Just before lockdown theatre maker Daniel Bye and former Chumababwa songwriter Boff Whalley were about to set off on a tour exploring their joint love of the outdoors.
32 minutes of quiet stillness; because for whole film I couldn’t move for fear of missing a breath or feeling an emotion.
They say it’s all about timing and once again writer, director, and producer Murphy Rhodes shows he’s got that down to a fine art with his latest short film which hits home just as, well, we are all at home with a pandemic apparently raging around us.
The Department of Education (2018) says 1 in 6 young people have become victims of bullying in the UK of which a third said they were being bullied at least once a week. Verbal, cyber, physical, emotional, theft – bullying comes in many forms and the biggest challenge for anyone, and particularly parents, is how to spot the signs and delicately raise the issue with the victim.
Heading to the cinema this morning I was intrigued to see if everything I had read about this movie was true. I’m sorry to say it was. Cats is one of the worst movie musicals I have ever seen, and yes I have seen the Phantom movie.
It seems like every day there’s outrage across our screens, some imbalance in our society pitching us into a battle over one imbalance or another. It may be colour; creed; ethnicity; gender; sexual orientation; religion: the list is endless and if I’m being topical, I could even throw Brexit into the mix: are you a Leaver or Remainer?
There’s been a lot of statistics on knife crime recently including that there were 40,147 recordable offences involving a knife in England & Wales last year. The number of fatal stabbings was the highest since records began.
Every now and then something powerful comes along that sensitively tackles a subject most care to avoid – or to forget. Unspoken demands to be spoken about.
At just over three minutes it’s short enough to not even take half a cigarette but long enough to make you light another one. Sometimes it’s the little things that pack the biggest punch.
Every now and then something powerful comes along, and To Whom It May Concern, written, directed, and produced by Ben Johnson and co-produced by Murphy Rhodes, falls into that bracket as it sensitively tackles a subject most care to avoid – or to forget.
The Diary of an Aryan Girl is a thought-provoking piece written, directed, and produced by Andrew Games and set during the period of World War II in Germany. It explores the relationship between young couple Anna (Sarah Sharp) and Dieter (Games) as they move from the thrill and excitement that this new Germany has to offer, through a sense of realisation and awakening, and finally to despair as hopes and dreams are left in tatters as the horrors of what it really offered come to fruition.
