How its Made

Taking today off for a bit of a rest.

Sunday night I proved my theory developed on Saturday that there is time and arts world time. The film festival was due to start at 7, got there to discover the Empty Pocket Theatre was still on and managed to see the last 2 of the specially written works after visiting the bar and having a tremendous pint of SA, real old mans pub The Gower, I like it very much.

So up we go teh steep enclosed staircase pint in hand from a well litv landing into a darkened room with cabaret style tables and disco lights. The first offering i saw was the two hander Mind the Gap written and directed by Natalie Stone. In this the male lead is becoming obsessed with renting bond movies and each day he visits the same video store and is served by the same woman, when she starts flirting with him outrageously and they strip there outerwear off with velcroed ease, the audience in this intimate setting had suspended their disbelief enough to just go with it.

Just as it was getting juicy the female character starting making an alarm sound and saying that he had violated the dream space and would be sent to the blackout zone. What followed was a narrative just confusing enough to keep you on your toes between reality and dream worlds and described nimbly a dystopia where the government owned the dream space and was privatising it, meaning that adverts where inserted in your dreams which influenced your waking behaviour and the ability to watch 18 rated dreams depended on your tax bracket.

Next offering, three people acting out complaint letters to and the responses from Everlast electric company following having their service cut off. The Powercut written and directed by Dorethea Lodwick showed a lovely variety of characters with one true cardiff hardnock mum being particularly amusing. With humour and pathos it did actually make me think twice, slickly written and slickly delivered.

I had got really excited by Roathbud and rather than be dissapointed I enjoyed it even more than I thought I would. After helping creat an aisle and add more chairs I managed to get stuck on a chair alone dead centre two thirds back, which is exactly how I like to watch a movie. Chair 13 in a multiplex is always my chair of choice. There was a witty intro film that cut together clips from the upcoming shorts, black and white shots of Roath park reminiscent of some black and white photos I took as a valentine's present to my now husband, and film of dancing girls and Orson Wells all to an up beat tune and the line "Roathbud" rendered in dramatic rosebud intonation.

Scene set, the first film FUNDAY was filmed in roath and the city centre and featured a man suffering from clownism, it had influences of Chaplin and the use of sound particularly reminsicent of 20th century french cinema such as Caro. I loved it, the tale could be read as a didactic story of how to treat the disabled but it was such fun to watch that this earnest message crept in under the radar. Trailer here:

http://vimeo.com/22175746


There was such a range of film including music videos and shorts for the BBC, such a priveledge to see them here first, often with the filmakers and bands present. A real sense of community.

There were a few thank yous and then live music by Cooper365 project, a song a day for 365 days, this was day 289 and we had a song on a ukelele all about how it makes you smile innanly and it did. The lovely guy had to do 2 encores on guitar, great songs, great playing and then the dj's started doing there thing. Obviously I danced, then I walked home via Albany chip shop. Woke up to discover gravy and a broken seam, two tops in two days but a sure sign of a good night out!

Only had a pint and a glass of red, took some pictures of the poetry reading at the Coffi House as I walked past, they finished with Hey Jude for some reason. But as I was so tired I am recalling snippets of conversations I had and am not sure now what I may have agreed to.

However madeinroath is made with goodwill, in these economic times so much in demand and so rarely given. I am proud of it.

Jen