Movies by talented UK-based directors to be screened at London’s The Garden Cinema from 17:30 on February 25th 2024. Selection includes Will Priddis’ family dramedy “‘People who pretend to be crows in their spare time”, Kino Lee’s meditative experimental film “Huo Zhe”, and Felix Davidson’s haunting existentialist animation “Brown bread”. Tickets on sale via The Garden Cinema website from January 6th 2024.
For the first time since its launch in February 2019, Indy Film Library (IFL) is hosting a screening in London. The event will celebrate the very best work from filmmakers based in the UK, which IFL has received since it launched.
Chief Editor Jack Benjamin said of the news, “IFL grew out of the need of independent filmmakers to receive impartial feedback on their work. Over the last five years have provided a hybrid service to artists who submit their work: we assess every single film received to help artists improve and gain entry to other festivals in the future. But we also host an annual screening selection of the very best films it receives.
“Due to the pandemic, these events have only taken place in Amsterdam so far – and have largely focused on the work of Benelux filmmakers. But as society continues to open up, now feels like the right time to open the floor to our UK-based filmmakers, who have sent in some amazing, imaginative and compelling short films that I can’t wait to bring to a live audience!” IFL’s UK Short Film Showcase invites audiences to come to The Garden Cinema, to discover a world of independent art on their own doorstep. With screenings of films across the cinematic spectrum, and Q&As with the artists behind them, the event offers viewers an introduction to a series of diverse and innovative films, showing life in the UK in a whole new light.
Tickets will go on sale on January 6th 2024 via this link to The Garden Cinema’s website.
Opened in March 2022, The Garden Cinema screens films of all shapes and sizes, from around the world. The venue is fiercely independent, and consistently looks outside the box to screen films its statement of intent defines as “worth seeing”, “of all genres that are true to life, well made, that left us feeling better or wiser for having seen them.” On that basis, IFL couldn’t have found a better venue to finally host its first UK short film showcase.
Speaking ahead of the event, Kino Lee, one of the directors to be showcased, commented, “From my aunt’s bathtub in Taiwan to screening in London, “Huo Zhe” has definitely come a long way! Bringing personal life experience into symbolism and abstraction, I hope Huo Zhe will be able to connect with people and that they might find their own interpretation of the meaning of living.”
Felix Davidson, whose work will also be on show, added, “I am still early in my career as a filmmaker, and Brown Bread was made as a specific exploration of what I felt was important to me, personally. I truly feel that there is a level of understanding between artist and audience which can only be achieved by first exposing some deeply personal aspect of yourself. A culture of vulnerability and honesty in production, consumption, and judgement – a culture supported in part by organisations like IFL – encourages not only a world of connection built on the acknowledgement of both shared and unique experience, but also reintroduces a degree of softness and warmth into what feels like an increasingly cold artistic sphere.”
Beginning at 5:30pm on Sunday the 25th of February, IFL’s programme of films is as follows:
“Black shuck” (2021), Dir. David Gregory; “Huo Zhe [Living]” (2020), Dir. Kino Lee; “Validity” (2019), Dir. Meena Ayittey; “Isolation terminal” (2023), Dir. Paula Romero; “Brown bread” (2021), Dir. Felix Davidson; “Where am I?” (2019), Dir. Cheng Qiu; “People who pretend to be crows in their spare time” (2019), Dir. Will Priddis; “Always summer” (2023), Dir. Hans Dessers; “Off peak” (2020), Dir. Jesse Adlem”.
*Article originally published in Indy Film Library.
(Photos: Indy Media Film & trailer)
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