HAS FilmFest

The Hampstead Authors' Society

The HAS FilmFest 2004

Screenings, Feedback and Reviews

Titles

There's Something I Must Tell You

by David de Keyser

'Lifelong friendship, memory and war.'

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Polanow

by Sabrina Doyle

'She was born there. Now – for love’s sake – he must go there.'

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Allegro Barbaro

by Zsuzsanna Ardó

'A concert pianist's art - and life - fall out of balance.'

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Change Alley

by Martin Jago and Alexander McConnell

'A chance encounter between a city worker and a homeless man - two sides
of the same coin.'

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The Herb Garden

by Jacob Sager Weinstein

'Stolen herbs, stolen kisses, stolen hearts.'

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Life is a Circus

by Ras Barker

'The story of a young loner searching for his destiny.'

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The Author

by Sasha Collington

'Nobody wants his masterpiece - until he takes drastic action.'

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Feedback and Reviews

The first HAS film festival - a dignified affair.

Although our venue was the historic Everyman Cinema's high-tech digital projection suite, complete with angular, Swedish-style sofas, and the pungent smell of fresh paint, we might as well have been in an oak-panelled private members' club, toasting the Empress of India, and knocking back vintage claret as if it was water.

There's no two ways about it. This was old world. But, for once, I didn't find it stuffy or out of touch. All too often these days, it's the movers and the shakers of the film industry who set the film debating agenda. The emphasis is on stars, budgets and ticket sales, with even short films now subject to corporate pressures.

The HAS film festival was a breath of fresh air in all this. I stood up, along with other filmmakers, in front of an eclectic mix of authors and critics most of whom seemed not overly impressed by the practicalities and the process of making a film, and the sorts of compromises you have to make. Those of us who practise the seventh art and aren't Peter 'Big Spender' Jackson often have embittered thoughts, of which 'with a book, your only limitation is the grey matter between your ears; when making a film, you have everything from the weather to the personalities of your crew to contend with' is just one.

I started off badly. I spoke about the pros and cons of using digital technology. Blank faces. I had to remind myself that this audience of writers wasn't likely to dabble in anything as vulgar as technology, and that even the transition from fountain pen to ballpoint had probably proved traumatic for some of them. A sad fact: it's all too easy as a filmmaker to become obsessed with your movie-making toys, and lose sight of what really matters.

What does matter then? What mattered to this literati audience? I decided it was a mixture of ideas and feelings - lofty idealism married with minute, painstaking observations.

I started: 'With Polanow, I wanted a frozen landscape to reflect the end of a young couple's relationship.'

And suddenly I was off. Not that they gave me an easy time of it. They were like a pack of hungry wolves, closing in on me as I flung limp meat in their direction. They weren't satisfied by my lifeless 'behind the scenes' anecdotes - the sort of stuff film festival audiences and gossip magazines often thrive on. No - this audience asked about plot, character, back-story. I realised I wasn't going home until they'd got to the heart of my film - and me.

It occurred to me then that I'd been duped. This wasn't your usual film festival at all; it was a gathering of writers who breathe character psychology if not psychiatry. Of course. I should have guessed. After all, we were in Hampstead, home of Freud, not downtown L.A.

I decided to play the game. I let down my guard and used the sorts of words career filmmakers would only utter nowadays in their dreams: symbolism, narrative, themes, tones and aesthetics.
This was transference in action. The idealists sitting opposite me weren't film industry A-list. Yet I felt legitimised by them. My guilty secret - the fact I believe in film as an art form - was out in the open, and I was being forgiven.

Two wonderful things happened during the festival.
First, I saw a gem of a film, directed by David de Keyser. Its theme of WW2 veterans on the road in France, revisiting battle sites and cemeteries, in search of a wartime girlfriend, is an evocative depiction of memory, all the more touching for being twice removed - we were watching it thirty years later.

Second, I realised the importance of critics, high-minded individuals who scrutinise films for their structural, thematic, and symbolic content, and judge them by that elusive criterion known as art. Suddenly, the glorious days of the Cahiers du cinema didn't seem so distant.

So thank you HAS for doing something very unusual - and very brave. And that's running a film event as if it were a literary event, with vigorous intellectual debate, and good, old-fashioned idealism. Maybe you could teach the pseuds at Cannes a thing or two.
Sabrina Doyle

This was the only film festival I've been to where each short film was
followed by a discussion with the director. I thought that added a huge
amount to the festival. As an audience member, I enjoyed hearing not
just what the director had to say about his or her intentions, but also
how my fellow audience members reacted to the film. And as a filmmaker,
it was flattering to receive such a positive and thoughtful response.
Jacob Sager Weinstein

Just to let you know how much I enjoyed the film day. I do hope you'll
do it again. I thought all the films shown were brilliant with their own
special and strong voices and all had an amazing impact for such short
works. I still see images from them with the greatest pleasure.
Cassandra Clark

I thought the film fest was great - the best HAS event I've been to -
all the films differently powerful and in a perfect sequence. Looking
forward to Film Fest 2 - so we can do and see some more of
the things planned for yesterday.
Julia Munrow

Thanks for asking me to come along - I did enjoy it, very much so, and
it was wonderful to have some intelligent debate."
Sabrina Doyle

I thought the venue was great - the right blend of informality and ideal
facilities. I liked the format. It was useful getting others' responses
to the films and learning more about what went into the making of them.
The films complemented each other well, and provided a good
self-contained unit, interspersed as they were with the
discussion/analysis. And the meal afterwards provided a nice touch -
rounded off the event very pleasantly. Thank you very much for making
the filmfest happen - I hope you and the 'production' team agree that
you've set a great precedent.
Lindsay Hossack

What a pleasure it was to see a number of films, including my own,
watched attentively by an informed and inquisitive audience. The
discussions between the film-makers and the audience after each viewing
were of a very high standard, and promises well for future HAS
festivals. After all, film making will possibly become the most
widespread 'people's art' of the 21st century.
David de Keyser

I really enjoyed it. I think it's a great forum to show films and
receive direct audience feedback. The programme was well put together
and all the films had different narrative styles. It was also good to be
reminded that film is a medium which can be exploited in different ways
to explore themes and issues as well as straightforward text based
narrative. All the films that were shown immersed the audience in their
respective worlds by using sound design, style of shooting, lighting and
editing. I look forward to the next one.
Alexander Browne

The first Filmfest for HAS at the Everyman Cinema. A digital screening
room with chairs to sink your head back into, cushions and carpets, rich
colours. Film-makers themselves there for us to tell us what inspired
them, everything from making a film about obstinacy in a white
wilderness that led the film-maker finally to Poland in sub-zero
temperatures and English sub-titles to a director who solved the problem
of a 48-hour deadline by making the programme in stills that came alive.
A screening programme of rich variety: lives of a businessman and
down-and-out parallel in time and space, two old men who’d been friends
for 70 years going back to a WWI battlefield but where the real quest is
for Louise and a many-layered exploration of grief set to a piece by
Bartók. What more do we want, except further HASFilmFests?

Pat Farrington