Branchage Is A UK Film Festival Gem

Branchage Jersey International Film Festival is back 1st -4th October, screening an amazing selection of films in absolutely breathtaking and unusual locations. Highlights for 2009’s festival will include British Sea Power performing their poignant soundtrack to the renowned 1934 fisherman film Man of Aran; an Icelandic band performing to a classic silhouette fairytale from 1920s Germany and the latest Andrew Kotting film.

You might have come across Branchage in the last issue, Marketing Officer,Harriet Fleuriot,along with Shooting People's Helen Jack, gave us the low down on getting your short films seen in DIY Filmmaking. Now, with Harriet's experience, Branchage is tipped for success in 2009.

Branchage launched in 2008 as a vibrant cross-arts film festival that transformed a number of Jersey’s well recognised landmarks and changed them into unusual screening venues. No cinemas are used throughout the festival – making the event truly unique in the film festival landscape. Venues secured for the 2009 festival include: Mount Orgueil Castle, Jersey Museum Cinema, The Town Hall/Magistrates Courts, The island’s animal sanctuary, The War Tunnels, Victoria College Boys School Hall, Jersey Opera House. There’ll also be screenings inside one of the world’s few remaining Spiegeltents, plus an incredible drive-in screening at People’s Park.



This energetic festival creates a new cinema-going experiences by holding screenings at unusual, atmospheric locations - bringing people into environments they wouldn't usually associate with film, and hand-picking the perfect films to screen in these weird locations. The festival is also giving a total of £10,000 in awards for filmmakers.

Festival Director Xanthe Hamilton says: “I’m delighted the festival is returning for a second year and extremely excited that we’ve secured more amazing, beautiful and unique locations to host the festival in this year.” “We aim to challenge people visiting the island – not only through the films we show, but also by showing films in utterly unique locations. This year, we’re bringing together an unmissable programme of films; showcasing local talent as well as bringing in the best the UK has to offer; mixing it up with music and arts; and throwing some very hip parties.” Xanthe added: “There’s no other festival quite like Branchage any where else in the world. Having the festival in Jersey - something of a gateway to Europe - gives it a very special flavour.”

This year Branchage is hosting summer events in London with the same ethos as the festival - mixing film and music nights in unusual locations to inspire all those who attend. Run annually in Jersey, Channel Islands, the festival has a cross-arts approach, with film at its heart, incorporating live music, soundtrack events, an art installation, visuals and performance. All of this supports a programme of UK and international features and shorts, with a particular focus on documentary. Jersey is a flourishing creative space and the perfect, intimate backdrop for filmmakers and movers and shakers to come together.

Festival programmer Philip Ilson says: “We’re delighted to secure British Sea Power for the first night of this year’s festival. Bringing music and film together in such an awe-inspiring location will result in an absolutely stunning evening. Both challenging and entertaining, something that will move festival-goers’ spirits. “This is a festival that will simultaneously offer something completely different to anything else, both in the UK and around the world -and reflect Jersey’s unique spirit and artistic heritage.”



Jersey is only a short hop, skip and jump from the mainland UK, so it’s definitely worth considering attending this year. Check out flights with Flybe from £7.50 (okay, not promoting cheap jet-setting, carbon emission behavior, but if film is your thing, then I’d get there anyway you can)

Many of last year’s screenings and events sold out over the three day festival including a special screening of The Wicker Man, which was accompanied with a live soundtrack and candles in the ruins of 13th Century building, Mount Orgueil Castle, that stands on cliff tops overlooking the Channel to France.



A extraordinary screening of Man on Wire kicked off last year’s festival at the Jersey Opera House with a sell-out crowd of 600 attending. Also taking place at the Jersey Opera House was a sold-out screening of an incredible Oscar-winning stop-motion animation Peter and the Wolf accompanied by a 17-piece live orchestra scoring. Other sell-out intimate venues in 2008 included a Branchage-commissioned archive film in the Jersey War Tunnels, and the closing night screening of Faintheart, at Mount Orgueil Castle. Aside from film screenings Branchage held two events in the Festival Spiegeltent which both sold out. The first event featured Warp bands and visuals, the second event was a burlesque themed night with Paloma Faith headlining.



Highlights for Branchage 2009 include:

British Sea Power performing live to Man of Aran
British Sea Power, the Brighton based four-piece band who’ve been compared to The Pixies and Joy Division, bring their epic, visceral and angular guitar sound to a specially written new soundtrack to the 1934 film Man Of Aran. This film is a powerful and provocative documentary from the late American filmmaker Robert J Flaherty, and is a series of startling black-and-white sequences presenting daily life amongst the fishermen on the inhospitable Aran islands on the west coast of Ireland. The film was both celebrated and controversial on its release.
“It’s a wonderful film,” explained British Sea Power guitarist Martin Noble. “The images vary between huge drama and a brilliant kind of ridiculousness – amazing foot-wide bobbled berets that the fishermen wear. It’s a film that’s also relevant to the current era – a time when the idea of living a simpler life is in the air. The film shows something I’d like to think I could do, but know I never will.”

