Back from No Direction Home (and here’s the programme)

No Direction Home festival / 8-10th June 2012 / Welbeck Estate, Nottinghamshire

The first year of this little festival on the edge of Sherwood forest was such a delight to be a part of, and almost 3,000 of you came to visit us to see a film (and a few who hardly left), get stuck in with a filmmaking workshop or just have a cream tea in the splendid sunshine.

We were overwhelmed by your enthusiasm and wonderful comments about our velvet-covered picture palace and were filled to the rafters for the Billy Wilder classic Some Like It Hot and our two live scores to El Topo and Modern Times. Despite the power outages, we had a brilliant film made by the dedicated participants who drew, scratched, dyed, and bedazzled 16mm found footage to create a No Direction Home masterpiece, which was premiered with a live score at the festival. And no one could forget the dogs-and-cats-and-dogs-and-cats smash hit of the weekend: Animal Beatbox, which was part of the Flatpack Live! programme.

Our other highlights of the festival included:

  • The red-socked posties darting to deliver messages across the site (mail for us? yes please!)
  • Austra‘s set in the Electric Dustbowl stage – instant fans!
  • The Cider Bus’ hot and spicy pint of cider
  • School of Artisan Food‘s butter-making workshop and cheese tastings
  • …and absolutely the best-maintained loos and showers ever to grace a festival site.

And for those of you who were asking, here is a full list of the programme we screened over the festival weekend…

Friday 8th June (Nobody’s Perfect)

A raucous and wild live mix of film and music, compered in inimitable style by Flatpack Festival’s Sam and Sarah. A treat for the eyes, ears and brain.
HELLO (dir: Matthijs Vlot) Netherlands, 1min
I’M FINE, THANKS (dir. Eamonn O’Neil) Ireland, 4min
38–39°C (dir. Kangmin Kim) USA/Korea, 8min
MOUND (dir. Allison Schulnik) USA, 4min
HOGAN (dir. Peter Millard) UK, 1min
AT THE OPERA (dir. Juan Pablo Zaramella) Argentina, 1min
LUMINARIS (dir. Juan Pablo Zaramella) Argentina, 6min
MOXIE (dir. Stephen Irwin) UK, 6min
UMBRA (dir. Malcolm Sutherland), USA, 3min
NOW FOLLOWING (dir. Erik Schmitt & Stephan Müller) Germany, 5min
A GUN FOR GEORGE (dir. Matthew Holness) UK, 16min
SWARMING (dir. Joni Männistö), Finaldan, 7min
THE LAST NORWEGIAN TROLL (dir. Pjotr Sapegin) Norway, 10min
BELLY (dir. Julia Pott) UK, 7min
STORY OF GENKI??? (dir. David O’Reilly) Ireland, 1min
DYE – FANTASY (dir. Jérémie Périn) France, 4min
LAS PALMAS (dir: Johannes Nyholm) Sweden, 13min
THE SCREAMERS (dir. Roberto Pérez Toledo) Spain, 1min
BRICK NOVAX’S DIARY (dir: Matt Piedmont) USA, 15min
PINGU: THE THING (dir. Lee Hardcastle), UK, 3min
DECAPODA SHOCK (dir. Javier Chillon), Spain, 8min

  • Flatpack presents: Valerie and her Week of Wonders (01:15)

A surreal 1970’s Czech coming-of-age tale set in a monstrously dark and erotic dreamlike world where love, fear and religion collide. Courtesy of Second Run DVD

 

 

Saturday 9th June (Far Flung Corners)

  • Charlie Chaplin silents (10:00)

The Rink, Behind the Screen and The Adventurer.

