Just as we put finishing touches to a succession of films, including Vladimir and WilliamLa Belle NoiseThe Benefit of Doubt and This is Cinema, and just before we undertake editing of The New Hope 2, we are delighted to say that #randomaccessmemory has been listed among the best video essays of 2018 in the prestigious Sight & Sound magazine.

Listed alongside work by filmmakers including Jean-Luc Godard and Lars von Trier, as well as among video-essay luminaries such as Kevin B Lee, Catherine Grant, Cristina Álvarez López, Adrian Martin and others, we are delighted that #randomaccessmemory gets a mention.

You have to scroll pretty far down (well, to the bottom) of the article to see where Michael Witt has named the film…. but it is there indeed.

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From Sight & Sound‘s website

If you want to watch #randomaccessmemory, you can do so here (or watch it directly at the foot of this entry).

With regard to the film itself, #randomaccessmemory is an experimental feature that uses all of the smartphone footage that William Brown shot in 2016 in order to offer up an investigation into love.

Filmed in the UK, France, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Macedonia, Lithuania, Brazil and the USA, #randomaccessmemory looks at art, landscape, moving images and nature to try to understand love.

Loosely based on Homer’s Odyssey (culminating in Ithaca, no less), the film also draws upon the work of authors as diverse as Antonin Artaud, André Breton, Miguel de Cervantes, Luce Irigaray, Molière, William Shakespeare, Sophocles, Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf in order to make its argument about the truth of love.

Featuring music from the wonderfully talented Anna Eichenauer and Alex Fixsen, #randomaccessmemory also makes visual references to filmmakers as diverse as John Akomfrah, Hito Steyerl, Kidlat Tahimik, Harun Farocki, Lav Diaz and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, while also referencing other artists like Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso and Tacita Dean.

 

 

#randomaccessmemory, Beg Steal Borrow News, Press and Blog Mentions, Uncategorized

Selfie screens in Skopje

Beg Steal Borrow News, Press and Blog Mentions, Screenings, Selfie, Uncategorized

Beg Steal Borrow’s Selfie has screened at Skopje’s Kino Kultura.

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Skopje’s Kino Kultura, a leading independent arts venue in Macedonia’s capital.

The screening took place on Saturday 14 May, playing as the second part of a double bill with Vladimir Najdovski’s experimental film, Phi (Macedonia, 2016).

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Kino Kultura’s wonderful big screen.

A wonderful and enthusiastic crowd turned out for the films, with discussion lasting into the night at a local hostelry.

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William Brown and ‘friends’ on the big screen at Kino Kultura.

Many thanks to Vladimir Najodvski and Veronika Kamchevska for helping to organise the screening, and in particular for subtitling Selfie – a mammoth task that truly is appreciated.

The screening also received some coverage in the local news and online, with journalist Svetlana Simonovska conducting an interview with William Brown for local website Dnevnik Online.

Selfie screening

Dnevnik Online coverage of the screening of Selfie in Skopje

Further online press coverage of the event has been collated here. If you read Macedonian, take a look!

Keep on the lookout for other forthcoming Beg Steal Borrow screenings. There are rumoured to be screenings of The New Hope in Berlin, Selfie in London, and perhaps even a screening in Curitiba, Brazil, in the autumn. And of course a forthcoming premiere of Circle/Line.

 

Ur screened in China

Beg Steal Borrow News, Press and Blog Mentions, Screenings, Uncategorized, Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux

We are pleased to report that Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux enjoyed a screening at the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China (UNNC).

The screening took place on 17 December 2015, and was attended by an enthusiastic gathering of UNNC staff and students alike, with a Q&A led by Dr David H. Fleming.

Director William Brown also led a couple of masterclasses in micro-budget ‘guerrilla’ filmmaking while at UNNC.

His visit received coverage in Ningbo Guide, a local English-language cultural journal.

We hope to be able to announce more screenings of Ur and other Beg Steal Borrow films in the coming months.