This stunning meeting of contemporary music and historical image will be presented on the first night of the Branchage Festival on Thursday 1st October, taking place in the Festival Spiegeltent immediately following the Opening Night film at the nearby St Helier Opera House.

Animation & Live Music
An evening of animation and live music at the St Helier Opera House, a majestic setting to see classic works of cinema alongside contemporary sounds and live puppetry is set to be another highlight at Branchage in 2009.

Amiina perform live to Lotte Reineger
Aniima are four female performers who hail from Iceland where they work closely with the ethereal sounds of Sigur Ros, specifically as the Sigur Ros string section. Amiina on their own are renowned for the multi-instrumental live stage show, as they swap instruments from glockenspiel to celesta to musical saw and even water-filled glasses, creating their own beautiful soundscapes of contemporary classical to electronic loops.

At Branchage they will perform the premiere of an exclusive score to the classic silhouette fairytale animation of Lotte Reineger. Originally from Germany where she made puppet and animated version of the classic stories of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and the Frog Prince in the 1920s, Lotte fled Nazism to London where she continued working into the 1950s. The performance will be an astonishing magical mix of sound and image.

Paper Cinema
Inkblots, photocopies, cardboard, angle-poise lamps, the occasional table, video technology, a laptop and a banana box, are all put to use alongside a cast of hand-drawn marionettes magically brought to life live by the Paper Cinema. This highly original theatre company use projections of intricate illustrations in order to tell their mysterious stories and create a truly ‘live cinema’ experience. With residencies at the Edinburgh Fringe, London’s EAST Festival and the
Battersea Arts Centre, this is their debut Jersey performance.

3D Film Project
Three short 3D films are currently in production in Jersey to be premiered at Branchage. Artists Brian McClave and Gavin Peacock will be using their own uniquely constructed camera to make the films, which will combine 3D technology with the time-lapse film method. The short pieces will compress a day’s activity into several minutes and present stunning views of Jersey as never seen before, with sites including Gorey Castle, Corbiere Lighthouse and St Helier harbour. The films will be sound-tracked by local Jersey musicians and composers. Festival-goers will be provided with 3D glasses at a free space in St Helier town centre to view these extraordinary and original artworks.

Branchage venues confirmed around Jersey include:
• The Opera House
• Spiegeltent
• Victoria Boys College
• Durrell Animal Sanctuary
• Town Hall
• Magistrates Court
• War Tunnels
• A Barn
• Orgueil Castle
• The surf club on the beach
• Drive-in cinema
• Jersey Museum

For tickets and venue information visit www.branchagefestival.com

For the calendar of events visit www.branchagefestival.com/programme

Sally Potter's RAGE is the First Feature Film to Appear on Mobile Phones

Sally Potter's new film, RAGE, is the first film to be premiered on mobile phones. It's a very contemporary idea, stripping down filmmaking down to the bare minimum, but it works, and that's what makes Rage a keeper. Read an interview with Sally Potter in the latest issue of Aesthetica. RAGE is a unique experiment, taking the concept of artists' films and turning it on its head, making something multi-faceted and exciting.



The film will be shown on Babelgum mobile video applications (iPhone, iPod Touch, Google Android G-Phones 1 and 2, Nokia N96, N95 and 6210) in seven episodes from September 21st, adding one new episode per day for a full week, so that all seven will be viewable by 27th September. www.babelgum.com/rage Defying the usual conventions of film, RAGE uses a radical narrative structure focusing entirely on individual performances to build a tragicomic portrait of people persuaded to reveal their secrets in the midst of a crisis. The film consists entirely of a dynamic series of interviews, as if shot by a schoolboy on his mobile phone. He goes behind-the-scenes at a New York fashion show for a week during which time an accident on the catwalk turns into a murder investigation.



Fourteen actors, both celebrated stars and exciting emerging talents, play characters who each have a role in the show, from the designer (Simon Abkarian) and his models (Lily Cole and Jude Law), the fashion critic (Judi Dench) and photographer (Steve Buscemi), through to the seamstress (Adriana Barraza) and the fashion house financier (Eddie Izzard) and his bodyguard (John Leguizamo). As they start to confide in Michelangelo, the unseen schoolboy with his phone camera, their personal truths begin to surface and the reality of events taking place off screen at the show start to unravel.



Writer/director Sally Potter spent two days with each actor, shooting the character’s interviews against a blue screen, with just herself behind the camera and a sound recordist. Returning to this type of pure performance and intimate style of filmmaking was a liberating and challenging experience for both the cast and director.

On Monday 28 September, The DVD will be released by Adventure Pictures in the UK and Ireland. The first of the seven segments will premiere online, with 2 episodes released per week. www.ragethemovie.com/dvd

Prix Pictet Shortlist Unveiled

Work by twelve of the world’s leading photographers, one of whom will receive this year’s prestigious Prix Pictet photography prize for environmental sustainability will go on display for the first time at Purdy Hicks Gallery, London from 5 to 7 October.



