Apologies for the relative silence on the Beg Steal Borrow front.

However, we are delighted to mention various screenings that have recently taken place featuring Beg Steal Borrow movies.

Firstly, The Benefit of Doubt screened at B-Film at the University of Birmingham on 12 January, before Selfie screened on 23 February at Coventry University – where there was a large and lively audience.

Selfie screens at Coventry University.

Then The New Hope screened on Sunday 25 February at the Countdown Theater in Brooklyn, New York, as part of the Bad Film Fest – as well as at the University of Roehampton, London, on 29 March.

Finally, Circle/Line screened at the University of St Andrews on 11 April, while Sculptures of London will enjoy a screening at the University of Bedfordshire in Luton on 10 May.

Circle/Line screens at the Byre Theatre in St Andrews, Scotland.

Many thanks to all those who have shown and who continue to show support for our endeavours.

~~This is Cinema~~ is coming along slowly but surely, and we hope that there are more similar screenings soon.

Beg Steal Borrow News, Circle/Line, Festivals, Screenings, Sculptures of London, Selfie, The Benefit of Doubt, The New Hope, This is Cinema, Uncategorized

The Straight Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival is this week showing four – yes, four! – Beg Steal Borrow films as part of its programme.

The Straight Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival.

The online festival, which specialises in underground, cult and experimental cinema, runs for a week, with a Beg Steal Borrow film playing on each of the festival’s first four days.

The running order sees our punk Don Quixote meets Star Wars film The New Hope playing on Tuesday 15 August.

A manifesto for the film can be read here: The New Hope – A Manifesto.

The New Hope is followed on Wednesday 16 August by Roehampton Guerrillas (2011-2016), a compilation of short films made by the titular group of guerrilla filmmakers and curated by William Brown.

Then our art house zombie homage to the Lumière brothers, Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux, plays on Thursday 17 August.

And finally on Friday 18 August, the festival is showing Selfie, an essay-film about selfie culture comprised uniquely of moving-image selfies featuring William Brown.

The red poster for Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableux

The Selfie poster, designed by the talented Angela Faillace.

We are completely delighted to be featuring so prominently as part of the festival, which is run by guerrilla filmmakers extraordinaire Fabrizio Federico and Laura Grace Robles.

The festival will culminate on Saturday 21 August with an awards ceremony at the Alamo Street Eat Bar in San Antonio,Texas. The ceremony runs from 9pm to midnight, with the Beg Steal Borrow films competing for Most Creative Feature Film. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

Tune in to the Straight Jacket website in order to watch the films.

And click here to read an interview with William Brown about guerrilla filmmaking.

The Straight Jacket screenings come ahead of the World Premiere of Letters to Ariadne at the Validate Yourself Film Festival in New York on Saturday 2 September – and follow hot on the heels of the World Premiere of Circle/Line at London’s East End Film Festival in June.

In the meantime, we have also enjoyed preview screenings of The Benefit of Doubt at the Roxy Bar & Grill in London on 17 June and of Sculptures of London at the Film-Philosophy Conference at the University of Lancaster on 4 July.

We have also very nearly finished all filming for ~~This is Cinema~~, the principle shoot of which lasted between 10 and 23 July.

So… all in all a busy summer for Beg Steal Borrow. Let us hope that we have more screenings in the near future. But in the meantime… please support our work by checking out our films!

Beg Steal Borrow News, Circle/Line, Festivals, New projects, Roehampton Guerrillas (2011-2016), Screenings, Sculptures of London, Selfie, The Benefit of Doubt, The New Hope, This is Cinema, Uncategorized, Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux

Second Circle/Line preview screening sold out

Screenings, Selfie, The New Hope, Uncategorized

After a successful first preview screening at the Whirled Cinema in Brixton in July, we are delighted to announce a second preview screening of Circle/Line at renowned visual effects house Double Negative.

We are also pleased to say that the screening sold out shortly after tickets became available – hopefully a sign both of how the first screening was well received and of how people are interested in seeing a film about happiness in contemporary London.

dneg

The DNeg screening has kindly been made possible by Garry Madison, a senior colourist at the company, and who has worked on such prominent films as The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar, Ex Machina and Paddington.

Garry saw Circle/Line at the Whirled and was sufficiently impressed to propose the second preview screening, which takes place at 6.30pm on Thursday 29 September. Places may become available at the last minute, so if you’d like to join a waiting list, please contact us.

