Beg Steal Borrow are very excited about various upcoming screenings in the UK and further afield.
Firstly, En Attendant Godard has its Italian premiere on Saturday 28 February at the Associazione Kilab in Rome. William Brown will be at the screening, as hopefully will star Hannah Croft, who will also be out in Italy at the time to help promote her film, The Repairman, directed by Paolo Mitton and which is being given a nationwide release in Italy from the end February.
Associazione Kilab’s poster for En Attendant Godard’s Rome screening.
Shortly thereafter, Common Ground will have its UK premiere on thelatest.tv, the channel that also screened En Attendant Godard and Afterimages as part of their FilmFest at 8 season in late 2014.
And, finally, En Attendant Godard is also enjoying a screening at B-Film, an interdisciplinary and international research centre at the prestigious University of Birmingham. All are welcome to all three screenings!
Finally, Beg Steal Borrow is gearing up for some more productions, starting with a second music video for Extradition Order’s song ‘I Love An Eyesore (LBJ 1960)’, and then hopefully a feature in the summer. And final finishing touches are being put to The New Hope. Busy busy!
With the finishing touches being put to The New Hope, and with Selfie and Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux slowly beginning to be submitted to select festivals (keep your eyes open for screenings!), Beg Steal Borrow Films has moved for the first time into the world of music video direction.
William Brown directed the video for Extradition Order’s new song, ‘Boy in Uniform’ in early December 2014. The video was edited over the Christmas period, and is now just awaiting grading and a confirmation of release date from the band’s label before becoming available shortly – online and in other places, no doubt.
The clip tells the story of the band playing an illegal concert that the police disrupt. However, the music is just too seductive for the coppers, who soon find themselves seduced into having fun, rather than doing their job!
Inspired by Banksy’s famous ‘Kissing Coppers’ mural, the video features performances from Beg Steal Borrow regular Dennis Chua and first-timer Ariel Pozuelo, while Tom Maine was as usual in charge of cinematography.
Beg Steal Borrow’s video for Extradition Order’s ‘Boy in Unifirm’ takes inspiration from Banksy’s famous and controversial mural, Kissing Coppers.
Beg Steal Borrow newcomer Tony Yanick acted as assistant director, while the crew was made up of Angela Faillace, Bahareh Golchin, Sara Janahi and Dasha Sevcenko.
Friends of the band acted as party goers and crowd as shooting took place in Roehampton, London on 6 December 2014.
Extradition Order consists of lead singer Alastair Harper, bassist Nick Boardman, lead guitar Jez Walton, with Radhika Aggarwal on drums and Matt Bergin on keys. For the video, the band all wore costumes inspired by the Village People.
Extradition Order‘s new album, Kennedy, is due for release in early spring 2015.
Hot on the heels of the UK premiere of En Attendant Godard on thelatest.tv, the channel has also screened Afterimages as part of their FilmFest at 8 season.
The screening took place on Freeview channel 8 or Virgin 159 in the Brighton area, as well as via livestreaming at thelatest.tv, on 7 December 2014.
Beg Steal Borrow Films is delighted that the film was selected for screening – and hopes that some people managed to catch it while it was on.
The logo for latest.tv, who screened Afterimages on 7 December 2014.
In other news, En Attendant Godard has also been selected for screening at two places so far in 2015. The film will enjoy its Italian premiere at the Associazione Kilab in Rome on 28 February, before then being screened at B-Film at the University of Birmingham on 13 March.
What is more, Selfie also enjoyed a preview screening at the University of Roehampton’s Film Society on 25 November 2014, where it was greeted with an enthusiastic reception.
With Beg Steal Borrow beginning to submit Selfie and other new films to festivals, and with a screening of at least one Beg Steal Borrow film at the University of Lancaster arranged for May, let’s hope that 2015 marks the possibility for many more Beg Steal Borrow screenings!
Beg Steal Borrow’s first film, En Attendant Godard, will this weekend screen on thelatest.tv as part of their FilmFest at 8 season.
The screening takes place on the evening of Sunday 19 October at 9pm. You can watch it on Freeview channel 8 or Virgin 159 in the Brighton area, or via livestreaming at thelatest.tv.
The logo for thelatest.tv, who will be screening En Attendant Godard on 19 October.
We are delighted that the film will screen – and for the first time in the UK since its very first screening at The Loft bar in Clapham in late 2009.
