Dirty Oil screening & QA with Producer Mark Cranwell and Chris Shearlock

The Frontline Club are hosting a screening of Dirty Oil followed by a Q&A with Producer Mark Cranwell and Chris Shearlock, Environment Manager of The Co-operative Group

It is a little known fact that America imports the majority of its oil from Canada and not the Middle East. For years, Americans have been fueling what has been touted as the largest and most polluting industrial project on the planet today. Extracting oil from tar sands emits three times more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil and uses four times as much water and heat per barrel of oil. The demand and toll this process is taking on the land, air, water and wildlife around the Athabasca River and the downstream communities from Ft. McMurray is not only toxic but also irreversible. In early 2008 Babelgum, an online and mobile video service, which has a focus on environmental issues, commissioned its first original production from which Downstream and Dirty Oil are the result. Dirty Oil looks at an issue that is not just an Alberta or Canadian story but a global story. The oil sands have garnered an increasing amount of attention from all sides of the issue.

Narrated by Canadian actress Neve Campbell, this beautifully photographed feature documentary from Academy Award Nominated director Leslie Iwerks goes deep behind-the-scenes into the strip-mined world of Northern Alberta, Canada.

Here, vast and toxic oil sands supply the U.S. with the majority of its oil. Told through the eyes of scientists, "big oil" officials, politicians, doctors, environmentalists, and aboriginal citizens directly affected by "the largest industrial project on the planet today", the filmmakers journey to both sides of the border to uncover the emotional and irreversible impact this "black gold rush" is taking on our planet.

Dirty Oil is produced by Alberta born and Emmy Award winning producer Philip Alberstat, and co-produced by Mark Cranwell and Randy Bradshaw.

Director: Leslie Iwerks
Starring: Neve Campbell, Andrew Nikiforuk, Lester Brown, Mike Hudema
France 2009, 73 mins, English

Dirty Oil screening & QA with Producer Mark Cranwell and Chris Shearlock

Where:
The Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, London, W2 1QJ

When:
7:00pm, Fri 30 Jul, 2010

More info:
And tickets over at the Frontline's website or http://www.dirtyoil.co.uk/

Chris Rock QA & Screening of Good Hair

Good Hair is a comedy-documentary starring funnyman Chris Rock (EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS) that brings African-American hairstyles to the fore.

When Chris’s daughter, Lola, came up to him crying and asked, “Daddy, how come I don’t have good hair?” the dazed comic committed himself to finding out who had put that question into his little girl's head.

He began searching high and low through black culture to explore the multi-billion-dollar styling industry surrounding African-American hairstyles.

Discussing black celebrities’ personal experiences with their hair and the significant role that hair plays within the black community, GOOD HAIR is both an entertaining and eye-opening documentary that extracts cultural heritage from the most obvious if unlikely of roots.

The Ritzy Picturehouse are very excited to welcome Chris Rock to The Ritzy for an exclusive Q&A following a preview of his new film GOOD HAIR


Chris Rock QA & Screening of Good Hair

Where:
The Ritzy Picturehouse
Brixton Oval, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, SW2 1JG

When:
6:45pm, Mon 24 May, 2010

More info:
Over at the Ritzy Picturehouse website

Erasing David : UK Premiere & QA

David Bond lives in one of the most intrusive surveillance states in the world. He decides to find out how much private companies and the government know about him by putting himself under surveillance and attempting to disappear – a decision that changes his life forever. Leaving his pregnant wife and young child behind, he is tracked across the database state on a chilling journey that forces him to contemplate the meaning of privacy – and the loss of it.

Erasing David trailer from Green Lions on Vimeo.

Once the bastion of freedom and civil liberties, the UK is now one of the most advanced surveillance societies in the world – ranked third after Russia and China. The average UK adult is now registered on over 700 databases and is caught daily on one of the 4 million CCTV cameras located on nearly every street corner in the country. Increasingly monitored, citizens are being turned into suspects. But if you’ve got nothing to hide, surely there’s nothing to fear?

When David receives a letter informing him that his daughter Ivy is among 25 million residents whose details have been lost by the government’s Child Benefit Office, he begins a journey that will see him hounded across Europe.

David soon discovers some alarming truths about what the government and private companies already know about ordinary citizens. He meets people who have been caught in the crossfire of the database state and have had their lives shattered.

As his concern grows, he makes a life-changing decision. He will leave his pregnant wife and child behind and put himself under surveillance for thirty days. The UK’s top Private Investigators are hired to discover everything they can about him and his family – and track David down as he attempts to vanish. Is it still possible to live a private, anonymous life in the UK? Or do the state and private companies already know too much about ordinary people?

