Portobello Film Festival

Good news for London film buffs: cinema doesn’t go on holiday! The Portobello Film Festival will be take place from 2nd to 21st August throughout North Kensington and Portobello in a variety of venues including the Electric Cinema, the Westbourne Grove Church and the Inn On The Green.

Even better news: the it’s completely free. The PFF aims to revive the good old days of the Portobello era – when it  was home to both hippies and punks, before its renowned Market became a tourist trap and house prices sky-rocketed.

Now in its 12th year, the PFF is the biggest international independent film festival in Europe, with over 700 films screened. Previous award winners have become synonymous with edgy cinema: Shane Meadows (Dead Man’s Shoes, This Is England) and Guy Ritchie (Snatch).

This year, PFF director Jonathan Barnett has gathered an army of young directors and film legends who will entertain a crowd of an expected 15,000 people.

Director Nicolas Roeg will introduce a screening of his classic debut film Performance (1970) starring Mick Jagger. Julien Temple is to offer an exclusive view on his latest work Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten.   and writer/broadcaster Molly Parkin and director John Maybury will remember their drinking days with Francis Bacon to accompany a screening of Maybury's Love Is The Devil (1998), a biography of the tormented artist.

Three exciting and unusual events that blend culture with reality and emotion.
But the events focused on the present state of cinema look to be even more interesting: pacifist associationFilmmakers Against War will programme an evening of six films in order to raise awareness of UK and International War Laws and ask for those who break them to be tried by  justice (see www.filmmakersagainstwar.org).

Canadian filmmaker Martin Robertson, director of the National Ecology Film Festival, hosts two nights of films about the environment and how mankind can help protecti it – or merely stop destroying it.
Then the audience will have the chance to meet British award-winning director Barney Platts- Mills, who is making a magic realist film in Morocco using totally untrained locals from the region of Tangers - check out www.platts-mills.com for more info.
Being London and the most ethnically diverse town of the world (and everyone should be proud of it!), it is natural that the PFF is going to screen films from  all over the world: Turkey and Iran, Singapore and Brazil, with some great animations from the USA, comic films in abundance from Australia, top German documentaries and Nigerian horror.
Dynamic black culture is represented by satirical filmmakers Black Eye and documentary makers Rice N Peas based in Ladbroke Grove, whereas  Mathieu Kassovitz’s (director of The Crimson Rivers, and star of Amélie and Munich) Shorts Collective Kortrajme will screen a selection of political films from the Parisian suburbs.
By the way: short films!
Because not everyone wants to sit through a feature film, especially in August.

For them, the PFF has set up a huge program of shorts that were previewed at the Launch Party held in the stylish Cobden Club in Kensal Road.
Highlights include Mark Jackson’s punkish, sarcastic views on English society, Ben Hilton’s fanta-political take on the film industry and Steve Webb’s look on the the funny side of – death!
An unusual and ironic program that is designed for a young and fresh audience who enjoy a laidback and friendly film experience.
Yet the PFF doesn’t just focus on cinema: it also features a massively developed performing arts programme to include magicians, street  performers, theatre troupes, poets and the like.
Indie record label  Rough Trade (who publishes, among others, Arcade Fire, The Strokes and The Libertines) will be programming an event to showcase new upcoming  bands under the common flag of Magic.

With so much going on, Portobello will be the place to be this summer season.

www.portobellofilmfestival.com

Vera Brozzoni

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