So… been a while and that…

Its been a while – the above was taken in chorlton ees on the first frost of the year… i took the picture and then realised it looks an awful lot like one i took as part of the pic of the day.. i obviously need more inspiration

Anyway, if you are in any way shape or form interested in what i have been up to, or maybe just bored at work – click on – Jello Biafra, Joe Simpson and Belfast kids throwing themselves off Fair Head – together in one blog post… and i haven’t even got to the Slovkian cavers in Venezuela

Went to see Jello Biafra in Manchester, coupla weeks back – it was…. not bad – I’ve been a fan since young, being a big Dead Kennedys fan, and I liked his stuff with DOA, Lard and his spoken word that he did with Ministry. The show started great but began to get a bit lost later – think he was preaching to the converted and the audience had probably heard much the same content done much better in a Mark Thomas show. Also, him desribing East Bay Ray and Klaus Flouride as ‘republicans’ didn’t sit that well with me..

Then about a week later it was up to the Kendal Mountain Film Festival – this is something of a regular event for me and something that I love – this year was, what was billed as “the big screen premiere of The Beckoning Silence” – from the same team that brought us Touching the Void apparently… now ‘big screen premiere obviously gives them some room for movement – but i can’t help but being a little disapointed when the film was shown on Channel 4, 3 weeks previous, it was actually out on DVD by the time we had come to see it – and ‘the same team that brought you Touching the Void’ doesn’t, it would seem include director Kevin MacDonald… which given Joe Simpsons words about him before this film does not come as much surprise, i don’t think there is much love lost between them.

Despite all that, the film is great, you have probably all seen it on channel 4 by now so i barely need to go over what it is about, but seeing it on one of only 2 HD Projectors in the country, on a big screen really was good – despite most of the audience having seen it before there were still quite a few sobbing quietly as the film came to its close.

The rest of the films at Kendal this year ranged from the usual things that you have seen on tv like a Ray Mears and a Jack Osbourne show to films of nutters base jumping, snowboarding off improbable mountains and the usual – but there were 2 films that shone for me.

First was ‘Underdeveloped’ – Now this is not usually the type of thing i go for, i find the ‘extreme sports’ end of kendal film festival to be a very samey collection of loud techno / nu-punk while fast editing and sub-jackass outtakes rumble on and at the end the viewer is left confused with a pounding headache and wondering how these kids of 19 can afford to throw themselves out of planes over Chamonix – but Bouldering is different, and Bouldering Irish style is different again… and Bouldering Belfast style? i guess that is the most different:

Now, of course, I am biased – this film is set in and around areas i know very well, Fair Head, Cave Hill, The Mournes and The Burren in Clare but i think that even if you didn’t know this area, this is still a film that would make you smile – its the kids involved, like the ASBO’d version of the Belfast Gang from ‘Why Don’t You’ they throw themselves up ridiculous climbs, demonstrating fantastic technical abilty and scant regard for basic safety as well as an ambiguous ethical policy of cutting bolts out of rock face yet putting them into victorian bridges. The music is all over the place, some techno, some punk, some rock – all at different volumes and the picture quality is at times ropey, and this is normally the sort of thing that I hate about these films, but it really did add to this, making it more endearing. The film made no apologies for their limited budget or production values – this was a film made out of sheer love for what they do, and its all the better for it. I just hope they don’t stop with this and make a follow up – there is a great story to be told about the Irish Climbing / bouldering /cliff jumping scene and these are just the people to tell it.

The next film couldn’t be more different, Tepuy, is the name given to a Table-Top mountain in South America – and this documentary tells of a Slovakian team of cavers who are asked to explore it.. they hear about it first from some fairly mysterious emails, someone sends them a picture they look and agree that its a cave opening, then their phone rings, its the sender of the email, he wants to know what they think of the photograph – they tell him it looks like to the entrance to a cave, the voice asks inceredulously ‘what about the helicopters?’ they look again at the photograph…

This film, Tepuy, just blew my mind, following scientists and crew as they explore one of the worlds last great unknowns, discovering new species of flora and fauna seemingly, with every turn – its fantastically exciting and jaw droppingly beautiful.

2 very different films and just part of the reason why I love Kendal Mountain Film Festival so much – yes, there are a lot of films that you have seen on TV, but there are also wonderful films that you would not otherwise get the chance to see.

Oh, and its an excuse to get back up to Cumbria again.

This entry was posted on November 30th, 2007 and is filed under General Blather. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.