The Cheltenham International Film Festival is underway online. It started on Monday 8th June and carries on until Sunday 13th June. Anyone can view the films selected each day, but there is a limit on the number of tickets. We have already seen some of the films selected from the best of the films on the festival circuit over the last twelve months. Nick particularly wants to recommend Lillian (Austria 2019) which is playing on Saturday at 20.00. Don’t worry if you’ve missed one of the screenings, you can still catch them online for a few more days after the first screening so we can also recommend Son-Mother (Iran-Czech Republic 2019) and Balloon (China 2019). All films have a ticket price of £5.99 except for White Riot at £9.99 (see below). There is a focus on Italian cinema with five films out of 36. many of the films in the festival are ‘F rated’.
This is a small festival showing just four or five films a day but there is a good mix of fiction features, shorts and documentaries from around the world. The last film on Sunday, White Riot at 20.00 will be a highlight. This documentary will appeal to political activists and music fans alike as it traces the rise of ‘Rock against Racism’ in 1976 and climaxes with the concert in Victoria Park in Hackney. Rubika Shah’s documentary is followed by a live Q&A like some of the other screenings in the festival. So if you are a young activist or someone who remembers the marches and the concerts in the parks, this is one to savour (it won the Grierson Award at the 2019 London Film Festival).
Festivals have had to go online during the pandemic and they need support to enable them to survive and thrive in the future. Well done to Cheltenham IFF for giving us all a chance to see films online not available anywhere else in the UK. Check out all the film details and booking/screening procedures on the CIFF website.
The Case for Global Film 