The Prix Pictet is an annual search for photographs that communicate powerful messages of global environmental significance under a broad theme. This year that theme is ‘earth’. Photographers shortlisted for the £60,000 (CHF100,000) prize are Darren Almond, Christopher Anderson, Sammy Baloji, Edward Burtynsky, Andreas Gursky, Naoya Hatakeyama, Nadav Kander, Ed Kashi, Abbas Kowsari, Yao Lu, Edgar
Martins and Chris Steele-Perkins.

This London preview is two weeks in advance of the prize announcement and exhibition opening at the Passage de Retz in Paris on 22 October and a world tour of the exhibition.

Kofi Annan, honorary president of Prix Pictet said: ‘In just a few weeks time, world leaders will meet in Copenhagen for the UN Climate Change Conference. We know that there is a huge amount at stake. Experts warn of the potentially catastrophic costs including the spread of famine, disease and conflict unless we first halt and, eventually, reverse the changes we are causing to our atmosphere. The photographs nominated for the Prix Pictet make a compelling case to all of us – countries, businesses and individuals – to live in a more sustainable way. But there is an extra responsibility on those of us privileged to live in clean and healthy environments: to act to help those who do not. I congratulate all the artists who have been shortlisted for the 2009 prize. They have met their challenge. It is now up to the rest of us to do the same.’



For 2009 Pictet & Cie will support Azafady’s Voly Hazo project that aims to preserve the earth from degredation and the eventual desertification that is seen so widely in Madagascar with a programme of tree planting and preservation of the natural forest. One of the photographers shortlisted for the Prix Pictet will be commissioned to visit Madagascar with the Azafady team in order to produce a series of photographs that will highlight many of the issues that Azafady are focusing on in this unique and endangered environment. An exhibition of that work will launch the 2010 prize in the Spring 2010.



An independent jury of seven leading figures from the worlds of the visual arts and the environment, chaired by the Financial Times. photography critic, Francis Hodgson, made the shortlist selection from over 300 nominations put forward by the seventy Prix Pictet nominators – a group that includes leading critics, practitioners and curators.

Francis Hodgson, chair of the judges said ‘The artistic and technical quality of the entries from photographers around the world has been quite exceptional and the power of the messages the photographers have been able to communicate is extraordinary. The brief - to communicate sustainability issues through photography, with particular reference to this
year’s theme of ‘earth’ - has been interpreted with tremendous variety and vigour. Whether reporting in detail on development or aiming more broadly to stimulate thought, the photographers have achieved a very high level of impact. I and the other members of the panel look forward with keen anticipation to selecting the winner of this exciting and
prestigious prize.’



Earth is published by teNeues and includes the work of the 12 shortlisted artists and others nominated for the 2009 prize.All speak of the harmful and often irreversible effects of exploiting the earth’s resources and reflect on the immediate and long-term impact of unsustainable development on communities across the globe.

The full portfolios of each shortlisted artist will be shown at the Passage de Retz gallery in Paris from 23 October to 24 November, following the announcement of the winner and Azafady commission by Kofi Annan on 22 October.

Visitor information for Prix Pictet 2009
Exhibition: Prix Pictet 2009: Earth (London preview)
Purdy Hicks Gallery | 65 Hopton Street | Bankside | London SE1 9GZ
5 to 7 October 2009: 10am - 6pm
purdyhicks.com | prixpictet.com | madagascar.co.uk

Exhibition: Prix Pictet 2009: Earth
Passage de Retz | 9 rue Charlot | 75003 Paris
23 October to 24 November 2009
Monday - Friday: 10am - 7pm | Saturday & Sunday: 10am - 8pm
passagederetz.com

For details of 2010 international touring venues visit prixpictet.com

Fairs and festivals
FIAC | fiac.com | 22 to 25 October 2009
Paris Photo | parisphoto.fr | 19 to 22 November 2009

Prix Pictet 2009 – Jury
Benoit Aquin, photographer and winner of the Prix Pictet 2008
Jan Dalley, Financial Times, Arts Editor
Loa Haagen Pictet, Danish art historian and curator of the Pictet & Cie collection of Swiss art.
Zaha Hadid, Founding Partner of Zaha Hadid Architects
Francis Hodgson, Photography Critic, Financial Times and former Head of Photography, Sotheby’s
Sir David King, former Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government and Director of the
Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, Oxford University
Fumio Nanjo, Director, The Mori Art Museum

All images (c) the artists

Image One: Darren Almond, West Sea Canyon, 2009C-print, 270.7 x 109.2 cm, China. Courtesy the artist and Prix Pictet

Image Two: Ed Kashi, Nigeria, 2006Series: Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta. Archival inkjet, 40 x 50 cm, Rivers State Nigeria. Courtesy the artist and Prix Pictet

Image Three: Nadav Kander, Construction Mound, Chongqing, 2006Series: Yangtze, The Long River Series. Courtesy the artist and Prix Pictet

Image Four: Naoya Hatakeyama, Blast no.5707, 1998C-print, 100 x 150 cm, Japan. Courtesy the artist and Prix Pictet