The Circle/Line preview screening is just one of a few screenings of Beg Steal Borrow films set to take place over the next few weeks: Circle/Line will have a private screening at the University of Skövde in Sweden, with Selfie enjoying a forthcoming screening at the University of Roehampton, The New Hope playing at the University of Central Lancashire, and En Attendant Godard due for a screening in Curitiba, Brazil, in October.

More information will follow about these screenings when details have been confirmed.

About Circle/Line

circle line_poster_v.5.2

Are you happy?

This is the question that we ask people outside or near the stations of London Underground’s Circle Line.

Circle/Line is, then, a documentary comprised of vox pop interviews with ‘everyday’ people – from the homeless to the hopeful, from the ambitious to the activist, from task-driven Londoners to tourists.

Inspired by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin’s classic documentary, Chronique d’un été/Chronicle of a Summer (France, 1961), Circle/Line is nonetheless an original work and a fascinating insight into the lives of people in contemporary London.

Shot by Beg Steal Borrow regular Tom Maine, the film is both a portrait not just of people, but also of the city of London itself.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

Selfie screening in Skopje

Beg Steal Borrow News, En Attendant Godard, Screenings, Selfie, Uncategorized

Beg Steal Borrow is delighted to announce that Selfie will screen at Kino Kultura in Skopje, Macedonia, on 14 May 2016.

The screening, which has been organised through talented and local low-budget filmmaker Vladimir Najdovski, will take place at 8pm.

Director William Brown is hoping that he’ll be able to make it to the screening – depending on flight price and availability!

Kino Kultura is a centre for contemporary performing arts and independent culture run jointly run by LOKOMOTIVA and Theatre Navigator Cvetko.

Kino Kultura was a thriving cultural venue in the 2000s, having recently reopened in February 2016 after a 10-year absence. It has been described as ‘the symbol of urban life in Skopje’ – and we can think of no better venue for a film like Selfie.

The Selfie poster, designed by the talented Angela Faillace.

Selfie is an essay-film about selfie culture. It was shot between January and May 2014, and it is composed almost entirely of moving image selfies taken by director William Brown during that period.

The Kino Kultura event will follow soon after a screening of En Attendant Godard at the University of Roehampton on 18 March 2016, as part of the Film History & Criticism module taken by first-year students on the university’s Film course.

Selfie and Ur selected for Worcestershire Film Festival

Beg Steal Borrow News, Festivals, Screenings, Selfie, The New Hope, Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux

We are delighted to announce that Selfie and Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux will both play at the 2015 Worcestershire Film Festival.

The screenings will both take place on Sunday 8 November 2015, with Selfie screening at 10am and Ur screening at 3pm.

Both screenings will take place at the Worcester Arts Workshop.

Meanwhile, The New Hope will also enjoy a screening at the University of Skövde in Sweden on Thursday 22 October at 10.15am.

We are hugely excited about all of these screenings – and hope that you can make it there!

Announcing screenings of The New Hope in London and Oxford

Beg Steal Borrow News, Screenings, Selfie, The New Hope

The wait is soon over!

Two screenings, one in London and one in Oxford, have been arranged for The New Hope, the film that Beg Steal and Borrow shot in Hyde Park last summer on a shoestring.

The first is a preview screening at the Whirled Cinema in Brixton, London, and which takes place on Saturday 11 July at 2pm. Spaces are limited to 75 for this, but the event is free. So if you wish to book a ticket, then please follow this link.

The second screening takes place on Monday 20 July in the Mary Ogilvie Lecture Theatre in St Anne’s College, Oxford, at 8pm. This screening is part of the annual Film-Philosophy Conference, which this year is being held in Oxford.

In principle this screening is open only to delegates at the conference, but if you happen to be in Oxford on that evening, I am sure that you could sneak in if you wanted.

The New Hope tells the story of Dennis, a man who believes himself to be Obi Wan Kenobi. An updated adaptation of the first part of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote, the film itself tilts at the biggest windmill of them all, the myth that is the Star Wars universe, trying to show that cinema can be made not with CGI and massive budgets, but with a dustbin lid, a piece of string, and a colander. I wager my right hand that anyone watching The New Hope will find something of worth in it.

Come along to one of these and/or other screenings, and see if you agree.

