To characterize a festival of some four hundred films is perhaps best summed up in the term ‘breadth’. The opening night taster session of ‘highlights’ included a cartoon, Analysis Paralysis, by Anete Melece about a man with an exploding head which releases hard copies of his dreams and a pointed film from Slovenia, A New Home, about the perception and treatment of refugees which packed suspense and atmosphere as well as a strong message into its fourteen minutes. Another, even shorter at seven and a half minutes, was from director, Phil Davis who gave Martin Freeman the role of Steve Marriott in a touching, fictional glimpse of a fading yet enduring musician in Midnight of My Life.
Following the preview, Peter Lord and David Sproxton, co-founders of Aardman Films gave a presentation to mark 40 years of that company’s film-making. Peter Lord took us through the development of Aardman from a two-man outfit in a spare bedroom and subsequent room over a shop in Clifton (must be blue plaque material) to the mighty Oscar-winning powerhouse of some six hundred employees. His potted history included the discovery of how to get ‘character’ into a lump of Plasticine in the shape of Morph and the taking on of the prodigiously talented graduate, Nick Park. Dave Sproxton spoke about the making and not-so-straightforward re-mastering with surround-sound of the groundbreaking Sledgehammer video, which accompanied the Peter Gabriel song. We were then treated to the first public screening of the re-mastered, seminal music video. Graham Wyles 21st September 2016
