Great Blockhead screening at Bristol Encounters last night - packed crowd, great 5.1 audio/image in Watershed 1, lovely Q&A with Bristol’s favourite son Joe Sims, brilliantly hosted by the boss Dave Welder-Matthews - discussing inspirations, working with actors, Jung’s shadow self, Charlie Kaufman’s poioumenons and ideas that make you feel sick. Thanks to everyone who came for all their kind words afterwards - an inspiring night!
Thank you so much to @frightfestuk and @bluefinchfilms for a truly epic Blockhead premiere night. The cast @joesims10 @dannyhornmusic @realmichelemoran @_jake_mavis looked fantastic (like a crime fighting family) and the film played amazingly - best screen we’ve played. A lot of laughs for Danny & Joe, great q&a and lots of love in the room. Then 30 of us went to The Imperial and I was genuinely struck by just how fortunate we have been to have found such a bloody lovely group of people @wearemintcake @stuart_white_dop @evrim.ersoy @mikepc9 @flyingpiglogistics2020 @xfilmco @theblainebrothers so I hope we thanked everyone and feel very lucky to have been able to celebrate all their great work last night - a fantastic evening with such a great group of people, it will live long in the memory #worldpremiere #horror #thriller #frightfest #festival #community
VERY proud to announce the WORLD PREMIERE of our film BLOCKHEAD at @frightfestuk on Sat August 23rd. Can’t wait to share our dark mind-bending thriller with audiences - the unraveling begins! The film stars @dannyhornmusic @joesims10 @richardglover @realmichelemoran @hussinaraja @lukacssimon @simonmeacock and was made by @stuart_white_dop @flyingpiglogistics2020 @theblainebrothers Produced in association with our partners @wearemintcake and @xfilmco @evrim.ersoy and @bluefinchfilms Thank you all for being on this journey with us as part of Team Blockhead!
What an amazing night - thanks to everyone who came to the Blockhead preview screening on Tuesday at All Is Joy Soho - what a thrill to see the film come alive with the people who made it - in front of the camera @joesims10 @dannyhornmusic (there in spirit) @richardglover @realmichelemoran @hussinaraja #charlottepyke @lauracalifornia and behind @wearemintcake @stuart_white_dop @flyingpiglogistics2020 @manu_amler @evrim.ersoy . A truly joyous night - thank you all for your effort, dedication, skill & love!
It’s Bill Hick’s 30th anniversary today - he died in 1994. He was my hero. I got to make a feature doc film about him in 2010 with @Paul Thomas that was fortunate to go London Film Festival, SXSW, Dallas, Biografilm Bologna, HotDocs & more - and we did a theatrical release here in 30 cities, the US the same. Bill had a lot of fans, still does, so we found people who wanted to help the film get out there to give him his due as the best stand up of the 90s who changed what comedy could be and what it aspired to.
When his Relentless special aired on C4 back in 92 (where there were only 4 channels - imagine) it blew the heads off of a whole generation of Brits and invented comedy as rock n roll. When you’re growing up, you look for people who can help you understand the world, and he was one of the people who did it for me, and many others. So it’s his 30th anniversary today and so I thought I’d post this - its how the film got started and we met Bill’s family - through 10 years worth of tribute nights that we put on to Bill. In 2004 on the 10th anniversary, I wanted to go to a Bill tribute night, but couldn’t find one in Time Out (!), so decided I’d do it myself - VHS clips from ebay, a few comics and a band. They were immediately popular and grew, so we did another one 4 weeks later, and then next year another, then the 14th and 15th and 20th and by then we had name comics wanting to come down & perform for free (they were all in aid of Bill’s wildlife charity) and people like Shaun Keaveny had us on his 6Music show 3 times to big them up.
And so after the first couple of them, we sent Bill’s family a cheque for the charity and cut together a short 40 min doc of the nights to show them that he was still remembered in the UK - which is where he was most popular (this is before YouTube - they were on VHS!) And that relationship with Bill’s family how we got the film off the ground.
So on the 30th anniversary, I thought post a montage of the tribute nights in case anyone fancied a look see - getting the chance to tell Bill’s life story meant the world to me and Paul - and to the thousands of Bill fans around the world. The fan nights were such an amazing time & memory for all of us - and the fact that Bill’s family (mum Mary, brother Steve, sister Lynn) came over for two of them (15th & 20th) was incredibly meaningful to those packed into the sweaty Lock 17 in Camden for those joyous, sold out, heartfelt memories of someone whose life we wanted to give thanks for. Bill was well known for his views on religion, but that sounds a lot like a religious experience to me. On days like today, I often wonder how he would’ve felt about them.
Bill Hicks 20th Anniversary Event, Camden 2014
Well that is a wrap on our feature film #Blockhead with the most amazing cast and crew I have had the pleasure of working with - the fantastic Oli Kendall of @wearemintcake who got us through it and our phenomenal DOP @stuart_white_dop who has created some jaw dropping images with top gaffer @daniel_svilenov with kit from the fab @cinehouserental for our dark psychological thriller, production designer Jason Synnott of @flyingpiglogistics, who has brought the world to life. And of course to our leads @dannyhornmusic and @joesims10 who were next level and brought it everyday. We are so excited for the edit with @theblainebrothers and next phase with @bluefinchfilms @wearemintcake and @xfilmco as we move through post - apes together strong!
A lovely day teaching the MA film students @sheffhallamuni thanks to the mighty @colinpons for having me present my ‘Perfect Package’ (arf) - crowdfunding, mood reels, pitching, lookbooks, VOD, marketing, distribution?Yours for a tenner mate. #teaching #sheffield #macourse #crowdfunding #presentation #pitching #university #sheffhallam #sheffhallamuni #masterclass
Our NDH39 guest was Ben Wheatley, one of the most exciting and innovative directors working in British cinema today, known for bold genre films Kill List, Sightseers, Field in England, High Rise, Free Fire & In The Earth.
