Viva Lewes Issue #133 October 2017

ON THIS MONTH: CINEMA
Serval et Chaumier
Make it Short
Short Film Festival
Lewes has its own Short Film Festival! Make it
Short, which starts up this month (All Saints, Oct
14th, 15th) organised by a team headed by Silvia
Clausin, who also runs the Headstrong Club.
‘Shorts’, as they are usually referred to in the film
industry, are generally calling cards for budding
directors, usually made on a low budget. They are
commonly shown before features at international
film festivals, and offer film-makers a chance to
spread their stylistic wings without having to worry
about the chances of commercial success.
In March of this year, film-makers were invited to
send in short movies, made in 2016 or 2017, under
twenty minutes long, and corresponding to one of
a number of themes. There was a response from all
round the world. Three local judges from the film
industry were asked to choose which ones would
be shown during the festival. Jerry Rothwell is a
documentary maker (interviewed recently in Viva
about his film about Greenpeace, How to Rule the
World), Steve Smith is an extremely experienced
animation director, and Abigail Norris is a Lewesbased
art-film maker.
The festival will have three sessions: Saturday will
see the international entries from adults, whereas
Sunday morning will focus on local and international
children’s films (including projects by
Wallands School pupils and a cultural exchange
with Brazilian pupils of the same age) and adult and
children’s animations.
There is also a competition on the 6th to 7th of
October for film-makers to shoot and edit a short
film in 24 hours in Lewes. The film can be up to
three minutes long, and the results will be shown on
Sunday afternoon. This competition is open to everyone
and if you win you'll take home £100, but you
must register to take part. Best of luck to everyone
involved: more information at makeitshort.co.uk.
That’s not all the cinema on at the All Saints this
month. The Town Council-run operation Film at
All Saints are still running a programme, although
recently this has been limited to one movie a
month. On October 13th (8pm) they’re showing
the courtroom drama Denial, directed by Mick
Jackson. Rachel Weisz plays Deborah E Lipstadt,
accused by historian David Irving (played by Timothy
Spall) of libel after she called him a falsifier
of history in her book Denying the Holocaust: The
Growing Assault on Truth and Memory. In British
law the burden of proof is on the accused, and so
it is up to Lipstadt and her legal team to prove in
court that the Holocaust really occurred. Some
found the film a disappointment; the Guardian’s
Peter Bradshaw, a fine barometer of filmic quality,
gave it four stars, pointing out its pertinence in
this modern era of ‘false news’ and rising fascism,
saying it ‘reasserted the primacy of truth. What a
tonic’. Dexter Lee
39