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

We are thrilled to announce that we have reached the £3,000 target for our crowd fund campaign with LiveTree for This is Cinema.

With three days left on the campaign, though, any extra money raised will certainly help the production – while also seeing money donated to Tender, the arts charity that works with young people to prevent domestic abuse and sexual violence.

The campaign for this ~~This is Cinema~~ comes at the same time as we shoot Sculptures of London, and just ahead of the world premiere of Circle/Line at the East End Film Festival. This screening takes place at 5pm on Saturday 3 June at Old Spitalfields Market – and the screening is free!

The successful completion of the crowd funding campaign also comes as the finishing touches are being put to The Benefit of Doubt, with William Brown also working on an essay-film called #randomaccessmemory and an untitled letter-film with Vladimir Najdovski, a filmmaker based in Skopje, Macedonia.

Finally, it looks as though there are forthcoming festival screenings for The New Hope, Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux, Roehampton Guerrillas (2011-2016) and Letters to Ariadne – about which more announcements will be made soon.

So stay tuned for more news from Beg Steal Borrow!

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

Ur screened in China

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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.

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

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!

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!

Here comes The New Hope

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

Exciting times for Beg Steal Borrow Films!

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.

Ur preview screening at the Olympic Studios, London

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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.

Ur Preview Screening Announced

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

A preview screening of Beg Steal Borrow’s latest film, Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux, has been announced.

The screening will take place at 10am on Sunday 25 May 2014 at the prestigious Olympic Cinema in Barnes, London.

The prestigious Olympic Cinema will host the first preview screening of Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux.

If you are interested in attending the screening, please email begstealborrowfilms@gmail.com – although places will likely be limited.

Further preview screenings will hopefully be arranged during the summer as the film’s makers move towards submitting the film to various European and other festivals.

A teaser for the film can be found here:-

Beg Steal Borrow enters a new domain

Beg Steal Borrow News, endemic, Uncategorized, Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux

Beg Steal Borrow is pleased to announce that it has secured the new domain name for its website, http://www.begstealborrowfilms.com.

This means that Beg Steal Borrow is upgrading from being a WordPress site to its own, dedicated site.

This is simply the next step in the evolution of the enterprise from handmade beginnings to, well, slightly less handmade continuations.

Evidently, do check out Beg Steal Borrow on Facebook, as well. And check out the possibility of watching Beg Steal Borrow productions on Vimeo (hopefully to be announced officially in the near future).

Finally, do keep reading for updates on Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux, our forthcoming feature, and other projects here…