With its creative film industry, multicultural background and inclusive nature of arts, the UK possesses great appeal for talented filmmakers from all over the world. The emergence of new young directors has brought new creative concepts and energy to the UK film industry, which allows them to be produced with the help of different arts development organizations in the UK. Among them, short film is one of the most popular units introduced in various film festivals and award ceremonies, because they are highly challenging in a way that the directors must develop their creativity and technique to the maximum exploring stories to a restricted time range. A successful short film is an important step-up for many famous directors nowadays to progress towards making full-length feature films.
In December 2008, the British Council brings the best UK creative short films to Chinese audiences in the Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival – “UK Shorts Night”. Fifteen award-winning UK animations, fictions and documentary short films will be screened, including selected works from British Animation Awards and Blank Slate'02, many of which have been nominated or won international awards. Hope you will enjoy them and get inspiration!
We have also invited British director Finlay Pretsell to attend, to show his experimental documentary film Standing Start, screened in many international film festivals, and share his inspirations and techniques in making films. Don’t miss the chance to meet the director! You will also have a chance to win postcards and posters!
Program:
UK Shorts Night + Meet the Director
1. Time: 19:00-21:30 Tuesday 2 December 2008
Venue: Audio Room, 1/F, College of Communication and Design, Sun Yat-sen University, No.132, Waihuandong Road, University Town, Guangzhou
2. Time: 19:00-21:30 Wednesday 3 December 2008
Venue: Feiyang Cinema, 7/F Grandview Mall, No.228, Tianhe Road (Exit D, Tianhe sports centre tube station), Guangzhou
UK Shorts Night Rundown
19:00 Program Introduction
19:05 Finlay Pretsell Introducing Standing Start
19:15 Screening
20:50 Q&A
Director's Talk - Finlay Pretsell
Topic: Standing Start – Research and Development
Time: 10:00-11:30 Tuesday 2 December 2008
Venue: Small Theatre in Art Building, Faculty of Arts, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Xiao Guwei, Panyu District, Guangzhou
Films Listing:
1. Protect the Human: Measles
Director：Sandra Ensby/Sweetworld/Lisle Turner
2. Tongue of the Hidden
Director：David Anderson
3. Explosions
Director：Hammad Khan
4. Fun Facts
Director：Steve Smith
5. Cat Man Do
Director：Simon Tofield
6. Zoltan the Great
Director：Robert Samuels
7. Yours Truly
Director：Osbert Parker
8. Olay: Lines
Director：Suzanne Deakin
9. Chicken Soup
Director：Farah Abushwesha
10. The Old, Old, Very Old Man
Director：Elizabeth Hobbs
11. Badgered
Director：Sharon Coleman
12. Games that Children Play
Director：Sheku Kallon
13. Chemical Brothers: Salmon Dance
Director：Dom & Nic
14. The Pearce Sisters
Director：Luis Cook
15. Standing Start
Director：Finlay Pretsell
About BAA
A selection of the best of British Animation Awards nominees and award-winners in the categories for short and student films, animated commercials, TV graphics, new technologies, sound and music, many of which have also won numerous international festival prizes. A unique overview of recent British animation, featuring a range of different techniques and diversity of styles。
About Blank Slate Vol. 2
Blank Slate ’02 is the collection of short films produced by B3 Media, a network charged with developing creative talent from communities underrepresented by the mainstream. These films, all shot digitally, are a fascinating and diverse collection of stories cutting across gender, racial and religious boundaries and clearly highlight the wealth of new film making talent across the UK. These films have been selected and screened at festivals and in cities worldwide including Venice, Chicago, Edinburgh, LA, Amsterdam, Cairo, Karachi, Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro, Toronto and, naturally, London.
Every year, writers and directors apply to Blank Slate with an original 10-minute short film concept to be shot entirely on digital film. B3 selects teams from mixed ethnic backgrounds to produce films that will resonate with diverse audiences. Each team receives a set budget along with mentoring, training and skills input from industry professionals. Filmmakers are free to break rules, take risks and experiment with form and content. The shorts in this volume feature an ambitious range of storytelling techniques and visual effects.
Director’s Profile
Finlay Pretsell
Finlay started working for the Scottish Documentary Institute in 2005, during which time he has acted as Production Assistant and Production Manager on a number of short films, including Butterfly and The Truth about Tooth both of which were nominated for a Scottish BAFTA in 2006 & 2007 respectively and played in festivals around the world.
Following a successful career competing worldwide for the Scottish Cycling Team, Finlay has gone on to co-produce and co-direct Standing Start, with Adrian McDowall an experimental documentary about Scottish Olympic cyclist Craig MacLean, which premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2007 and shortlisted for the prestigious Grierson Best Newcomer award. The film has also played in festivals around the world.
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