A live mix of films and cartoons to delight and inspire the young (and indeed, young at heart).
PINBALL NUMBER 12 (dir. Abbey Luck) USA, 1min
THE MUSIC BOX (dir. Jennifer & Nicolas Oxley) USA, 2min
MOLLY MONSTER – PIANO LESSONS (dir. Ted Sieger) Switzerland, 5min
STARFISH (dir. Aaron Stewart)UK, 2min
KOYAA – THE EXTRAORDINARY (dir. Kolja Saksida), Slovenia, 3min
DRY FISH (dir. Andy Martin) UK, 2min
THE PLANT (dir. Jennifer Oxley) USA, 1min
PL.INK! (dir. Anne Kristin Berge) Norway, 3min
HOW THE SHAMMIES TEETER-TOTTERED (dir. Edmunds Jansons) Latvia, 2min
VIOLINPLAY (dir. Tunde Vollenbroek) Netherlands, 2min
TO GIVE A PRESENT (dir. Kirsten Lepore) USA, 1min
PAPA’S BOY (dir. Leevi Lemmetty) UK/Poland/Finland, 3min
JILLIAN DILLON (dir. Yvette Edery) USA, 4min
ANIMAL BEATBOX (dir. Damon Gameau) Australia, 3min
LUMINARIS (dir. Juan Pablo Zaramella) Argentina, 6min
OUT OF SIGHT (dir. Ya-Ting Yu, Ya-Hsuan Yeh, & Ling Chung) Taiwan, 5min
GRAND PRIX (dir. Anna Solanas & Marc Riba) Spain, 7min
BOTTLE (dir. Kirsten Lepore) USA, 5min
KAHANIKAR (dir. Nandita Jain) UK, 10min
BOY AND GIRL (dir. Sean Donnelly) USA, 1min
APOLLO (dir. Felix Gonnert) Germany, 6min
ERNESTO (dir. Corinne Ladeinde) UK, 7min
BIG BROTHER (dir. Jesus Perez & Elisabeth Huettermann) Germany/Switzerland, 6min

  • Curzon CineKids present: Len Lye-inspired drawing/scratching on 16mm workshop (13:00)

Ever wanted to make a film? Draw, scratch and doodle directly onto celluloid and create a masterpiece!

  • Two Years at Sea (15:30)

A stunning black & white folk music-filled tale that follows the strange life of recluse Jake in rural Scotland as he hoists campers into trees, fishes from a homemade flotilla and casts off the world. Courtesy of Soda Pictures and LUX

  • Bombay Beach (18:00)

Beirut and Bob Dylan fill the score of this smashing new documentary exposing alternatively wacky and decaying life in California’s ruined resort the Salton Sea. Courtesy of Dogwoof popup cinema

People of Earth! Play Nice or Be Annihilated! The original 1951 sci-fi classic with an environmental twist.

  • Lost Picture Shorts (22:00)

Weird, rare and wonderful early cinema experiments. Short films from ‘London Short Film Festival’ and ‘Straight8’ all interspersed with mind-bending music videos.
London Short Film Festival films:

Golden Tree / Dir. Ninian Doff
Staring Out of the Window / Ninian Doff
Gentlemen in Squalor/ Dir. Alex Sufit
Girls and Boys / Dir. Clive Shaw
Young Souls / Dir. Dean Chalkley
I Don’t Have A Lot to Say / Dir. Tony Johnson

straight8 films:

Fideo Fight / Dir. Diego Arredondo
Jour de Gloires / Dir. Paqscal Fillion
Rouge Amour / Dir. Kezia Barnett

Like no other film you’ve ever seen, this psychedelic Mexican western is brought to swirling, mind-bending life with a live score featuring hammer dulcimer, cello, banjo, guitar, percussion and home- baked sound effects. Not to be missed!

  • Eraserhead (01:30)

David Lynch at his best and most deranged – one man trying to get by in a post- apocalyptic world where the basic tenets of life are warped and strange.

 

 

Sunday 10th June (Curated by End of the Road’s Simon Taffe)

  • The Iron Giant (10:00)

Ever wondered how the movies make the sound of an earth-shattering explosion or a tropical rainstorm? Enter the wonderful world of the “foley artist” – grab coconut shells and coffee beans, and learn all the tricks of the trade. Recommended age: 6+

An endangered species, the last remaining record shop in a small North-Eastern town and its colourful customers are captured in this brilliant new documentary with pitch- perfect music.

One of the greatest films ever made gets a modern spin with this specially-commissioned score that saw No Direction Home musicians working with our own Cabinet to close the festival with a bang.

 

Many thanks to our outstanding crew, programming partners, sponsors and the intrepid staff of No Direction Home!

 

3 July 2012

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