So do check out the film if you can – especially if you live in the Brighton area!
In addition, En Attendant Godard also recently enjoyed a review by great American experimental filmmaker and film theorist, Wheeler Winston Dixon, which can be read here.
Selfie, the new documentary/essay film from Beg Steal Borrow, has been completed.
The film, which is comprised almost uniquely of selfies, was shot predominantly in February and March 2014. It combines footage of its maker, William Brown, at home and at work during the shooting period, as well as in locations as diverse as Basel, Paris and Seattle.
The film is an investigation into selfie culture from the inside: it attempts to understand the selfie and selfie culture by taking selfies – rather than hypothesising about them from the outside. Or, as the narrator puts it in the film, the way to understand the selfie is to be like Seth Brundle in The Fly and to self-administer the treatment!
William Brown takes a selfie in his film of the same name.
Selfie features brief glimpses of various Beg Steal Borrow collaborators, including Kristina Gren (En Attendant Godard, Common Ground), Hannah Croft (En Attendant Godard), Grace Ker (The New Hope) and Annette Hartwell (The New Hope).
The film also features sequences involving filmmaker Andrea Luka Zimmerman (Taskafa: Stories from the Street, Estate: A Reverie), Spanish actress Eulalia Ramón (Goya in Bordeaux) and more.
It also involves a voice over that considers the obsession with self-recording to be a virus. Perhaps the biggest epidemic of the contemporary world. Given that the word selfie enjoyed a 17,000 per cent increase in usage in 2013 alone, the film is certainly a timely meditation on a contemporary phenomenon.
The film will be submitted imminently to film festivals – as will Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux and The New Hope, the latter of which goes into post-production imminently. Look here for imminent screenings (or contact William Brown if you are interested in showing or seeing the film elsewhere).
I run a module at my university, and it is called Guerrilla Filmmaking.
As mentioned in a previous blog, students are asked to make a series of short films in relatively short order and without necessarily having access to traditional filmmaking equipment. I shan’t explain this too much in detail, since it is mentioned (at much greater length) in that previous blog.
Indeed, the changes between last year and this year were minimal in terms of the exercises set for the students. Nonetheless, the films produced were equally excellent, and so I’d like – belatedly, but finally – to curate a bunch of them on my blog for people to look at.
Remember – this is about making a film with minimal resources, on a set topic and always with a formal constraint. Along these lines:
1. Make a film that does not feature moving images and which responds to the question: what is the meaning of Europe?
2. Make a film that does not feature any synchronisation between image and sound, which does not feature any music, and which documents an issue of concern local to you.
3. Make an experimental, animated or found footage film that deals with recent political events, be those global or local.
4. Make a film about a human rights issue using only a mobile phone and/or other telecommunications technology (i.e. do not use a dedicated camera).
5. Make a silent film that consists only of one take, and which is about multiculturalism.
So, without further ado, here are some excellent films from the Class of 2013-2014!
1. Make a film that does not feature moving images and which responds to the question: what is the meaning of Europe?
The Foreigner by Anaurelino Negri da Costa Silva
Evropa by Maya Djurdjevic
En Tourist by Anders Hammer
Postcards from Europe by Marc Moyce
Europe by Lerke Sofie Bruun
2. Make a film that does not feature any synchronisation between image and sound, which does not feature any music, and which documents an issue of concern local to you.
Aylesbury Estate by Maya Djurdjevic
Aspiration by Joshua Bessell
Guilt by Anaurelino Negri da Costa Silva
Anxiety by Michael Athan Ryan
Open Your Eyes, Benita by Benita Paplauskaite
Film #2 by Josh Fenwick-Wilson
Getting the Train Home for the Weekend by Seb Barnett
Local Concern by Anders Hammer
3. Make an experimental, animated or found footage film that deals with recent political events, be those global or local.
We’re Here For Your Safety by Michael Athan Ryan and Lee Upton
Eat My Fear by Anaurelino Negri da Costa Silva
Film #3 by Josh Fenwick-Wilson
The Life Blood Machine by Marc Moyce
Political Events by Mary Burnett
4. Make a film about a human rights issue using only a mobile phone and/or other telecommunications technology (i.e. do not use a dedicated camera).
Private Moments by Mary Burnett
Final Cut by Steven Russell
5. Make a silent film that consists only of one take, and which is about multiculturalism.
As final touches are put on to Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux (with festival submissions to take place as soon as is ready), and as Selfie is about to go into post-production, shooting is about to begin on new zero-budget feature, The New Hope.
