education, they now face an uncertain future in a world where jobs for the recently graduated are few and far between. Their insecurity and trepidation is only compounded upon hearing that Paul, the third musketeer in their schoolyard posse, has already made his first Proper Grown-Up Life Decision. He’s getting married.
Screening 2
Warehouse 54, Newport | Saturday, October 12th | 12:00pm
Gay Goth Scene
(Kai Stanicke, 5m)
For a young boy, school is a living hell. He decides to put an end to it. Gay Goth scene is a mixture of short film & music video that deals with a worldwide social disease: bullying.
Traces
(Anthony Sutcliffe, 4m)
A young woman, captured on CCTV on a night out, describes her readiness for whatever fate has in store for her. A chilling look into CCTV culture and the destructiveness of the world around us.
Clymau
(Richard Pask, 3m)
Clymau chronicles the parliamentary decision in the 1960s, to flood the Tryweryn Valley in North Wales, to create a reservoir for Liverpool. Dafydd Jones is being forced to relocate as his home is due to be submerged, but his ties to the past prove impossible
to sever.
Time 2 Split
(Steven Owen, 13m)
A couple with a young child. Sometimes life is easier to live separately. A film shot in two halves, documenting the lives of a couple after they
have split.
Imagine
(Jonathan Green & Jahanara Saleh, 30m)
After the death of his daughter, John Morris agrees to take part in a clinical trial using Charged Water (water that has been influenced by specific thoughts or energy). Imagine is a film about the potential for the human mind to heal itself. If we are mostly made of water, what can our thoughts do to us?
Clouds
(Gilbert James, 12m)
Living the life of a writer, Irving Walker's days are filled with distraction, creative torment, lunch, the occasional smoothie and sometimes writing. But only one story holds the key to him fulfilling his dreams of true creativity.
Screening 3
Warehouse 54, Newport | Saturday, October 12th | 1:50pm
Dear Someone
(Tetsuo Kamata, 4m)
After a couple break up, a young man goes on a journey of introspection and looks back on their relationship. A sweet film exploring his journey using polaroid snapshots.
Eat
(Moritz Kramer, 8m)
A photoshoot. The model Helen is hungry and unable to focus. Back in the changing room she makes a surprising discovery. Everything around her is edible - the chair, the tv, the walls...
The Undream
(Alexander Thomas, 18m)
Tom is an insomniac, trapped in his incessant inner monologue. He goes on midnight walks through the deserted town but he can't quite shake the feeling that he is being followed. Is it in his mind, or is there someone
out there?
Bridges
(Aidan Shipley, 16m)
An ageing couple hire a young actor to temporarily take the place of their deceased daughter.
The German Who Came To Tea
(Kerry Kolbe, 8m)
After a century on earth, which memories really matter? For Annie Day, who turned 100 in May 2012, it's the day her young son Brian brought a German Prisoner of War to Christmas dinner almost 70 years ago, marking the start of an enduring lesson in love, loss and acceptance.
Easy Reader
(Lewis Rose, 3m)
Easy Reader is the story of a library and its number one customer, Gary. He is there rain or shine, however not always for the right reasons...
A short and sweet tale with an offbeat comic style, that will leave the audience with a smile on their face.
Screening 4
Warehouse 54, Newport | Saturday, October 12th | 4:10pm
Momentum
(Boris Seewald, 7m)
For some it is just a party snack, but for Patrick a tortilla chip started his moment of self-discovery. With exuberant dancing and magical passion he shares his inspiration and invites everyone to participate. Even his mother...
Passing of the Bridle
(Lewis Barker, 15m)
The year is 1965 and the South Wales Valleys are thriving. Steelworker Phil Davies, whose life is a mixture of manual labour and a passion for horses, finds out his son no longer wishes to pursue the same lifestyle as him, and Phil has to decide which is more important, his own ambitions or his
son's dream?
The Sculptor
(Arush Tagotra, 8m)
A short documentary film which delves into the life, beliefs and inspirations of a Bridgend based sculpting artist. With no proper academic background in sculptural art, but just a love and passion for the art of sculpting itself, The Sculptor explores his work and how it has shaped his life.