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William Brown’s visit to China, which included a screening of Ur, was covered in local journal, Ningbo Guide.

 

Kiss and Make-Up selected as finalist for Oaxaca FilmFest Global Script Challenge

Awards, Beg Steal Borrow News, Festivals, Kiss and Make-Up, New projects, Press and Blog Mentions, Prizes, Screenplays, Scripts

Beg Steal Borrow’s William Brown was selected as a finalist for the Global Script Challenge at the sixth Oaxaca FilmFest in Oaxaca, Mexico.

The top left positioning alas did not mean first prize.

The top left positioning alas did not mean first prize.

William’s script, Kiss and Make-Up, was one of 12 scripts to be selected for the final – with William ultimately losing out to Dave Ryan for his script, Coffin.

Kiss and Make-Up is a script about a man who disguises himself as different people in order to remain close to his ex-girlfriend. It is the first script that William has submitted to a film festival – and he is delighted to have made it through to the final.

Indeed, as a finalist one can happily claim to have come second or joint second.

Now, all that remains is for someone to produce the film – be it specifically as a Beg Steal Borrow production or otherwise.

Oaxaca FilmFest’s curator, Enrrico Wood, described the script as ‘funny, well-written and witty.’ May such positive feedback continue – and may this be the first of many festival inclusions and perhaps even plaudits.

William relaxes with a beer after making it to the final of the Oaxaca FilmFest's Global Script Challenge.

William relaxes with a beer after making it to the final of the Oaxaca FilmFest’s Global Script Challenge. Photo by María Villanueva.

Many thanks to the Oaxaca FilmFest for including the script and then for listing it as one of the 12 finalists. The Global Script Challenge’s panel of judges included Couch Fest founder Craig Downing, actor Orlando Moguel Granados, directors Ron Leach and Jorge Pérez Solano, screenwriter Mariana Musalem Ramos, Keya Khayatian of the United Talent Agency, and film critic José Quintanilla.

Furthermore, the Oaxaca FilmFest, which was founded in 2010 and which has already garnered a reputation as ‘Sundance south of the border’ also works in partnership with the Sundance Institute – thereby making it even more of an honour to have been selected and then included as a finalist.

En Attendant Godard has UK premiere on Latest.tv

Beg Steal Borrow News, En Attendant Godard, Press and Blog Mentions, Reviews, 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 latest.tv, who will be screening En Attendant Godard on 19 October.

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.

Common Ground on IMDb

Beg Steal Borrow News, Common Ground, Press and Blog Mentions

The Internet Movie Database page for Common Ground has been created – meaning that the film is one step closer to being real in the eyes of the world.

The film has also been submitted to various festivals – and so fingers are crossed that the film will soon be screened in various places.

If you want a copy, want to arrange a screening, or know anyone who might – then please put them in touch with us.

As for the IMDb link, to see the page click here.

Afterimages mentioned in Films of the Year 2010

Afterimages, Beg Steal Borrow News, Press and Blog Mentions, Reviews

Esteemed film critic and academic Catherine Wheatley has mentioned Afterimages among her Films of the Year 2010, alongside work by Gaspar Noé, Lucrecia Martel and Catherine Breillat.

If you want to look at Wheatley’s list, click here.

Wheatley says that she would take films like Afterimages “over the likes of the overblown and overrated I Am Love any day of the week.” We are honoured.

En Attendant Godard on IMDb

Beg Steal Borrow News, En Attendant Godard, Press and Blog Mentions, Uncategorized

En Attendant Godard has a page on the Internet Movie Database.

The rating of the film currently is at a somewhat low 3.1 out of 10 – with only seven votes so far… Perhaps this reflects  the difficulty of the film, or it might be that I clicked on 0 by mistake one time while looking at it and hoping to give it 10 stars. Maybe this will rise in time. It’s not a new version of The Room that we have made, after all.

You can see the IMDb entry here.