LIAF 2009 - British Panorama

I went to the British Panorama last night. It was a varied programme that seemed very British to me, a mixture of homemade, beautiful, and a bit dotty and some very funny pieces, in particular The Surprise Demise of Francis Cooper by Felix Massie and Little Face by Matthew Walker, two films I'd been looking forward to seeing for a long time, (they both have good blogs). I most enjoyed Suky Best's Animate film Early Birds. Best has made silhouettes of birds from the dawn chorus as they emerge from feeding their young or balance on a telegraph wire and the detail in the movement is sort of thrilling to watch, there seemed to be some inbalance in the sound mix because it was sometimes hard to hear the interviewees over the birdsong, but since they were talking about how surprisingly loud the dawn chorus can be, maybe it was apt if not intended. Bruce by Tom Judd is splendid and truly dark. An overweight man makes a little man mammal using a lump of meat and his USB cable, inserts a chip into his naval and can operate him with his games console. I wont reveal the ending except to say that the man behaves with appalling carelessness towards the little man mammal. The horrifying tale is told with great precision, there's not an extra frame in this film. I wonder if it will appear tonight in Best of the Fest. Hope so. More on that later...