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Showing posts from April, 2020

Rude Girl and Rude Boys – Film Producer Cass Pennant on ‘Beverley’ Short Film

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I recently caught up with the film producer Cass Pennant after the screening of his new film ‘Beverley’ at The 'Southend-on-Sea Film Festival'.  With various screenings at festivals in the UK and abroad. ‘Beverley’ has since been selected in the shorts programme ‘Rebel Girl’ for the East End Film Festival. With a compendium of knowledge on football, music, and subculture fashion. These were just a few subjects that Cass touched upon when we spoke about  ‘Beverley’ which he has been developing with the Writer-Director Alexander Thomas. The story of a mixed-race teenager who battles to assert her own identity in a bleak and threatening environment during the 2-Tone Ska music period of 1980 in the Midlands. Everyone has a story to tell. What made Beverley Thompsons resonate with you and Director Alexander Thomas?   My first production was 'Casuals' a documentary on the football subculture.  I thought it was a forgotten subculture because the films seem to conc...

Talking ‘Filth’ & film with Novelist, Director & Screenwriter – Irvine Welsh

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http://www.irvinewelsh.net/ In 1993 Irvine Welsh’s début novel ‘Trainspotting’ was unleashed into the public’s consciousness. The interlinking short stories of heroin addicts living and existing in late 1980s Edinburgh seared into the retina. Garnering praise, and contempt in equal measure, 'Trainspotting' and ultimately Irvine Welsh were to the novel what 'Sex Pistols' were to a crumbling, and stale 1970s British music industry where it attracted a sharp neon outrage from critics and the literary establishment alike. As we fast forward to 2013. ‘Filth’ Welsh’s 1998 novel about detective sergeant Bruce Robertson is released in the Autumn.         Via email, I posed some questions to Irvine Welsh regarding film directing, the casting of ‘Filth’, and why it took so long to get it on-screen. Hello Irvine Welsh, Let’s talk Filth! The novel came out in 1998, and the film is due out in the Autumn of this year.  I take it, it ha...

Perfection – Film Review

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Although it’s not remarkable to see someone walking onscreen ‘Perfection’ is set in Los Angeles, the city of cars and freeways. Yet, this LA appears more intimate. Its exteriors appear filtered as if filmed through a gauzy haze as Kristabelle (Christina Beck) walks around the neighbourhood.  A striking figure with pronounced blonde bangs, clad in large sweaters and black brogues. A home life shared with her glamorous Mother Sally (Robyn Peterson) their environment is defined by their addictions. Kristabelle with freshly, bloodied scars on her upper thighs self-harms her way to feeling alive whilst Sally addicted to plastic surgery tries to maintain a younger Hollywood aesthetic. At times each thrives on a past nostalgia connected with their old lives and younger selves that rely on a currency, an emphasis associated with youth and desire. “Oh Tony looked so handsome then," remarks Sally whilst watching o...