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| Allan Hunter and Carol Morley discuss Out Of Blue Photo: Glasgow Film Festival |
Tuesday morning at the Glasgow Film Festival began with a second chance to see one of the most unusual and most popular films in its selection, The Man Who Feels No Pain, and there was a host of other catch-up opportunities to entertain film fans before the evening’s films began. These included Chained For Life, a black comedy about attitudes to disability in the film industry, with star Adam Pearson attending to answer questions afterwards. James Kent and Jack Arbuthnott were also on the red carpet for their film, The Aftermath, which deals with complicated relationships and the process of recovery after World War Two, whilst artist Peter Howson, director Charlie Paul and producer Lucy Paul attended a screening of Prophecy for an discussion with Hardeep Singh Kohli.
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| Adam Pearson talks Chained For Life Photo: Max Crawford |
Also screening that night was Dead Good, about an alternative approach to funerals being taken in Brighton, which proved tremendously popular with the audience, who took up director Rehana Rose’s invitation to engage in a broader conversation about the ways we deal with death. Rehana was thrilled by the response and found it the same the next day when the film screened in the afternoon. We caught up for a quick chat about it as she hurried between venues, and we’ll be bringing you that soon.
Some people were distinctly unwilling to hurry anywhere by Wednesday. Inevitably, bringing a large number of people together also means holding a party for viruses, and festival ‘flu – perhaps helped a long a bit by long days, late nights and drinking – was beginning to make its presence felt. Nevertheless, the pace was picking up again by evening, when there were screenings of Fugue (about an amnesiac woman returning to the family she could no longer remember), Vision (about a Frenchwoman who travels of Japan in search of a mushroom that can cure emotional pain, and finds something more) and Tremor – Er Ist Immer Krieg (a epic tone poem interwoven with atmospheric black and white images of war).
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| Naziha Arebi talks Freedom Fields Photo: Max Crawford |
Also screening were Freedom Fields, a documentary about young female footballers in Libya, with director Naziha Arebi in attendance. and detective drama Out Of Blue, which was followed by a Q&A with director and longstanding friend of the festival Carol Morley. Alongside these, Belgian drama Alone At My Wedding followed a Roma single mother looking for love, and was followed by a talk with director Marta Bergman; and Guatemalan drama José saw a working class gay man compelled to take a huge risk after falling for a builder.
The big question, of course, was what the annual surprise Film would be. We’ve come across a lot of people asking what last year’s would have been if it hadn’t been cancelled due to the Beast from the East, and we can reveal that the answer is Unsane. This year was very different, however - Sebastián Lelio's Gloria Bell, starring Julianne Moore as a free spirited woman looking for love in the Los Angeles dance scene.
Finally, for those in need of some truly bodacious entertainment, there was a special thirtieth anniversary screening of Bill And Ted’s Excellent Adventure in Buchanan Galleries. Strictly no trashing of stores was permitted but there were totally some historical figures present to make up for it and attendees assured us that they had a most excellent time. We’ll be bringing you more on the festival soon – including our first reports from Glasgow Frightfest, whose organisers and fans are already in town, determined not to be waylaid by a Beast this time around. Until then, party on, dudes!
