SHORTS PLAYING BEFORE FEATURES - Raindance Film Festival

EXHIBIT A
THURSDAY 4 OCTOBER AT 6:30PM
Running Time 85 mins Format Mini-DV Director/Screenplay Dom Rotheroe Producer
Darren Bender DoP Rob Hardy Cast Angela Forrest, Bradley Cole, Brittany Ashworth Print
Source Bigger Pictures Email darren@biggerpictures.co.uk
THE INHERITANCE
SATURDAY 7 OCTOBER AT 4:30PM
RT 57 mins Ft Mini-DV Dir Charlie Henry Belleville Prods Tim
Barrow S’play Tim Barrow DoP Chris Beck Cast Tim Barrow,
Fraser Sivewright, Imogen Toner P/S tjbarrow@hotmail.com
Playing with The Bridge 29 mins
THE KILLING OF JOHN LENNON
SUNDAY 30 SEPEMBER AT 7:15PM
Running Time 114 mins Format 35mm, Super-8mm
Director/Screenplay Andrew Piddington Producers Rakha
Singh, Sabrina Tubio-Cid DoP Roger Eaton Cast Jonas Ball,
Thomas A McMahon, Joe Abbate, Robert C Kirk Print Source
mervyn.andrews@theworksmediagroup.com
58 FIFTEENTH RAINDANCE FILM FESTIVAL
IN COMPETITION
IN COMPETITION
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SCREENING SPONSOR
Exhibit A is the videotape of evidence captured on a young girl’s new camcorder,
which reveals snippets of the family’s last few weeks leading up to
‘the incident’. We are first introduced to this suburban family as the girl is
offered her camcorder. From here on we accompany this seemingly normal
family through a series of birthdays, barbecues and gatherings that
gradually point us in the direction of the family’s demise.
Director Rotheroe puts the family unit on trial. The family’s inability to
communicate, listen or even care for each other’s individual desires and
ambitions is played up against the family’s financial and circumstantial
problems that effect each and every family member. As the tension
increases and relationships crumble it becomes increasingly difficult not to
symapthise with all involved, for how on earth will things be resolved?
Told through the seemingly objective lens of a little girl’s camera this film
succeeds in guiding us through a disconcerting sequence of events that
will force you to think twice about getting involved with anyone. RJ
The Inheritance is an interesting twist on the classic road movie. It follows
two brothers as they journey across Scotland to collect the inheritance left
to them by their father. Much like the dogma movies of the ’90s this film
is concerned with story and character as opposed to dazzling effects, the
Scottish countryside providing much aesthetic wonder. With minimal use
of artificial lighting and intimate shots this succeeds in creating scenes of
heightened tension and drama by drawing the viewer right inside the car.
Originally designed as an improvised piece, director Charlie Henry
Belleville carefully selected his cast, and although the production shifted
to a scripted format, the intimacy and synergy between the characters
is fantastic, often giving the feeling that you are watching documentary
footage, as opposed to a scripted scene. It’s this focus on character that
gives The Inheritance its charm. Tim Barrow’s withdrawn and volatile David
plays wonderfully opposite Fraser Sivewright’s inquisitive more antagonistic
Fraser. Their relationship explores the often unspoken emotional power
struggle that underlies that of many siblings.
Written in 2 months, and filmed over 11 days on a budget of £5000, The
Inheritance is a dark, touching look at brotherhood, identity and the stereotype
of the Scotsman’s inability to express his feelings. JR
Newcomer Jonas Ball stars as the mentally disturbed obsessive responsible
for the murder that shocked the world and ended an era on 8 December
1980. Using only Chapman’s on-the-record testimonies and entries from his
journal, writer/director Andrew Piddington recreates Chapman’s deranged
plot to assassinate the most famous man in the world.
In this exhibition of the mind of a killer, Piddington reveals Chapman as
a man living an average and dull life. A crap day job and disconnected relationships
with everyone around him including his wife and mother, send
Chapman searching for a deeper meaning to his existence. While browsing
through his local library, he comes across JD Salinger’s The Catcher
in the Rye, and immediately forms an unhealthy obsession with the book’s
central character, Holden Caulfield and his scorn for phonies. Falling upon
a picture book of John Lennon, Chapman starts to view him as the world’s
biggest phoney and travels thousands of miles to New York City, where his
deluded fantasy becomes reality.
Brilliantly shot, with an intense mix of drama and historical facts,
Piddington’s choice to make a whole film recreating John Lennon’s murder
gives us an insight into the mind of the most famous of all celebrity killers
and puts a unique spin on the darkest elements of the Lennon saga. JV