I’m not sure how many times I could watch this. In particular the music became grating after about thirty seconds and then it carried on ad infinitum.

Again it had that feeling of late night filler you used to get on TV ­ where there might be a couple of minutes you need to fill in the schedule at some ungodly hour and so they stick in something that doesn’t really go anywhere or do anything. Who knows? Maybe the feeling I had of wanting to get away completely echoes what it’s like to live in Bargoed, South Wales?

The editing wasn’t hitting the right notes for me. A lot of the pictures to voiceover were either too literal ­ or incoherent.

There was a lot of the latter. My brain couldn’t always makes sense of the connection between the words and the pictures

Is that because I’m a rubbish viewer? Or is it cos the editor didn’t communicate successfully enough to me as a viewer what was perhaps obvious to them? The result was that as a viewer I began to increasingly lose my grip on the film’s narrative and in turn my interest waned. (more…)

There was a really nice tone and feeling to this film.  There was a warmth and likeability to the filmmaker and how they came across.

And that really counts for a lot, ­ especially if telly is the route you want to take. (You’re gonna have more success if you come across as likeable as opposed to coming across like a bastard.) (more…)

Very good. It created more of an emotional resonance than a lot of the films here, without the use of voiceover.

Dropped you into a sensory experience to communicate a feeling of unease and agitation. In this respect it placed the viewer firmly within the emotional landscape of what it’s like to live in that town ­ rather than narrating, lecturing and telling you what it’s like. (more…)

At first I hated this film. It sort of warmed on me a bit when it came together towards the end. However it just felt too much like “a documentary” for my liking.

The idea was cute enough – but the narrative and the visual rendering of it didn’t transcend anything other than generic TV documentary. There was nothing singular or idiosyncratic in the filmmaking ­ which is what I personally look for when I sit down to watch a film. In an anodyne world of formatted TV and trend-following commissioning, I’m desperate for violent individualism and for filmmaking that is a breath of beautiful idiosyncracy. (more…)

This was an alright film. Giving life to the landscape without people. A breath of fresh air not to have voiceover.

The visual geometry of it was nice too. Each shot was a carefully rendered composition that balanced its visual components in unexpected and refreshing ways. The general homage of the piece was a nod to a kind of dark futurism – with shapes and shadows and powerful angles rendered accordingly. (more…)

This is one of my favourite films. I was expecting to hate it cos Shoreditch has become synonymous with hipsters and bohemian posers. However that modern world dissipated ­ or became more tolerable to myself ­ as I was enriched with a sense of the spiritual and artistic history of the place.

The film brought to life ­ with such peaceful calmness amidst the cacophany of the modern urban environ – the history of Shoreditch embedded in the mud and clay of the place – and upon which years of sediment and new activity have been added. (more…)

I’ll be honest with you guys, ­ I didn’t like this. It was a bit like a VT from Sesame Street. At the same time it was also like one of those late night cartoons you sometimes find that have lo-fi scratchy animation but which don’t really go anywhere sufficiently coherent or entertaining enough to justify a larger, mainstream audience.

It also wasn’t really about her home town and was just about her house where she lived, so personally I think it has a tenuous hold on the My Winnipeg remit. What do you reckon? (more…)

This film is great. It showed genuine competence and confidence in its vision. I got a sense of the filmmaker’s talent and of the tone and personality of their work.

This is something I keep banging on about, but what I also got here was an appreciation of film as being an artistic composition and not simply dry, visual journalism.

Dry, visual journalism is the scourge of British documentary – but sadly the fast-track towards getting a commission. It¹s a real tragedy. Film is not just a story. It’s not just an A to B narrative. It shouldn’t be a newspaper or magazine article. It is a physical and sensory experience. (more…)