One Week 'Til Animagica

It's just over a week until Animagica and tickets are selling fast...

In just over seven days, Amiina will be performing their live soundtrack to Lotte Reiniger's magical animations in the beautiful, candle-lit surroundings of Shoreditch Church.

The ethereal Icelandic quartet will play an original and totally unique accompaniment to these exemplary fairy-tales using instruments ranging from violins to wine-glasses. They'll be supported by the brilliant up-and-comers Esben and the Witch and "indified gypsy jazz" duo Plaster of Paris.
The event was a sell-out success when we held it in Jersey last month, and this month's is set to be even more festive with mince pies and mulled wine. For more info check out the event's facebook page and see Amiina in action here at last month's Animagica.

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To make sure you don't miss out on this sure-to-be magical event, head down to Rough Trade east or buy online from wegottickets.

Vote for your favourite 48-hour Road Movie

Cast your mind back to the heady days of Branchage festival 2009; just below the calm festival exterior (ahem), there was a hive of activity and creativity bubbling away, in the form of the Vauxhall 48-Hour Road Movie Challenge.

The event saw seven teams of filmmakers rise to the challenge of writing, shooting and editing a road movie in just two days. The teams were a mixture of folk who flew over from the UK to take part and local Jersey filmmakers (some expert, some aspiring). These bright young stars (directors, camera operators, actors and the like) were guided by the award-winning filmmaking brothers Ben and Chris Blaine, who co-organised the event, and led by example by forming a madcap team themselves.

Each team was given a theme, drawn from a hat at the start of the 48 hours, and off they set, rambling around the island, trying to create a classic of the genre to a tight deadline.

Now's your chance to see what they came up with....

The films are now live on www.mishorts.com so get watching and don't forget to vote for your favourite. All the movies will be screened at the London Short Film Festival in January, where the winning film will be announced and its creators will receive a £1000 prize for their efforts. Plenty to budget their next masterpiece...

The Battle of Branchage

The popularity of the Battle of Branchage video below is amazing - it's through the roof, getting re-posted, re-blogged and mercilessly viewed across the internet, and across the world.

It's no surprise either... take a look and you'll understand why people can't get enough of watching this video of the cutting edge projections that lit up Mont Orgueil Castle at Branchage in Oct 2009. The projections were put on by the combined forces of Seeper and Flat-E, and the totally site-specific spectacle was inspired by the crumbly Medieval glory of Gorey Castle, perched atop Mont Orgueil on the rocky Jersey coastline.

Watch it, send the link to your friends... few things make Team Branchage as happy as seeing people watch this video for the first time. Enjoy!


Battle of Branchage from seeper on Vimeo.

Branchage Festival announces 2009 Award Winners!

We are delighted to announce the very deserving and talented Branchage Festival 2009 award winners:

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ISLANDERS AWARD (£2000)
Tell, directed by Laura Brocken

RUNNER UP ISLANDERS AWARD SUPPORTED BY LONDON FILM ACADEMY (£500 worth of LFA training)
Taken By The Air, directed by Mark Jones

Jury: Rebecca Mark-Lawson (Lizesize Pictures), John Davey (Spearpoint), James Mullighan (Shooting People), Michael Pearce (Director and winner of the Islanders Award 2008).

The Islanders Award Jury chose Laura Brocken (Tell) as the overall winner, taking home £2,000, whilst Mark Jones (Taken by the Air) as the runner up with £500 of London Film Academy Training. The jurors noticed with interest that both films were made with a good degree of collaboration, and that some of the others in the field suffered from a lack of that. To that end, John Davey and Thomas Dingle of the Jersey Arts Trust have additionally awarded both filmmakers bursaries to attend short film festivals on the mainland. Laura will be hosted at Encounters Short Film Festival in Bristol in Mid November, whilst Mark is invited to attend the London Short Film Festival in January.

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CUTTING HEDGE AWARD (£2000)
Girl Like Me, directed by Roland Jobson

Jury: Edward Fletcher (Soda Pictures), Claire Cook (BBC Film Network), Kobi Prempeh (Future Films & Projector TV)

"For it's compelling and arresting story, subtly handled by both director and excellent cast the Branchage Cutting Hedge Award Jury awarded Best Short Film to GIRL LIKE ME. We chose to award a Special Mention - PLANE DAYS for its notable cinematography and unique subject matter." - Jury member Kobi Prempeh, Future Films & Projector TV

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BUDDING TALENT AWARD (£2000)
Echoes, directed by Rob Brown

Jury: Gillies McKinnon (Director), Christine Bardsley (British Council), David Moats (The Quietus).
"An elegant film which says a great deal in a short space of time. The female leads are made into sympathetic, fleshed out characters with an economy of dialogue and image." - Jury member David Moats, The Quietus (pictured)

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MATTER DOCUMENTARY AWARD (£2000 + £1000 to a charity of filmmaker's choice):
Burma VJ, directed by Anders Østergaard

Jury: Simon Chinn (Producer), Rajesh Thind (OpenCircuit), Robert West (Working Films)
"In a strong line up of campaigning docs, the overwhelming consensus for the prize was Burma VJ.  With its simple and unvarnished narrative, it offers - via the raw and powerful footage of this group of brave citizen journalists - a unique window on a closed and brutal regime and the heroic efforts to undermine it. Here's hoping that the cash prize will go some small way to boosting the urgent campaign to bring democracy to Burma's oppressed people." - Jury member Simon Chinn, Producer and Branchage Patron)

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Filmmakers in attendance were handed their awards by Jury Members on the festival's Closing Night at the beautiful Jersey Opera House on 4th October.

Thanks to ALL the wonderful filmmakers who entered their films into the festival. The quality of films screening this year across all the events was very impressive and completely outstanding.

Choosing who the awards went to was a naturally a very tough one!...

Festival Director Xanthe Hamilton and James Mullighan (Creative Director of Shooting People) open the awards ceremony.

Director Laura Brocken receives the Islanders Award

Director Roland Jobson receives the Cutting Hedge Award

David Moats from The Quietus introduces the Budding Talent Award

Phil Burgin from Jersey Trust Company, one of the festival's key sponsors, introduces The Cutting Hedge Award.

Photos: Danny Evans

A peek into the Barclays Wealth Spiegeltent on Saturday Night

Saturday Night was La Bordee D'Branchage, our exclusive evening of delightful musical lunacy and retro charm and our last party in the Barclays Wealth Spiegeltent (sad faces all round).

Whilst enjoying the event ourselves, we captured our jubilant festival crowd on video, who were undoubtedly in the mood for shaking the floorboards one last time. We had an array of musical delights on offer, starting with Jersey's own Premiere Band taking a break from their usual repetoire to perform some mind-blowing Acid Jazz, followed by gorgeous and super talented sibling multi-instrumentalists Kitty Daisy & Lewis (featured in the video) who set the energetic pace for the evening.

 

The final act was brilliantly entertaining The Correspondents, fronted by an impressively limber front man who took us from a remix of The Jungle Book's "King of the Swingers" to some very dirty, danceable drum n' bass as a grand finale to the night.

Photos: Sebastian Meyer www.sebmeyer.com