Kick Ass opens the Russian Standard Vodka Film Festival

Russian Standard Vodka is delivering the very best in exclusive music and film experiences, with a night that takes Russian Standard Vodka Originals in a whole new direction.

On Tuesday 31st August, the Russian Standard Vodka Film Festival opens in real style as a guest-list-only audience enjoys the comic book hero film ‘Kick Ass’ – plus a Q&A session with creator, Mark Millar at the Everyman Cinema in London’s Belsize Park.

Dave Lizewski is an unnoticed high school student and comic book fan with a few friends and who lives alone with his father. His life is not very difficult and his personal trials not that overwhelming. However, one day he makes the simple decision to become a super-hero even though he has no powers or training. Written by Daniel J. Leary

Director: Matthew Vaughn
Starring: Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong, Chloe Moretz, Nicholas Cage
UK/US 2010, 117 mins

Kick Ass opens the Russian Standard Vodka Film Festival

More info:
Over at the RSVOriginals website

QA Director Marc Caro & The City of Lost Children

Intricate producton design (by Caro and Jean Rabasse), a battery of special effects, Jean-Paul Gaultier costumes and a richly atmospheric score by Angelo Badalamenti all combine to create a dazzlingly surreal, post-apocalyptic world that frames the hunt for a kidnapped boy after a circus strongman's little brother goes missing. Not only creators of their own universe, Caro and Jeunet are also storytellers who inspire some beautifully shaded performances from a distinctive cast.

A dazzlingly surreal post-apocalyptic world frames the hunt for a kidnapped boy.

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro
Starring: Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon
France-Germany-Spain, 1995, 112 mins

QA Director Marc Caro & The City of Lost Children

Where:
BFI Southbank,Belvedere Road, London, England SE1 8XT

When:
8:10pm, Thurs 5 Aug, 2010

More info:
Over at the BFI website

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/

Psychosis Premiere & QA

In 1992 a group of young Anarchists braved the snow covered wilderness to set up camp against the construction of a motorway by-pass. A terrible fate awaited them. 15 years later Susan, a successful horror novelist and sensitive soul relocates from her native California to the rural English countryside in search of peace. The newly-wed finds it in an idyllic, remote Hamlet. It is here that Susan's living nightmare unfolds.

Join the Prince Charles Cinema on Tues 13th July for the Theatrical Premiere and Cast & Crew screening of Reg Traviss's horror flick Psychosis. Starring Charisma Carpenter and lead singer of the newly re-formed The Darkness, Justin Hawkins!

Director: Reg Traviss
Starring: Charisma Carpenter, Paul Sculfor, Ricci Harnett, Justin Hawkins, Axelle Carolyn

UK, 2010, 89 mins, English

Psychosis Premiere & QA

Where:
The Prince Charles Cinema7 Leicester Place, London, WC2H 7BY

When:
8:30pm, Tues 13 Jul, 2010

More info:
Over at the Prince Charles website

QA Chris Morri & screening of Four Lions

Chris Morris (the master satirist behind The Day Today and Brass Eye) turns his piercing critique to the subject of terrorism with Four Lions, the story of a group of British jihadists who push their abstract dreams of glory to the breaking point. In a storm of razor-sharp, verbal jousting and large-scale set pieces, Four Lions is a comic tour de force. Based on three years of research, surveillance materials from major trials and meetings with everyone from imams to ex-mujahedeen, Morris and his co-writers move beyond seeing these young men as unfathomably alien or evil, and instead portray them as human beings, who, as we all know, are innately ridiculous.

Curzon Cinemas is proud to welcome back master satirist Chris Morris to join them for a post-screening discussion after the screening of his feature film Four Lions at Curzon Soho, Thursday 1st July, 6.30pm.


Director:Catherine Corsini
Starring:Yvan Attal, Sergi Lopez, Kristin Scott Thomas

France 2009, 86 mins, French with English subtitles

QA Chris Morri & screening of Four Lions

Where:
Curzon Soho, 99 Shaftesbury Avenue W1D 5DY

When:
6:30pm, Thurs 1 July, 2010

More info:
Over at the Curzon website