Huh. The Mushroom Speaks is a strange little film. In an experimental style, it combines interviews with scientists about the importance of fungi to life on earth, and its potential in countering human damage to the environment, with more philosophical musings told silently in captions on screen supposedly from the perspective of a mushroom. It’s…
Jesus, that was rough. Delikado focuses on the work of indigenous land defenders in the Philippines, protecting their island against illegal logging. All the odds are stacked against them, and the film follows the huge sacrifices they make in trying to protect their land and people. Let’s just start here – everyone knows that the…
Hostile is a look at the hostile environment policies implemented by the UK government, and tracing both its origins and impact. The hostile environment policy follows the same tack that you find in a lot of government services with lists that target reduction – the dole, disability allowance, mental health care – in that the…
Foragers looks at the criminalisation of gathering Palestinian cooking herbs and vegetables on traditional Palestinian land by the Israeli state. The problem for those who seek power is that we actually live in a world with an overflowing abundance capable of meeting our needs. That is why separation from the land is such a vital…
Coming Home is a short film about the Freedom Dabka Group, a group of Palestinian-Americans in Brooklyn who use the traditional dance of dabka to connect with their heritage and keep it alive. The guys in this film grew up on the basketball courts of Brooklyn, but their parents still remember the Palestine they were…
Going into Foragers, the opening film of the Take One Action Film Festival here in Glasgow, and got given a lovely piece of Palestinian flatbread. So delicious I took a bite out of it before I even took the picture. Om nom nom nom nom!
I’d never seen Moulin Rouge! before. When the trailer came out, back in the day, I just thought, ach, I don’t fancy that. However, in the intervening years this has now meant 1 demerit point on my queer card, so when the GYFF had it as its closing film, I thought I’d rectify that. The…
To see us out, the GYFF closed with Moulin Rouge, and to get us ready for the film, a trio of can-can dancers put on a performance. They came down the aisles handing out flowers and I got this bad boy, before kicking their legs in the air. GYFF and the GFT really know how…
Wiping away tears of laughter. It would be really hard to write something as naturally funny as the folk in this film manage to be. A Bunch Of Amateurs is a documentary about Bradford Movie Makers, an amateur filmmaking club that has lasted nearly a century. It has a vibrant cast of characters, each with…
Going into seeing Corpse Bride, I remembered watching it at the pictures back in the 2000s and coming away rather underwhelmed. I remember thinking that the music felt very phoned-in. As I went for a rewatch in 2022, I struggled to remember if there were actual songs in it. Trouble is, Corpse Bride was the…