Erasing David is playing in cinemas from the 29th April. The 29th April is the big premiere evening – after the film there will be a live Q&A from the Brixton Ritzy that will get beamed to their other screens. Taking part in the debate are David Davis, Shami Chakrabarti, Michael Nyman, Will Self and David Bond, the director. Venues include:

Aberdeen – The Belmont Picturehouse

Bath – Little Theatre Cinema

Brighton – Duke Of Yorks Picturehouse

Cambridge – Arts Picturehouse

Edinburgh – The Cameo Cinema

Exeter – Exeter Picturehouse

Henley-On-Thames – Regal Picturehouse

Lancaster – The Dukes

Liverpool – Picturehouse at FACT

London – Brixton Ritzy – SOLD OUT PLEASE TRY ELSEWHERE

London - Islington Screen on The Green

London – The Lexi Kensal Rise

London - Greenwich Picturehouse

London – Stratford East Picturehouse

London – The Gate Notting Hill

Newcastle – Tyneside Cinema

Norwich – Cinema City

Oxford – The Phoenix

Prestatyn – The Scala

Southampton – Harbour Lights Picturehouse

Stamford – Stamford Arts Centre

Straford-upon-Avon – Stratford Picturehouse

Winchester - Screen at Winchester

York – City Screen York

Following on from the launch event Erasing David will take a tour around other cinemas, including:

May

8-9th Newbury Corn Exchange

24-27th Dundee Contemporary Arts

Erasing David : UK Premiere

More info over at: http://erasingdavid.com/

Starsuckers DVD gets a release date

Starsuckers, the highly controversial documentary about a media obsessed by celebrity will be available for purchase on 12 April.

With Starsuckers Chris Atkins, the director of BAFTA-nominated Taking Liberties takes us on a fascinating journey into the dark underbelly of modern media, uncovering the real reasons for our addiction to fame and blowing the lid on the corporations and individuals who profit from it as well as members of the public that are duped by the media machine.

A covert operation filmed over a 2-year period, the film uses a combination of previously unseen footage, undercover reporting and stunts that fool the public and the media alike as well as animation to reveal the toxic effect that the media is having on all of us including our children. It also argues how truth has become a distant memory in some modern news reporting and presentation, and climaxes with shocking revelations about Live 8.

Starsuckers peels back the onion skin and reveals dirty secrets like:
- How much Simon Cowell pays publicist Max Clifford.
- What the PR guru does to protect one of his influential clients who enjoys sex in public places.
- Would you like to know what Samuel L Jackson, Clint Eastwood, Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes think about celebrity culture and their fans.
- how to make a quick £600 for a fake story that a reporter is too lazy to substantiate.

Previously unseen bonus footage available exclusively on the DVD includes tongue-in-cheek interviews with 50 Cent, Samuel L Jackson, Keira Knightley, Clint Eastwood, Emma Watson, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Chris Noth, Jennifer Tilly, William Moseley, Eddie Izzard and Ralph Fiennes talking and their relationship with fame and their fans.

Atkins's previous film Taking Liberties (also known as Taking Liberties Since 1997) is a documentary film about the erosion of civil liberties in the United Kingdom and increase of surveillance under the government of Tony Blair released in 2007.


Starsuckers DVD gets a release date

When
Expected UK release date of 12th April 2010

More info over here at http://www.starsuckersmovie.com/ or follow Director Chris Atkins @atkinsc99 for updates.

We Live In Public Advance Screening

A documentary focusing on the life of dot-com entrepreneur Josh Harris, and his exploits over the last decade.



Ten years in the making and culled from 5000 hours of footage, WE LIVE IN PUBLIC reveals the effect the web is having on our society, as seen through the eyes of “the greatest Internet pioneer you’ve never heard of”, artist, futurist and visionary Josh Harris. Award-winning director Ondi Timoner (DIG! -- which also won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize in 2004 -- making Timoner the only director to win that prestigious award twice) documented his tumultuous life for more than a decade to create a riveting, cautionary tale of what to expect as the virtual world inevitably takes control of our lives.

Harris, often called the “Warhol of the Web”, founded Pseudo.com, the first Internet television network during the infamous dot-com boom of the 1990s. He also curated and funded the ground breaking project “Quiet” in an underground bunker in NYC where over 100 people lived together on camera for 30 days at the turn of the millennium. With Quiet, Harris proved how we willingly trade our privacy for the connection and recognition we all deeply desire, but with every technological advancement such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, becomes more elusive. Through his experiments, including a six-month stint living with his girlfriend under 24-hour electronic surveillance which led to his mental collapse, Harris demonstrated the price we pay for living in public.