No Comment
(Alexandra Naoum, 4m)
A girl makes two different unexpected encounters in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. Thinking she is being hit on, she gives the man the cold shoulder. It is only after this that she realises he was only asking for directions.
Ballet Story
(Daria Belova, 9m)
Another day at the ballet school. Everything is like normal, until Sophie notices a boy outside. She finds him mysterious. She likes him but doesn't dare do anything about it. Until another classmate gets there first...
Lief Lost A Book
(Craig Henderson, 10m)
Jon meets Wes. Jon wants to talk about Lief and a book. Jon's story is part conjecture. He has Lief's story in fragments. Something happened, but he doesn't know exactly what. The book could have been beguiled, stolen, paid for, destroyed or lost anew. Only Lief knows. A short film about tall tales.
Screening 5
Warehouse 54, Newport | Saturday, October 12th | 6:00pm
Kerozene
(Joachim Weissmann, 27m)
Twenty-five years old, Clara follows psychotherapy to overcome her phobia: flying. To battle her fears, she decides to work in an airport. She soon meets a business class passenger in the most unusual of circumstances. The game has begun, and there's a good chance that this story is much more than a romantic comedy...
Buck
(Richard Davis, 15m)
A man wakes up to find himself embroiled in a cycle of destruction, where mundane sources provide him with the tools to carry out his grim work. His waking moment are lucid, faceless employers arrange collections, transient events merge as reality slips away from him and he falls down the rabbit hole, where he struggles to remember why it all came to this.
The Black Scholes Conspiracy
(Tim Bassford, 21m)
After losing his wife in a fatal car crash, Sam becomes obsessed with a quest for revenge against Stein Corporate Intelligence, the secretive agency he believes to have been responsibe for her death. Sam blindly pursues justice until his life descends into a final nightmarish confrontation.
Cold Star
(Kai Stanicke, 7m)
A boy experiences new desires whilst watching a man at an indoor swimming pool. Forced up the diving platform by a rowdy gang, he receives help from an unexpected source. Cold Star is an appeal for acceptance of your own and others sexual identity.
Screening 6
Cineworld, Newport | Sunday, October 13th | 12:00pm
Chapman
(104m)
Director: Justin Owensby
Writer: Justin Owensby
Producers: Douglas Weiser & Jesse Johnson
Cast: Jesse Johnson, Caitlin Thompson, Alex Saxon & Jordan Potter
When a disturbing letter arrives, Alex leaves his nowhere life and returns to the mountains of Colorado to face the past that has haunted him for over a decade...
Chapman is a searing glimpse at adolescent love, wounded relationships, and facing the wreckage of a checkered past as Alex returns home to face the demons left behind after a tragic incident that scarred a childhood relationship.
Screening 7
Cineworld, Newport | Sunday, October 13th | 2:05pm
Rufus
(109m)
Director: Dave Schultz
Writer: Dave Schultz
Producer: Kelly Balon
Cast: Rory J. Saper, Merritt Patterson, Richard Harmon & Kelly Rowan
Rufus is afraid and alone. Stranded in a sleepy prairie town after the death of his hundred-and-seven-year-old travelling companion, Rufus is determined to make a fresh start. Hunted, poked and prodded, Rufus knows people are always pegging him as this or that. If there really are vampires, Rufus has never met one. Sure he has some quirks. So what if he likes the taste of blood? It's not like he's addicted.
The Awards
Category Judging
Best Feature
Chapman (Dir. by Justin Owensby)
Best Short
Imagine (Dir. by Jonathan Green & Jahanara Saleh)
Best Cinematography
Chapman (Dir. by Justin Owensby)
Best Director
Rufus (Dir. by David Schultz)
Best Music
Rufus (Dir. by David Schultz)
Welsh Dragon Award
The Better Man (Dir. by Josh Bennett &
Matthew Tindall)
Best New Screenplay
Andy (Written by Phil Escott)
Harlem, 21st December 1968. Twelve year-old Andy excitedly hurries home to catch the Apollo 8 launch that's due within the next hour. Agent, following her orders, executes Operation Menu whistle-blower Miles in a rundown housing project and is stunned to see Andy standing in the hallway bearing witness to the assassination. Now with the boy held captive, the two bond while discussing the launch and the ongoing war in Vietnam, all the while awaiting the order that will determine Andy's fate.
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