The New Hope is an adaptation of the first part of Miguel de Cervantes’ classic novel, Don Quixote. It tells the story of a man who claims to be Obi Wan Kenobi, and who spends his time going around London trying to right wrongs as per the old Jedi knight errant way.
Oh, and this Obi Wan also challenges Ewan McGregor to a duel – in order to prove that he really is Obi Wan Kenobi and not just some actor playing the part.
The film features Beg Steal Borrow regulars Dennis Chua, Alastair Trevill, Kristina Gren, Nick Marwick, Andrew Slater, Alastair Hird and Deanne Cunningham. And the film will of course be lensed in part by the ever-present and wonderful Tom Maine. Alexandra Brown will also have a brief role in the film – together with her gorgeous new daughter, Ariadne Bullen.
And the film will also feature new Beg Steal Borrow collaborators, including Aleksander Zerov Krawec, Grace Ker, Samuel Taylor, Millad Khonsorkh, Lucia Williams and others.
Filming takes place in and around Hyde Park between 23 and 25 August and 30 and 31 August. A whole feature in a five day shoot!
Passers by by are welcome to interact and to change the film if they spot us.
Otherwise, here’s a teaser featuring Obi Wan and a statue of Karl Marx – explaining how being, rather than acting a Jedi knight is the new source for hope in a world that’s blowing itself to pieces right now.
It seems as though Afterimages has found its spiritual home – Lithuania!
After two screenings in Kedainiai City in late 2013, Afterimages recently enjoyed another screening in Gelgaudiškis at Cinema Camp, an event run by Meno Avilys, an NGO based in Vilnius that specialises in film education and restoration – as well as producing DVDs of great Lithuanian films.
Around 70 people were at the screening, making it the busiest Beg Steal Borrow film screening so far – and the Q&A afterwards was enthusiastic and engaged.
Afterimages screens at Cinema Camp in Gelgaudiškis, Lithuania, on 25 July 2014.
Afterimages director William also gave a talk about 3D cinema during the event, which also featured works by artist-filmmakers Francisco Janes and Saulius Leonavicius.
William would like to thank all of the organising team for a wonderful welcome, for fantastic hospitality and for all of the kindness and generosity that everyone at Cinema Camp, especially the Meno Avilys team, showed.
Cinema Camp, run by Meno Avilys, took place in this beautiful country house under a glorious sun.
Maybe this will be the next in a long line of events and screenings in Lithuania!
Nos fans francophones seront ravis d’apprendre que nous avons mis sur Vimeo une version française du premier film de Beg Steal Borrow, En Attendant Godard.
La version a des sous-titres français – ce qui veut dire que le film peut maintenant trouver un plus grand public dans le pays où est née la réputation de Jean-Luc Godard, qui a inspiré le film.
Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux enjoyed a preview screening at the prestigious Olympic Studios in Barnes, London, on 25 May 2014.
The film tells the story of six disaffected people who are on holiday in the south of France – and who do not realise that the zombie apocalypse is taking place all around them.
The preview screening garnered an enthusiastic crowd, who overcame technical difficulties to watch this first airing of Ur.
Leading zombie film scholar Stacey Abbott was on hand to lead a Q&A after the screening with stars Edward Chevasco, Dennis Chua and Laura Murray, cinematographer Tom Maine, assistant director Alexandra Brown (who was/is nine months pregnant!), and William Brown.
Rosie (played by Roseanna Frascona) says good bye to the world in Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tabeaux.
On Facebook, various of those in attendance commented on the film. One viewer described the film as an ‘excellent zombie apocalypse film yesterday – funny, engaging, astute and beautifully shot.’
Another commented on the ‘fine work’ from cast and crew.
And Stacey Abbott herself described Ur as ‘a most unusual and fascinating zombie (but not zombie) film.’
Many thanks should be given to Mairead Murray, Will Orpin and Rick Gould at the Olympic for all of their help.
It was particularly a thrill to have the preview at a cinema where Jean-Luc Godard shot the Rolling Stones for his 1968 film, Sympathy for the Devil. Godard was, of course, at the heart of the first Beg Steal Borrow film, En Attendant Godard.
Edward (Edward Chevasco) and Rosie (Roseanna Frascona) talk love in Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux.
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