It’s time to talk face to face

23 January 2015

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Dan Higgins is an author who has written for the BBC, the New Statesman, the Independent and many other publications.

For years, Pure Movies has existed to provide film criticism and inform debate on mainstream and independent releases. In that time, we’ve covered some great moments: Zach Braff on the end of Scrubs, Erik Gandini after being banned from Venice Film Festival, and Danny Dyer revealing he wanted to headbutt Mark Kermode are certainly among them. Last year, we relaunched the site under the Jean-Luc Godard quote “If you have something to say, there is only one solution: say it”  and it is in that spirit that I am delighted to announce our first film festival.

And we definitely have a lot to talk about. It’s time to talk about the under-representation of women in film with top women producers and directors and explore how the industry needs to change that. It’s time to discuss the ‘male gaze’, feminist ratings and the Bechdel Test. It’s time to talk about the portrayal of violence in film with the people who write the roles, and explore censorship with the people who decide what does and doesn’t get seen. We want the opportunity to dive in face first, mouth open, into the hidden, forgotten, and overlooked cultural eddies in London. We want to explore film, punk, art, and debate in venues as surprising as the content. We want the uncompromising, the enlightening, and the just plain fun. And we think we’ve created the perfect forum for it

Trash Cannes: London will take place over two nights. On 13 February, we’ll be at the Cinema Museum in Lambeth with the incredible Umit Mesut (watch the award-winning short film about him here). As well as being the most instagram-friendly place known to humans, it’s also where Charlie Chaplin grew up so Umit will be projecting some rare Chaplin shorts. We’ll then turn our attention to Women in Film with shorts, a feature film, some jazz and a panel discussion around the topic “What does true gender representation look like in film?” which will include Faye Ward (the producer of Suffragette)  and many more wonderful and interesting guests we’ll be announcing in the coming days.

For the second night, we head to an underground boxing gym in Euston where Strong Asian Mothers will play remixes of boxing songs in and amongst a sparring showcase. Our panel on violence in film will include Brock Norman Brock (the screenwriter of Bronson), Dougie Brimson (the screenwriter of Green Street), Oliver Kassman (Qwerty Films) and Lucy Brett (BBFC). We’ll look at what does and doesn’t pass the censors and host an in ring screening of Bronson.

It’ll be unexpected, sometimes subversive but always informative.

It’ll be Trash Cannes, and I hope you can make it.

More info here: www.puremovies.co.uk/trashcannes

 

 

 

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