Just a quick thank you note to the overwhelming (too emotional?) traffic, attention and attendance to our panels and tables. Thank you Emma Allen, Matt Lubchansky, Will Varner and Alexandra Zsigmond for this wide spectrum of advice, expertise and honesty you shared on Saturday. More soon.

DIMIF, with the support of Arts Council England, will exhibit the work of over 30 dyslexic and neurodivergent filmmakers from 14-18th March 2018 at the Crypt Gallery in Kings Cross, London, so do not miss your opportunity to witness the work and participate in the first-ever festival that will investigate the theme of the Dyslexic Aesthetic.

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We are very excited to welcome our incredible DIMIF filmmakers and our Award Winners. The work they produce is a massive contribution to the dyslexic/neurodivergent creative community.

We are proudly celebrating not only neurodiversity, but also other types of diversity:

Researchers on the AHRC-funded project ‘Calling the Shots: Women and Contemporary UK Film Culture’ have found that women made up just 14% of directors and 7% of cinematographers on UK films from 2003-15.

Of those women, only 10% of directors and 4% of cinematographers were of Black, Asian, or Ethnic Minority identity, making only 1% of all directors and only 3% of all cinematographers BAME women.

*Thank you to WFTV for providing an article on this research.

In the light of these findings, DYSPLA is proud to celebrate the fact that 2/3 of our award-winners are representatives of the BAME community, and that one of these is a woman.

The festival itself is a novelty, presenting the films in a way that will blur the lines between traditional film festivals and the art gallery experience. DYSPLA loves to challenge their audiences and this festival will challenge how the films are experienced and how the audience can/will interact with the films.

The Themes 

Our films explore themes of birth, life and death, and the fight for existence. 

How do we as humans deal with tragedy, corruption, inequity, prejudice, moral issues, ethics? 

These are the universal questions in all of DYSPLA work and in true DYSPLA fashion, we echo the stories of under-representation in our society.

MEET THE AWARD-WINNING FILMMAKERS

Mike Forshaw - Saturday (2015)

“As someone who was only diagnosed with dyslexia whilst at university, I strongly believe that open conversation is vitally important to raise public awareness and understanding for a condition that many people still do not fully understand. This event will hopefully provide an excellent opportunity to discuss how my dyslexia has shaped me as a director and why my diagnosis was so liberating.”

Born and raised in Liverpool, Mike studied film at Northumbria University before moving to London to study Fiction Direction at the National Film & Television School. His graduation film premiered at the BFI London Film Festival, and his shorts have screened at the numerous UK and international film festivals.

In 2013, Saturday was awarded a top prize during Nisi Masa’s European Short Pitch, and the film premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2015. In 2014 Mike was selected for TorinoFilmLab’s AdaptLab workshop and is currently developing his first feature, King of Grain, with Agile Films.

Featured Film - Saturday (2015)

“A fictional account of how the Hillsborough stadium disaster – which claimed the lives of 96 Liverpool supporters – unfolded for one family back home in Merseyside.”

Although Saturday is very much linear and lucid in its style, director Mike Forshaw manages to incorporate some non-linear and dream-like, subtle, foreshadowing elements into the story. The film offers a fresh view on a well-documented national tragedy, by placing the focus well away from the actual event - creating emotional microcosms representative both of the direct violence of Hillsborough and the ignorance that led to it, as well as of the massive impact the tragedy had on its community.

MEET THE AWARD-WINNING FILMMAKERS

Emma Allen - Ruby (2013)

Emma Allen resides between Sri Lanka and London. She’s an internationally recognised artist that is entirely self-taught and produces work in a broad range of different mediums.

A maker at heart, and combines painting, body-painting, animation, sculpture, sewing and even light in her work. Despite such breadth her work has a clear focus on the human condition, and how it interacts with nature.

She’s best known for her body-paint animation work which has been exhibited all over the world, received millions of views online, and press coverage in print and online and featured as TV news stories in 12 countries.

Her work manages to combine critical acclaim with mainstream appeal, attracting audiences in many countries around the world. Emma is not afraid to tackle big issues with her work and through the course of it has helped a number of charities, worked with refugees, prisoners and founded her own arts charity for disadvantaged children in Sri Lanka.

Featured Film - Ruby (2013)

“An animated self-portrait exploring the idea of rebirth and illustrating the transfer of energy from one incarnation to another.”

