The UK?s only dedicated science fiction and fantastic film festival reaches primary school age on April 26th, 2006. To mark its fifth birthday, this popular film festival opens in a new London venue with a colourful programme of UK and world premieres, international sci-fi shorts, documentaries, all-nighter screenings, talks and free events. This year?s festival runs April 26th ? April 30th, 2006 and takes place at London?s luxurious Apollo West End cinema, 19 Lower Regent Street.
Highlights include:
SURVIVE STYLE 5 (Japan, 2004) UK PREMIERE
First film from Japanese writer-director, Sekiguchi this movie has a rare vitality in its quick-witted edits and story-telling. Five fantastical tales of crime and mayhem intersect in an absurdist comedy starring Sonny Chiba and, er? Vinnie Jones.
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CSA: CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA (USA, 2005)
Spike Lee presents this provocative piece of satire with, as its central conceit, an imagined, alternative history of America. In this parallel universe, not only did the Confederates win the American Civil War but slavery is widespread and an accepted part of contemporary society. Lured in by plausible scenarios in the clever script, the viewer is left with an uncomfortable feeling that the boundaries between fact and fiction are very blurred.
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FIRST ON THE MOON (Russia, 2005)
An exquisitely crafted film mixing fact and fantasy to spotlight the contradictions of Stalinist Russia, using the space program as its basis. In the spring of 1938, in the mountains of northern Chile, a flying object falls to earth in flames. Investigation by a film crew reveals that a secret Soviet space program was in place prior to World War II. Scientists and the military colluded, the film would have you believe, to develop a spacecraft 23 years before Yuri Gagarin even set foot in a rocket.
A unique piece of cinema.
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LOGAN?S RUN (30TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING)
Within our classic movie thread, we screen the seminal thirty-something angst movie? 30 years on from its release, we are delighted to present Michael Anderson?s stylish tale of a Utopian society?s nasty little secret.
Citizens in the 23rd Century live lives of languid pleasure but to maintain population controls, municipal computer systems decree that no one can live beyond thirty. Those who refuse to accept death become ‘Runners’ seeking ?Sanctuary?. An élite force, the Sandmen, has been created to hunt the Runners.
When Logan (Michael York), a Sandman, has his lifeclock prematurely accelerated to 30, he must decide whether or not to run. We couldn?t resist screening this on April 30th?
