URBAN SCREEN is scheduled to show LOOKING FOR ERIC, at our next screening at The Albany on March 10.

And the fabulous news is that Sixteen Films have just confirmed that Ken Loach will come and take part in the Q&A.

We are planning to show two additional short films, BALE by Andy Ryder, which was finished by the Maya Vision finishing fund, and also N25 by Treasa O’Brien which is a Goldsmith’s graduation film.

URBAN SCREEN’s busy & successful week continued with a screening of THE FIRM, by the much admired Nick Love, at The Albany in Deptford .

This was to coincide with the DVD release, and we had wanted Warner Brothers to help us do a really big screening seeing as we are located in THE FIRM territory, and also NICK LOVE territory.  But they just ignored us.

So we did it anyway, and we were able to get some of the fabulous cast to come down to take part in a Q&A. Calum Macnab was brilliant to come, as was Eddie Webber, DOP Matt Gray.

THE FIRM is a brilliant film, and you could feel the enjoyment of the audience.

Being URBAN SCREEN, we have found that we spend a lot of time showing films with graphic violence, drugs, council estates, swearing and much more and THE FIRM did definitely contain all of these attributes as well.

But the lighthearted 80’s soulful soundtrack is an absolute winner - worth watching the movie just for this! However, one also has to applaud the relationship between Dom and Bex.  This really was a coming of age story and it was actually touching how Bex took Dom under his wing, and Dom looked up to Bex.  Despite Bex’s violent tendencies, one had to admire how he flitted between football hooliganism, father and husband, role model for Dom, all whilst holding down a good office job.

We also showed two shorts, one was BE ME, by Farhan Qureshi, about football racism.  And also LITTLE PRINCE by David Anderson, presently studying film at LFS.  LITTLE PRINCE offered some profound surprises as what started as a stereotypical geezer in a nightclub story turned out to be a slice of social reportage on the cruelties going on in Zimbabwe. This must be seen!

The Q&A was equally colourful with Calum and Eddie, offering anecdotal stories on Nick Love’s obsession with 80s detail and their own experiences growing up in South East London.

It was a great night had by all.

Last night I attended the Screen Nation awards held at the BAFTAs in Piccadilly London W1.

There was no red carpet but there was a crowd of people waiting to get in and of course, there was the customary photographers.

We were ushered in quickly, meeting Noel Clarke on the stairs going in.  Once inside there was a myriad of different areas. I didnt’ realise that the award ceremony was split into two.  The Honorary Awards and then the awards for up and coming talent.

The Honorary awards is where the famous people and the bigger awards were happening. Guests here enjoyed a three course dinner and champagne!

Upstairs and in the movie theatre was where the other awards were happening.

I think its a shame the two awards were separated as it would have been much more cohesive and atmospheric to have it all in the same space.  Poor Josie D’Arby had to run up and downstairs.

Nevertheless, the place was abuzz with with air kissing and very glamorous dresses and jewellery.

All activities were very late starting and there was an air of disorganistion to the event. Despite this in some ways it makes the event more relaxed although, I think in order to be taken seriously in future the event does have to be tightened up.

There were familiar faces such as Ashley Walters, Don Warrington, the cast and crew from Adulthood and the Bill and Hollyoaks.  Also there were indie filmmakers, Neil Reidman, Wayne Saunders and Lawrence Coke who are of course, well known to www.TheScreen.Biz.

In fact Lawrence Coke won the Independent Spirit award which further pushes him along the route to mainstream acceptance. Perhaps in a few years he will be nominted for a BAFTA.

Other winners were Adam Deacon for his role in Adulthood, Emerging Talent was won by Nonso Anozie for Cass, Diversity in Factual was won by Black, Black, Power Salute!, Diversity in Drama was won by The Bill, Best Music won by Bashy.

Despite the lack of organisation it is the only event awarding black talent, and there certainly was an array of talent on display as well as the filmmakers there was Suede rapping, Yolanda Brown playing her saxophone and a fabulous fashion show.

We will be looking forward to next year!

Tomorrow sees the UK release of the film “W”.  All about George W. Bush.  And boy, following the ground breaking, earth shattering, all emotional, change of the world’s fortunes, after the US election and the success of Obama winning the US Presidency, we can now watch this film with a more relaxed demeanour.

It is  good film, directed by Oliver Stone, who is known to tackle controversial topics. It is very well casted with Josh Brolin, recently in American Gangster and No Country for Old Men, acting as the president. He plays him expertly, we even like him. He is potrayed, from the beginning as having behavioural and drink problems, he plays second-fiddle to his brother and is constantly chasing the affection and approval of his father, Bush senior.

It is interesting that Bush junior realises the American dream and fights for his position and manages to receive the ultimate accolade, the US Presidency.

Perhaps, this is why at this moment Bush can admire how far Obama has come. 

Bush has been portrayed as a “nice” guy, albeit with issues, which makes him even more human, a bit bullish and headstrong, he is not evil as such, but he makes mistakes because he’s misguided and shallow and maybe a bit simple and stupid. He unfortunately encompasses all that America is today. A disaster!

We see how his close advisers such as Cheney and Rumsfeld, orchestrate the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.  They don’t really care about weapons of mass destruction, but are clearly intent on grabbing all the world’s oil lands and creating world domination. Bush himself looks dismayed and even admits it all sounds a bit scary but he goes along with it.

The main message throughout the film is that Bush has made a big mess, he knows it, but doesn’t know what to do, and the ultimate humiliation is that his father is ashamed that he has ruined the Bush legacy.

George W. Bush never seemed in control, he is portrayed as a charicature of a southern US President, and at the moment the most powerful country in the world is a joke, a parody of itself.

It’s good to hear Obama talk about founding fathers, democracy and liberty and truth. 

The US really does need to back to the drawing board.

Let’s hope Obama can save the world!

Yesterday I attended an large event hosted by The Times BFI London Film Festival. It was called “Power to the Pixel”.

Its director, Liz Rosenthal, described the event as looking ahead to the “power of the Internet and digital platforms” and how it can “offer new opportunities for those creators and companies that can no longer effectively function within the old film business”.  Apparently some of the big players acknowledge “the sky is really falling” in the independent film business.

This event indeed was a focussed insight into the world of the internet, which as the day proceeded, it became very apparent was a very different animal to that of the movie making world of old.

The internet is highly accessible, democratic, unsupervised and free whereas the traditonal film-making world is elitist, closed, favours the well-off, and is very regulated and is highly monetised.

How can the two world possibly mix.

The event opened with a very competent but lateral description of the various platforms that any film-maker now has to be able to address, before even writing a script. Be it, film, online, gaming, virtual reality etc, etc. Its all exciting if you enjoy all these mediums but if you just want to shoot a movie it is highly distracting.  Other speakers on the stage were Brian Newman of the Tribeca Film Institute, who gave us a detailed description of how the back catalogue of TFI was now available through Amazon.  Its interesting how he viewed Amazon as an OK place to sell high quality material.