Ruby is a stop-frame mixed media short film which encapsulates our festival’s themes of birth, life and death in a literal way - depicting the process of ageing, dying and being born again in a series of representative face-paints. It explores the wider context of how we as humans fit into nature and the universe. It also touches on ideas of belief and religion, spirituality, the supernatural, and life after death.

MEET THE AWARD-WINNING FILMMAKERS

Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese - Behemoth: Or the Game of God (2015)

Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese is an award-winning Lesotho/South African filmmaker and artist. He has worked as writer, director, cinematographer and editor since 2007, and currently spends most of his time between Lesotho, South Africa and Berlin. His work ranges from feature length to short films and image films to music videos.

Two of Mosese’s short films, Mosonngoa (2014) and Behemoth: Or the Game of God (2015) have been screened at over a hundred film festivals, including: Clermont Ferrand International Film Festival; Raindance International Film Festival; Kinodot Film Festival; Festival del Cinema Africano; d’Asia e America Latina; as well as the Durban International Film Festival and L’Étrange Festival.

Mosese is also an alumnus of the Berlinale Talent Campus (2011) and Focus Features Africa First (2012), as well as the Realness Screenwriting Residency (2017).

Mosonngoa won him the ‘Best Short Film’, as well as the special award ‘Premio Associazione Sunugal’ in Milan in 2016. Behemoth: Or the Game of God has won ‘Best Short Film’ at the Kinodot Film Festival in 2016; the ‘Signs Award’ at Festival International Signes de Nuit Student Jury Prize in 2016; and the ‘Special Jury Prize’ at Moscow International Experimental Film Festival in 2016.

In January 2013, Mosese co-funded Mokoari Street Productions - a film and video production company, working on projects in Lesotho, South Africa and Berlin.

Featured Film - Behemoth: Or the Game of God (2015)

“An itinerant preacher declares to his followers: their God is in the coffin he is dragging along.”

Mosese manages to convey a very strong political rhetoric into Behemoth that touches upon themes of corruption, poverty and power - symbolised by a key referent in the film - money; and the control that it holds over people. Biblical language is used throughout; “I am the javelin in the hand of Cain”, shouts the preacher; “And I have come to bring you either life or death”. The apex of the film serves to illustrate the people’s hypocrisy and greed, which go against the very tenets of the religion they seek to protect so fiercely: “Have you lost your souls?” - cries out our preacher.

                       Stan Brakhage (Special Mention)

James Stanley Brakhage (January 14, 1933 – March 9, 2003), better known as Stan Brakhage, was an American non-narrative filmmaker. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th-century experimental film. His work is often noted for its expressiveness and lyricism.

Over the course of five decades, Brakhage created a large and diverse body of work, exploring a variety of formats, approaches and techniques that included handheld camerawork, painting directly onto celluloid, fast cutting, in-camera editing, scratching on film, collage film and the use of multiple exposures. Interested in mythology and inspired by music, poetry, and visual phenomena, Brakhage sought to reveal the universal in the particular, exploring themes of birth, mortality, sexuality, and innocence.

Featured Film - Window Water Baby Moving (1959)

“The film documents the birth of the director's first child, Myrrena, by his then-wife Jane Brakhage.”

*Image Courtesy of the Estate of Stan Brakhage and Fred Camper.

The graphic imagery of Window Water Baby Moving carries with it a shock value which makes the work frank, honest and powerful. The non-sequential, non-narrative style of the film instead offers us something very visceral, instinctive and primal in conveying the miracle that is childbirth. Expectation, pain, joy, wonder and love all intertwine on screen in scenes leading up to, during, and after the birth.

*Many thanks to Lux, for their support and co-operation in providing us with the footage of Window Water Baby Moving.

      ALL FILMS WILL BE SCREENED CONTINUOUSLY                                       THROUGHOUT THE FESTIVAL

TICKETS ARE LIMITED - BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW!

Listing Information*

Awards Ceremony, Gala & Gin Reception: 14th March, 7:30 PM - 10:00 PM, £30.00

Industry Panel Discussion: 15th March, 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM, £10.00

Daily festival screenings: 15th March, 1-7 PM; 16th-18th March, 1-8:30 PM, £5.00

*All tickets will include £1 booking fee. Tickets are an extra £5.00 on the door.

Escorpião - “Noivas em Guerra” (2009). Personagem: Emma Allen

Ok, Emma é sentimental e sensível, fiel a pouquíssimos amigos, mas também é... vingativa. Escorpianas, vamos combinar, certo?