- Movies by talented UK-based directors screened in Indy Film Library’s first UK event in partnership with myDylarama
- Films shown at London’s The Garden Cinema from 17:30 on February 25th 2024
- Selection included Paula Romero’s dance short Isolation Terminal, Kino Lee’s meditative experimental film ‘Huo Zhe‘, and Felix Davidson’s haunting existentialist animation ‘Brown Bread‘
To celebrate its fifth anniversary, Indy Film Library (IFL) has held its first showcase in a UK cinema. Hosted in collaboration with The Garden Cinema and film collective myDylarama, the event welcomed artists and audiences from around the world.
Speaking at the showcase, host and IFL jury-member John Ranson said, “I’m glad there was a spontaneous round of applause – may I suggest we have another one? All the films were magnificent, and I feel better in all sorts of different ways for having seen them. They are films that make us think, films that make us feel, so thank you to everyone who helped to make them!”
The programme put together a selection of the best works from mostly UK-based filmmakers that IFL has received since 2019. The inaugural IFL annual showcase in Amsterdam coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic, so international travel has previously been an issue for filmmakers outside the Netherlands to attend.
Kino Lee, London-based director of experimental short Huo Zhe – in which a previously still pool of water erupts into anger over an increasingly frenetic score – said in the event’s Q&A, “I think that [this] film has never been on the big screen before – and I haven’t watched it back in at least a year, so it was great to see it like this, and hear the sound!”
Speaking on her creative process, she added, “This was my first film, I am a musician. We actually shot it in Taiwan… Overall, it turned out better than I thought, I was basically just gaining experience through the process, and the music to compliment the picture only came at the end, to create an arc of moving from harmony to chaos and back to calmness.”
Short interviews with five of the filmmakers followed the screening. The full video of their answers can be found below.
Other highlights of the eclectic programme included Will Priddis’ bitter-sweet family comedy People Who Pretend to Be Crows in their Spare Time, Paula Romero’s high-energy dance film Isolation Terminal and Felix Davidson’s feverish animated meditation on mortality Brown Bread. But while the films each might sound on paper as though they were chalk and cheese, the programme was drawn together by some common themes, according to IFL Chief Editor Jack Benjamin.
Commenting on the event, he added, “From its very beginning, the IFL project has had something of a dual personality. While I am based in the Netherlands and will soon have hosted four showcases in cinemas there, I have always wanted to do something back in the UK – and to show my appreciation to the filmmakers there who have taken a chance on our platform over the years.
“I think on that basis, it’s been really fitting that all of these films have a common thread – whatever their subject, form or tone – of introspection, and trying to come to terms with conflicting parts of ourselves; our environments, pasts and personalities. Be that a young woman trying to reconcile the expectations that come with her Mandarin and English-speaking identities in Where Am I?; a father battling with alcoholism while hoping to rescue his relationship with his daughter in Always Summer; or even a seaside resort having to reckon with the nine months of the year where its recently bustling centre becomes a ghost-town during off-peak.
“From the perspective of programming this event, putting these films together has helped me think about my own work, and the IFL project going forward, and I’d like to thank myDylarama and The Garden Cinema for their help in making this event happen! Hopefully we’ll be back with another UK event, sooner rather than later.”