From the volunteer's mouth: A Guest Blog Post

Today, a guest blog post from Assistant Extraordinaire Sam Taylor, pondering how he found his way to the Branchage...  (and we're gosh darn glad he did).  

Hi there! For me, that is Sam Taylor, Branchage was an event I was clueless about until 2 years ago. What brought on this drastic change you say? Whilst doing an AS in media studies, my teacher asked me if I’d like to represent Branchage for the school, Victoria College, a job which I can honestly say I was abysmal at, was it nerves? Who knows, at the time it was quite a daunting prospect, and juggled with the ‘responsibilities’ of a budding six former probably not the most mature decision to have made. Thankfully, despite that blunder, I have now been helping out wherever I can for two consecutive festivals. 

It may not sound much at first to be running odd-jobs here and there, but regardless of said impression I was actually dead chuffed to be part of the events, making sure that tickets were delivered (relatively) on time, and that everyone was in the mood for a good time!

Hopefully I helped out at the festivals, I definitely know I had a blast; and as a result opted to help Xanthe (as best I could) with the opening of her current event in Jersey ‘Whatever Else Remains’, an art exhibition that promises to be equally as incredible for any buyers as it is for the hyper-active 18 year old, thrilled that he’s got the chance to be close to so much art (that’s me, by the way.)

 Personally my favourite pieces that are being exhibited are from the street-art spectrum of sales, whereas the Hirst’s and Emin’s are, I find, just dead boring; I mean how clueless do you have to be to think that four differently coloured spots are worth thousands?! Maybe I have no taste...

Put a face to the name... this is Sam:

Give Us This Day... OUR DAILY BREAD + LIVE SCORE

At the Roundhouse, London, SUNDAY 19th DECEMBER 2010.

Watching Nikolaus Geyrhalter's mesmerising documentary Our Daily Bread is more like gradually tracking through a series of stunning photographs, each one a tableau of modern industrial food production in some form.  From soulless production lines to doomed animals it's a slow and meditative journey through this massive, surreal and disturbing industry.  Beautiful, eerie, at times witty, often unpleasant, there are some humans dotted throughout the mechanised landscape, but interaction is limited in this nearly wordless hygienic world.  

The Studio Theatre at the Roundhouse, Camden, consistently puts on brilliant, one-off, very special Special Events, we like this, and we like the fact that on Sunday 19th December they're putting on Pevin Kinel's inspired live score to the Our Daily Bread.  Also what's nice is that it's in association with Branchage and the utterly excellent film and music website The Quietus.

Branchage commissioned this soundtrack for our 2010 festival, and as it was only on once, in Jersey, and in a barn on an organic farm, there are lots of people out there who won't have had the chance to see it.  Now is your time.

We're very proud to be associated with this event.

You can read more and buy tickets on the Roundhouse website or join the facebook event and share it with your pals.

Battle of Branchage back in the news

Seeper, (the digital/interactive artists who masterminded the Battle of Branchage projections onto Gorey castle at our 2009 festival), are back in the news for a digital mapping projection they've just done in Derby.

Check out the video on BBC - they couldn't resist a few clips of the Battle of Branchage. Still looks as stunning as ever, so for the sake of reminiscence, let's see the original Battle of Branchage video again too...



Still, like, bends our minds man!

Make it snappy...

In celebration of a really lovely, creative, inspiring old competition from Picturehouse Cinemas, the Branchage office will be spending (some of) this weekend getting trigger happy with any photographic devices we can lay our sticky paws on.

Tell a story in ten pictures.  About anything you like.  So simple... but oh so very much choice.

Obviously we'll be entering the competition for purely high-minded artful reasons and the joy of creation... but as a side-note, we notice that all entries will go up online here and the three winning stories will get screened at Picturehouse cinemas across the UK, and will also win a Kodak wee small HD pocket video camera (want one want one want one).

While away some minutes at www.picturehouses.co.uk/yourstory looking through the photo-stories that have already been uploaded.  Like this one, with an unexpected ending... http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/yourstory/entry9.html.

Ah, happy happy snappy. x

Sheffield Doc/Fest 2010

Branchage spent a wonderful 3 days at the UK's biggest (and bestest) documentary film festival last weekend, Sheffield Doc/Fest - an inspiring and timely reminder of the range, breadth, effect and joy of documentaries.

From political investigative journalism to meditative personal stories, and interactive web films to large-scale cinematic visions, Doc/Fest has it all by the bucket load, and we had a rather pleasant time paddling through as much as we could fit in.

Festival favourite was probably Benda Bilili, a music doc with an irresistible Congolese Rumba soundtrack, great characters, more triumph-over-adversity than you can shake a stick at, and not a patronising or navel-gazing scene in sight.  As well as being talented soul musicians, the members of Team Benda Bilili are disabled (mostly due to childhood polio) and living for the most part on the harsh streets of Kinshasa.  Life is brutal, recording stops because the challenges of food and shelter are more immediate, but over five years the filming continues and a brilliant first album is created.

Our Top-of-the-Pops also includes Laura Fairrie's The Battle For Barking, an astonishingly balanced look at the 8 months leading up to the May 6th elections in the Dagenham and Barking constituency, where Labour's Margaret Hodge fought an unexpectedly tough campaign against Nick Griffin and the BNP.  The filmmaker's access to both sides and her tenacious commitment to following the campaign trail makes for more insight into both parties at local level than we've ever seen before.  Wonderful, measured and very human, it was the deserved winner of the Sheffield Youth Jury Award.

Wholly different but equally unforgettable was Marwencol - the name of the model town in Mark Hogancamp's back yard populated with personalised barbie dolls and GI Joes.  This intricate and entirely absorbing miniature world was Mark's response to a traumatic attack that left him in a coma and robbed him of his memory of life before the attack, of his physical capabilities and of his confidence in himself and in the world.  By creating and photographing scenes in Marwencol, Mark can make tentative explorations of the world and of his own emotional landscape.  In life he has been brutally reminded of his mortality and limitations, but in Marwencol he is a creator as well as a participant.  It is the most original and artistic self therapy you can imagine.  We left the film full of wonder and extremely moved.



So many other excellent films (and many that we didn't manage to get to), so just a quick shout out for Donor Unknown (Jerry Rothwell), the utterly brilliant and important On the Streets (Penny Woolcock) and the beautiful and troubling short film Diary (Tim Hetherington).

AND LEST WE FORGET... Branchage patron and hero Kim Longinotto was there with her new film Pink Saris, which we are delighted to say won the festival's prestigious Special Jury Prize.



While we're on the subject of Branchage loves... also screening was Shooting Blind, the short film directed by Andrew Whitehouse, a Jersey resident and dedicated Branchage volunteer.  Huge congratulations for an excellent film which has been duly noted as so by the very excellent Doc/Fest.

Stunning weekend, heart Doc/Fest.
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