Advance Screening We Live In Public

Where
Vue West End
3 Cranbourne Street, London

When
3:30pm, Tues 27 Oct 2009

Tickets for Monday's screening of Disney's Crimson Flight & QA available

One lake, a million birds, an incredible story

In a remote and forgotten wilderness, one of nature's last great mysteries unfolds: the birth, life and survival of a million crimson-winged flamingos. Against the dramatic backdrop of unforgiving, never-before filmed landscapes, we follow the birth of a tiny flamingo hatchling, and the perils and fortunes of her life in the extraordinary 'other world' of Lake Natron in northern Tanzania.

The first title to be released under the new Disneynature label, THE CRIMSON WING will take you on a breathtaking and beautiful journey through a story that only nature itself could tell.

To download tickets simply go to www.seefilmfirst.com and enter code: 482610

The film starts at 6.30pm. Seefilmfirst tickets must be changed for cinema tickets at the cinema Box Office by 6.15pm. There will be a Q&A with the films producers and director at the end.

Where
Cineworld Haymarket
63-65 Haymarket, London, SW1Y 4RL

When
6.15 for 6:30pm, 21 September, 2009

Preview of Big River Man and Q&A session with the Big River Man himself, in London

This formidable documentary follows overweight, middle-aged, alcoholic Slovenian daredevil environmentalist Martin Strel on a journey down the Amazon. Facing crocodiles, toxic waste, whirlpools, giant anacondas and piranhas, Strel attempts to swim the length of the mighty river, a seemingly impossible challenge that John Maringouin (director of a coruscating 2006 documentary about his father, Running Stumbled) captures in vivid style.

Preview Wednesday 2 September with a Q&A session featuring Martin Strel.

Preview of Big River Man and Q&A
Wednesday 2 September 2009 at 6:30pm
ICA Institute of Contemporary Arts
12 Carlton House Terrace
London, England SW1Y 5AH

A special preview screening of ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL and Q&A WITH ANVIL

PREPARE TO ROCK WHEN ANVIL COMES TO CURZON SOHO

Let down your hair and head bang your heart out when Anvil rock up at Curzon Soho. The (almost) legendary band will answer your questions after a special preview screening of the new documentary following their attempts at a comeback.ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL chronicles the journey of Toronto school friends Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner after they made a pact to rock together forever. Their band, Anvil, went on to become the "demigods of Canadian metal," releasing one of the heaviest albums in metal history, 1982's Metal on Metal. The album influenced a musical generation, including Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax, that went on to sell millions of records. But Anvil's career took a different path - straight to obscurity. Director Sacha Gervasi has concocted a wonderful and often hilarious account of Anvil's last-ditch quest for elusive fame and fortune. His ingenious filmmaking may first lead you to think this a mockumentary, but it isn't. Sundance Film Festival

"The best documentary I've seen in years!" Michael Moore

A special preview screening of ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL and Q&A WITH ANVIL
Tuesday February 17, 2009 at 6:30pm
Curzon Soho
99 Shaftesbury Avenue
London, England W1D 5DY

"Possibly the greatest film yet made about rock and roll." The Times

Preview of fan made Banksy documentary

I have found a film about Banksy! Want to know more? Ring 07590 584422

A year in the making, the participation of countless Banksy fans, 20 hours of footage.

I'm looking forward to seeing Dominic Wade's the final cut.

IMAX preview screening of STEEP

We are delighted to invite you to an exclusive IMAX preview screening of 'STEEP'. The screening is taking place on Saturday 20th September at the awesome BFI IMAX, Waterloo, London.

THE FILM WILL START PROMPTLY, but we advise that you aim to arrive at the cinema 30 minutes earlier. You will not be sent tickets. Your name has been added to the guest list which will be on the door on the morning of the screening. We look forward to seeing you there,

Warning: You're about to experience the most breath-taking, exhilarating and inspirational ride of your life.

Tickets for screening of Steep, originally uploaded by Craig Grobler.

The world's best skiers go beyond their dreams to conquer the steepest runs ever faced. These extremers risk their lives for a thrill but what a thrill it is. Fantastically beautiful images of the most magnificent peaks on the globe along with devastating avalanches and fatal spills only serve to push them harder.

London IMAX, originally uploaded by Craig Grobler.

'Awesome...breath-taking' The Cooler
'Very impressive' Empire
'Looks so perfect you're be hard pressed to believe it wasn't CGI.
Catch it an an IMAX if you can.' Little White Lies

Featuring Seth Morrison and the late Doug Coombs, Steep is a feature documentary about bold adventure, exquisite athleticism and the pursuit of a perfect moment on skis.

Steep (Digital Cinema Presentation) opens exclusively at the BFI IMAX on 26 September.

The London IMAX screen, originally uploaded by Craig Grobler.

For more details go to www.bfi.org.uk/imax
See the trailer at www.nevertoosteep.com