13TH EAST END FILM FESTIVAL
Friday 13 June – Wednesday 25 June 2014
www.eastendfilmfestival.com
East End Film Festival (EEFF) announces its thirteenth edition, including 15 World Premieres, 8 European Premieres, 25 UK Premieres and 15 London Premieres.
OPENING NIGHT GALA: DERMAPHORIA
The thirteenth EEFF opens Friday 13 June with the World Premiere of DERMAPHORIA (dir: Ross Clarke, UK/USA). The first feature from Ross Clarke, the east London based filmmaker and DJ who directed award-winning feature documentary Skid
Row and co-founded music festival Lovebox, it follows an experimental chemist who wakes up in a New Orleans jail with amnesia, accused of arson and links to a drug manufacturing ring. Starring Joseph Morgan (The Vampire Diaries) and rising star Nicole Badaan, plus Ron Perlman (Sons of Anarchy, Hellboy), Walton Goggins (The Shield, Sons of Anarchy, Justified), and Kate Walsh (Grey’s Anatomy, The Wire, Fargo). Director Ross Clarke and stars of the film will attend this red carpet gala screening.
CLOSING NIGHT GALA #1: BLOOD TIES
The festival closes 25 June with the UK Premiere of BLOOD TIES (dir: Guillaume Canet, France/USA). It stars British actor Clive Owen (Closer, Children Of Men) and Billy Crudup (Almost Famous) as brothers on either side of the law who face off over organized crime in Brooklyn during the 1970s. This epic crime movie co-stars Marion Cotillard (La Vie En
Rose), Mila Kunis (Black Swan) and James Caan.
CLOSING NIGHT GALA #2: THE BLUEBLACK HUSSAR
EEFF’s closing night also includes a special screening of THE BLUEBLACK HUSSAR (dir: Jack Bond, UK), the insightful documentary that follows Adam Ant during his obsessively driven comeback of 2011, after battling mental illness, sectioning and public acrimony. Having profiled the likes of Salvador Dali and Roald Dahl, Jack Bond documents one of Britain’s most iconic and charismatic musicians. Featuring Charlotte Rampling, Mark Ronson and Allen Jones, and culminating with a Hyde Park show in front of 55,000, it’s an ode to a true British dandy highwayman. Including an exclusive live performance from Adam Ant.
FOOTBALL FOCUS WITH SPECIAL GUEST ERIC CANTONA
With the world focused on the World Cup, EEFF scores with the UK Premiere of YOU AND THE NIGHT (dir: Yann Gonzalez, France), a surreal cinematic orgy featuring Eric Cantona and Béatrice Dalle. EEFF is thrilled to welcome lead actor and football legend Eric Cantona. Reinforcing the football theme is the UK Premiere of THE SECOND GAME (dir: Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania) in which the filmmaker and his father re-watch a snow-hampered Romanian match from 1988 – a significant game in which the father was referee and here offers moving commentary on the beautiful game.
BRITISH FILM HIGHLIGHTS
A powerful first feature from a BAFTA winner, LEAVE TO REMAIN (dir: Bruce Goodison, UK) takes acclaimed actor Toby Jones, a young ensemble cast, and a soundtrack by Alt-J to tell the tale of three Afghan teenagers forced to move to the UK as refugees. The first live action feature from Romanian animator Anca Damian, the UK Premiere of A VERY
UNSETTLED SUMMER (dir: Anca Damian, Sweden/UK/Romania/Czech Republic) blurs the lines between fiction and reality in the tale of a British writer in Bucharest. Having screened Hong Khaou’s short film Summer in 2006, funded by Tower Hamlets Film Fund, EEFF is thrilled to bring to east London his touching and intimate first feature LILTING (dir: Hong Khaou, UK) starring Ben Whishaw. Having won EEFF’s Audience Award in 2012 for short film Byrd, returning in 2013 with documentary short Queens, EEFF is thrilled to host the World Premiere of HOT WINGS (dir: Mitch Panayis, UK) a feature
debut about local criminals attempting to cash in on the Olympics in east London. Other films with local resonance include the World Premiere of cops-and-drug-dealers drama HACKNEY’S FINEST (dir: Chris Bouchard, UK); the World Premiere of HERE AND NOW (dir: Lisle Turner, UK), about an East Ham girl reluctantly transplanted to the countryside; and the London Premiere of GREYHAWK (dir: Guy Pitt, UK) about a blind, disillusioned army veteran searching a council estate for his beloved guide dog.
INTERNATIONAL FILM HIGHLIGHTS
As part of a weekend of FREE activity at East Village, EEFF hosts a special outdoor screening of CHEF (dir: Jon Favreau, USA). Co-starring Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sofía Vergara, Dustin Hoffman and John Leguizamo, Jon Favreau’s stellar comedy tells of a failed LA chef who opens a food truck in a bid to reclaim his success.
Acknowledging its thirteenth edition, EEFF comes of age with a celebration of teen focused cinema including the UK Premiere of WHITE SHADOW (dir: Noaz Deshe, Tanzania/Germany/Italy), the story of a young Albino on the run from witch doctors who want to use his organs for their potions; the UK Premiere of TONIGHT AND THE PEOPLE (dir: Neil Beloufa, France), a visually rich youth drama filmed on the back lot of an LA soap opera; and the London Premiere of METALHEAD (dir: Ragnar Bragason, Iceland), a powerful melodrama about a young heavy metal fanatic. Inspired by 2002’s ‘Beltway Sniper’ shootings, the UK Premiere of BLUE CAPRICE (dir: Alexandre Moors, USA) portrays a disenfranchised African American teenager and the father figure who leads him down a path of violence. Based on a story by James Franco, the London Premiere of PALO ALTO (dir: Gia Coppola, USA) focuses on a shy and sensitive class virgin torn between an unrequited crush and an illicit flirtation. A major coup for the festival is Alejandro Jodorowsky’s extraordinary recounting of his own life in the London Premiere of THE DANCE OF REALITY (dir: Alejandro Jodorowsky, Chile). EEFF hopes
to welcome the infamous director to London for the festival screening.
Other international premieres include the UK Premiere of WHITEWASH (dir: Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais, Canada), following a man on the run after he accidentally kills a man with a snowplough during a drunken joyride; the UK Premiere of Polanski-esque thriller WHISPERS BEHIND THE WALL (dir: Grzegorz Muskala, Germany); the UK Premiere of mysterious heist movie THE DISTANCE (dir: Sergio Caballero, Spain); the UK Premiere of TIP TOP (dir: Serge Bozon, Luxembourg/France/Belgium) a comic cop thriller starring Isabelle Huppert; the UK premiere of unconventional love triangle conundrum LITTLE CRUSHES (dir: Aleksandra Gowin, Ireneusz Grzyb, Poland); Bengali fantasy film with Asian Dub Foundation score TASHER DESH (dir: Q, Qaushiq Mukherjee, India); eerie teen skater musical P3ND3JO5 (dir: Raul Perrone, Argentina); offbeat comedy GOLD (dir: Niall Heery, Ireland) starring James Nesbitt and Game Of Thrones Maisie Williams.
MORE INFO:
For the full listings and tickets check the EEFF website.
