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

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.

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

Beg Steal Borrow direct first music video for Extradition Order

Beg Steal Borrow News, Music Videos, New projects

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.

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

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

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 stars busy on stage and at Sundance

Beg Steal Borrow News, Uncategorized

Various of the stars of Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux are busy this summer with stage work – and at the Sundance Lab.

Rosie Frascona, who plays Rosie in Ur, is currently starring as Baby in the touring stage production of Dirty Dancing. She has been interviewed for the production in the Daily Star – and will be heading around the UK, Ireland and Belgium with the show between now and next year.

Rosie has also told us that she has plugged Ur several times during her radio interviews for the show.

If you’d like to catch Rosie on tour with Dirty Dancing, then click here for dates and venues.

Laura Murray, meanwhile, who plays Laura in Ur, has been cast as Lady Macbeth in a stage production of Shakespeare’s famous Scottish play, which will be held at an open air theatre venue in the grounds of Lady Margaret Hall, one of the University of Oxford’s prestigious colleges and halls.

Details of how to see Laura in Macbeth can be found here.

Finally, Alex Chevasco, who plays Alex in Ur, has been selected to take part in the Sundance Lab this year. The Sundance Lab has launched the careers of the likes of Paul Thomas Anderson. So this is exciting news indeed…

What great achievements by these Beg Steal Borrow collaborators. It is an honour for us to have worked with – and hopefully to continue working with – these wonderfully talented people.

We wish them luck over the summer and look forward to seeing them soon!

Ur Preview Screening Announced

Beg Steal Borrow News, Uncategorized

Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux will enjoy a preview screening at the prestigious Olympic Studios in Barnes.

The screening will take place at 10am on 25 May 2014.

If for any reason you have come across the film and would likle to attend, then please email us here.

The Olympic is the site where many of the world’s greatest music artists have recorded their work – including the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, The Jam, Pink Floyd, Duran Duran, Queen, Oasis, Barbara Streisand, Madonna, Prince and The Spice Girls.

Film-wise, the Olympic also features in Jean-Luc Godard’s film One Plus One/Sympathy for the Devil (UK, 1968), which is about the Rolling Stones.

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:-

Ur Teaser Online Now!

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

The first teaser for Ur: The End of Civilization in 90 Tableaux is now online!

The teaser features music from the multi-talented Giles Hayter, one of The King’s Will (with Musa Okwonga), who also provided music for Common Ground in the form of their excellent track ‘The Swords Are Coming.’

Giles has also recently found great success in the guise of Professor Mathmo, and his pedagogical album, Professor Mathmo and the Voyage to the Times Tables.

William is happy to confess that the trailer was also inspired by the trailer for Jean-Luc Godard’s Film Socialisme (2010).

Check it out!

Meanwhile, work on Ur is ongoing – we are now deep into post-production – and are hoping to have the film ready for screening in the not-too-distant future!