Finally, it is hopeful – though not confirmed – that Selfie will also be screening at the prestigious Whitechapel Gallery in the not-too-distant future. Discussions are under way, then, to arrange a mutually convenient date.

Beg Steal Borrow Music Videos Launched

Beg Steal Borrow News, Music Videos, Screenings, Selfie

Beg Steal Borrow has made two music videos for post-punk outsider band Extradition Order.

The first video is for the single, ‘I Love an Eyesore (LBJ ’60)’, which was released by Jezus Records on 5 May 2015, while the second is for ‘Boy In Uniform,’ which is set also to be a single from the band’s new album, Kennedy.

The ‘Eyesore’ video sees archive footage of Lyndon Baines Johnson mouthing the lyrics to the song as the band, disguised in LBJ masks, frolic and play in a grand-looking house. At certain points, LBJ is pictured giving various versions of the famous ‘Johnson Treatment’ to the band members.

The video for ‘Boy in Uniform,’ meanwhile, sees the band in pseudo-Village People outfits performing an illegal gig at an unspecified venue. Part way through the song, the police arrive to shut down the gig, but two enthusiastic young cops are seduced by the music and end up acting out a live version of Banksy’s famous ‘Kissing Coppers’ mural.

The band’s album, Kennedy, is a concept album based upon political events and figures from the USA in the 1960s.

In addition to the band, the ‘Boy in Uniform’ video also features Beg Steal Borrow regular Dennis Chua as a police chief, with newcomer Ariel Pozuelo playing one of his amorous underlings.

Beyond that, Beg Steal Borrow’s Selfie enjoyed a warm reception at a screening at the Cinémathèque québecoise in Montreal, Canada, in late March. Keep reading for news of any other Beg Steal Borrow screenings coming up!

New screenings of Selfie and En Attendant Godard and a new music video for Extradition Order

Beg Steal Borrow News, Common Ground, En Attendant Godard, Friends of Beg Steal Borrow, Music Videos, Screenings, Selfie, The New Hope, Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux

Three main things to report here!

1. Selfie will enjoy a preview screening at the Cinémathèque québecoise in Montréal on Saturday 28 March at 7pm. Entry is free and all are welcome, although space is limited at this preview screening.

2. Our lovely friends at FilmFest on TV will be showing En Attendant Godard again on Sunday 29 March at
9pm, as well on Saturday 4 April, also at 9pm.

3. Our video for Extradition Order’s ‘Boy in Uniform’ is about to go live, while we have also filmed a new video for their song ‘Love an Eyesore (LBJ ’60)’.

The Montréal screening of Selfie coincides with the annual Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) Conference, which is taking place there between 24 and 29 March. Sequences from Selfie were filmed at the 2014 SCMS Conference in Seattle.

Meanwhile, the FilmFest on TV screenings of En Attendant Godard can be found on Freeview channel 8 or Virgin
Media 159 in the Brighton area or online across the world at www.thelatest.tv.

We shall announce in a separate article when ‘Boy in Uniform’ goes live – but the video is currently ready and we are awaiting word from the band’s label regarding when to let it loose.

Nonetheless, in the meantime, we recently shot a second video with the band, ‘Love an Eyesore (LBJ ’60)’, a song that is about Lyndon Baines Johnson’s misguided efforts to be Presidential Candidate for the Democrats in the 1960 American general election.

The video features the band dancing and performing in LBJ masks and will be edited over the coming weeks.

Drummer Radhika Aggarwal wears her LBJ mask during the shooting of ‘Love an Eyesore (LBJ ’60)’ for Extradition Order.

In other news, En Attendant Godard recently enjoyed wonderful screenings with the Associazione Kilab at the CinemAvvenire in Rome, at B-Film at the University of Birmingham, and also as a film screened as part of the Film History & Criticism module that is taught to first-year undergraduates at the University of Roehampton, London.

Common Ground also enjoyed a recent screening as part of FilmFest at 8 on thelatest.tv on 1 March.

We hope that further screenings for Selfie, Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux and The New Hope will also take place in the next few months. Indeed, we are keeping our fingers crossed, and hope that the Like that Sheffield Doc/Fest recently gave to Selfie on Vimeo is something of a good omen.

Screenings, IMDb pages, and more

Beg Steal Borrow News, Common Ground, En Attendant Godard, Screenings, Selfie, Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux

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!

Meanwhile, both Selfie and Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux have now been confirmed as ‘real’ films as a result of their having each an IMDb page.

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!