After a three year hiatus, Branchage Arts Festival returns, with guest curators, the legendary BBC Radiophonic Workshop and iconic French fashion designer agnès b, with events around the island based around the island of Jersey, roaring parties & gatherings in the famous Spiegaltent and film, music and art happenings within our Festival Village in the quaint harbour town of St Aubin. With the most beautiful & obscure in mind we’re making creative use of the island’s churches, forts, parish halls, pubs and farms, all transformed into beautiful pop-up venues. Branchage’s previous appearances in the island resulted in Little White Lies dubbing the festival “The naughty little sister of Cannes” while The Guardian said of the event”The nation’s most intrepid film festival” Events such as the screening of Battleship Potemkin on a tug boat in the St Helier harbour with a live score from French electro duo, Zombie Zombie to the projection of Superman on the side of a mammoth dam, the Branchage team’s natural tendency and passion for innovation has kept the festival at the forefront of film, music and art lovers across the Channel Islands and beyond.

The festival team have been keeping Branchage active with events in London and Jersey as well as at Bestival and even at the CERN labs in Switzerland – home of the Large Hadron Collider. Looking forward, Programming & Production Manager for Branchage Chris Bell has said “”This has been a two year process and I feel that the time out will serve us well going forward and will generate fresh excitement in Branchage.”

CURATORS ANGES B & RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP

Agnès b. is best known as a fashion designer, opening her first shop on Rue du Jour in Paris in 1975. Since then, she has created a template for modern, long-lasting, democratic clothing wherever possible still produced in France. This year sees the release of Agnes’ very own feature film entitled ‘Je m’appelle Hmmm’. ’Je m’appelle Hmmm’ has been praised and presented at the Venice Mostra, the New York Film Festival, the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, Tokyo Filmex, Glasgow Film Festival, Festival Femmes et Toiles, Hong Kong Film Festival, Villa Medici in Rome and now at Branchage Festival, Jersey. Radiophonic Workshop. With this year’s festival theme being language, communication and translation, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop have been invited by Branchage Festival as UK curators to cover this theme using the medium that they truly know inside and out… Sound. In a first for the legendary composers and sonic pioneers, famed for their landmark sound design and musical themes for Doctor Who, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Timewatch, Newsround and Quatermass – the Workshop have put together a programme of films, sound-led events and a very special bespoke live performance for Branchage 2014 that we’re all extremely excited about.

It’s almost impossible to talk about one event over another. So, in no particular order, here are just a few of this year’s event details to whet your Branchage appetites…

► ELEKTRO MOSKVA (Elena Tikhonova, Dominik Spritzendorfer, 2013) + PHIL HARTNOLL (ORBITAL) in conversation with RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP + Afterparty (supported by Mourant Ozannes)

A feature on Russia’s “electronic history”, from the Theremin and the synthesiser to the bugging devices of the KGB, screening at St Aubin on the hill Church.

► IS THE MAN WHO IS TALL HAPPY? (Michel Gondry, 2013) + NOAM CHOMSKY Q&A by live video feed.

The second ever UK screening of the new film from Oscar-winning director Michel Gondry (ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF A SPOTLESS MIND) who merges the worlds of art and science by cleverly animating the inner-workings of Professor Noam Chomsky’s world-renowned mind. Prof Noam Chomsky will join us by live video feed from MIT where he is Professor of Linguistics.

► HOW WE USED TO LIVE (Paul Kelly, 2014) + SAINT ETIENNE live score (supported by JTC Group).

This event takes place on the opening night of the festival, September Wednesday 24, in the beautiful Jersey Opera House, The film is described as an impressionistic, poetic vision of a vanishing London, with footage from the BFI National Archive, portraying London in all its cultural glory,

► HEAVENLY RECORDINGS PARTY: STEALING SHEEP, H HAWKLINE, HEAVENLY JUKEBOX + More

Yet another infamous Branchage party, this time celebrating & showcasing the infamous label Heavenly Recordings at Jersey’s Havana nightclub, St Helier on Friday 26th September. Also expect a DJ set from Guernsey’s finest Andre de Carteret, hosting a funk-filled ‘Get Down’ room.

