Branchage's Best Friend - True/False Film Festival is just days away

Steal a car, invent a jet pack, build an aeroplane... do whatever you have to do to get yourself to Missouri for Feb 25 - 28 for the True/False Film Festival.  It's everything you dreamt a film festival could be.  Really.

Screening the documentaries that captured imaginations at Sundance and Toronto as well as pulling out its own premieres and showcasing those 'i-caught-this-amazing-little-doc-at-a-festival' gems, True/False's programme is brimful of must-see films and cracking entertainment.

Branchage and True/False are really good friends.  We want to hold their hand actually.  And we get to play at each other's houses sometimes.  At Branchage 2009 True/False presented a clutch of superb docs and co-founder David Wilson crossed the Atlantic (and the Channel) to be in Jersey for the festival, talking at panel events, hosting Q&As and hitting the dancefloor at the Spiegeltent parties.

T/F's David Wilson interviews Borut Strel at Branchage 2009

And now it's our turn to repay the favour, sending Branchage Producer Carla MacKinnon over to Missouri and screening a couple of  utterly brilliant British docs.

First off, there's the absolute belter It Felt Like A Kiss, brought to True/False by director Adam Curtis.  Curtis has made his name in BBC Current Affairs programming for his searing, uncompromising documentaries that niggle away at those things you know about the media/ the government/ the people but had never quite faced.  It Felt Like A Kiss is an absolute sucker punch of a film, built up entirely from montaged archive footage and an irresistible soundtrack of 60s nostalgia, and it's a damning criticism of Americana, the American Empire and the psychosis that lies beneath it.

'It Felt Like A Kiss' will screen on 26th, 27th and 28th Feb

Our second screening at the festival is a 'secret film'... that means we're not allowed to tell you what it is.  We promised.  But here are some clues: It's a British film with an 'American' subject, it's tinged with sadness but it's comedy genius, it's .....  Okay, that's enough of that.  We give this film a double thumbs up and we're sure it's going to be big later this year.

Aside from the films we're presenting, 'Branchage Best Bits' from the film programme are: The British In Bed, Colony, The Tightrope and When We Were Boys... but it's hard to choose favourites from such a great programme.

And then there's all the other bits that put the 'festiv' in festival: legendary parties, live music, free panels and debates, a psychogeographic walking tour (I know!), a banquet, a live documentary gameshow... they've got everything short of a parade!  Hold up... there's also a blinking parade!

Branchage is a-quiver with excitement.  Feast your eyes on all the details here and start wending your way to Missouri.

Branchage-eye view of what's coming up at Birds Eye View film fest

Tickets have just gone on sale for Birds Eye View Film Festival 2010, a week of joy in venues across London, and there's just so much to look forward to in their lovely line up that all work has stopped in the Branchage office for 15 minutes of programme-analysing while we decide what we want to go to!  Join us on this little adventure if you will...

We're partnering up with them to present a screening of Rough Aunties, but aside from that huge highlight, we're loving the look of their features from across the globe - US/Palestinian drama Amreeka, Austrian Jessica Hausner's hotly-tipped Lourdes and work from the new generation of Kenyan filmmakers Wanuri Kahiu and Judy Kibinge.  And let's face it, we all want to check out Drew Barrymore's roller-tastic directorial debut Whip It (Ellen Page, Julliette Lewis, Drew Barrymore, Roller Derby - oh the joy!).

Being avid documentary fans, Team Branchage are also chomping at the bit to see Junior, which won the audience award at the UK's biggest documentary film festival Sheffield Doc/Fest, and parrrrticularly interested in She Is The Matador about Spanish tradition and (it's all in the title really) female matadors.

Then there's their brilliant Music Video showcase presented by Miranda Sawyer (Branchage hearts the Sawyer) and their whole Innovation Strand which enlightens us on cutting edge new technologies every year... and which we then discuss nonchalantly at dinner parties for months to come.

Tons more, may have to post about the Susanne Bier masterclass and retrospective and the Mira Calix / Lotte Reiniger live score separately, once we've got our breath back.

Phew, good to get that all off our chests.  And now back to work...

xx

Paging Branchage, come in, Branchage?

The Branchage website has caught a winter virus and is currently sick in bed.  The doctor is seeing it now, and it should be back on its feet in the next day or so.

If anyone has been trying to track us down at www.branchagefestival.com and had problems, please persevere!  It's a temporary hitch that should be resolved soon.  In the meantime, please feel free to contact us here, or through our facebook page (just search 'Branchage Jersey').

Get well soon Branchage website, x