Prolific director and screenwriter Ben Wheatley's works in the thriller and folk horror genres. His most recent films are Rebecca for Netflix, pandemic shot horror In the Earth and the Meg 2, UK release is in early August. He works with his regular team at Rook Films including producer Andy Starke, writer/editor Amy Jump, DOP Laurie Rose.
Tues May 16th 2023 Century ClubTues May 16th 2023 Century Club
Proud to announce that American The Bill Hicks Story is now showing on London Live, check listings for details (I believe is the phrase) - great to partner with Bluefinch Films for this new run of Bill’s story.
Our NDH36 guests were Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, directors of lauded indy sci-fi brain twisters Something in the Dirt (Sundance 2022) The Endless, Spring, Synchronic and Resolution. NDH36 was on Fri 9th Sept 22.
They have also moved into directing for Marvel amongst others whilst maintaining their own independent feature output, recently working on TV shows (in reverse order) Loki s2, Moonknight, Archive 81 and The Twilight Zone.
Thrilled to announce that NDH34's guest will be director Kate Herron on Monday March 14th at The Groucho Club. Kate is best known for directing hit shows Loki for Marvel and Sex Education for Netflix, and is one of the stars of the 'Brit New Wave’.
In 2020, Kate directed ‘Loki' starring Tom Hiddleston and Kate directed every episode of the series for Marvel Studios, also serving as Executive Producer. Prior to that, in 2018, Kate directed the Netflix Original 'Sex Education" created by Laurie Nunn and produced by Eleven Film. Starring Asa Butterfield and Gillian Anderson, Kate directed the second half of series 1, Episodes 5-8, including the iconic "It's my vagina" episode.
Kate has been featured as a 'Screen International Star of Tomorrow', 'Broadcast Hot Shot', one of 'Forbes 30 under 30' and on the 'BBC Hot New Talent List’. She is currently developing television show 'Miss Universe' about a beauty pageant under alien attack, produced by Dominic Buchanan (End of the F**king World) & Douglas Cox (Host, Dashcam, ShadowHouse).
Thrilled that Ink, Cocks & Rock’n’Roll will be featured at Rockaway Beach music festival this weekend, amongst acts like Jarvis & Idles, A Certain Ratio and Buzzcocks! Rock on down to Butlins to catch it after the mosh pit.
On Weds 20th Oct 2021, NDH was thrilled to host Jim Cummings and PJ Macabe, co-writers and directors of new film The Beta Test, a hilarious darkly comic thriller about an increasingly paranoid Hollywood agent.
Jim Cummings won the 2016 SUNDANCE with his short film Thunder Road, and was an assoc producer on Krisha. The Thunder Road feature was Kickstartered and won the 2018 SXSW Grand Jury Prize. His second film The Wolf of Snow Hollow was out in 2020 with Orion Pictures. The Beta Test, his 3rd film co-written and directed with longtime collaborator PJ Cabe, has played at Tribeca and Berlin, and is released across UK cinemas today via Bluefinch, and in the US via IFC on Nov 5th.
On Tues 27th July 2021, NDH32 was thrilled to host director Prano Bailey-Bond. Her debut feature CENSOR, co-written with Anthony Fletcher, is set against the backdrop of the ‘video nasty’ social hysteria of 1985 and stars Niamh Algar,
1985. When film censor Enid discovers an eerie horror that speaks directly to her sister’s mysterious disappearance, she resolves to unravel the puzzle behind the film and its enigmatic director - a quest that will blur the lines between fiction and reality in terrifying ways. Steeped in glorious 1980s aesthetics, CENSOR is a bloody love letter to the VHS ‘video nasty’ horror classics of the past.
"Director Prano Bailey-Bond presents a bold, bloody British psychological frightfest set against the backdrop of a period horror fans will be more than familiar with: the video nasty era. The 1980s-set Censor stars Niamh Algar as Enid, a film censor who takes pride in her work. But when an eerily familiar video nasty crosses her path, it prompts her to embark on a murky journey to solve the mystery of her sister’s disappearance." Empire
Huge thanks to the London College of Communication and course leader Kate Iles for having me on Monday to spiel about the horrors/joys of crowdfunding for their 3rd year students - you may recognise my signature 'invisible cauliflower' move. Very much looking forward to coming back next term for packaging projects #crowdfunding #fundraising #LCC #filmmaking #thehorror
Deep Clean was reviewed on the Sciforror Film Podcast - listen from 7.50. Thanks to Andrew Walker for featuring the film: “Great story and concept, excellent performances and special effects.”
American The Bill Hicks Story hit No.1 in Indie Docs this week, plus no.14 in Docs and no.106 in Indy Films - thanks to everyone who fancied a bit of Bill in these weird times!
Very proud to announce that Deep Clean hit 1 MILLION views on YouTube last night, courtesy of our friends at DUST!
What a thrill that the work of all the great people we had such a fun time making it with has been seen by so many. HUGE shout out & thank you from Krent Able, me & the DC Crew to all these wonderful lovelies who supported us along the way & made it possible - Laura Kirby Rebekah Renford Mike Chapman Natalie O'Connor David Sheldon-Hicks Aaron Marshall Tara Busch KiteBase Greg Michael Duffield Rawdon De Fresnes John Sanders Dan Martin Maf Lewis Peter Müller James Iles Sally Biasiutti Chris Blaine Gareth Tunley Tony Paul
12 STORYTELLERS RESPOND...
My Own Private Apocalypse - moments of madness, quiet reflection, flights of fancy, philosophical musings, extreme violence. A group response, twelve short stories - strange, funny, truthful, prophetic, scary, weird - alternate visions of now.