► “MAKE YOUR OWN ISLAND” 3D MAPPING PROJECTION SHOW + RADIOPHONIC WORKSHOP live score (supported by QED Productions)

Illumination of 13th centrury St Aubin’s Fort using the very latest 3D Projection Mapping technology to create a magnificent, moving visual experience, all to the soundscape of a specially commissioned, exclusive score to be performed live by the iconic Radiophonic Workshop.

► PLANETE SAUVAGE + LIVE SCORE FROM RADIOPHONIC’S DICK MILLS & STEALING SHEEP. French Czechoslovakian production PLANETE SAUVAGE the 1973 film centres around a future race future race of beings in human shape form but 100 times bigger in size. Screening & Live score to take at St Aubin Methodist Church.

EAT YOUR OWN ISLAND

Pop Up Restaurant & Food Talks/Walks (supported by Genuine Jersey) Serving up the finest Jersey produce in conceptual Cordon Bleu style the pop up restaurant will open all five nights during the festival with Cordon Bleu chef India Hamilton, alongside Oliver Rowe, “The Urban Chef” the the helm. Also on hand to work with the restaurant and give a series of talks is Tom Badcock, a regular keynote speaker at industry cheese events, and supplier of top London restaurants and outlets including Harrods Food Hall.

EDUCATION & KIDS

In addition to the film & parties this year’s festival is a wonderful year for young people at Branchage Festival as we present a lively programme of comedy, film, workshops and all round top class fun. From hanging out with the Radiophonic Workshop, enjoying a walk through the making of the Doctor Who theme tune to storytelling from the wonderful Simon Macdonald & a very special visit from the Gruffalo. There’s a Spoken Word Brunch with poet Luke Wright & The Storybeast, ink projection classes with Julian Hand & comedy workshops with Loco School of Slapstick, all making this year a busy one for young festival goers to enjoy, both Jersey Beans and island visitors alike! Here are just a few of the highlights…

MORE FILM SCREENINGS

► NIGHT WILL FALL, brand new documentary released in September and narrated by Helena Bonham Carter, tells the story of the liberation of the Nazi Concentration camps. Saturday 27th September, St Brelade Parish Hall.

► BLUE HAWAII & THE ENDLESS SUMMER Bestival, to present a beachside double bill of ‘Desert Island Flicks’ in a wooden cabin off the 5 mile road

► HAPPINESS supported by Carey Olsen, Thomas Balmes transports us to Bhutan, one of the least developed countries in the world, and one that we see through the eyes of eight year-old monk Peyangki.

►PULP: A FILM ABOUT LIFE, DEATH & SUPERMARKETS follows Jarvis Cocker and the band around as they head back to Sheffield for a homecoming gig. St Aubin-on-the-Hill Church. It

► A NIGHT AT THE CINEMA IN 1914, A cinematic time travel experience as we take you back 100 years for a screening of a treasure trove of screen gems recently restored by the BFI National Archive.

► AMERICAN INTERIOR, a documentary that sees Welsh musician Gruff Rhys (of Super Furry Animals) as he travels across the American heartland with a doll of the 18th-century explorer John Evans.

► HAXAN 1922 Swedish Danish silent horror/documentary accompanied by live score from Jersey post-rock outfit SEMU CA.

CRITIC’S CHOICE

► CAVALRY CHOSEN BY Time Out’s Tom Huddlestone. Latest works from writer director John Michael McDonagh, a black comedy with a whodunit theme, with Irish actor Brendan Gleeson playing a parish priest.

► UNDER THE SKIN, Jonathan Glazer’s latest starring Scarlett Johansson as an alien seductress who stalks unassuming men on the streets of Glasgow. Selected by Radio Times Film Editor Andrew Collins

► FRANK,. British-Irish comedy drama directed by Lenny Abrahamson and starring Michael Fassbender and Maggie Gyllenhaal, which follows the rather eccentric band “Soronprfbs”, while they set about recording an album in Ireland. Chosen by Ian Haydn Smith of Curzon Magazine.

► WE ARE THE BEST!, Lukas Moodysson’s Swedish-Danish drama an uplifting, feisty and witty tale about three 13 year-old best friends who set about starting their own punk band in 1982 Stockholm. Selected by Colm McAuliffe of Sight & Sound.

For the full festival timetable and more information, visit www.branchagefesuval.com